By Akif Ahmad for TwoCircles.net
I grew up in a small town of north India. My first impression of Kashmir was the imagery carved by Gul Gulshan Gulfaam, a popular television show of early 90s, which was thoroughly nuanced and sensitive in its treatment of the subject, but did little to combat the stereotypes that were being concretized about the state .
Later in the mid 90s I joined high school at Aligarh Muslim University as a student and that ran parallel to Mahmoodur Rahman, an IAS officer of Kashmir cadre joining as the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. Fresh from his assignment in the troubled state he did all he could do to get as many students from the valley. As a result my class too saw a surge in Kashmiri students.
They were mostly quiet, obedient and reclusive. We used to naively ask them about AK-47s, about crossing the border and of course about the houseboats and apple orchards. A satisfactory answer that would put to rest our stereotype-blinkered queries although never came through.
Their answers remained elusive as elusive as them. It was not that they had a paranoia or fear of non Kashmiris, we just didn’t matter to them. The Kashmiris I met later in college and workplace were no different, just that they were increasingly more suave and urbane and yes a lot well-read about global politics as compared to their non Kashmiri counterparts.
One one occasion I asked a prominent leader about this indifference. He was curt in his reply: Indian Muslims can not afford to lend support to the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.
Kashmiris see this attitude of non Kashmiri Muslims as a double speak. They feel that Indian Muslims relate much more fervently to the victimhood of their co-religionists in the “middle-east” but fail to speak against the atrocities committed by the Indian troops against their Kashmiri brethren.
The protest against atrocities in Kashmir do happen in Delhi, but majorly by left-liberals and with very few muslims in attendance. On a given Friday, perhaps Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, could give fiery sermons from the pulpit and bring up Kashmir only to whip up sentiments, but this rhetoric makes little or no impact.
The people to people relations are mostly restricted to business and tourism (including religious) or stints to the mainland for education & healthcare. There is one more reason which can be attributed to the disconnect – there are very few people marrying outside valley, possibly because of the inheritance clause. The permanent residency law, which dates back to the Maharaja’s rule was misinterpreted for decades. It stated that if women married men from outside J&K, they would lose the permanent residency status that entitles them to inheriting and acquiring property in the state, along with other benefits reserved for permanent residents. This accounted for a lot of matrimonial inertia concerning people outside the state. Only in 2002 the high court reinterpreted it and clarified that women would not loose inheritance subject to their marriage outside the state.
The exodus of Pandits from the valley widened the gulf and the Indian Muslims could not detach themselves from the mood of the nation. Two executions, Maqbool Bhatt and of Afzal Guru (the two of the three cases in Indian history where bodies of the executed person were not handed over to their family, the third being Bhagat Singh) and the release of militants as ransom for Rubaiya Sayeed and in IC-814 hijacking reinforced the portrayal of Kashmir as a defiant state. The mainstream media only contributed to the cultivation of the rebellious image of the state. The news which were regular from Kashmir were of encounters, killings, curfew, azadi slogans and Pakistani flag at Lal Chowk and of late, a few reports on success stories and aspirations of youth to join Indian Civil Services.
Not many Muslim politicians have been consistent while speaking about the state (It a separate matter that they are equally subversive with regard to Indian Muslims). One of the prominent Muslim intellectual of his time, Syed Shahabuddin was forthright in expressing his views. In 1992, during a debate in Parliament on extension of presidents rule in the state he made some very strong observations. “There is virtually no civil administration. There is virtually no judicial administration. Atrocities are being committed every day.” He went on to suggest a series of measures “We have to win the people of Kashmir. We have to remove their alienation. ……. If India of Gandhi and Nehru does not exist, then Kashmir will not remain a part of India.” and he concluded by saying “Unfortunately, the perception of India today by the people of Kashmir is through the faces that they see before them… It is the face of the gun, the face of the security forces”. After about a quarter of century, the former diplomat would not find it tough to defend his statement even in today’s context.
It can also be argued that both sides exuded equal laxity in efforts for thaw. Sheikh Abdullah, son Farooq Abdullah, political rival late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, all had the power to lead Indian Muslims at different point of time in their careers. Sayeed did tried to carve his space in the country by contesting the Lok Sabha election from Muzaffarnagar in the 1989. Not only did he win in the Janta Dal wave, he went on to become the Union Home Minister. He held the distinction of being the only Muslim in Indian history to occupy the position. However in matter of years he also choose to return to the state of Kashmir.
Their was always space in the front rows of Indian Muslims, which they could have easily occupied, but they chose to restrict themselves to the valley and rarely spoke on issues concerning Muslims outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
What the Indian establishment failed to capitalise on, and many would argue it rightly did so, was to harness the attribute of religion which has been the driving force of our neighbour. It is for the ruling erudite to answer as why the they did not harness the potential of Indian Muslims in bridge building.