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| In J&K, nationalists are considered an eyesore | | | Prof Hari Om
The rabidly anti-India event that the nation witnessed in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on February 9 could prove a blessing in disguise. For, the despicable event that shocked and outraged the people across the nation has brought the friends and well-wishers of India and those who consider India a congregation of several nations and vouch for the right to self-determination face to face with each other. Nationalism, patriotism and national unity should not have been issues of discussion almost seven decades after India achieved political redemption, but, unfortunately, it has not been the case. It is a matter of great regret.
There is no doubt that the fierce debate that the JNU anti-India episode triggered across the nation will settle once and for all the issue nationalism and otherwise. It has to be settled so that India moves forwards. India cannot afford another communal partition of India or division of the country on regional and ethnic lines. India is not erstwhile Soviet Union, whose constitution provided for secession of the federating units and dismemberment of the Soviet Union itself. India, like the United States, doesn't grant the right to secede to any state on whatever ground. The Indian Constitution gives equal rights to all, irrespective of their caste, colour and creed. It makes no distinction between regions and the communities and, at the same time, takes special care of the socially, educationally and economically backward sections of society. Besides, it gives to all the Indians the right to free-speech subject to the condition that it will not be misused to preach sedition, hurt the nation and cause communal and social tensions.
The most significant feature of the ongoing debate on nationalism is the political status of Jammu and Kashmir vis-à-vis India and the insistence of the Left, the Far Left, secular and ultra-secular forces in the country that New Delhi must appreciate the kind of nationalism as represented by a gang of some JNU teachers and students, as also appreciate the nationalism as represented by Jaish-e-Mohammad operative of Kashmir origin, Afzal Guru. Guru was convicted in the December 2001 Indian Parliament terror case and sent to the gallows more than three years ago and buried within the premises of Tihar jail, Delhi.
The upshot of the whole argument advanced by the supporters of JNU teachers and students, including from the restive Kashmir Valley, has been that it is the fundamental right of Kashmiri Muslims to denounce what they call oppressive Indian state and get the right to self-determination so that they shape and mould their political future in the manner they like. They ignore the very vast nationalist constituency in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. They talk about only Kashmiri-speaking ethnic Sunnis, who constitute approximately 22 per cent of the state's total population and occupy only about five per cent of the state's land area. These are the people whose leadership has been at the helm of affairs in the state since October 1947, when Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India in terms of the constitutional law on the subject. They constitute the country's most prosperous section of society. They are well-entrenched and have connections at right places not only in New Delhi but outside India also. They dominate all the social, financial, political and administrative institutions in the state. Additionally, New Delhi has always been at their back and call. And still they and their leadership and the Left and other secular parties consistently accuse New Delhi of being oppressive and imperialist and bat for a dispensation that is outside the constitutional and political organization of India. The situation has climaxed to the point that the ardent believers in the concept of Kashmiri Muslim sub-nationalism and their admirers in the Indian Left and the so-called other secular parties and formations brand the nationalists and integrationists in Jammu and Kashmir as "anti-national", "fundamentalist", "reactionary", "backward-looking", "anti-Kashmir" and anti-Kashmiri Muslims. In fact, they consider the politically marginalized, economically ignored and socially deprived vary vast nationalist constituency in Jammu and Kashmir an eyesore and an affront to their cherished pro-Azadi belief. They view them as a dangerous group as it opposes their regressive, exclusivist and intolerant ideology. These votaries of Kashmiri Muslim sub-nationalism have no place whatsoever in their scheme of things for the non-Muslim minorities in the state, including Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and so on. They also have no place in their scheme of things for the Shiite Muslims, Gujjar and Bakerwal Muslims and Pathowari-speaking Muslims, who are quite numerous both in Jammu province and Kashmir region. But more than that, they all consider as fifth columnists the miniscule minority of Kashmiri Hindus, which quit the Valley in early 1990 to save its life, culture and civilization; protect its honour and dignity; and identify itself with the Indian nation and what it stood for and fought for. They have been living in sub-human conditions in the refugee camps in Jammu and elsewhere in the country ever since then, with the Kashmiri Muslim leaders of all hues and all the secular parties and formations, without any exception, asking them to initiate a dialogue with the Kashmiri Muslim leadership so that they could return to the original habitat. They want these persecuted and hounded out community to get integrated and absorbed in the existing Kashmiri milieu. It's not difficult to understand what they mean when they talk about the integration and absorption of Kashmiri Hindus in the existing Kashmiri milieu.
Suffice to say that the protagonists of Kashmiri Muslim sub-nationalism in the Valley and the Left-oriented political leadership in the country want these persecuted Kashmiri Hindus and other minorities in the state to fall in line so that the Valley leadership achieved its most cherished goal: Separation of Jammu and Kashmir from India and the disintegration of the country.
Added together the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Sikhs, the Christians, the Shiite Muslims, the Gujjar and Bakerwal Muslims and the Pathowari-speaking Muslims constitute almost 78 per cent of the state's total population. The Hindus, the Buddhists and the Sikhs alone constitute almost half the state's population.
Sadly, however, none in New Delhi takes cognizance of the supreme sacrifices all these nationalists made during all these years of the state's accession for protecting and promoting further the national cause braving all odds, including state oppression and worst kind of discrimination and neglect. It's no wonder that an extreme sense of insecurity has gripped them. The gravity of the situation could be gauged from the fact that those who have money have started purchasing flats or plots outside the state. It is their belief that if the situation as it exists today in the state continues for some more time and New Delhi didn't take pre-emptive steps and measures to retrieve the situation, Jammu and Ladakh would witness the 1990-like situation Kashmir witnessed and the result would be the migration of all the nationalists from the state. And if it at all happens the results would be disastrous for the country. The nationalists would lose the battle and the radical forces in the country, including JNU, would carry the day.
One can only hope and pray that good sense would finally prevail and the Indian State would not only come to the rescue of the under-attack nationalists in Jammu and Kashmir and rest of the country, but would also strengthen them. Remember, the people of Jammu and Ladakh, unlike all other Indians, have been relentlessly fighting an ideological war in the state since 1947 and have suffered enormous losses in the process. Also remember, the fate of India is linked with the political fate of the nationalists in Jammu and Kashmir. India would break into pieces if the votaries of Kashmiri Muslim sub-nationalism succeed in their sinister game plan.
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