Syed Mustafa Ahmad
Since 1947, the issue of Jammu and Kashmir has been lingering in air. There is no serious thought given to this contentious issue. Many lakhs of people have died. Property worth of crores have been destroyed. Mental diseases apart from other diseases are on rise. There is gloom everywhere. There seems no light at the end of the tunnel. Violence has become the order of the day. Shrouds, pyres and graves are the common sights in Jammu and Kashmir and Kashmir. The half-widows are in plenty. Unidentified graves are found in the nook and corner of Jammu and Kashmir. Fake encounters take place for promotions. Scandals of different hues are unearthed day in and day out in this unfortunate land. The above things do not come like a bolt from the blue but it is a culmination of many things. The internal as well as external forces are responsible for things to reach this dangerous situation. But in my opinion, the internal factors are more responsible than the external factors. In the following lines, I will try to throw some light over the causes of violence in Jammu and Kashmir. Firstly, the Kashmiris are gullible people. Any charming slogan entices us. Since 1947, leaders like Sheikh Abdullah, Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad, Khwaja Shams-ud-din, Ghulam Muhammad Saadiq, Sayyid Mir Qasim, Farooq Abdullah, Muftui Sayyid, Abdul Rashid, Mehbooba Mufti, Sayyid Altaf Bukhari, Sajad Lone, etc., have been deceiving us. They were and are the puppets in the hands of the Indian government. They have sold their conscience for the chair. They never feel the pain of the Kashmiris. They are hand in glove with the murderers. They come to power because we get tempted by their empty slogans. We forget their past cruelties which they inflicted upon us.
The era of expansionism is not over. It still is in the air. Let us hope that something soothing comes for us in the near future.
Secondly, we never learn from the past. Our beloved Abdullah deceive and sold us many times. However, we welcomed him after every crime. In 1938, he converted the Muslim Conference into the National Conference. we learnt nothing from this episode. However, we garlanded him. In 1946, he was arrested for expulsion of the Dogras or the Quit Kashmir Movement. He remained in jail for some months. But the point of importance is that he went to jail for a specific cause and the cause was to enslave Jammu and Kashmir. Knowing the whole drama, we again welcomed him when he came out of the jail. In 1975, we broke all the previous records when sheikh after promising Plebiscite, broke that very promise. We again welcomed him. We threw our soul and heart at his feet and requested him to butcher us in whatever way he liked. In this way, we became the soft targets of politics by our misdeeds and never learnt anything. We still want to take a dip in this dirty politics. I lament over the mindset of my fellow Kashmiris. Thirdly, we are traitors. We deceive ourselves. In the morning, we want to fight for the liberation of Jammu and Kashmir. However, in the evening, we become the slaves of the oppressors. This switching of loyalties is not difficult to understand. Since our noble cause of liberation is shrouded under layers, it becomes easy to divert the attention of the common people from the pious cause. A common person is not able to fulfil the basic needs due to some deliberate activities. It then becomes very difficult for a common man to strive for the noble cause. In this way, traitors appear on the surface. They are hand in glove with the oppressors because they have to live from hand to mouth. In this way, energy is wasted in futile pursuits. Fourthly, we are the frogs of small wells. We live confined lives. We are used to looking at some routine events and never bother to look over the existing parameters. It should be kept in mind that our freedom struggle had and has the characteristic of foreign influence. We are always motivated by others to rise to the occasion and fight against the status quo. American Revolution, Russian Revolution, French Revolution, etc., have inspired us. Malcolm X, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther Jr, Muhammad Morsi, Sayyid Maududi, Muhammad Ali Jauhar, etc., have always forced us to fight against the cruelty. Fifthly and the lastly, the international countries do not want to solve this issue. They get benefit from this. For some countries, it is a buffer zone while for some it all about is a money-minting entity. They deliberately elongate it for some petty gains. In this way, violence has no end in Jammu and Kashmir. In short, there is a need to solve this issue forever. Three nuclear weapons are our neighbors. They can set this land on fire if good sense does not prevail. The era of expansionism is not over. It still is in the air. Let us hope that something soothing comes for us in the near future.
( The author is a freelancer and writes regularly for Kashmir Horizon. Views are his own) [email protected]
