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| Calling non-Kashmiris Kashmiris an insult to non-Kashmiris | | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Jan 2 : Gulam Nabi Fai termed the people of Jammu and Kashmir as "a Kashmiri nation." He simply negated the whole concept of India as a nation. India has only one nation and one nationality, Indian. You cannot have a state inhabiting more than one nation. Those who described Hindus and Muslims as two distinct nations got separated from India in 1947 and founded Pakistan. Yes, there are in India many social and religious groups, but it is not something peculiar to India. Every state in the world houses several social and religious groups and no state worth its name ever allow any of the social groups to secede. The Indian State cannot be any different. We are one nation, one people and one state. There should be no doubt about it.
If the hill-intentioned and communal Fai misinterpreted the concept of nation to mislead the ignorant American students, his suggestions that "a Kashmiri nation would be a model of democracy and religious pluralism" and that "Kashmiris of all faiths - Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or otherwise - have historically enjoyed amicable and warm relations" were all the more irrational, ill-designed, provocative and humiliating. In fact, he caused an affront to the self-respect of the non-Kashmiris in the State by calling them Kashmiris. The non-Kashmiris constitute a majority population in the state.
It is hardly necessary to reflect on what he described as "a Kashmiri nation" known for "amicable and warm relations" among "Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, Sikhs or otherwise." For, everyone, barring the likes of Fai and the Kashmir-based leaders, without any exception, knows that Kashmir which was hundred per cent non-Muslim some six centuries ago became a land of those professing a new faith and that the history of Kashmir between 12th century and 20th century is nothing but a history of persecution of the non-Muslims. Will Fai acknowledge this fact? He will not because his whole formulation on Jammu and Kashmir is communally and politically motivated. He cannot afford to speak the truth because speaking the truth would at once mean destruction of the edifice built upon falsehood.
The people of Jammu province, who constitute almost half of the population in the state and who occupy an area two times that of Kashmir, are not Kashmiris. They belong to a different ethnic stock and are called Dogras since ancient times. There is nothing whatever that is common between the Dogras and Kashmiris. Their political perceptions are different and they are ardent believers in the concept of India as a nation. They do not subscribe to the separatist and communal ideology which the Kashmiri leadership subscribes to and preaches. Their cultural heritage, such as a shared religion, a shared literature, or an artistic or musical tradition and art and architecture, is altogether different. So much so, their diet and dress is different. The Dogras have been struggling to overcome underdevelopment and poverty and their struggle is directed against the Kashmiri leadership. Their political demands, unlike the demands in Kashmir ranging from autonomy to self-rule to freedom from India, range from statehood to regional assembly to provincial council to regional council within India and under the Indian Constitution.
Similarly, the people of Ladakh are also not Kashmiris. They are Mangolite. They are also culturally and linguistically different. Their political aspirations and the aspirations of the people of Jammu province, barring a few disgruntled elements, are also different. While the people of the Leh district stand from their separation from Kashmir and long for Union Territory status, the people of Kargil district, predominantly Shiite Muslim, are against Pakistan and for India and the Indian Army. The Shiite Muslims are, in addition, bitter critics of the Kashmiris, barring those who migrated out of the Valley in early 1990 to escape their persecution on the ground that they were the followers of Hinduism. Their grouse is that the Kashmiri leadership has never done anything concrete to help them overcome poverty, illiteracy and underdevelopment. (To be concluded) |
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