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Kashmir: Are BJP-RSS pushing it to a point where religious fundamentalism wins?

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Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
Kancha Ilaiah ShepherdFeb 26, 2019 | 12:40

Kashmir: Are BJP-RSS pushing it to a point where religious fundamentalism wins?

No religious state, once-Hindu Nepal, Buddhist Myanmar, Islamic Pakistan, has been able to negotiate democracy. Our current government needs to keep this in mind while pushing an increasingly Islamic Kashmir to the brink.

The recent brutal killing of 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel by a youth in Kashmir, in a suicide attack, has sent shockwaves across the world. This was the deadliest terror attack in India ever since the BJP rode to power, and it has come just before the 2019 General Elections.

The martyrs are CRPF jawans from modest backgrounds. Their families will suffer for a long time to come. Their pain is definitely the whole of India’s pain. Their kin must get good jobs in the government sector.  

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The pain the families of the martyrs are experiencing is the whole nation's pain.
The pain the families of the Pulwama martyrs are experiencing is the entire nation's pain as well. (Photo: PTI)

Till very recently, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) intellectuals used to argue that if they come to power, they would solve the Kashmir question in no time. Where does the Kashmir issue stand now, after five years of their complete control of the Indian political system, and also five years of a coalition government earlier from 1999-2004?

The fact is that the Kashmir problem today is more complicated than ever before.

Going by all accounts, violence and deaths of jawans and civilians have increased several-fold. Political and social relationships between mainland India and the Valley have worsened. To my mind, the narrative is fast turning into ‘Indian Hindus vs Kashmiri Muslims’ — if this feeling deepens, the Kashmir question might reach a point of no return.

For whatever reasons, there is no denying the fact that Kashmir has now become a fully Muslim state within India. And if it is not handled on strictly secular and democratic ideological lines, I fear it might turn into the Palestine of the subcontinent. Already, some draw parallels between the Pandit exodus from the Valley and the Jewish exodus from Palestine after its Islamisation.

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The current dispensation has only deepened the alienation in Kashmir.
The current dispensation, with its deep focus on religious politics, has only deepened alienation in Kashmir. (Photo: Reuters)

Let us not forget that the Kashmiri elite today converted to Islam from among Pandits and other upper layers of society when India was ruled by Muslim sultans, particularly the Mughals. Allama Iqbal, the writer of the Two-Nation Theory himself, was from a family of Pandit converts.

In fact, even Jinnah came from a Gujarati bania family that embraced Islam — only such rich converts had the money to go to England and study.           

What should be the position of the Indian masses on the question of Kashmir in this situation today? The masses, as they are, cannot express their position and intervene into the debate and suggest a way out. Some of us should speak on their behalf.

No doubt the question is linked to Pakistan — a vengeful neighbour harbouring terrorists.

The BJP/RSS seem to have mishandled this neighbour every time they have come to power.

The plane hijack during the Vajpayee regime, the question of maintaining relations with Nawaz Sharif after Modi came to power — all were strange, panic- and miscalculation-based responses. Quite unexpectedly, Sharif was invited to Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Modi attended his relative's wedding, apparently without any scheduled preparations.

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There was this time of bonhomie, when the Indian PM landed at the wedding of his Pak counterpart's son.
There was the time of bonhomie, when the Indian PM landed at the wedding of his Pakistani counterpart's relative. (Photo: PIB)

After Independence and Partition, India managed to establish a stable democracy because of the vision of three founding leaders — Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Their contending but collective thought established an irreversible constitutional democracy, with a deep respect for the electoral system. The great architect of the Indian Constitution, Ambedkar, framed a document that could handle the complex civil societal problems we have.

But Pakistan failed on that count — it had only one tall leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. There were no equivalents of Ambedkar to frame a Constitution like India’s, and no Nehru to put it into practice.

Pakistan, thus, turned into a dictatorship within no time.

India is a secular democracy today because we had an Ambedkar to draft our Constitution, and a Nehru to put it into practice.
India is a secular democracy today because we had an Ambedkar to draft our Constitution, and a Nehru to put it into practice. (Photo: PIB)

If secularism was not made the cornerstone of India, we too would have gone down that very path. Imagine a combination of VD Savarkar, Golwalkar and KM Munshi — who was the Right’s legal luminary in the Constituent Assembly —in command of India. This nation would have taken the same route as Pakistan.

Religious nationalism of Islamic, Hindu, Christian or Buddhist variety will be in conflict with modern constitutional democracy in a natural course.

And this is where the danger to Kashmir lies.

Since Kashmir has become a very religious state, the electoral system there is fluid. Even in our most backward states, like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, the masses tend to use their vote for economic transformation and for the protection of democracy — rather than for religious reasons.

The BJP/RSS must understand this factor before it ‘spiritualises’ politics more and more, using the ‘Muslim Kashmir’ as a ploy. Kashmir is a part of India. It is the only Muslim province where almost no other religious people exist prominently in the civil society. The Pandits cannot come back, whatever the ruling BJP might think or do. Kashmir and Jammu are unsettled regions, even though they are one state with democratic institutional safety — and religion plays a key role in this problem.  

Apart from blaming Nehru, they don't seem to have solutions for the Kashmir issue.
Apart from blaming Nehru, have they ever really offered solutions or true vision for the Kashmir issue? (Photo: Reuters/file)

The BJP in power has strengthened anti-Muslim fundamentalism — and this means Kashmir Muslims getting entrenched into their own fundamentalism.

The RSS/BJP used Kashmir as their crisis-creating card when others were in power. They do not know how to handle it now that they are in power.

As Amit Shah did again on February 24, the BJP-RSS continue to attack Nehru for their inability to handle Kashmir in the present.

Let us assume for a minute that Amit Shah was the first Prime Minister of India. With the same world view and knowledge that he has today, would he have managed to bring Kashmir to India, as Nehru did?     

The more the Indian government gambles with Kashmir, the more money it needs to spend on the Army to just maintain the borders. This money could have gone into the development of education, agriculture and industry, which would have uplifted the poor Dalit-Bahujan masses for sure.

The Indian establishment is having to spend a lot in maintaining the militarised Kashmir — money that could have gone on education and healthcare for all.
India has to spend a lot in maintaining a militarised Kashmir — money that could have gone to education and healthcare for all. (Photo: Reuters/file)

Apart from the economic losses, the BJP must understand that the problem will only be worsened if it is handled from a religious point of view.

What the BJP/RSS forces need to realise is that it is not just the Islamic religious nations that have a serious problem in negotiating with democracy. Even Hindu Nepal (before adopting an uncompromising secular democratic set-up after the Kingship was overthrown) could not negotiate the institutions of democracy, nor can the Buddhist Myanmar.

The Kashmiri Muslims have to be carefully taken along with the Indian democratic set-up — otherwise, they will slip into Islamism, making it very difficult for them to negotiate with constitutional secular democracy.

Let us hope that RSS-BJP will not push Kashmir to that corner — which would fulfil Pakistan’s wishes, and also create a crisis in India.

Last updated: February 26, 2019 | 12:40
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