Stray Thoughts on Kashmir
K S VENKATARAMAN


Kashmir problem has its origin in the diffidence and procrastination of Jawaharlal Nehru.
I have great respect for him. But Homer sometimes nods. And Jawaharlal Nehru, unfortunately, chose to be guided by Lord Mountbatten in this matter; brushing aside the sane advice of his native lieutenants. The result is we find ourselves caught up in this mess.
Kashmir was a Hindu country, ruled by a Hindu king. He had merged Kashmir with India. When Pakistan soldiers entered Kashmir, he sent SOS to India. Instead of acting fast, Nehru delayed it under the influence of Lord Mountbatten. And when at last he had to order military intervention, he was half-minded; and then he spoiled the whole thing by referring the matter to the UN under the influence of Mountbatten, and ordering ceasefire, leaving the work half-done; and leaving Pakistan in possession of a substantial portion of Kashmir. He did this much against the recommendations of the field officers. He muddled the whole thing.
Meanwhile, Hindu majority was changed by driving away the Kashmir Hindus and the inflow of Pakistanis. This demographic alteration has been carried on systematically during all these years. Three identifiable methods, viz. influx of Pakistanis, driving out the Hindus from Kashmir, and conversion of the helpless Hindus, have been employed without any hindrance to bring about the demographic change in Kashmir. It is true that Plebiscite, which is a very reasonable method, if held now, would be a great injustice to the Kashmir Hindus driven out of their native place. But the ground reality is that there is no other alternative.
More than sixty years have passed. The problem has already become putrefied. Now, what is the point in blaming x, y and z?
At present, Kashmir has a majority of Muslims. After having allowed the composition of population to change, what is there to be done? Thus, we have weakened our hold on Kashmir. What is the point in losing more and more money; and Indian lives?
Maybe the present demographic structure of ‘the people of Kashmir’ is the result of conspiratorial handiwork of Muslim fundamentalists. But they have succeeded and we have lost. It has become a fait accompli. We should now think of the people who are there; whatever be the past history, they are the human beings peopling the Kashmir. And they should not go on suffering endless curfews and difficulties of continued military occupation. They could not be denied the right of self-determination. They should not be made to pay the price for our folly. We cannot hope to win them over to Indian side by force. Our current policy would only alienate them more effectively.
Nirmala Sitharaman observes in her essay, ‘Words and Stones’ (Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad, October 28, 2010):
The stones that Kashmir’s angry sang baz lobbed were unlike the pebbles of David’s catapult. These were rough-edged mortar and granite chunks. For citizens locked indoors for days, the unending curfews, closed schools, poor intelligence which couldn’t differentiate between a common man and a well-trained infiltrator and the consequence thereof, resulted in a trust deficit in the Omar Abdullah-Rahul Gandhi alliance.
The only sensible thing is to hold a plebiscite under the supervision of the UNO and go by it; even if it means losing Kashmir once for all. This is a very plaintive proposition; this is the Hobson’s choice we have. As a remote chance, Kashmiri Muslims may perhaps opt for being with India, discarding religious fundamentalism. Even if the don’t, at least, we can save money and lives in future; and can also extricate ourselves from the guilt of violation of human rights in contravention of the established principles of democracy.
Many people know this. But we do not have any statesman, who would take the right decision, even if the people may not understand it immediately. A statesman would be guided only by his conscience and would act only in the interest of the nation. Even if it would make him lose popularity among the mass, even if he has to lose power and position, he would do what he is convinced that would benefit the nation.
But we have only politicians, who are always worried about their earnings, power and position; and popularity that assures him of all these things in life. Even after having brought India to this predicament, they do not have the moral courage needed to take the right decision even now. They are afraid of the after-effects; of the possibility of the other party making use of it; of the possibility of losing power. So their preference is to allow the problem to continue as it is; what if a few thousand crores had to be spent more on defense? What if a few thousand soldiers have to lose their lives periodically? Enough, if their millions are safe! They would not take any decision that would give a chance to the opponents to remove them from power. So, where is the end?
Pakistan is also more or less in the same condition. Only difference is that having snatched a part of Kashmir, they have nothing to lose in terms of territory; but in all other ways, they are no better than us.
But the most important thing is that we should at least learn the costly lessons. Kashmir has served as an excellent experimental ground. The same technique of demographic alteration by using any or all the three methods viz. influx, conversion and driving out the Hindus, can be attempted in a larger scale for the whole India; if not immediately, when the opportunity is created. Our brilliant, pseudo-secular politicians, - who are busy with dividing Indian citizens on the grounds of religion, caste, region and language – who are busy making money and worrying only about their vote banks – who interact with people only through agents - would come to know of it, only when the matter goes out of hands.
The denouement of the Kashmir drama awaits the arrival of a genuine statesman to power in India; as in the ancient stories, the people have to wait for a divine avatar to happen; unless of course, our Indian Youth think and act differently.
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K S Venkataraman is the Associate Editor, Dynamic Youth Online Magazine. He may be contacted through e-mail: dynamicyouth_development@yahoo.com