KASHMIR UPDATE

Understanding the Kashmiri psyche

A View Point

By Amit Kushari

Quite often I have wondered as to why Kashmiri Muslims cannot identify themselves with India. I have posed this question to a number of Kashmiris but so far could not get a satisfactory answer. Some of them told me that when they were little children their parents and grandparents had hammered it into their minds that they were non Indians and now they cannot change their mindset easily. This logic does not convince me entirely. Kashmir was a very peaceful area till 1988 and the Kashmiris had hardly any problem with the Indian government. Promises made by Nehru in 1947 which remained unfulfilled---- were in the distant past and that could not be perhaps a strong reason for parents and grandparents to be anti Indian. Another frequently heard reply is that India had tyrannised and tortured the Kashmiris to such an extent that they became anti India. This argument also appears to be fallacious to me. In 1972-73 Kashmir was perhaps the most peaceful state in India and there was no tyranny or torture from the Indian troops. Even in those days Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had to be imprisoned for making so called anti- India demands and Mirza Afzal Beig was openly campaigning for 'raishumari' (plebicite). The Kashmiri Muslims appeared to be pained by the fact that J&K did not enjoy the same kind of extreme political autonomy which the Kashmiris enjoyed during the period 1948-53. They felt that since J&K was a princely state, prior to 1947, the same sort of autonomy should have continued even after 1953. This feeling ,however, was not nurtured by the non-Muslims of J&K. In other words one can notice easily that this desire to maintain a distance from India is something special for only the Muslims of J&K . That is why National Conference was earlier known as Muslim Conference.I have seen elderly people telling their children and grandchildren that if Kashmir ever became independent they should come to their graves and loudly announce three times ---- 'you are now lying in independent Kashmir'. The love for India was so thin among Muslims that in Dec. 1971 when India won the Bangladesh war, many people in Srinagar didn't cook and eat and switched off their lights! This shows, without doubt, that even without any tyranny and oppression the Kashmiris behaved like non Indians.
I have been asking everyone as to why it has been like this when crores and crores of Muslims lived in India with equal rights and they considered themselves as '24 carat Indians'! They are living in India with honour and dignity. Few communal riots used to occur from time to time and rare events like Babri demolition do occur sometimes, but that does not significantly change the high status enjoyed by the Muslims in India. True, Islam is not the official religion of this secular state whjch gives equal respect to all religions, and India is not a 'Dar-ul-Islam', but it is also equally true that India is neither 'Dar-ul-Harab' or 'Dar-ul-Kufr'. (Land of war or land of non-believers). Indian Muslims do not face any restriction on the peaceful practices of Islam. They can pray freely, fast freely, go on pilgrimage freely. There is no restriction on construction of mosques and Madarsas. I hear that in Israel there are some restrictions- but I am not very sure. In France and Germany Muslim women are not allowed to wear burqa - but not so in India. Muslims can marry four times , if they so wish. For all others it is a criminal offence. For divorce Muslim men have an easy 'Talaq' system. For all others divorce is a long legal battle in a civil court. In fact, Muslims enjoy greater freedom in India than in Islamic Bangladesh.
Since I could not get any cogent answer to my question from any quarters, I started searching for an answer myself. I have a feeling that all Muslims everywhere in the world have a deep desire in their mind to live in Dar-ul- Islam. However, if a Muslim subnation or nation is very far away from the boundaries of Dar-ul-Islam and is surrounded by non Muslim people---they reconcile themselves to the situation and donot crave for azaadi. However, if they are very close to the Dar-ul-Islam nations of the Middle East their craving for azaadi increases since they feel that living in Dar-ul-Islam is an achievable goal. This is ,perhaps, the situation in Chechnya, Sinkiang and Kashmir which are parts of Russia, China and India, being at the same time, very close, geographically , to Dar-ul-Islam nations. The situation in Bosnia (erstwhile Yugoslavia) could be quite similar