There is a lot of confusion about the nature as well as the age of “Kashmir Problem”. What is the “Problem” and how old is it? These are very pertinent questions about which there are numerous view points and theories. Before getting into the crux of the “Problem”, it would be useful to decide its age. Is the “Problem” 16 years or 60 years or 426 years old? These days many people claim that the present problem started in 1990 and there has been a situation of turmoil for last 16 years or so. Before that time things were absolutely normal. It is debatable whether the superficial “normalcy” divested from the underlying perennial political problem can be termed as “normalcy”? It is true that the present uncertain situation resulted from the happenings of 1990 but it was an upheaval, one among a series which Kashmir has been witnessing since 1931. It was not the real origin of the main problem. Similar upheavals have occurred in 1931, (13th July assault on central jail), 1946, (Quit Kashmir movement), 1953, (ouster of Sheikh Abdullah), and 1963, (holy relic agitation). Even though all these uprisings had some specific immediate provocations or reasons yet the main underlying cause has been the lingering political problem. These events can be termed as the symptoms and not the disease, which is much older. It is like a dormant volcano, which is always simmering beneath the Earth’s crust and suddenly erupts without any warning from time to time. India and Pakistan as well as the world at large including United Nations Security Council, which has Kashmir dispute still on its agenda, consider 1947 as the date of birth of this tragedy. This is in fact the date for the start of Indo-Pak problems, which resulted from the partition of the sub-continent. Kashmir, because of the misfortune of its inhabitants got entangled in this mess like a Gordian knot. An ideological divide between the two neighbouring countries got manifested in the so called “Kashmir Dispute”. The real “Kashmir Problem” pertaining to the local inhabitants got relegated to the background. For these contending parties the problem is only 60 years old. A legacy of the British colonial rule that gave the wound and ensured that it remains incurable. As long as the two countries take the British view and consider the problem to have arisen in 1947, they will never be able to solve it. It is a manifestation of their conflicting ideologies of “Two Nation Theory” and “Secularism”. Their all other problems will get sorted out once they genuinely and honestly reconcile to the creation of two independent countries. They have to accept the reality that these countries have come to exist as independent entities and cannot be undone regardless of the basic cause of their creation. But the “Problem” of Kashmiris will still remain there. It is neither 16 years old nor 60 years old but goes back 426 years. These days Kashmiris observe 27th October as a black day because Indian forces landed in Kashmir on this day in 1947. However, they seem to have forgotten that the worst day in their history was 14th October, 1586 when the Mughal forces finally entered Srinagar in triumph after having been defeated earlier twice by Kashmiri forces led by the last sovereign ruler Yousaf Shah Chak. This triumph was achieved by Mughals through treachery. It was the real black day when Kashmir ceased to exist as an Independent Sovereign State and became a province of the Mughal Empire. Yousaf Shah’s son Yaqub Shah and another scion of the dynasty, Shams Chak resisted Mughals for a long time after the capture of Srinagar. They fought a relentless guerrilla war against the Mughal forces but could not stand against the power of the mighty Empire and with their defeat Kashmir’s fate was sealed for ever. The Kashmiri psyche has been mourning sub-consciously for generations the loss of its sovereignty in the sixteenth century. The first thing the Mughals did was to drain out the last drop of martial blood from Kashmiris. Systematically they liquidated all the pockets of resistance and ensured that there was no chance of a future rebellion. The Mughal Governors Mirza Yousaf Khan Rizvi and Quli Khan extinguished the last live embers of rebellion among the scions of Chak dynasty and influential nobles. The people in general, though having peaceful times, did not take easily to over lordship of Imperial Mughals. Quli Khan hence adopted a policy of ruthless suppression of unruly elements and the conciliation of peace-loving subjects, a policy which continues to be followed even in the present day Kashmir. The Chaks who had not reconciled to Akbar’s over lordship were special targets of his punishment. He did not spare even Shams Chak and Hussain Chak whose daughters had been taken in marriage by Akbar and Salim. On their showing signs of unrest and rebellion, he had them beheaded by the soldiers of Mulla Jamil. Yaqub Shah surrendered only in 1589 on Akbar’s first visit to the valley. He was sent to Bihar and poisoned through betel leaves by Qasim Khan. He died in Behira in Bihar in 1593 and was buried in Biswak, Patna district, near the grave of his father Yusuf Shah who had died here earlier in exile in September, 1592, pinning for his beloved wife, Habba Khatun. Thus the end of the last ruling dynasty of Kashmir has been very sad and tragic. Sheikh Abdullah visited these historical graves in Bihar and had planned to bring their mortal remains here but for some unknown reasons this could not be done.

Mughals were followed by Afghans who annexed Kashmir in 1753 and ruled it for 67 years. Their rule reduced the country to the lowest depths of penury, degradation, and slavery. All the beauty and nobleness, for which Kashmir and its people were famous, were wiped off under their rule. Heavy taxes and exactions were imposed on the people. One of the Governors Haji Karim Dad Khan committed the basest acts on Kashmiri people. The rich had to pay a tax called “Nazarana” which was four to six times their income. Most of them after selling their properties ran out of the country. The traders had to pay “Zari Ashkhas”, a levy on goods imported into or exported out of the valley. The farmers had to pay an enormous tax on their produce. The shawl weavers had to pay “Dag Shawl” an excise tax on shawls which subsequently became so heavy that poor shawl weavers preferred death to the weaver’s profession. The worst was the smoke money or “Zari Dood” charged on Pandit community. The Pandit community was falsely charged with the murdering of some tax collectors. Their leading members were confined in a house and subjected to smoke of burning cow dung. To escape this fate the tax of “Zari Dood” or smoke money amounting to Rs. 50,000 per year was levied on them. After Afghans came Sikhs who ruled Kashmir for 27 years, from 1819 when Maharaja Ranjit Singh conquered it, till 1846 when it was sold by the British to Dogras. According to Francis Younghusband, “The Sikhs who succeeded Afghans were not so barbically cruel, but were hard and rough masters”. Being far removed from Lahore, the capital of Sikh Empire, the governors were able to fleece the people with impunity. Having faced a lot of trouble from Muslims in Punjab, the Sikhs were very harsh and tough with Kashmiri Muslims so as to check emergence of any type of Muslim opposition in the valley. They locked the Jama Masjid and had even planned to blow up the Shah Hamadan mosque which was alleged to have been built over a Hindu temple. It was because of the intervention of Birbal Dhar, an influential noble of that time that the mosque was saved. However, a number of other mosques including Pathar Masjid were declared by them as the state property. The life of a Kashmiri under Sikh rule was the cheapest commodity. According to Moorcraft, “The murder of a native by a Sikh is punished by a fine to the Government of from sixteen to twenty rupees, of which four rupees are paid to the family of the deceased if a Hindu, and two rupees if a Mohammadan”. If a Kashmiri would kill a Sikh, he would be hanged. The practice of Begar (forced unpaid labour), was continued by the Sikhs with greater vigour. Besides realising revenue, the Sikhs imposed heavy taxation, the effect of which was the impoverishment of the people which forced a large number of them to leave the country. The general standard of life under Sikhs was extremely low. The dress of the people, their houses, and almost every article of necessity were of the lowest possible standard. Both men and women wore a long robe (Phiran) of coarse cloth called Pattu. This garment was very rarely washed and formed both the winter as well as summer dress. A good number of people could not even afford this and went about in tattered and dirty rags.

By the time the Dogras came into picture, Kashmiris had all self respect and dignity totally drained out of them and were probably the poorest wretches on this planet. They did not even make an attempt to resist their sale, lock, stock, and barrel by the British for a paltry some of rupees seventy five lakhs (Nanukshahee), and few pashmina goats, horses, and shawls! It were the Dogra rulers who clubbed together different territories through armed conquest to form the present State of Jammu & Kashmir. Historically Kashmir has been the valley with its peripheral districts. During the Dogra rule, even though the conditions were not as barbaric as under the Afghans and Sikhs, yet the masses in general continued as serfs of the lowest order. Most of the administrators were either non-Kashmiri landlords or Pandits. They owned huge landed estates and locals were working as tenants/tillers. A good part of their produce was taken by the state and the land owners. These poor wretches were under heavy debts with the local Pandit moneylenders. The only ruler who felt some pity on the local people was the last Dogra ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh who enacted the state subject law in 1927 to safe guard their interests against exploitation by outsiders. This law is still in existence though there are quite a few loop holes which have been exploited by interested parties to subvert it from time to time. It is one of the most contentious issues of the present set up as it debars even the President of India from purchasing land in Kashmir!

Apart from the tortuous exactions of the rulers for over four centuries, the Kashmiris faced numerous natural calamities in the form of famines caused by droughts and floods, earthquakes and epidemics which resulted in large scale migrations. The ones left behind were further insensitized to the extent that they totally forgot the finer qualities of life. They had only one purpose in life, to survive against all odds which they did. Thus the problem in Kashmir is not of territory but of the people who had been subjugated to the worst possible level. In their sub-conscious mind they yearn to regain their rightful existence as true human beings with self-respect and dignity. Kashmiri’s subjugation is like the bondage of Israelites in Egypt. After generations of slavery they got a deliverer in the shape of Prophet Moses who led them to freedom out of Egypt. Similarly, after centuries of subjugation, Kashmiris also got a deliverer in 1931 but unfortunately he got confused and could not overcome the human weaknesses. Almost at the brink of emancipation they got entangled in the most complex situation of conflict out of which there seems to be no escape. There has been deterioration in the price of a Kashmiri. In the Sikh period he was valued at rupees sixteen to twenty and now he is worth a lakh of rupees or so. Taking into account the depreciation of the rupee, the twenty rupees of Sikh period would be more than rupees ten lakhs of present time. A plot of land which was worth rupees five hundred about forty years back is valued at rupees forty lakhs or so at present. Two neighbouring countries are fighting each other over a piece of territory called Kashmir. Off and on they do mention the Kashmiri people but in actual practice they still do not figure anywhere in the negotiation process. It is time for both the countries to give up the notion of Kashmir being a “territorial dispute” and consider it as a “human problem” which has been there for centuries. They must study the problem in its centuries old historical perspective from a human angle and alleviate the sufferings of the people. The other freedom loving nations of the world must also realise the basic causes underlying this “explosive human problem” and implore the two countries to address it in earnest by involving the local people as the first priority. The European Union washed off its hands simply by terming it as the “Most Beautiful Prison” in the world but took no practical steps to get its inmates released. Everyone must concede the fact that the Kashmiris want to be free and lead a life of self-respect and dignity like all other free nations of the world. The Governments and the people of the two neighbouring countries must understand this situation if the “problem” is to be resolved. At the present moment they are only patronising and promoting the “beneficiaries of conflict” whose sole interest is to prolong the “problem” at all costs. Unfortunately the main human issue gets swept under the cacophony of “National interest”, “Security reasons”,” Strategic considerations” sub-continental as well as global and the local people facing all the music continue to live with an uncertain future which is not only killing them physically but psychologically. There is a limit to their patience which almost borders on passivity. The magma under the earth’s crust is simmering and building up pressure for another volcanic eruption. However, the new eruption may not be limited to Kashmir only but may prove to be the beginning of Armageddon!