Wednesday, September 10, 2008

A Refugee's Take On Kashmir


I was born in 1947 in what is, for now, Pakistan. Come partition my parents were in different cities and migrated separately. My mother from Karachi by ship to Okha, a small port in Gujarat, with me and her parental family. My dad escaped hidden under suitcases in a police jeep driven by a muslim officer, by road from a small town near Lahore to Amritsar. Neither knew if the other had survived the killing and mayhem that left millions displaced and hundreds of thousands dead or maimed.

It was a few months before they were reunited. This happened when my maternal uncle by chance heard my father's name while he was standing in a mess of a queue in a Delhi centre to register refugees. The people taking my father's name, not in vain as it turned out, were my paternal uncles. Ears perked up. Questions were asked and a link was established. Lost and found.

Paradise in the making
I grew up in Ferozepur - within walking distance of the border with Pakistan. The city had an atmosphere free, surprising in retrospect, of fear or loathing for those across the border. My parents also exuded a positive outlook although they had arrived as paupers and had seen, at close quarters, the horrors of mass migration under duress.

Overall the upbeat ambiance was enhanced by stories of the freedom struggle and how Gandhi had led the country to freedom without resorting to violence. The unstated sub-text was that militant freedom fighters like Subhas Bose and Bhagat Singh had failed to achieve any results and but for Gandhi we would still be ruled by the Brits.

The promise was clear. India will be a secular non-aligned country. It will lead the world towards peaceful co-existence of peoples and nations. It will propagate human rights world-wide and abolish the caste system at home. It will provide education and healthcare for all and banish dowry, booze, gambling, prostitution and satti. It will revolutionise agriculture and build industries to rival the biggest and the best anywhere.

Mohammad Rafi was all this time singing patriotic songs from every street corner loudspeaker exhorting me personally to take over the baton from those who had moved on.

A discordant note
Amidst all this euphoria there emerged one element which rang false to a youngster with no pre-conceptions. Kashmir.

The Hindu ruler of the Muslim majority state had been dilly-dallying about whether to join India after independence. Fearing an uprising supported by Pakistan he hurriedly signed an accession agreement with India in October 1947. This provided Kashmir a special autonomous status with its own prime minister, constitution and flag; and control over all activities except communications, foreign relations and defence. A letter from Louis Mountbatten, the Governor General of India, promised 'a reference to the people to establish their wishes'.

This agreement was quickly followed by a Pakistani invasion in support of marauding tribal hordes. The ruler requested help from the Indian army and fled to Jammu.  India drove the invaders back but when the job was only half done, Pandit Nehru, in his unlimited wisdom, inimitable style, and against the advice of his cabinet colleagues, particularly the hawkish Sardar Patel, called a unilateral halt to hostilities and took the issue to the United Nations.

The newly minted international brotherhood of mankind mandated a plebiscite which was accepted by India. Taking the high road, India proclaimed it repeatedly from various platforms, including the floor of the parliament. I have lost the exact words but phrases like 'we will not keep Kashmir by force' and 'wish Kashmiris good luck if they choose to go their own way' were used and stuck in my memory.

... and promises to break
I must have been some ten years old when it registered that India had made promises to Kashmir and its people that it was reluctant to keep. Suddenly one day we were no longer in favour of a plebiscite. Undoubtedly Pakistan wasn’t doing its bit to fulfil the pre-conditions in the U.N. resolutions, but we were the good guys. Or were we? What were we afraid of? If we were putting together such a utopia how come Kashmiris were dying to get out? And how come Pakistanis and Kashmiris living across the border were not dying to get in?

The promised autonomy did not last long. By 1953 much of it had been dismantled. The prime minister of Kashmir, was arrested and would be jailed on sedition charges. The state militia had been put under the control of the Indian army and would later be absorbed into it.

Meeting Kashmir
I had my first direct exposure to Kashmir and its people when I was thirteen or so during a two week boy scout jamboree in Anantnag. The natural beauty of the valley is awesome. The poverty of the people awful. The kindness and hospitality of the people was heart-warming - but shown as to people from another land. Fine people they are but they do not think or talk like they belong to India. The eastern provinces and their issues came into my consciousness much later. And did not help matters.

I do not know if the partition of India was preventable. Those who were in a position to do so obviously did not have what it would have taken. I do know that it did not solve anything this side of the border or that. And Kashmir became a perpetually unfinished business.

Kashmiris have not had a fair deal. When we say Kashmir is an inalienable part of India we seem to talk of the land and not the people. The vast majority of people have remained way behind the rest of the country on all parameters. If at all they appear in the popular consciousness it is as vendors of tawdry handicrafts and carpets, made mostly in Ludhiana. Or in the background, as service providers, in the romantic movies shot there when there was peace in the valley.

An untenable state
Kashmiri politics and administration has always been on a roller coaster ride and the populace has grown increasingly restless. For the last few decades, some elements, supported by Pakistan and sundry trouble makers from across the border, have taken up arms and terror to get free of India.

Our response has been to deploy the army with almost unfettered powers to quell militancy and drive out the infiltrators. There is hardly a settlement which has not lost people to firing or bombing from this or that side. The midnight knock and kidnapping or arrest are not clichés here, they are a fact of daily life. Hardly a family has been left untouched by tragedy. Human rights violations are reported virtually every day. And all this so we can keep Kashmir.

May be we can keep the land. But what about the people? You can't box them in. The countries on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain tried every trick but failed. Pakistan could not keep Bangladesh. The list goes on forever into the past. And no doubt will into the future.

The Kashmir conundrum has troubled me for over fifty years now. So even if I believe Pakistan:ISI:Devil::Angel:RAW:India, the Kashmiris do not seem to see it. And I see no sign of a plan to win them over.

They are and always will be Kashmiri nationals. Let them choose their citizenship.