kashmir: when thoughts strike action

It’s been so long since we are born that we are hearing about this issue-Kashmir which we all know even though not clearly. We know our country possesses some serious threats regarding the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Most of the time there are news’s of violence & military breakdown on the terrorists. But the last 2 months were rather too difficult to analyse. More mass of people that too common unarmed people were in streets demanding for Azadi. This really shocked me as I always believed that people living there always liked India and considered themselves as Indians rather strongly believed that our enemy country was the only one creating so much problems there. It was unbelievable seeing so many ladies and children out in the streets shouting against the security forces. Thoughts were made worse when I heard that the death toll of people rose to around 110 in just 1-2 months.

Then I started searching the facts about the northern most state of our country.

Historically, Jammu & Kashmir was a princely state at the time of Indian independence. Ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh it had a specialty being a Muslim majority state been ruled by a Hindu king. At the time of Independence, Maharaja took a stand that it wouldn’t join the Indian union or the Pakistan. But he had to soon change his opinion when the tribal invaders attacked Kashmir in October 1947.he had no other option but to ask help from India by joining Indian side. So the instrument of accession was signed and Kashmir became an integral part of India. But there were 2 things which the king asked in his pact.

· It is not necessary to abide the constitution of India.

· No provisions in the pact should curb the right of Kashmir to remain self governed.

This was assured by entrusting an article 306 (now article 370) to the constitution giving special provision to the state.then home minister, sardar vallabhai patel took interest and passed it in the parliament.

After this it wasn’t the governments act but it was due to the leader of national conference which was the majority in the state that helped the people to dissolve more into the Indian side.Shaikh Abdulla became the undisputed leadership of Jammu and Kashmir, and he believed that the 2 nation theory kept forward by Jinnah of Muslim league was rather too provocative. He dismissed that and told that J&K is a part of India and people living there are Indians first. He organized vast processions and demonstrations in support of Indian Government. He also became the first chief minister of J&K. Soon after that a Delhi agreement was made between Jawaharlal Nehru and Shaikh Abdulla. Important conditions of this agreement were:

· The conditions of article 370 will be granted.

· There would be special privileges for people of state in sectors like education, employment and ownership of land.

· There would be a separate flag for J&K under Indian flag.

· State would be having the power to appoint the Governer, But will take charge only with the permission of the President.

· Supreme Court for temporarily can only have the power to appeal.

· With only the permission of state government central emergency should be proclaimed in the state.

But these acts were soon become hot issues and more people in the ministry of India and opposition opposed it. Thus it never came into existence really. The provision of having 2 flags and 2 constitutions inside one country was not justifiable to a large section of politicians. So whatever was promised was restricted.

Since then the central government was the key factor (hand of Pakistan not seeing short) for making the situation of J&K worse. Pakistan had been using the situation and they played well. As a result of this there were great tensions around the valley during 90s. Culturally Kashmiris have a different way of Islam and Ethnicity. Its Islam was largely based on the Sufi culture. It was rather based on love and harmony. They had a tradition of living in harmony with the Hindu Pundits for centuries. More than an ethnicity of Islam, They had an ‘kashmiriyath’ ethnic. But it all finished with more and more movements which was aimed at ethnic cleansing of so called Sufi tradition to fundamental Islam. This made the life of pundits worse during the 90s.and they had moved abandoning their land and wealth to other parts of country, mostly to the capital city Delhi.

The situation slowly receded and people left the way they once considered would help them to liberate. They included and supported the democratic way by taking part in the elections and the Hurriyath lost its old support(it was the group that favoured liberation).

But the problems which are now are much caused by the inaction and false steps by both the state and central governments. The main cause is the AFPSA (armed forces special powers act).more than 5lakh military and paramilitary personals are deployed in the area. Ever recurring curfews and harassments by the people whom aimed at protecting people are the main causes of discontempt among people. Other acts such as PSA (public safety act), Disturbed Area Act etc.. are giving military huge power in the area. large scale misuse and suppression are the causes of ‘stone pelting ‘which can be compared to the one done by the Palestinian people towards Israel. The present situation was triggered by the murder of 2 girls in shopian also known as shopian murder case. It was alleged that military personals had raped these 2 girls and murdered them. But the present chief minister Omar Abdulla (ironically son of sheikh Abdulla) failed to take further actions. This created widespread agitation against the action of army. Rather than handling the volatile situation with Care, the central government tried to crush it forcefully. Many cases of violation of human rights have been found out after that. This includes killing of innocent people who were not at all included in the havoc. This again made situation worse and more people mainly youngsters and women came forward without caring the curfew. More shooting more murders more and more the situation became worse. When the situation was alarmingly critical then the government sent an all-party delegation to find out the problem. But it took death of 110 people to consider such a thing.

It is really pathetic that even after telling that Kashmir is Indian part, we are behaving quite indifferently. Would it happen in any part of our country. Killing such a large number of people and still we fail to discuss such a thing ?. I still consider and I like to believe that J&K is an integral part of India and we are all same Indians. But the J&K is wounded heavily now and what we needed is action and not inaction. What they needed is care and development and not forceful pressure and crushing their basic independence. We all look forward for a great future of peace and harmony. We believe that everything will be solved. I hope that too..I hope that the governments would act sensibly. I would like to see a united India rather than a land of never ending civil wars.