Indian Mindset and Kashmir
http://www.gaash-online.com/articles/55/1/Indian-Mindset-and-Kashmir.html
Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani
Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani is a jurist. He is secretary general of JKCHR-NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations. He is an expert in Peace Keeping/Humanitarian Operations and Election Monitoring Missions. By Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani
Published on 06/3/2006
A. G. Noorani in a recent article in Hindustan Times has concluded a high pitched and a complex optimism which reads "There is an air of expectancy in the state. The key to a solution lies in an Indo-Pakistan accord. People look up to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Musharraf to resolve the dispute. They know that this is a rare combination of two deeply committed leaders of manifest sincerity. If they fail, it might not recur for long. Kashmir would relapse into frustration and renewed terror with consequences for India and Pakistan too terrible to contemplate".
In his article he has reminded the Indian political and civil establishment of Pandit Nehru's warning in the Lok Sabha on June 26, 1952: "Do not think you are dealing with a part of UP, Bihar or Gujrat. You are dealing with an area, historically and geographically and in all manner of things, with a certain background. If we bring our local ideas and local prejudices everywhere, we will never consolidate... Real integration comes of the mind and the heart and not of some clause which you may impose on other people".
In his article he has reminded the Indian political and civil establishment of Pandit Nehru's warning in the Lok Sabha on June 26, 1952: "Do not think you are dealing with a part of UP, Bihar or Gujrat. You are dealing with an area, historically and geographically and in all manner of things, with a certain background. If we bring our local ideas and local prejudices everywhere, we will never consolidate... Real integration comes of the mind and the heart and not of some clause which you may impose on other people".
Indian Mindset and Kashmir
A. G. Noorani in a recent article in Hindustan Times has concluded a high pitched and a complex optimism which reads "There is an air of expectancy in the state. The key to a solution lies in an Indo-Pakistan accord. People look up to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Musharraf to resolve the dispute. They know that this is a rare combination of two deeply committed leaders of manifest sincerity. If they fail, it might not recur for long. Kashmir would relapse into frustration and renewed terror with consequences for India and Pakistan too terrible to contemplate".
In his article he has reminded the Indian political and civil establishment of Pandit Nehru's warning in the Lok Sabha on June 26, 1952: "Do not think you are dealing with a part of UP, Bihar or Gujrat. You are dealing with an area, historically and geographically and in all manner of things, with a certain background. If we bring our local ideas and local prejudices everywhere, we will never consolidate... Real integration comes of the mind and the heart and not of some clause which you may impose on other people".
Unfortunately, even today in 2006 one finds that Indian mindset is still in its nascent stage in understanding Kashmir and the people of Jammu and Kashmir. I well remember a book way back in 1960s titled "India Without Make Up" which makes a substantive revelation in this regard. The author has compared Indian society with an 'onion'. You peel one layer and next one comes up. It is a never ending process. How many layers a Kashmiri has to peel to understand the Indian mindset is equally another half of the circle of a fruitful inter-action.
India has a genuine title to the world's biggest democracy and has admirably succeeded to build institutions - the foremost remains the Supreme Court. India has not only succeeded to build institutions but has graduated into a habit of respect for these institutions. Unfortunately, all this good about India comes to a stand still in her understanding of Jammu and Kashmir and its people. Indian political and civil establishment map and understand a Kashmiri by dusting official, transparent and non-transparent files. And there are shelves after shelves and huge piles of these files.
Indians over simplify Kashmir and run away from their composite obligations by jumping on to an exit ramp of 'terrorism'. There is terrorism in Kashmir. But India is faced with terrorism in many other states as well. Kashmir is different in 'history', in 'geography' and in 'all manner' as Nehru has described it in June 1952. He has a Rights history and his 129 year old Rights Movement has yet to be settled or reconciled. He is distributed under three administrations, one on the Indian side and two on the side of Pakistan. He is subjected to a rigorous regime of five governments and five constitutions (one being an agreement).
After the collapse of tourism industry in Jammu and Kashmir, he has taken to a sub-culture of contracted politics. It depends on 'yay' or 'nay' of Delhi and Islamabad. Pakistan failed to be truthful and honest in her claim of an 'advocate' of Kashmiri's Right of Self-Determination. It has turned turtle on its policy on Kashmir and the policy has been flawed at core and anti Kashmir from the very start.
India on the one hand fakes a distaste for violence and on the other hesitates to enhance the constituency of non-violence. She fails to travel beyond a culture of privatised politics. And the Indian mindset continues unchanged since after Nehru's caution in understanding Kashmir. Indian wisdom continues along the same rail tracks as it used in relation to Sheikh Abdullah and other religious but secular leaders of Kashmir.
It enjoys the sight of one Kashmiri dismembering in limb and character, the other Kashmiri. And hopes to see all Kashmiri voices stripped and helpless. The dependence of Kashmiri politics on Delhi or Islamabad's support has no substitute unless the people of Kashmiri go universal. And to go universal after Pakistan's monopolised and failed advocacy of 58 years and the political and militant discipline of last 16 years is very difficult but not impossible.
The agenda on either side of LOC extends beyond the rehabilitation of a plural civil society. However, until we are able to travel a full distance in regard to Jammu and Kashmir, it is important that we protect their 'life', 'property' and 'honour'. We need to see a Kashmiri as a real human person with all vices and virtues, like any other Indian or a Pakistani is composed of. Indian political and civil bureaucracy has to change its use and abuse mind set on Kashmir. It is a weakness in the wisdom of the world's biggest democracy.
Pakistan has paid a price for that and each day that ticks out, Pakistan loses a friend in Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri's are asserting themselves for a freely expressed politics and the setting up of BJP office next to Hurriyat at Rajbagh is a lead example. Money is not that sells in a free and fair society. It is a mature judgement and ability to understand the political pulse of the habitat that overrides the strength of the 'purse'. Sofi Yousuf of BJP in Rajbagh is a living example of an urge to express oneself freely. It travels far beyond the need to seek a financial support of Islamabad.
The Indian civil and political bureaucracy has to understand Kashmir on a daily basis. We find truck loads of medical, non medical and other qualified youth unemployed in Kashmir. The civil society in Kashmir is in shambles. Boys do not marry the girls but the job of a girl. The close society has the new challenges of unemployed girls turning into Sabina's. No civil society has ever been able to remain without the Sabina's of their time and of their kind. Kashmir can't be an exception. But suffocation and restraints of the last 16 years have to throw up such challenges. And with Sabina one has a long list of associates. It is Srinagar that domiciles Sabina and the Kashmiri wise people.
Indian establishment has to understand Kashmir in pari materia with other situations. Many dimensions surfaced at the ICM's organised conference on "Jammu and Kashmir: Alternative Futures" held on May 18-19, 2006 at Heritage Village Resort, Manesar, Gurgaon.The 'issue of immediate relief' begs a sustained primacy. There are reports that in Utter Pradesh upper caste Hindus and 'Brahmins' have started applying for posts of sanitary workers, known as 'safai karamcharis'.
It is a social revolution and its basis is hunger in the belly and a necessity to survive. The majority of applicants for these ad hoc posts of sanitary workers in several towns and cities of Utter Pradesh include members of the Brahmin community. Udit Sharma and Suraj Misra, two young graduates are among the applicants for the post of safai karamchari in Agra.
It is difficult for a Brahmin boy to apply for a 'dalit' job. The other choice for an unemployed youth is 'crime'. They are also faced with societal and family pressures of being ostracised. They have chosen to become a scavenger than to become a criminal. In Kanpur, the number of educated upper caste applicants for the safai karamchari posts is reported to be around 38 per cent of the total number of applications. There are some applicants who are postgraduates while others in this category are graduates.
Kashmir and Kashmiri youth cannot be different from Uttar Pradesh and its youth or Sindh and its youth. It would be a tragedy if the Indian democracy makes the same error in understanding and dealing with Kashmiris as the ministry of Kashmir affairs did over the years in Pakistan.
India has to move ahead of its mindset identified by Nehru in 1952 in the Lok Sabha. Kashmir and its people need to be understood, rather than, used as tactical weapons by India and Pakistan. India has to meet its bilateral obligations and Pakistan has to honour her trust obligations. Until a just and fair solution is found, India and Pakistan have a joint responsibility in respect of Jammu and Kashmir and its people. It may be that A G Noorani is proven right in his high pitched and complex optimism.
The strength of Indian democracy and plural society lies in reversing its 'local ideas and local prejudices' and in making sure that Kashmir does not "relapse into frustration and renewed terror with consequences for India and Pakistan too terrible to contemplate". Indian interest on the other side of LOC (including diaspora) should not be tactical but should be embedded in its accrued obligations under the disputed bilateral agreement of 26 October 1948 and other intra-state and international commitments.
In his article he has reminded the Indian political and civil establishment of Pandit Nehru's warning in the Lok Sabha on June 26, 1952: "Do not think you are dealing with a part of UP, Bihar or Gujrat. You are dealing with an area, historically and geographically and in all manner of things, with a certain background. If we bring our local ideas and local prejudices everywhere, we will never consolidate... Real integration comes of the mind and the heart and not of some clause which you may impose on other people".
Unfortunately, even today in 2006 one finds that Indian mindset is still in its nascent stage in understanding Kashmir and the people of Jammu and Kashmir. I well remember a book way back in 1960s titled "India Without Make Up" which makes a substantive revelation in this regard. The author has compared Indian society with an 'onion'. You peel one layer and next one comes up. It is a never ending process. How many layers a Kashmiri has to peel to understand the Indian mindset is equally another half of the circle of a fruitful inter-action.
India has a genuine title to the world's biggest democracy and has admirably succeeded to build institutions - the foremost remains the Supreme Court. India has not only succeeded to build institutions but has graduated into a habit of respect for these institutions. Unfortunately, all this good about India comes to a stand still in her understanding of Jammu and Kashmir and its people. Indian political and civil establishment map and understand a Kashmiri by dusting official, transparent and non-transparent files. And there are shelves after shelves and huge piles of these files.
Indians over simplify Kashmir and run away from their composite obligations by jumping on to an exit ramp of 'terrorism'. There is terrorism in Kashmir. But India is faced with terrorism in many other states as well. Kashmir is different in 'history', in 'geography' and in 'all manner' as Nehru has described it in June 1952. He has a Rights history and his 129 year old Rights Movement has yet to be settled or reconciled. He is distributed under three administrations, one on the Indian side and two on the side of Pakistan. He is subjected to a rigorous regime of five governments and five constitutions (one being an agreement).
After the collapse of tourism industry in Jammu and Kashmir, he has taken to a sub-culture of contracted politics. It depends on 'yay' or 'nay' of Delhi and Islamabad. Pakistan failed to be truthful and honest in her claim of an 'advocate' of Kashmiri's Right of Self-Determination. It has turned turtle on its policy on Kashmir and the policy has been flawed at core and anti Kashmir from the very start.
India on the one hand fakes a distaste for violence and on the other hesitates to enhance the constituency of non-violence. She fails to travel beyond a culture of privatised politics. And the Indian mindset continues unchanged since after Nehru's caution in understanding Kashmir. Indian wisdom continues along the same rail tracks as it used in relation to Sheikh Abdullah and other religious but secular leaders of Kashmir.
It enjoys the sight of one Kashmiri dismembering in limb and character, the other Kashmiri. And hopes to see all Kashmiri voices stripped and helpless. The dependence of Kashmiri politics on Delhi or Islamabad's support has no substitute unless the people of Kashmiri go universal. And to go universal after Pakistan's monopolised and failed advocacy of 58 years and the political and militant discipline of last 16 years is very difficult but not impossible.
The agenda on either side of LOC extends beyond the rehabilitation of a plural civil society. However, until we are able to travel a full distance in regard to Jammu and Kashmir, it is important that we protect their 'life', 'property' and 'honour'. We need to see a Kashmiri as a real human person with all vices and virtues, like any other Indian or a Pakistani is composed of. Indian political and civil bureaucracy has to change its use and abuse mind set on Kashmir. It is a weakness in the wisdom of the world's biggest democracy.
Pakistan has paid a price for that and each day that ticks out, Pakistan loses a friend in Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri's are asserting themselves for a freely expressed politics and the setting up of BJP office next to Hurriyat at Rajbagh is a lead example. Money is not that sells in a free and fair society. It is a mature judgement and ability to understand the political pulse of the habitat that overrides the strength of the 'purse'. Sofi Yousuf of BJP in Rajbagh is a living example of an urge to express oneself freely. It travels far beyond the need to seek a financial support of Islamabad.
The Indian civil and political bureaucracy has to understand Kashmir on a daily basis. We find truck loads of medical, non medical and other qualified youth unemployed in Kashmir. The civil society in Kashmir is in shambles. Boys do not marry the girls but the job of a girl. The close society has the new challenges of unemployed girls turning into Sabina's. No civil society has ever been able to remain without the Sabina's of their time and of their kind. Kashmir can't be an exception. But suffocation and restraints of the last 16 years have to throw up such challenges. And with Sabina one has a long list of associates. It is Srinagar that domiciles Sabina and the Kashmiri wise people.
Indian establishment has to understand Kashmir in pari materia with other situations. Many dimensions surfaced at the ICM's organised conference on "Jammu and Kashmir: Alternative Futures" held on May 18-19, 2006 at Heritage Village Resort, Manesar, Gurgaon.The 'issue of immediate relief' begs a sustained primacy. There are reports that in Utter Pradesh upper caste Hindus and 'Brahmins' have started applying for posts of sanitary workers, known as 'safai karamcharis'.
It is a social revolution and its basis is hunger in the belly and a necessity to survive. The majority of applicants for these ad hoc posts of sanitary workers in several towns and cities of Utter Pradesh include members of the Brahmin community. Udit Sharma and Suraj Misra, two young graduates are among the applicants for the post of safai karamchari in Agra.
It is difficult for a Brahmin boy to apply for a 'dalit' job. The other choice for an unemployed youth is 'crime'. They are also faced with societal and family pressures of being ostracised. They have chosen to become a scavenger than to become a criminal. In Kanpur, the number of educated upper caste applicants for the safai karamchari posts is reported to be around 38 per cent of the total number of applications. There are some applicants who are postgraduates while others in this category are graduates.
Kashmir and Kashmiri youth cannot be different from Uttar Pradesh and its youth or Sindh and its youth. It would be a tragedy if the Indian democracy makes the same error in understanding and dealing with Kashmiris as the ministry of Kashmir affairs did over the years in Pakistan.
India has to move ahead of its mindset identified by Nehru in 1952 in the Lok Sabha. Kashmir and its people need to be understood, rather than, used as tactical weapons by India and Pakistan. India has to meet its bilateral obligations and Pakistan has to honour her trust obligations. Until a just and fair solution is found, India and Pakistan have a joint responsibility in respect of Jammu and Kashmir and its people. It may be that A G Noorani is proven right in his high pitched and complex optimism.
The strength of Indian democracy and plural society lies in reversing its 'local ideas and local prejudices' and in making sure that Kashmir does not "relapse into frustration and renewed terror with consequences for India and Pakistan too terrible to contemplate". Indian interest on the other side of LOC (including diaspora) should not be tactical but should be embedded in its accrued obligations under the disputed bilateral agreement of 26 October 1948 and other intra-state and international commitments.