After having
read the book I am thoroughly impressed with Anam Zakaria. It is quite evident
that a great deal of perilous risk taking as well as physical effort has gone
into her endeavor, travelling several times to the Pakistan administered
Kashmir region and meeting various sections of people, experiencing their pain
in trying to gather the different viewpoints. All this must have taken a pretty
long period of time during which she held on to her idea of the book
religiously. That is probably her only direct relationship with religion that
she has maintained while writing this book. I wish to stress on the religion
angle because it isn’t easy to avoid being partisan when dealing with human
sufferings.
Hats off to Anam
Zakaria for her courage and to her simple yet extremely engaging presentation. Being
a Pakistani citizen she could have easily towed the official line of argument,
yet she chose to embrace facts. Her
subject matter were fellow Muslims and yet she saw them as human being
first. She wears a humanistic hat while
detailing her information and analyzing her understanding of the ground reality.
Neither does she indulge in sermonizing her readers nor does she pretend to be
the intellect and play prophesy games about the future, thereby keeping a
balanced and equanimous mind on the subject and leaving the readers to draw
their conclusions. That is also probably the reason as to why the book has not
been banned in either India or Pakistan which to my mind is rather fortunate.
Shocking facts have been laid bare and false official narratives of both
countries have been exposed. The media on both sides of the divide can now take
some courage from the pages of the book and henceforth write without fear.
Independence is
in a sense taking responsibility of own self. Individuals become independent
when they become capable to deal with the uncertainties of the world,
differentiate between good and bad, necessary and extravagant, to take correct
decisions, take charge of their lives and its future course. Those that cannot
be independent stay with others. Sometimes a bunch of individuals stay together
to improve their strength and power to deal with the environment. Likewise
communities are formed and on a larger scale countries are formed. All
individuals, communities and a group of communities should have the right to
decide whether they want to be independent or exist as a homogeneous or
cohesive group. None else should decide for them. When the British hegemony in
the subcontinent came to a close, the debate on independence of Kashmir took
some rather unfortunate turns wherein the people were not aligned with their
ruler and outsiders came into the scene to take the decision.
The Kashmir region
has been changing hands since time immemorial. The Hindu kings of Magadh and
Rajasthan, the Chinese Huns, the Mongols, the Greeks, the invaders from Uzbekistan
and Kazakhstan region, the Turks, the Arabs and the Sikhs, several dynasties
have come, settled and then given way to the next conqueror. The same is the
story across the Punjab region and the Sindh region as well. However during the
British orchestrated partition the other regions were taken and decided for
rather fast. Kashmir held out, undecided for a while. That it had the strength
to do so speaks about its own independent national pride or self-esteem of
being an independent kingdom. It also meant that like all previous invaders,
this strong, beautiful and strategic land was coveted by the both Pakistan and
India. What followed every annexation happened once again, its ordinary
innocent people suffered.
Because of its
past, the Kashmir region was rather secular and had a population catering to
multi-religion. Pakistan wanted Kashmir because its people to people contact
between Kashmir and rest of Pakistan was better, and it sounds logical too.
India wanted Kashmir for reason of its strategic position. It is rather easy to
come to the simple conclusion that since nation is defined by its people, the
choice and decision of the people would be paramount.
Subsequent to
partition both India and Pakistan have blundered in their handling of Kashmir
and thereby hurt the Kashmiri cause. Religious conversions, migrations for survival,
ethnic killing, persecution and forceful evictions happened on a large scale.
The local leadership starting from the last Dogra king was not strong and
charismatic enough to carry their people along. Kashmiri culture stood
abused. Kashmir lost its secularity and
thereby it’s societal strength. Had the demographic changes not taken place at
such a scale, Kashmir could have easily held itself to be another Nepal, an
independent country. Its peoples could have taken a unified stand for peace,
and the strength of its diverse culture would have got them that independent status,
sooner or later. It must have hurt the nationalists in Kashmir when Bangladesh
which sided with Pakistan during partition could gain independence. That was
because the Bangladeshi people stood firm by their Bengali pride as a stronger
national character in comparison to their common Islamic religion shared with
Pakistan. The Kashmiris could not emulate that because their strong Kashmiri
culture was shattered and replaced by ordinary religious ethos.
Today we find
both India and Pakistan playing games at various international forums blaming
each other for the mess in Kashmir. Today the real Kashmiri people’s voice has
been muzzled and manipulated. Today we no more hear the independent Kashmiri
voice, it is lost. The sounds for independent Kashmiri voices are being cleverly
squashed on both sides of the border. All that we hear at the ground level
today is a voice that favours the Pakistani state simply because since
pre-partition days, the people had closer ties with the rest of Pakistan. After
the Hindus and Sikhs were expunged from the scene, India is more or less a
foreign country for Kashmir.
Neither India
nor Pakistan want to give up its self-assumed rights over the land of Kashmir.
Today it has become a prestige or ego battle between the two countries. Kashmir
will remain in this condition for a few more generations. This is a political
game with international hands and stakes involved. The UN isn’t going to give
Kashmir its due, rather it cannot. In the present circumstances the sufferings
of the Kashmiri people is bound to continue.
Education and
prosperity is the only way ahead for the Kashmiri people. Accepting the present
realities, they should focus on bettering their lot. They need to invite back
the Pundits and the Sikhs, people who were driven out and try to become a secular
place once again. Kashmiri culture should be encouraged and peace policies have
to be applied with a vision for the distant future. Prosperity will follow.
With better education, spread of knowledge and wealth, and people to people
communication, the lost pride of the Kashmiri people would rise once again. Maybe
both India and Pakistan would dread to see that day and therefore would be
interested in keeping the conflict alive as long as possible.
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