Battles in the Mind
Teesta Setalvad
Not Known
Title: Battles in the Mind
Author: Teesta Setalvad
Publication:
Date:
Real battles are fought and won in the mind. For both Pakistan and
India, with equally rigid mind-sets, the current conflict along the
LOC offers another fortuitous occasion to bombard their people with
mutually hardened positions on the one issue that begs urgent
resolution -- the Kashmir dispute. The opening of a war front in
Kargil could not have come at a more opportune time for the political
leadership in both countries. In Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif's government,
that has faced world censure for blatant human rights' violations over
the past few months, Kargil provides a welcome diversion. For the
Indian caretaker Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee and his party,
nationalism plus Sonia's foreign origins will be the potent magic
potion to be dished out to the nation before the forthcoming polls.
For Pakistan, responsible for this provocation, the commitment to
support Kashmiri 'freedom fighters' in their revolt against Indian
repression, runs deep - it stems from the Pakistani establishment's
ideological resolve to complete the 'unfinished agenda of Partition'.
The very basis of the two-nation theory has been seriously challenged
within Pakistan itself and what we have today is a thoroughly
dismembered state, but Kashmir still manages to recapture much of this
lost sentiment. The Qaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah's derision for
the Kashmiri people (he had dubbed the Quit Kashmir movement of the
Muslim-majority Kashmiris against Maharaja Hari Singh as a movement of
goondas!) is conveniently forgotten. What is being pursued with
single-minded devotion is not just a territorial proxy war but also an
attempt to impose the highly regimental Wahabi Islam on a valley
renowned for its Rishism (Sufism). Schools and madarsas run by the
local Jamaat-e-Islami have been systematically used in a continuing
attempt to transform the local struggle for Kashmiriyat to visions of
life under Nizam-e-Mustafa (The Order of the Prophet). For India, too,
the discourse in the past week has cynically charted familiar
territory. The emphatic assertions about the territorial sovereignty
and integrity of the Indian nation resound with a hollow arrogance,
echoing through the perceptible absence of any Kashmiri voice in the
present discourse. The government's, the mainstream print media's and
television channels' black out of the voices of the young leader of
the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Yasin Mallik and senior
Kashmiri leader, Shabbir Shah from available public spaces is
predictable given the surge of patriotic fervour that such conflicts
engender. But also absent are the views of a Balraj Puri (a senior
citizen of Jammu and an ardent advocate of sanity and dialogue) or a
Saifuddin Soz, senior MP representing the National Conference. The
absence of a wide spectrum of other local opinion from the region, and
in that category I would include representatives of ousted Kashmiri
Pandits, is a sorry comment on the dearth of democratic space
available here. Why would India be at all committed, morally or
otherwise, to promises made to the Kashmiri people in 1947, 1950, 1953
and 1975 when it cannot trust the state with even the bare trappings
of democratic governance? The only free and fair elections to that
state were in 1977, results of which aroused a Valley-wide euphoria.
This legally elected government was yet again, cynically dismissed by
the Centre. Going back even further, even the 'Lion of Kashmir',
Sheikh Abdullah, was humiliated by his most trusted friend and India's
first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Despite a personal commitment
to the region, even Nehru could not overcome his suspicions about the
Kashmiri Muslims' allegiance to India. How much of these suspicions
that have only hardened over the last 50 years have to do with the
fact that the avowedly secular Indian state, under both Congress and
non-Congress governments, barely trusts the people of a sensitively
located region, basically because they are overwhelmingly Muslim? A
failure to confront this history has been reflected in the past and
continuing conduct of both the government and our troops deployed in
the Valley. What comes to mind is more than just the enormity of the
human loss, tragedies that have gone un-mourned by the rest of India.
The cynical disregard for both the local people and their beliefs can
be particularly observed from the Indian state's apparent equanimity
despite the systematic destruction, since 1989, of over 16 revered
local shrines dedicated to Rishis, symbolic of inherently Kashmiri,
Sufi Islam. The Amarnath yatra has become for all Indians, not just
the pilgrims who dare to make it there, an annual test of our military
control over the Valley. Television images of Hindu pilgrims braving
the militants' fire in defence of their faith are both soothing and
reassuring. But when Charar-e-Sharif, a glorious, all-wood shrine en
route to Yusmarg in the Valley was gutted, the Indian government did
not even order an official enquiry. Folklore in the Valley, however,
still revolves around the relationship between Sheikh Noor Adam and a
Shaivite priestess, Rishi Laleshwari, though the bitterness against an
unfeeling government simmers. Another 14th century shrine, Khanqah at
Tral, 39 kilometers south of Srinagar, very dear to the local people
apart from being a symbol of the Valley's composite culture was
similarly gutted by a mysterious fire on December 18, 1997. The list
of betrayals appears endless. There has been not even superficial
effort at healing bitter wounds. When Pakistan's foreign minister
steps on Indian soil, the 'dialogue' will chart familiar territory.
Both the Pakistanis and their Indian counterparts appear united in one
resolve -- keeping the talks at a bilateral level, excluding any
representative from the region, despite their lip-service to
tripartite talks in the last two years. Whether this exercise remains
an exercise in utter futility and formality, or whether the meeting
actually signals a greater maturity in tackling issues between prickly
neighbours, depends critically on whether representatives of Kashmiris
and also Jammu and Ladhakh are heard over the gunfire.
(The writer edits Communalism Combat and is a core group member of the
Pak-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy writing in her
individual capacity)
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