Of seditious election speeches

While campaigning for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Elections, Omar Abdullah’s speeches were downright seditious. The National Conference’s manifesto is about restoring Article 370 and undoing everything that the LG administration has worked for and towards in these five years, that is, development, economic stabilisation and growth and of course, dealing with the cross-border terrorism in collaboration with the Indian Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

 

The Leader of the Opposition too has been parroting the same thing, though deftly doesn’t refer to the Abrogation of the Article directly, but keeps reiterating restoration of statehood. That both the political dynasts are on the same page is alarming for ordinary Kashmiris who have a stake in the Valley, and who do not fall for the rhetoric of the political families anymore. That the Articles had Muslim supremacy as its intent, to protect the Muslim character of the Valley is quite clear now.

 

In the post-independence days, a lot of effort was made to somehow stabilise the populations, in the post-trauma effects of the Partition, the communal riots, the displacement, the tragedies unfolding in the region and the huge work of the nation having to rebuild itself after the colonialism of the British came to an end. Hence, we saw the whitewashing of the history of the Islamic invasions and conquests through Marxist historiography and the downplaying of the role of Indian Muslims in the creation of the idea of Pakistan. Given the 1947 war with Pakistan over Kashmir and the subsequent 1965 one too, the provision of Articles 370 and 35A is no surprise as to the manoeuvrability of the Constitution lawmakers to keep Kashmir integrated with India, given the minorities living in the region of Jammu Division, Kashmir Valley and the vast Ladakh with its borders with China.

 

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Hence Article 370 was a temporary provision granting special autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir. It allowed the state to have its own constitution, flag, and significant autonomy in various matters. But gradually the Abdullah family through its three dynasts kept protecting the temporary provision as the Muslim identity of the Kashmiris, amidst the sea of Hindus in mainland Jammu and India across the Banihal pass. For readers, who often get the geography incorrect, the Pir Panjal range is a Himalayan wall between the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu plains, providing both a natural border from Pakistan as well as safe havens for the ISI-sponsored terrorists into the area.

 

The Abdullah dynast alluding to “our land, our resources, our identity” in his speeches, is the kind of ‘othering’ that generations of Kashmiris have grown up and nurtured in. It is the stereotype of Kashmiris with fair skin, light-coloured eyes, and hair is distinct from the Hindu ‘bania’, the derogatory ‘Bihaer’ or ‘Punjaeb’ used for anyone outside with dark skin and non-Muslim mannerisms. The political families intend to cash in on this xenophobia for a power grab and to live luxurious lives at the cost of the people staying fearful and resentful of Hindus of all hues, even if they are their own Kashmiri Pandits or any secular, politically liberal Muslims supporting the BJP in the Valley.

 

The equation of the temporary provision of Article 370 with Islam, Muslimness and Muslim identity has been a carefully crafted plan for decades. The 1980s and 90s petrodollar imported Wahhabism drilled the ‘othering’ of non-Muslims into the local population through the various Jamaat-e-Islami institutions, reiterating the Two-Nation Theory. This of Islam, Islamism, and Muslim supremacy eventually culminated in the 1989-90 internal insurgency into a three-decade Pakistan-sponsored Jihad. The subtle rhetoric of the dynasts has been asserting this Kashmiri Muslim identity and sending a message to Hindu India that the Valley has been conquered by Islam and will never have a non-Hindu statesman or be governed by one.

 

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Secular Kashmiris looking for an end to the Kashmir imbroglio, after the Islamic Jihad sponsored by Pakistan and taken up by a sizeable Kashmir population, were assured that any political party trying to abrogate it would be committing political suicide. That it took the death of 40 Indian soldiers in a suicide bombing in Pulwama for any Indian government to take the daring step speaks a lot about what it was costing us to keep the Articles alive. India prefers body bags more than ruthless extermination of jihadi groups also explains why at every encounter site the number of terrorists exterminated also gets our soldiers and police personnel killed because the surrounding civilian life is taken into account, as well as livestock and farms and orchards.

 

Guerilla warfare in urban settings is the toughest war to fight and the collateral damage is played up by the “ever-vigilant” Kashmiri media, Al Jazeera style to the various media agencies of the world whose Muslim persecution in India narrative gets proof of Hindu nationalism and Hindutva forces.

 

Kashmiris have always been racist, one who has grown up amongst family who have these myths about the light-eyed, fair golden or red-haired beauties of Kashmir understands this. Their cruelty towards one of their own who is of a dusky hue and proof of their mix of ancestry with the natives, implying conversion knows no bounds. Until this racism is addressed, forget the oppression of their own amongst themselves, Kashmir Valley ambiguity will never be solved. The monochromatic culture that developed post-90s (a bad idea) can only be countered with a good idea of multiculturism – the exposure of Kashmiris to other races and cultures even among Indians. They need to see how a Tamil Muslim or a Muslim from Gujarat, Andhra, Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan or Lakshwadeep thinks and acts and behaves.

 

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This multiculturalism can only happen when Indians can settle there, do business, build, work, live and exchange cuisine, celebrate festivals, and births and mourn death together. Kashmiris need to see the ‘othering’ they have been taught is wrong and that Indians of all creeds, castes and sects also want the best for their families, want to work, live joyful lives and contribute to this civilisation irrespective of what religion Kashmiris follow.

 

The Valley cannot be used as a base to wage a proxy war with Indians to erode the Indian civilisation and merge with an artificial British construct (Pakistan) to complete the ‘unfinished business of Partition by the Muslim League. October 8 will not decide it, it will only show how complicated these three decades have been and what toll it has taken on the minds of ordinary Kashmiris most of whom chose to stay away from politics or the ballot, knowing about New Delhi’s wheeling and dealing with the very ones who oppress them.

 

So if after this seditious speech, the NC dynast is not under house arrest, India may well celebrate its democracy but it tells us nationalists things are never going to change, 1987-88 will keep recurring and the cycle of violence, deceit, compromises, accords, interlocutors, atrocity tourism circuit, human rights seminars and iftar parties will continue. Real change needs a determination and resolution of 5th August 2019, but to sustain that resoluteness needs an ironclad national security consciousness which cannot tolerate the intolerant Kashmiri who doesn’t learn to behave within the Indian Constitutional framework.

The columnist is a Fellow of the Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research (FIHCR)