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| Duggar Pradesh appropriate name for Jammu province | | Historical Necessity - I | | Neha
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 17: The framers of the Jammu & Kashmir Constitution did not commit a mistake by incorporating in the constitution words "Jammu Province and Kashmir Province." The framers of the constitution only acknowledged that there existed in the state distinct geographically, ethnically, culturally, politically and historically entities. At the same time, however, they did not dispense justice to Ladakh. They merged Ladakh with Kashmir province. That's the reason the people of Ladakh consistently question the nomenclature of the state. Hitherto, Ladakh was an integral part of the nomenclature of the state. The demand in Ladakh for separation from Jammu and Kashmir needs to be viewed in this context as well as in the context of conflicting and mutually exclusive political perceptions of the Kashmiri leadership and the people of Ladakh.
Anyway, the use of words "Kashmir Province" and "Jammu province" has helped the former and harmed the latter to the maximum possible extent. Kashmir has been benefited because there is no town or city in the Valley named Kashmir. The word Kashmir makes people across the country take Kashmir Valley as a homogeneous region, which is not the case. Kashmir, like Jammu, houses several religious and ethnic minorities. And, still, New Delhi, policy-planners, think-tanks and commentators call everyone in Kashmir a Kashmiri overlooking the province's diversity or overlooking the fact that besides ethnic Kashmiris, Kashmir province also houses a large number of Gujjars and Bakerwals, Pathowari-speaking people, Pathans, Darads, Baltis, Sikhs and so on. "All the people who inhabit Kashmir are Kashmiris," assert New Delhi; policy-planners; all the political leaders in Kashmir, without any exception; think-tanks; commentators; and foreigners. It is not an exaggeration. It is a hard fact.
As for Jammu province, it, like the erstwhile Madras Presidency, has a city named Jammu City. In the Madras Presidency, there was a capital town, called Madras. The word Madras was substituted with the word Chinnai just a couple of decades ago to avoid any kind of confusion. The name of the state was also changed from Maddras to Tamil Nadu decades ago.
The incorporation of the words "Jammu province" in the state constitution has enabled the vested interests and communal forces to play mischief and cause schism among the people on the basis of religion and foment intra-regional conflict with a view to helping the votaries of Greater Kashmir so that could play their nefarious games in the Jammu province and weaken its case for empowerment and integration as well as for the region's consolidation. Whenever the people of Jammu province demand empowerment or whenever they demand full integration into the rest of the country, the vested interests in Kashmir and agents of Kashmiri leaders in Jammu raise hue and cry and say Jammu city doesn't mean Jammu province. So much so that they suggest segregation of two and a half districts - Jammu, Kathua and parts of Udhampur district - from the state, saying other people of the province do not share the perceptions of the people of these two and a half districts. Sheikh Abdullah, the father and founder of the patently Kashmir-centric and anti-Jammu National Conference, was the first Kashmiri leader who enunciated the two and a half district concept. Remember, he was a staunch believer in the concept of Greater Kashmir.
The malicious and motivated propaganda unleashed by the vested interests in Kashmir and the agents of Kashmiri leaders operating in places like Doda and Poonch has succeeded in influencing the policy-makers and the so-called conflict-managers and opinion leaders, including some leading journalists. Take, for example, chief interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar. He, along with Radha Kumar and M M Ansari (two other interlocutors), has consistently talked about the existence of sub-regions in Jammu province. He reiterated his stand on July 13 as well while interacting with media persons after the conclusion of the highly controversial and patently Valley-centric two-day-long roundtable conference. Not only this, he went to the extent of suggesting that there "is the need for a power-sharing formula that includes sub-regions as well." In other words, he sought to convince reporters that Jammu province is not homogeneous and that the aspirations, needs and compulsions of the people of Jammu city and a few other areas and the people inhabiting other districts of the province, particularly Doda and Poonch districts, are different. (To be continued) |
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