HVK Archives: Kashmir: Soft Sufi to radical Islam
Kashmir: Soft Sufi to radical Islam - The Times of India
Ramesh Khazanchi
()
December 19, 1998
Title: Kashmir: Soft Sufi to radical Islam
Author: Ramesh Khazanchi
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 19, 1998
Saraswati Vandana has rightly raised the hackles of all 'right thinking,
progressive' people. However, it is a matter of concern that not an
eyebrow has been raised at the preaching of religious antagonism at
madrasas that have grown manifold since Independence.
For the uninitiated, the call of the clergy is irresistible anywhere in
the Islamic world with the Sunni Muslim-dominated Kashmir being no
exception. With the early morning azan in the Valley, the devout go to
the mosque to pay their obeisance to the Allah in the same way as Hindus
offer prayers in the neighbourhood temple elsewhere. But the difference
between the two communities is sui generis. While the former are fed
with a pre-meditated politico-religious regimen primarily aimed at
finding recruits for the so-called jihad in Kashmir, the latter have no
such agenda against the Union.
Costly Reversal
The late '80s saw the seeds of Islamic fundamentalism taking root in the
Valley as a sequel to the late General Zia-ul-Haq's 'seminal' strategy
to incite the locals into militancy so that Kashmir would be on fire
from within. The new plan was formulated after the misadventure of the
1965 'Operation Gibralter' which involved mass infiltration by tribals
and Pakistani operatives from across the border into the Valley. That
failed to involve the Kashmiri Muslims en masse in a revolt against the
Indian Union, hence Zia's brainchild to induct the uninitiated sons of
the soil into the 'war of liberation'.
The 1971 war set the tone for Pakistan's long-term strategy to bring
about mass insurrection. in the Valley through the propagation of
'brotherhood of Islam' as against the prevailing notion of 'Kashmiryat'
or Kashmir's centuries-old Sufi-Sant thesis of 'brotherhood of man.' As
a consequence, Jamait-i-Islami schools or madrasas became the focal
point for indoctrinating the young and the impressionable in order that
they could band themselves into Islamic extremists ready to die for
their 'sacred motherland.'
This was a costly reversal for Kashmir. For, until then the
Jamait-i-Islami had been confined to the fringes of politics; its brand
of fundamentalist politics did not find favour with the masses who were
mesmerised by the crusade for 'Kashmiryat' launched by the charismatic
'lion of Kashmir,' the late Shiekh Mohammad Abdullah. Indeed, the Sheikh
was to the Kashmiris what Nehru was to Indians as a whole. Nevertheless,
after the death of the "lion," the Jamait started exploring ways to fill
the political void and find larger acceptance for itself Towards this
end, albeit under the Indian Constitution, the Jamait gave the call for
"Nizam-i-Mustafa" (semantically an equivalent of Rama Rajya) which was
strategically thwarted by the 'cub of Kashmir', the current chief
minister, Mr Farooq Abdullah.
Islamic Spindoctors
However, by the mid-'80s Kashmir was witness to another phenomenon.
Hardcore Islamists from countries like Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,
Syria and Egypt called the Allahwallahs or messengers of God would
infiltrate into local households, apparently to seek alms.
In reality, they were Islamic spindoctors who indoctrinated the gullible
masses with selected discourses on "radical" Islam as opposed to the
tolerant facets of Islam represented by Sufism. Since the latter
preached universal brotherhood, irrespective of creed, faith or temporal
denomination, the Allahwallahs overturned everything that liberal Islam
stood for. The first and foremost casualty of the militant Islam
propounded and preached by these 'messengers of God' was the 'love your
neighbour more than your brother' dictum which had been followed in
letter and spirit in times of war and peace in Kashmir - until, of
course, the 1990 exodus of the minority Pandits. For the infiltrators,
religion was merely a tool to exploit the susceptibilities of the masses
and tear asunder the socio-cultural fabric of Hindu-Muslim unity. In
other words, Sufism was supplanted by radical Islam.
What Pakistan could not achieve in its three overt wars, Zia's strategy
did. From psychological offensive in the madrasas to the physical
training in terrorist camps lies the macabre trail of that disembowelled
human called Kashmiri in whom alone the Mahatama saw a ray of hope
during the Partition holocaust. Oppose the Vandana, by all means, but
also stop the misuse of the madrasas. The nation must speak in one voice
on this to avert the Talibanisation of the Valley.
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