The glue of tolerance that has held society together is drying up
BY KULDIP NAYAR
I once asked Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, Sher-e-Kashmir, why
he had preferred the Indian union to
Pakistan. I knew that Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, had
offered Jammu & Kashmir special status within Pakistan. His reply was
unambiguous: he wanted his state to be part of a country that was
pluralistic unlike Pakistan which had declared itself Islamic. "I like to
live in the midst of different communities, not one," were the Sheikh’s
words, words that I still recall. Developments in his lifetime
disappointed him. Yet he was not a pessimist.
I think Kashmir’s basic problem remains the same: how
pluralistic is it or, even more pertinent, how long can it stay
pluralistic? But this is not dependent on Kashmir alone. Part of the
Indian union as Jammu & Kashmir is, the character of the union is equally
important.
This is where I see reason for concern. Both the state and
the union are being contaminated. Kashmiriyat’s secular ethos has been
diluted as pluralism has been diluted across the country. The glue of
tolerance that has held society together is drying up. I could never have
envisaged this resurgence of religious fervour after the innumerable
killings I once witnessed during the journey from my hometown, Sialkot
city, to the Indian border in August 1947. One million died on both sides
and 20 million were uprooted from their homes.
Kashmir weakened in its secular convictions when General
Zia-ul-Haq, the then Pakistan martial law administrator, sent jihadis
across the border to appeal in the name of Islam and foment trouble in the
state. The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley – thanks also to the
then Kashmiri governor, Jagmohan, who wanted to deal exclusively with
Muslims – affected the liberal temperament of the Indian union as a whole.
It was a god-sent opportunity for those elements, particularly the sangh
parivar, which had been trying to saffronise the country. It was a similar
atmosphere that robbed us of Mahatma Gandhi’s life. Now they are bent on
effacing his heritage of peace and brotherhood. The demolition of the
Babri Masjid, or the Gujarat pogrom, it is all their doing and provides
them with more grist to the mill of hatred against Muslims.
Though not necessarily to the liking of the majority yet
the persistent and pernicious propaganda of the sangh parivar and its ilk
have created an environment where Muslims are generally regarded with
suspicion. The fact that some Indian Muslims have joined the terrorists’
ranks has only made things worse. Their number may be small and the
community may be trying to isolate them but the Hindu middle class is so
shell-shocked after the Mumbai blasts that the entire Muslim community has
been put in the dock. Hordes of people at hordes of places will have to
work hard to nip this mischief in the bud. But this work will have little
meaning if the reasons why some Muslims have turned so desperate are not
analysed and redressed. Over the years several reports on communal riots
have identified the community’s various grievances but the government is
yet to implement a single recommendation in this regard.
Relations between India and Pakistan have always been a
key to communal harmony in our country. Whenever there is tension between
New Delhi and Islamabad it is Indian Muslims who bear the brunt of it. The
oft-repeated remark one hears is that Muslims are ‘pro-Pakistan’. In fact,
even 59 years after independence Indian Muslims are still paying the price
for India’s partition which the majority in the country holds responsible
for all of its ills.
However, there are no two opinions about Pakistan’s
intentions. Pakistan is not concerned about Indian Muslims; it only wants
the Muslim majority in Kashmir to be a part of Pakistan. I recall when I
accompanied Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on his bus journey to
Lahore I had the opportunity to talk to Mian Shahbaz Sharif, then
Pakistan’s Punjab chief minister, at a breakfast hosted in honour of
Prakash Singh Badal, then chief minister of Indian Punjab. Shahbaz said
that the Kashmir dispute could be resolved in a jiffy, suggesting that
India could keep Jammu and Ladakh and give Pakistan the valley.
The conversation would have ended there, as Badal said he
was "too small" to solve the Kashmir problem, but I picked up the thread.
I told Shahbaz that he could have the entire state of Jammu & Kashmir but
the solution this time would not be one made on the basis of religion. I
told him how while migrating from Pakistan to India I saw non-Muslims
under attack on the Pakistan side and Muslims under attack on the Indian
side, deliberately and consciously. "We cannot afford to reopen
partition," I said.
I believe this realisation is now beginning to seep into
the Pakistani establishment. Not long ago when I told Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad that India could not accept any settlement
on the basis of religion, he proposed territorial adjustments without
accepting the Line of Control as the international border. It was an
understandable stand from a country which had propagated that Kashmir
would be a part of it one day. But what I failed to get across was that
any formulation that proposed to cut off the valley from the rest of the
state would be separating Muslims and Hindus who had been living together
for centuries and creating, in the rest of India, misgivings similar to
those that had arisen after partition.
And this is precisely what the All Party Hurriyat
Conference in Srinagar does not appreciate. It has allowed its movement to
meander into communalism and become a plaything in the hands of
hardliners. The secular ethos of Kashmiriyat has taken a back seat and
some of its leaders too have been swept off their feet and indulged in
parochial talk. I recall that when I asked Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah
Geelani and Prof Abdul Ghani Butt about the return of Pandits to the
valley, the two said that this would be decided along with a settlement of
the Kashmir question. It was only many years later that they realised the
ridiculous position they had taken and took steps to correct it. The
Hurriyat never developed a base either in Jammu or Ladakh. It also went
dreadfully wrong when it allowed Kashmiri youth to cross into Pakistan,
receive weapons and training and ignite insurgency in the valley.
On the other hand, New Delhi does not treat Jammu &
Kashmir on par with other Indian states: democratic, open and in charge of
its own affairs. The most draconian laws are in place here, available to
both the administration as well as security forces. Human rights
violations are numberless and there is no redress. Though unhappy because
they have been denied participation in affairs of governance, Kashmiris do
not want Pakistan’s physical interference. Hundreds of boys who crossed
over to Pakistan initially now want to come back. But the problem is how
do they do this? Meanwhile, their parents on this side of the border
resent New Delhi’s decision denying them permission to return.
I recently told Benazir Bhutto in London that Pakistan can
strengthen secularism in our country by not playing the Islamic card. She
agreed with me. Nawaz Sharif went even further, favouring a tough stand
against fundamentalists in Pakistan. He believed in a borderless
subcontinent. With such sentiments being expressed by the leaders of two
major political parties across the border, the lighting of candles on the
night of August 14-15 assumes more than mere symbolic importance. It was
heavenly to be on the Wagah border this year, the 12th such occasion in a
row. Four or five lakh people had gathered here, singing and raising only
one slogan: ‘Hind-Pakistan Dosti Zindabad’. People-to-people
contact is the only way relations can normalise between the two countries.
We should therefore seek friendship and comradeship wherever we can find
it and cooperate with one another in common tasks.
My generation has been a troubled one. We may carry on for
a little longer but our day will soon be over as we make way for others.
They will live their lives and carry their burdens to the next stage of
the journey – the burden of normalising relations not only between India
and Pakistan but among all South Asian countries. How we have played our
part I do not know. Others of a later age will judge. In spite of the many
frustrations and rebuffs that littered the path to peace we have lighted a
candle to dispel the darkness of enmity and hatred. This flame must keep
burning in the face of efforts by fanatics and fundamentalists to snuff it
out. We have no other option.