Never in the recent history of Kashmir beginning from 1947 have Kashmiris been subjected to such a systematic and concerted campaign to bring them to their knees and that too by their fellow State subjects. There have been many episodes involving confrontation between the Kashmiri people and the Government of India. However, every time the things somehow cooled down even though these did not get completely sorted out.

It is for the first time that the common people in Kashmir feel being pushed against a wall by some of their own fellow State subjects from Jammu. There was only one other occasion in last 60 years when the same group of the Jammu people by their similar attitude forced Sheikh Abdullah, the tallest leader of Kashmir to turn against India. After the erstwhile Maharaja of Kashmir had acceded to the Union of India in very unusual circumstances, it was the endorsement of this action by Sheikh Abdullah the charismatic leader of Kashmiris that gave some superficial legitimacy to the deed. He had endorsed the action in the mistaken belief that his friend Pandit Nehru will be able to guarantee him the realisation of making Kashmir a fully autonomous region with virtual independence. However, his dreams were shattered by the Parija Parishad agitation of early fifties. He was pushed to the wall and had no alternative but to turn against India. Had Sheikh Abdullah been left undisturbed and allowed to maintain the autonomy which the accession deed of the Maharaja had envisaged, there may not have been any Kashmir problem at all! But there was a big IF. Some of the Jammu dwellers were never comfortable with the limited accession. There was a psychological problem.

The Dogras of Jammu had ruled over Kashmiris for a century. During this period the Jammu was the home of the rulers and Kashmiris were the wretched subjects. The “Hattus” working as menial labourers. The limited accession had made the valley as the seat of power. It was an anticlimax. People of Jammu even though enjoying equal rights still harboured some sort of an inferiority complex. Since the ouster of Sheikh Abdullah and installation of Bakshi as a puppet ruler in 1953, the Kashmiris were on a downslide. The popular sentiment in Kashmir and Jammu became diametrically opposite. Kashmiris wanted to go out of India by all possible means while as Jammu people wanted to get fully integrated in India. However, in spite of this gross contradiction, the people of the two regions got along exceptionally well. There was a break in 1990 with the eruption of an armed insurrection in Kashmir. The migration of Kashmiri Pandits welcomed with open arms in Jammu could have been the fuse to blow up the bonhomie and the communal amity. However, this did not happen. On the contrary, the Jammu people came forward not only in case of Kashmiri Pandits but even Kashmiri Muslims.

Jammu became a safe haven for the mainstream Muslim politicians who were hunted down all over the valley as well as the common Kashmiris desiring to have a break from the turbulent valley. Extensive trade relations developed between the traders in Kashmir and Jammu. Even tourism which was badly hit by the turmoil in the valley was sustained by Jammu travel agents by organising package tours of pilgrims to Mata Vaishnovdevi from Katra to destinations in Kashmir. To give confidence to outside tourists, Hindu taxi drivers of Jammu carried them to Gulmarg and Pahalgam at the risk of their own lives. In earlier times, only the Durbar Move employees constituted the clientele for Jammu traders in winter. However, during last two decades common Kashmiris became the major chunk of the clientele and their number was manifold compared to the employees.

In spite of political differences there was great bonhomie at the grass roots level. On many occasions Kashmiris felt unsafe in other parts of India but they considered themselves completely safe in Jammu which they considered as their second home. There were many untoward incidents which could have flared up the communal violence but nothing of the sort happened. Jammu people maintained communal peace and harmony in spite of grave provocations. The sudden change in the scene brought about by a virtual non-issue seems beyond comprehension. It seems totally unnatural. The question of land transfer should not have arisen at all. Yatra was being organised for decades and all facilities were being provided without ever questioning the proprietary of the land. The facilities have been provided on land on both sides which is five times larger than the piece of land in question. Moreover, the land is not at all appurtenant to the Shrine at all. It is more than 20 kilometres away from it. The people who asked for the land as well as those who ordered its temporary transfer are both guilty of creating an unnecessary controversy.

They could have just issued a permission to put up various facilities for the use of Yatris as and when required without going into the ownership of the land as had been done in the past. They also do not seem to know that it is not forest land. According to a report major chunk of the land is barren state land. A portion of it is the proprietary land of the villagers of Neel Grad. In any case, the mere administrative matter was no ground to raise such a massive hue and cry. Yatra has not been affected in any manner whatsoever and is going on smoothly. The turmoil in Jammu appears a limited strategic move of vote bank politics having gone out of control. The instigators must not have bargained for the letting out of the genie from the bottle turning into a Frankenstein monster! It has acted as a catalyst for all the pent up feelings bursting out with a bang. The brunt of the outburst is being faced by Kashmiri Muslims who are once again being pushed to the wall. The worst is the economic blockade which no country can allow to any of its proclaimed citizens.

This becomes especially criminal when those citizens are still taken to be inhabitants of a disputed territory under the UN resolutions and where a large contingent of UN Peace Observers is still in place. Kashmiris have no alternative but to ask the World body to intervene and save them from being choked into annihilation. The tragedy of the developing situation is that it has occurred when a Peace Process was moving ahead for the resolution of the decades old problem. After lessening of interest in Kashmir among the new Pakistani rulers one would have expected that the Indians would be going all out to win over Kashmiris. The umpteenth attempt at reclaiming Kashmiris towards India at least for some sort of a dialogue was showing some promise after a number of confidence building measures. There was a feeling that with cross LOC trade and other measures things would look up. On the contrary the reverse has happened. Totally disregarding history’s lessons, Jammu people have been instigated and motivated by external elements to give a coup de grace to Kashmir’s tenuous relationship with India. We are back to square one!

The economic blockade and the behaviour of protestors in Jammu having tacit approval of all the law enforcement authorities starkly visible through the coverage provided by the electronic media must have cleared all the dilemmas if any in the minds of the common people in Kashmir regarding their relationship with India. The perpetrators of the violent protests do not understand that the division of the State of Jammu and Kashmir which was considered a mini “Secular” India may ultimately result in the disintegration of the whole sub-continent. Things are happening too fast but there is still time for saner people to arrest the slide into oblivion. Nature has sometimes very strange ways of writing history. During last few weeks the things have moved with such a speed in Jammu and Kashmir that one may see the main problem getting solved in most unexpected ways sooner than one can imagine! A friend recently remarked that all Kashmiris should pay reverence at the holy cave of Amarnath because the speed at which Lord Shiva is moving ahead for the final solution of the most intractable and vexed problem of Kashmir is unprecedented in the entire history of the dispute!