Degrees · 2020-07-30 · Special iSSue August 10, 2020 Rs 70 An extra angle of pain. Revisiting...

Special iSSue

www.outlookindia.com August 10, 2020 Rs 70

An extra angle of pain. Revisiting politics, history, art, memory—one year

after the ‘abrogation’.

Kashmir37 Degrees

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T will be an anniversary that, in all probability, will leave us as divided as ever. Kashmir, for that matter, has always been a contested issue and has remained so in the past year, ushered in by what could possibly be des cribed as a ‘surgical strike’ by the Union govern

ment. Executed with stealth that took everyone by surprise, Jammu and Kashmir was stripped on August 5 last year of its special privileges. Article 370 (and Article 35A), which granted certain special privileges to the reg ion, was revoked and the state too was somewhat downgraded, split into the two Un ion terri tories of J&K and Ladakh.

Like everything else that involved Kashmir, these measures left the country divided. Many celebrated as they were convinced by the government’s narrative of a ‘historical blunder’ being corrected some seven decades after independence. The steps, we were told, would result in better integration of the region with the rest of the country and would also hasten its development. Those who didn’t buy the government’s argument cried foul—ranging from murder of democratic opinion of Kashmiris to a sinister plot to change Muslimmajority Kashmir’s demography.

Now, nearly a year later, the gulf in how we view the watershed events of last August has widened rather than being bridged. While Kashmiris evidently sulk—they have really not been allowed the chance to voice their feelings as the region continues to live under strict security restrictions, including sweeping arrests and stifling internet curbs—the anniversary will certainly be a

f r o mT h ee d i T o r

IR u b e n b a n e R j e ee d i to r i n c h i e f

(Ruben Banerjee)

subject of both celebration and mourning, depending on who is on which side. Those who bat for the government say progress is being made, citing successes in controlling militancy among others. But there is also no dearth of those who remain critical of the manner Kashmir is being handled and one recent tweet by a known critic summed up what many felt was the true reality of Kashmir today. “Take away the mountains, the trees and the lakes, and Kashmir ceases to be a heaven. It in fact is hell.”

In the absence of proper means to check out the veracity of the divergent claims, it is indeed difficult to arrive at what exactly is Kashmir’s reality. But on the surface, it seems the going has not been as smooth as those in power may want to suggest. Many mainstream political leaders are still behind bars and even the local media is shackled, with journalists often being called for questioning by the police. If faster development was at the heart of ‘integrating’ Kashmir, that too is not in evidence. A promised global investors’ summit has not happened, though Kashmir has been further internationalised, with the UN Security Council and the US Congress deliberating on its changed status. An aggressive China has got into the act as well, seeking to exploit the disquiet in India’s frontier region by flexing its muscle along the sensitive border. In between, Kashmiris possibly have grown more apprehensive, as those in power push measures allowing outsiders to settle and work in the region.

Good or bad, the changes afoot in Kashmir are significant and Outlook in this special issue seeks to understand their implications without being judgemental. Holding up the mirror without prejudice is our primary job and we report on Kashmir in the following pages with the purpose of portraying in a nonpartisan manner what actually is playing out on the ground. In an environment in which objective assessments are a rarity, our collective effort has been particularly satisfying. We reached out to all sides and very many shades of opinion—from the nationalist BJP ideologue Ram Madhav to leaders of the separatist Hurriyat as also the Pandit community who have been victims of the longdrawn quagmire—for a better understanding of what otherwise is a complex issue. The truth lies somewhere within the well ro u nded coverage that we decided to call Kashmir 370 degrees.

Year to the Ground

POINT AND SHARENow, open Outlook magazine on

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Cover StoryAs J&K completes one year sans ‘special status’, stakeholders look back at the August 5 decisions. Was a ‘historic blunder’ corrected or another committed?

‹ N a v i g a t o r ›

24 | END Of THE ROAD?Is it all over for the Hurriyat?

28 | cENTRE-STAgEDInterview with BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav

48 | wHAT THE PANDITS lOSTTrauma of exodus and the Kashmiri past of Pandits in the community’s art

54 | THROugH BOllywOOD EyESShikara follows Hindi cinema’s tradition of celebrating the Valley’s beauty while ostracising its Muslims

18

5 lETTERS 10 POlIglOT 66 DIARy

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Kashmir37 Degrees

EDITOR-In-chIEf Ruben BanerjeemanagIng EDITOR Sunil menon

ExEcuTIvE EDITOR Satish PadmanabhanfOREIgn EDITOR Seema guha

POlITIcal EDITOR Bhavna vij-auroraSEnIOR EDITOR giridhar Jha (mumbai)chIEf aRT DIREcTOR Deepak Sharma

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nicholas Yadav, Jyotika Sood, lachmi Deb Roy (assistant Editors),

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Volume LX, No. 14

0 0 outlook | july 20, 2020

Distanced CubiclesMUMBAIBhardwaj: This refers to your cover story How’s The Office Josh? (July 27). There is no doubt that the ongoing pandemic has affected the way we live. There are busi-nesses where human presence is not required and one can work online, but there are many industries where close interaction is vital. Even in a developed country like the US, only 33 per cent of the population can work online from their homes. Although the work-from-home cul-ture is taking shape in India—videoconfer-encing has replaced meetings and seminars—it has a long way to go. Many services in the travel and hospitality indus-tries will continue to be human-centric. Besides, some businesses might continue to insist on human presence so that they can closely monitor their workers.

ON E-MAILVijai Pant: With the pandemic showing

no signs of a letdown, profes-sional and personal lives continue to coalesce and work from home remains the buz-zword. As expected, the office set-up is changing to adapt to the crisis. The resumption of offices has received a mixed response. Those who have adapted to the WFH comfort zone aren’t eager to return to commuting. However, those who missed the opportunities to socialise in office and the change of scene it provides, the return to the office is exciting. However, the lock-down continues to wreak havoc on businesses and employees continue to receive pink slips. The possibility of recurring waves of infection further com-pounds problems. In this grim scenario, it is obvious that the

‘office josh’ cannot be high.

LUCKNOWM.C. Joshi: Those who are still employed are scared about job losses, salary cuts and huge declines in corporate earnings. However, some are buoyant about returning to the office and resuming their pre-pandemic lives. Work from home is likely to become a more important part of offices. It is interesting that 73 per cent of survey respond-ents believed that WFH would result in fewer cases of sexual harassment in workplaces, while 64 per cent believed that it would reduce extra-marital affairs. In any case, one thing is certain—the world will never be the same again, either in offices or outside.

Chiding ChinaBANGALOREH.N. Ramakrishna: This refers to the cover story Dragon At The Door (June 29). China is worried about India’s ban on its apps. India is a huge market for Chinese apps, mobile phones and electronic goods, so China fears the geopoliti-cal consequences of this ban. It may present an alterna-tive for other coun-tries that seek to curtail the pervasiveness of Chinese apps, while safeguarding citi-zens’ data. The USA and Australia are looking into ban-ning certain Chinese apps. In

Australia, the fear is that, as recent headlines allege, Beijing-based company ByteDance is feeding users’ data to the Chinese Communist Party. Consumer groups and security experts have identified AI-enabled smart toys that raise privacy

and security concerns because they have spying capabilities. A German telecommu-nication watchdog banned select elec-tronic toys due to this fear. India is a big importer of elec-tronic toys and gadgets from China and needs to ensure

their safety vis-a-vis surveil-lance. Over the years, China has long defended the use of its “great firewall” to block foreign websites and apps. By banning Chinese apps, other countries are giving China a

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6 outlook | july 27, 2020

taste of its own medicine.

MUMBAIBholey B.: Modi’s all-party address was defensive and cliched. If not an inch of territory was ceded, then how come 20 soldiers were martyred? Why, then, are talks going on with the Chinese government? The

government tried to sideline the issue. Though the ques-tions the Congress posed are relevant, it also lacks credibility. Nehru made several mistakes. He let China take over large tracts of land. When China annexed Tibet, India tamely recognised it. These were huge blunders.

FROM thE Daak Room

Paris,Monday, 15 December 1670

What I am about to communicate to you is the most astonishing thing, the most surprising, the most mar-vellous, the most miraculous, most triumphant, most baffling, most unheard of, most singular, most extraor-dinary, most unbelievable, most unforeseen, biggest, tiniest, rarest, commonest, the most talked about, the most secret up to this day, the most brilliant, the most enviable, in fact a thing of which only one example can be found in past ages, and, moreover, that example is a false one; a thing nobody can believe in Paris, a thing that makes everybody cry ‘mercy on us’, in short a thing that will be done on Sunday and those who see it will think they are seeing visions. I can’t make up my mind to say it. Guess, I give you three tries. You give up? Very well, I shall have to tell you. Monsieur de Lauzun is marrying on Sunday, in the Louvre – guess who? I give you four guesses, ten, a hundred. Mme de Coulanges will be saying: That’s not so very hard to guess, it’s Mademoiselle de La Vallière. Not at all, Madame. Mademoiselle de Retz, then? Not at all, you’re very pro-vincial. You’re nowhere near. I shall have to tell you in the end: he is marrying, with the King’s permission, Mademoiselle, the great Mademoiselle, granddaughter of Henri IV, first cousin of the King, Mademoiselle des-tined for a throne, the only bride in France worthy of Monsieur. There’s a fine subject for conversation. If you shout aloud, if you are beside yourself, if you say we have lied, that it is false, that you are being taken in, that this is a fine old tale and too feeble to be imagined, if, in fine, you should even abuse us, we shall say you are perfectly right. We did as much ourselves.

Goodbye, letters coming by this post will show you whether we are telling the truth or not.

Believe It Excerpts of a letter from Madame de Sévigné, a French aristocrat, to her cousin about the impending wedding of Anne Marie, the granddaughter of Henry IV, to a man lower in stature. The wedding, however, was called off after she sent the letter.

NEW DELhISangeeta Kampani: Skeletons In The Mughal Closet (July 13) was a fasci-nating read and a welcome ‘corona break’, to add yet another word to your COVID-19-inspired lexicon. Though Aurangzeb defeated and beheaded his brother, Dara Shikoh, the latter con-tinues to live on in our minds. There are many ‘ifs’ that sur-round Dara, the most impor-tant being, ‘What if Dara had graced the Peacock Throne?’ This is an engrossing ques-tion, but more fascinating is the fact that a nondescript SDMC engineer has been able to hunt down Dara’s tomb, a matter of intense speculation for centuries. Singh’s patience, passion and perspicaciousness are ample proof that if one wills, ways are not wanting. Even as his-torians mull over Singh’s findings, it is impressive that a system as ossified as the bureaucracy couldn’t deter him from achieving his goals. We earnestly hope that now that we have found his tomb, we somehow also get a whiff of the tolerant, pluralistic aroma that Dara stood for.

ON E-MAILVishwanath Dhotre: This refers to Yashwant Sinha’s

interview (Bihar Is In A Mess And We’ll Change It, July 13). At the fag end of his career, Sinha is thinking of changing Bihar. Why did he not do that in the years when he was in power? Before the elections, everybody promises change, but after is another story altogether. As for his call for change, there is unlikely to be much of a transformation in the political scene as the Modi wave continues to sweep the country.

MUMBAIAshok Goswami: This refers to your story In Search Of Vadra’s Crimes (July 27). It has been more than six years since the BJP government came to power, but they could do nothing to

nail him. Cases have been filed and highlighted, but there is no action on the ground. No one wants to fin-ish making the dish—they would rather keep the pot on a slow burner. BJP’s strategy is to stoke fear and malign his name. It cannot arrest Vadra on weak grounds as it may not pass

the scrutiny of courts. Vadra’s ascent to riches is fishy for sure. But investi-gating agencies don’t have clinching evidence and put-ting him on trial may prove to be counter-productive. Once he is on trial, the fear factor will vanish. So, every-body continues to play the cat-and-mouse game.

TheNews

Puneet Nicholas Yadav

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot is known to be a cool-headed politician—one not

prone to betray his sentiments in public. Wily, back-channel political machina-tions had always been his forte. These facets of Gehlot have held him in good stead for the past 45 years of his political journey, allowing him to artfully sideline equally worthy competitors. Yet, over the past fortnight, as his government teeters on the brink of collapse in the face of Sachin Pilot’s rebellion, Gehlot has had two intemperate outbursts.

Earlier this week, Gehlot thrashed Pilot as a leader who went from being a Lok Sabha MP at the age of 26 years to becoming the deputy CM by the time he was 40 years old. “Mere good looks and command over English and Hindi don’t make you a leader; you need commit-ment and ideology too,” the CM, often mimicked by detractors for his near- absent English skills, said of Pilot. Days later, he described Pilot as a “nakara aur nikamma” state Congress president.

Gehlot’s verbal assault against Pilot, who continues to claim the support of 18 Congress MLAs in his bid to dethrone the third-term CM, came amid frenetic attempts by a section in his party to contain the rebellion, and broker a truce between the warhorse and his bête noire. Sources said the party high com-mand asked Gehlot to hold his punches.

A section in the Congress, surprisingly comprising some key members of the party’s infamous old guard, are still keen on pacifying Pilot. A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court, which heard petitions by Pilot and his loyalists challenging Speaker C.P. Joshi’s disquali-fication notices to them, reserved its order in the matter till July 24.

While this breather to Pilot gives him additional time to sort out his future course of action, leaders in the Congress who are sympathetic to the son of the late Rajesh Pilot believe this period should be utilised to make fresh over-tures of peace. After all, Pilot hasn’t been publicly critical of the party or its first family—Sonia, Rahul or Priyanka Gan-dhi—as yet and has maintained that he has no intention to switch to the BJP.

Publicly, the CM maintains that he would “give Pilot a hug and accept what-ever the high command decides” if the 42-year-old amends his rebellious ways. However, a close Gehlot aide tells Out-look, “a rapprochement is impossible”. Gehlot’s loyalists believe Pilot has been “misguiding” the Congress high com-mand all along. “Pilot says he remains a Congressman, then why is he not com-ing for talks with our leadership? His legal team comprises lawyers close to the BJP; his MLAs have been locked up in a hotel under police protection in a BJP-ruled state. What are we to make of this?” wonders Rajasthan minister Govind Singh Dotasra, who replaced Pilot as the state Congress chief.

Congress sources admit that the ongo-ing political drama will go on for a while longer. “Whichever party gets an adverse order will challenge it in the Supreme Court,” says a senior Congress leader, adding that though Gehlot is preparing for a floor test to establish his majority—he still claims of have support of 109 MLAs in the 200-member assembly—the BJP will continue to use Pilot for destabilising the government. To suc-cessfully wade through the storm, Gehlot will need to rediscover his com-posure that had previously helped him survive the political heat of the Thar. O

Raj dharma Sachin Pilot (left) has left Ashok Gehlot with a lot of thinking to do

Amarnath Yatra has been cancelled this year due to the pandemic, ann ounced the Amarnath Shrine Board. The pilgrimage was supposed to start today. The board will live-telecast the morning and evening prayers for devotees.

A survey of 21,387 people in Delhi found that 23.48 per cent of them had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, indicating that they had been exposed to infection. The study suggests that many infected people remain asymptomatic.

IndiGo, India’s largest private airline, is laying off 10 per cent of its staff. As of March 31, it had 23,531 employ-ees on its payroll. IndiGo had paid full salaries in March and April, but subsequently announced pay cuts and leave without pay.

O u t l O O k i n d i a . c O m august 10 , 2020 | OutlOOk 7

Desert Storm

A year ago, when a group of rebels toppled the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition in Karnataka, DK Shivakumar, as a minister

in the government, was at the forefront of the efforts to try and save the government. The turn of events were indeed dramatic – and the image of the Congress leader stubbornly waiting outside a Mumbai hotel when the rebels refused to meet him, brought him national attention, and earned a name as high-profile trouble-shooter for Congress.

But the coalition fell and Shivakumar had to resurrect his fortunes after the Enforcement Directorate arrested. The 58-year-old veteran was greeted by a huge crowd when he landed in Bengaluru after granting bail.

Last week, Shivakumar took over as president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee amid a show of strength – with lakhs of party workers from across the state were administered the Congress oath from Bengaluru through a live-streamed event, a first of its kind. July 2 was proclaimed as Pratijna Dina, a unique pledge-taking programme of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress, led by Shri DK Shivakumar along with senior leaders and party workers. With the technology and digital media, KPCC President, working presidents and senior leaders made connection with party workers and well-wishers from Gram Panchayat, Municipal and Corporation Ward across Karnataka. Lakhs of karyakartas participated by reading the preamble and taking

the Congress Pledge. This unique event reached over 70 lakh people from 7800+ locations through Zoom Conference, Facebook Live on more than 50 pages of party and leaders. This event was also broadcast live on all Kannada and other leading TV news channels. KPCC observers, District and Block Presidents, “digital youth” from NSUI and Youth Congress were overseeing panchayat and ward processes. More than 6.5 lakh missed calls were recorded in support. Pratijna Dina was conducted with requisite permissions and protocols.

Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi telephoned to wish Shivakumar and addressed lakhs of enthusiastic workers watching the event live. This is a first of its kind where an oath taking event was turned into a mobilisation drive taking common pledge of selfless service. Pratijna Dina was a step towards strengthening the Congress in the state, empowering Karyakartas and ensuring voice of the worker becomes the voice of party.

In an interview, Shivakumar says that his job is to bring back people and communities who drifted away from the Congress fold. For this, the party has to rely on the grassroots workers. But it is also time to reinvent the party into a cadre-based organisation, says Shivakumar. “We need to acknowledge the fact that the party can be strengthened not just at the leader’s level but also at the workers level,” he says. “I strongly believe that the worker's voice should be the leader's voice.” Edited excerpts:

INTERVIEW

An Interview with DK Shivakumar of Congress karnataka

Congress always supports loyal workers and will reward them: dk shivakumar

Q You have taken charge of the Karnataka Congress at a difficult time, but you aim to bring the party back to power. What are the challenges ahead and how will you achieve this?More than difficult times, it is just a period of setbacks if you may call it so. Coming back to power after a defeat is not new for the Congress party. The party would come back to power here and everywhere because of the unflinching support of the workers which is the strength of the party. For some reason, some people and communities have got alienated from the party, and it is our duty to bring them back to the Congress fold. A political party will always have challenges, and to us the challenge is to bring the youth back to the party from the bad ideological influence of the BJP and the RSS. If it were just the ideology of the BJP we had to fight, then it would be simple, but we also have to fight their fake news, trolls and misinformation. That is a challenge too. But we would be victorious in the end.

Q You have undertaken to transform the Congress party into a cadre-based party. How do you plan to achieve that?Congress party started as a mass movement. The only agenda was to bring self-reliance and independence to the country. We came to power and we had too many things on our hands. We continued as a mass-based party. Now the time has come to reinvent the party

as a cadre-based party because the youth are educated, intelligent and aware. We need to acknowledge the fact that the party can be strengthened not just at the leader’s level but also at the workers level. I strongly believe that the worker's voice should be the leader's voice. The other meaning of cadre-based is to have your ears to the ground and to respond accordingly with the support of the grassroots level workers.

Q When you took charge as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, the event in Bangalore was live streamed to party workers across the state who were also administered an oath. How will the Covid-19 pandemic impact the way political parties’ function, given the restrictions on rallies and mass-gatherings?We are ahead of others in this invention and implementation of the same. We would have done it much earlier if we had the permission. The BJP tried it after we put our idea together. I believe that the future will be digital and there will be immense opportunity to stay connected with every worker, although virtually. Social media too would play a very important role and all parties are gearing up for the same.

More than difficult tiMes, it is just a period of setbacks if you May call it so. coMing back to power after a defeat is not new for the congress party.

MixedShots

I l l u S t r A t I o n S : S A A h I l , t e x t B y A l K A G u P t A A n d S y e d S A A d A h M e d

BaBy Ko Camus Pasand Hai

When Albert Camus wrote The Plague, he missed out on an important aspect of life during a disease outbreak—fun and games. Regardless, some distinguished Delhi

litterateurs decided to pay tribute to his bleak masterpiece by organising—yep, you guessed it right—a party! Lest you doubt their commitment to Camus, the venue was a night-club called Playgue—obviously, a clever pun intended as a tribute to the existentialist novel. But just like the soldiers in the book, the Delhi Police played party poopers. They raided the shindig and arrested 31 revellers. Although the owners did not have liquor licence, there was booze and hookahs too at the party. O

star treK

It took neil Armstrong’s mission about three days to reach the moon from earth. Quite impressive,

especially when you consider that a truck carrying aerospace machinery took a year to go from Maharashtra to Kerala! the machine, an ‘aerospace horizontal autoclave’ is used to make a space-craft’s structural components. It has a height of 7.5 m, width of 6.7 m and weighs 70 tonnes. the 72-wheel truck moved only 5 km a day due to the constraints of the load. But that alone was not responsible for the delay—restrictions during the lockdown added to the journey’s duration. O

doCtor oinK

ACOVID-19 hospital in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, had a few unusual visitors—a herd of pigs. Their video went viral, after which the authorities removed the creatures. Poor

piggies! Perhaps, they too were alarmed of reports of swine flu surfacing yet again and had come for a check-up. Considering that the incident happened after Karnataka health minister B. Sriramu-lu’s statement, “What can the government do? Only god can save us now,” one can’t help but wonder if the preserver entered the hospi-tal as the vamana (boar) avatar to tackle the crisis. O

August 10 , 2020 | outlook 1 1

it Was all yelloW

A vibrant hue has enlivened the greys and greens of the

monsoon in Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh. Parveen Kaswan, an Indian Forest Service officer, shared a video of bright yellow frogs that became popular on Twitter. These are Indian bullfrogs, usually a dull green. The males of the species change colour during the monsoon to attract mates. But they’re not the only colourful creatures making news. In Odisha’s Balasore, the forest department rescued a yellow turtle. It was later identified as an Indian flapshell turtle, whose yellow tint was due to albinism. O

don’t sPit, siBley, sWeat

In the brave new world that the pandemic has engen-dered, cricketer Dom Sibley made the gravest of mistakes—rubbing saliva on the ball. On the fourth day

of the second Test against West Indies in Manchester, England’s Sibley admitted to accidentally applying saliva on

the ball. Umpire Michael Gough immediately sanitised

the ball. Sibley was lucky. After the ICC banned the use of spit, but allowed sweat, to shine balls, a

team gets two warnings per inning on violating the

law. Further violations, however, result in a five-run penalty. O

Keeping people safe during the co-rona pandemic is not an easy task and if someone manages to do it with the

right mix of policies and intention and imple-mentation then it is an outstanding achieve-ment. This achievement has drawn praise from prime Minister narendra Modi as well.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is today being lauded for his efforts to combat the Corona Pandemic. Even as confusion was vis-ible in some states during the initial days of the Corona virus crisis, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was busy chalking out a realistic strategy to deal with the pan-demic. He displayed both determination and wisdom and foresight during this crisis. The UP government tackled the treatment of in-fected persons and boosted medical infra-structure in the state at an amazing pace. He

made sure that food and medicine were avail-able for all during the lockdown.

The government took extraordinary steps to bring back the migrants trapped in other states to their homes. It made provision for their quar-antine and their medical treatment and food and shelter and financial help. When they were released it provided them with employment as well. Meanwhile thousands of students who were trapped in other states were brought back by a unique initiative of the government.

The manner in which Yogi Adityanath con-ducted the exercise brought the matter to the notice to the Prime Minister as well who praised his efforts in handling the crisis. Whether it was the migrant labour crisis and making provisions for their return home to the state along with their rehabilitation and providing employment for them or bringing

Uttar PradeshWhere Policy, Decisions and Implementation have

A UNIQUE SYNERGY

Today when the world is facing a major crisis due to the Corona Pandemic Uttar Pradesh has displayed remarkable

courage in fighting it. The state has displayed maturity, wisdom and patience in dealing with this crisis and taking up cudgels against Corona.

The manner in which it has handled the crisis is both praiseworthy and unprecedented. The courage of its Corona warriors is beyond belief. Its doctors,

paramedical staff, Asha workers, transport workers, bankers, post office staff, safai karamcharis, police

personnel and all others have made invaluable contribution in this war against the pandemic.

NARENDRA MODI Prime Minister

back the economy of the state on the tracks the decisions taken by the Yogi Government have won the hearts of the masses of Uttar Pradesh.

During this crisis the government gained popularity due to its efforts to revive the economy of the state.

A new work culture is now visible in the state during this corona crisis and this has be-come possible only due to the efforts of the

Chief Minister who makes it a point to indi-vidual monitor all the programmes in the state himself and oversee their implementation.

He is keeping a close watch on the situation and interacting closely with senior officials to tackle problems as they come along. Development work is now visible. The results are there for all to see. The statistics speak for themselves.

There is no scope for making mistakes while dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic in the state.

The health department and the state government will not tolerate any laxity in this regard. It is our firm resolve and commitment that we

have to be of service to humanity in this hour of crisis.

YOGI ADITYANATH Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh

B e n e f i c i a r i e s

I am a resident of Gonda. I will be eter-nally grateful to the UP Government for taking steps to bring me back to the state when I lost my job in Mumbai. I had no money and no means to reach back home but the govern-ment took measures to ensure my secure re-turn and has even pro-vided me work under MNREGA so that I can work for my living.

ARPIT PANDEY Gonda, UP

Fighting a war on many frontsTackling migrant crisis and providing safety from Corona

cM Yogi aditYanath displaYed his ability to multi-task during the corona crisis in the state. It was not easy,the state is home to more than 23 crore people. The task to bring back 37 lakh migrant workers and ensure that they were treated with dignity and to create several schemes to boost the economy of the state as well as create jobs for the migrants at a time when there was a lockdown was not easy.

However, Yogi Adityanath did not falter. He first chalked out detailed plans to bring back

the migrants in a safe and sound manner. Nodal officers were appointed to help in the transportation of migrant workers from other states. A helpline was set up for the same. Quarantine centres were set up in each district.

Yogi has created a new image for himself as a provider of jobs. Today, he is being acknowl-edged for his unique approach in the country and abroad.

By mapping the skills of workers, making a register of the unemployed and other meas-ures, Yogi has created a new model of creating employment during the pandemic crisis by giv-ing work to the masses of his state by fine tuning and boosting cottage industry, micro units and small and medium enterprises to pro-vide work. He immediately announced a fiscal package for the same as well. This has provided a kick start to the state economy.

Creating jobs for1.25 crore workersduring the lockdown several economic activi-ties had ceased and several migrant workers had lost their jobs in other states and come back to Uttar Pradesh. It was vital to provide them with employment and the state govern-ment made this a mission. Under the Central Government’s Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan the Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Atmanirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rozgar Karyakram. During this programme on June 26 the government notified 1.25 crore persons under different schemes of the Karyakram. A total of 2.40 lakh units were given a loan of Rs 5,900 crore. Even new units were set up and 1.11 lakh new units received loans worth Rs 3226 crore. In this programme appointment letters and contracts were given to 1.25 lakh workers. Under the Vishwakarma Shram Samman Yojana and the One District One Product Scheme 5000 workers were given tool kits.

Fighting againstCorona on all frontsto stop the Corona pandemic the government is attacking it on all fronts. Free testing and treatment is being provided at government hos-pitals for corona patients. For the treatment of corona patients several hospitals ranging from Level 1 to Level 3 have been set up. Over 250 bogies of trains have been converted into isola-tion wards. These now have 2000 beds. These bogies have been stationed at 24 stations of the state including Lucknow, Varanasi and Gorakhpur. The state government firmly be-lieves that maximum Covid testing is the need of the hour. Today, 36 labs are testing more than

Yogi aditYanath has hit upon a simple formula to boost employment in the state. It is well known that the state of Uttar Pradesh has the biggest MSME sector in the nation. There are almost 90 lakh big and small units functioning in the state which employ approximately 3.5 crore workers. The CM wants to create one additional job in each unit to create more employment avenues. With this unique approach in mind the UP government launched its mission to create more jobs in the state.

The government of UP has taken up in right ear-nest the move to implement the new package an-

nounced by the Government of India for the MSME sector in the state to ensure this. The Yogi government organised an MSME online loan mela within 24 hours of the announcement of the special pack-age by the Central governmet. The Yogi government has already disbursed funds worth Rs 2002 crores through a loan mela known as the Online Loan Mela Rozgar Sangam in one click to 56,754 en-trepreneurs. The state has therefore be-come the first state to disburse such a large loan during the lockdown period in the nation. Approximately two lakh work-ers have been guaranteed employment.

The UP government has launched the MSME Saathi App. All a unit needs to do is register itself on this App. It can then go ahead and seek redressal for all its problems from the government on this App. The App takes care of GST Refunds to funds stuck in PSUs for the Unit and provides information on the same. The govt. has signed an MOU with SIDBI for the ranking of these units and to ensure that they can avail of bigger loans in necessity. Under the ODOP the Margin Money Yojana and Training and Tool Kit Yojana have been made online.

UP’s UNIqUE MsME PACkAGE

55,000 samples every day. The state is planning to increase this capacity as well. Till date 16.54 lakh samples have been tested.

Maximum Covid bedswhen the coronavirus crisis broke out the en-tire nation had no special facilities for this new virus. The task before the state was therefore to create capacity to handle Covid patients. There are approximately 1.51 lakh covid beds in the state of Uttar Pradesh today making it the state with the largest capacity of Covid beds.

The state has created testing facilities and facilities for ventilators and oxygen machines in all districts and medical colleges. A total of 54,579 Covid help desk have been set up.

CM’s aircraft for Health departmentthe chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is entitled to a special plane. However when the crisis broke out the CM gave the plane to the health department instead. Yogi Adityanath was leav-ing no stone unturned to take on the pandemic. This shows how committed Adityanath is in his determination to fight the Coronavirus. The plane was recently used to bring testing Truenet Machines from Goa to UP. The plane has been sent to Bengaluru to fly in medical equipment and supplies for the state. The CM has inaugurated mask and sanitizer factories in Noida and Ghaziabad. The state is producing the maximum sanitizer in the country.

Displaying both farsightedness and foresighton the third daY of the corona crisis and the nationwide lockdown the Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath had already visualised that a mi-grant crisis was about to hit the nation and jobless migrants would need to be brought back to their homes in the state. In a series of rapid meetings with state officials he outlined plans for their safe return home. To ensure that they reached their homes safely the state provided buses to take them home. The CM also ensured that migrants working in states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat who were returning by Shramik Special Trains to Uttar Pradesh had proper provisions for quarantine in the state. The re-turning workers were given Rs 1000 each and were given rations for three months.

The state went ahead to issue them ration cards. By now 8.75 lakh new ration cards have been issued to these migrants to ensure that they get foodgrains. Lakhs of migrants who were stuck at the Delhi-UP border were picked up and transported by the government in a major operation conducted overnight by thousands of state government buses. They were provided food as well.

A decision was taken by the UP government to lift 12,000 students stranded in Kota in Rajasthan and bring them back to the state in more than 560 special buses. Buses of the Rajasthan govt. were also taken on hire. Kota is a well known coaching destination for stu-dents studying for engineering and for the medical exams. In one smooth operation, which set a bench mark for other states the students were brought back to Uttar Pradesh and they were made to follow social distanc-ing norms on the way also.

Meanwhile 15,000 students stuck in Prayagraj were brought back home along with 60,525 students of other states who were sent to their parent states.

The New Face of the UP Copswhile fighting crime is what the police is trained for the UP police had to take up new tasks during the crisis. This new role was both challenging and back breaking. The police was involved both in coor-dination between NGOs and social workers and even religious heads of gurudwaras to supervise distribution of both rations and cooked food. The po-licemen also took up the task of taking medicine to the ailing. The force was also involved in taking pa-tients to hospitals. Policemen were also ex-posed to distributing relief materials for NGOs and so-cial workers to those who needed them.

When several migrants decided to trek home rather than starve without jobs in other states it was the local police that gave them rations and food and at times even ar-ranged their transport.

when the Migrant crisis hit the nation differ-ent state governments viewed it differently. Most looked at it as a problem to be swept under the carpet or to be got rid off. However Yogi Adityanath took it up as a challenge to try and end the problem of migration from UP. A total of 1,660 trains and 12,000 buses were pressed into service to bring back37 lakh migrants into the state.

The bureaucracy swung into action and cre-ated a data base of workers who were return-ing on the basis of their skills so that they could be reemployed in future. With this skill mapping they divided them into 94 catego-ries. The work is still carrying on at a war footing. The government is making plans to give them employment. A total of 75 lakh workers have got work under MNREGA.

A total of 50 lakh persons have been ap-pointed in 7.80 lakh units. The state govern-ment schemes have provided work to more than 20 lakh workers. Apart from this MoU has been signed to give work to 11 lakh more workers. During the lockdown Rs 1900 crore has been disbursed as wages to the labour. Free RationfroM the Month of April almost 15 crore ra-tion card holders have received 45 lakh metric tonnes of free foodgrains.Of those migrants who have returned to the state more than 8.7 lakh persons have been is-

sued new ration cards. The One Nation One Ration Card scheme has also been imple-mented in the state from May, 2020. A policy is being created to provide shops and homes on a subsidised basis.

Humanitarian reliefduring the lockdown when even movement of essential supplies was impacted the govern-ment walked the extra mile to ensure that no one went without food and water in the state. Several homeless persons staying at the rail-way station, toll plazas, expressways, bus sta-tions and other public places were identified and special attempts were made to provide food and rations to them. Over 6.60 crore food packets were distributed through 4000 com-munity kitchens. The Chief Minister himself used to visit the community kitchens to ensure that food being served was of good quality.

Eleven committees were set up to coordi-nate the health services in the state, to ensure the welfare of those returning to the state.

Financial Aidaround 44,11,000 daily wage workers were provided Rs 1000 in their bank accounts for their food requirements. Apart from this 35,818 Gram Rozgar Sewaks received Rs 225.39 crore as honorarium online.

Welfare of farmersthe welfare of farmers and dairy workers was undertaken as a priority in the state. To ensure farmers had a plentiful supply of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides instructions were is-sued in the state that all shops dealing in such products were to remain open during the cri-sis. Special permissions were granted for har-vesting and sowing of crops and their transportation. The district administration was issued instructions to facilitate harvesting by issuing special permits and passes for the same. The rural sector in the state was there-fore free to function during the lockdown. Otherwise food production and the harvesting of the crop would have been severely affected. By saving the harvest the CM has build capac-ity in the state to feed the poor in the crisis.


I lost my daily wage work during the lock-down. However the state government pro-vided my family with free food and rations. This saved my family and several otherslike me from starving during this crisis. I will forever be greateful to our Chief Minister and his gov-ernment for what they did for the poor.

Ram Das Rajendra Nagar, Orai

TURNING ADvERsITYINTO AN OPPORTUNITY

one of the Biggest casualties of the Corona crisis has been largescale damage to the econ-omy. To fight the crisis on all fronts it is im-portant to restore economic activity and bring back the economy on track.

Time and again the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has conducted several meetings with his officers and stressed upon the need to transform the challenges the state is facing into opportunities to revive the economy of the state.

Responsibilities have been fixed for the minis-ters and officers. The Government is also nego-tiating with foreign nations through the proper channels to bring in investment. The industrial policy and rules and regulations are being re-formed according to the needs of the investors.

Several companies from the US and Germany and other nations have been invited to work.

Wooing foreign investorsthe crisis has created special opportunities for India. Several companies which had man-ufacturing bases in China are leaving China today. The state government has laid out the

red carpet for these companies. On the other hand the chief minister Yogi Adityanath is taking special measures to woo foreign inves-tors. Special measures are being taken to ac-commodate manufacturers of auto-mobiles, bikes and mobile phones as well as electron-ics, companies and the pharma sector. A German footwear maker has become the first manufacturer to set up base in Uttar Pradesh. It is investing Rs 110 crore. The company was producing 30 lakh shoes every year in China and expects to produce the same in UP.

start-ups to be encouragedthe chief Minister is also taking active interest in boosting the economy with the help of start ups. A UP Start-up Fund has been created for the purpose. A first instalment of Rs 15 crores has been allocated for the fund already.

The sectors identified for start ups include agriculture, medicine and health, power, khadi, education and tourism. The UP Cabinet has given its nod.

The aim of the programme is to convert job seeking youth in the state into job providers by encouraging them to do start ups. The Government plans to establish at least 10,000 start ups in the state.

Navratan Incubators: The biggest incubator for start ups is being set up in Lucknow. Each district will have one incubator. A total of 100 incubators for start ups is being set up in the state. The incubators will get both financial assistance as well as subsidies.

A Centre of Excellence is also proposed to be set up. The entire scheme is expected to provide direct and indirect employment to atleast 1.5 lakh persons. The government will give preference to start ups for all government purchases and requisitions.


For the first time I have received 100 per cent payment for my sugar-cane produce. The req-uisite paperwork was handed over to me at my farm by the officials and I did not have to run from pillar to post to dispose of my crop. This is a new turn of events in the state. The entire produce has broubht in new trans-parency with the help of E-Canna App.

Arvind Mallick Muzzaffarnagar

UP on way to becoming ATMANIRBHARkeeping in Mind the Prime Minister’s plan to make India self reliant, UP CM Adityanath has embarked upon the plan to make Uttar Pradesh Atmanirbhar as well. Without UP becoming Atmanirbhar there can be no Atmanirbhar Bharat.

The CM believes that the rural economy needs to be preserved in the state and farmers need to be supported. To prevent migration of labour from rural UP to other states he has focussed upon the creation of cottage industry and MSME units to create jobs in the local areas for the local youth. As such his vision is both local for global and vocal for local in accordance with the vision of Narendra Modi.

ECONOMY BACk ON TRACk


My husband lost his job during the lockdown but I did not lose hope. I joined a self help group which was making masks and selling them. This helped me in meeting the daily ex-penses of running my household. With the money I earned selling masks I bought a shop. Today I can say I am truly Aatmanirbhar.

Rita Sharma Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh

1 8 outlook | august 10 , 2020

kashmir 370°

Though it has never had an ordinary trajec-tory since 1947, the last three decades have seen the state—now reorganised into two Union territories—being defined by cross-border terrorism, curfews, distrust, separatists and security forces.

The BJP, nudged by its ideological parent Ras-htriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had never couched its intention to do away with Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Part of their core agenda, it found a mention in all their election manifestos, includ-ing for the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. For the BJP, abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A on August 5, 2019, was a fulfilment of their promise of greater integration of J&K with India. A promise of development, normality and end of terrorism; a promise that saw Kashmir’s histor-ical aspiration for autonomy being set aside.

A year later, life in the Valley is far from nor-mal, exacerbated now by the coronavirus pan-

demic. Restrictions on mobile telephony and internet linger on. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former chief minister Mebo-oba Mufti, who was part of coalition governm-ent with the BJP till June 2018, continues to be in detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA). National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah were also in detention since the abrogation of Article 370; released in March this year, both father and son have since kept a low public profile, mocked by BJP lead-ers like Ram Madhav for not being accountable to people and “hiding behind their Facebook walls and Twitter handles” (see interview, p.28).

The BJP’s exertions, however, have not won approval among all nationalist parties—its former ally Shiv Sena has criticised the gov-ernment, saying that like demonetisation in 2016, scrapping of Article 370 has failed to improve the security situation in J&K. “There is blood on the streets...and there is loss of

Indefinite ARTICLE

The severe rupture in daily lives, professions and political hopes in Jammu & Kashmir can only be repaired by a democratic engagement with its people

ammu and Kashmir. These days, the words rarely evoke the torn edges of majestic mountains that gar-land it, beauteous gardens that recall imperial grandeur, swiftly-flowing streams that keep time for eternity or the spirit of Kashmiriyat immersed in Sufi spiritualism—all things that once marked India’s northernmost region.

Bhavna Vij-Aurora

J

o u t l o o k i n d i a . c o m august 10 , 2020 | outlook 1 9

P h o t o g r a P h : D a n i s h J a v a i D

kashmir 370°


innocent lives,” a recent editorial in its mouthpiece Saamna stated.

Geopolitical experts claim that the rev-ocation of Article 370 unnecessarily managed to internationalise the Kash-mir issue, something India had avoided for the past three decades. In the US, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has raised the rights of Kashmiris in his poll campaign. “A country like Iran that always supported India has, for the first time, criticised our handling of J&K post-370. Now it is getting closer to China and has kept India out of the cru-cial Chabahar Rail Project. It doesn’t augur well for India as it will also have an impact on Shias in Kashmir,” says a for-mer foreign secretary.

The abrogation of Article 370 is defi-nitely not a finished process—it is still work in progress, defined mainly by three Ds: domicile, delimitation and dem ographics. The new domicile rule, issued by the Centre to replace Article 35A, has come under criticism by Kashmiris, who see it as a ploy to change J&K’s demographic profile. Even Jammu residents, many of whom had welcomed the abrogation itself, have protested because government jobs are no longer reserved only for them.

The delimitation exercise—to redraw Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in J&K, and in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh—is being pursued by a commission headed by Justice Ranjana Desai. This, too, is seen by some as something that aims at a demographic change in constituencies; the fear is of a possible increase in the number of seats in Hindu-dominated Jammu to benefit the BJP. It is only after delimitation is completed that elections to the UT legislature can be held.

Badri Raina, a commentator on poli-tics, culture and society, is convinced about the attempt to change the demo-graphic profile of J&K. “Hindutva forces believe that such change is the only abid-ing solution. They hope that the current delimitation exercise may yield an elec-toral majority for Hindu- dominated Jammu, enabling the installation of a Hindu chief minister in the next assem-bly. Now that Kargil is no longer a part of J&K but of Ladakh, the numbers of Muslims stand diminished,” he avers.

Strategists and security experts opine that the youngest UT should not remain bereft of political activity much longer. Also, there cannot be a long-term clamp-down on fundamental and democratic rights of the people through internet curbs. For the avowed development of the region, economic activity—pace the COVID-19 lockdown—has to begin.

The UT has lost two consecutive sea-sons of tourism—the mainstay of its economy—because of the uncertain situ-ation, while private investors have not shown any interest owing to the security scenario. Also, displaced Kashmiri Pan-dits—touted as some of the main benefi-ciaries of the abrogation—are still far from reclaiming their lost homesteads.

The fact that the abrogation of Article 370 was not marked by violent protests in the Valley is attributed by locals to the communication ban, the arrest of main-stream and separatist leaders and heavy security deployment.

Political analyst and veteran swyamse-vak Seshadri Chari tells Outlook that earlier, whenever anyone talked about abrogating Article 370, there were omi-nous predictions that “the country will burn”. Nothing like that happened.

Chari compares it to the killing of LTTE supremo Prabhakaran in 2009. “He was a cult figure and had the support of major political parties in Tamil Nadu. It was believed that his death would not only topple the government in TN, but

U m e r a s i f


that people would set themselves ablaze, like they did after M.G. Ramachandran’s death. Nothing happened. Similarly, in Kashmir, not even 50 people came out to protest. Hurriyat Conference kept threatening that the day Article 370 is touched, Kashmir will become a part of Pakistan. Where is Hurriyat now? It’s finished,” he says.

However, for some, lack of protests sig-nifies a tired acceptance by a people num bed by years of bloodletting and tur-bulence. Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha says the sudden anno u-n cement of revoking Article 370 left the Kashmiris numb in fear, disbelief and humiliation. Sinha, who has visited the Valley as head of a team constituted by the Centre for Dialogue and Reconc i-liation, including two visits since August last, says he noticed a big change. “The last time I went there, in November, I didn’t meet even a single person who spoke for peace or for India. This was not the case earlier. People had hope before abrogation of Article 370,” he says.

Raina believes there were no visible protests as “a profound sense of resigna-tion has gripped Kashmiris. It has disas-

trous psychological and pathological effects. Most think it’s best to keep their dear ones out of harm’s way, from both sides of the trouble.” According to him, the chief political forces in J&K, with a vested interest in Article 370, were the NC and the PDP, because they main-tained allegiance to the accession, but only in those terms that were encoded in Article 370 with the consent of the Indian Constituent Assembly.

“By locking up their leaders, the Centre ensured that their mass base could not mount any major challenge. The Hurriyat, embroiled in internal divisions and corrupt practices, never had com-mitment to the Article, since their maj-ority view was that J&K should go to

Pakistan. As to voluntary citizen action, the overbearing presence of security forces, ready to crush the least expres-sion of dissent, had ensured that most people were too terrified to even think of protesting,” Raina tells Outlook.

GEOSTRATEGY expert and for-mer special secretary, R&AW, Anand Arni believes that such a

“muscular clampdown” may reduce scope for violence and terror-rel ated incidents, but it cannot work in the long term. “It is not possible in a democracy and must be rejected. It totally contra-dicts our stated positions. People need to vent and should be allo wed. It is the safety valve,” he says. Or else, it would be easy for Pakistan to exp loit the situation. “It is not difficult for Pak istan to create a new terror outfit in Kashmir. So far, it has not been in a position to do so, but ultimately it also has to answer to its do-mestic constituency,” he adds.

Former R&AW chief and advisor on Kashmir to late PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, A.S. Dulat says no violence fol-lowed the abrogation simply because the average Kashmiri wants peace. “Even I

have heard these assertions that there is simmering lava that will erupt. I don’t buy that. Kashmiris can live with the ab-rogation of Article 370. They have agreed to it. Even Pakistan will accept it if the government talks to them. There is no Paki stani left in Kashmir now. The last sta n ding Pakistani, Syed Ali Shah Gee-lani, has also thrown in the towel. Now is the time to talk and take the next step following the abrogation,” Dulat says. However, he advocates a speedy rev ival of the political process. Acknowledging that there is only so much that the Lieutenant Governor can do under the controlling hand of New Delhi, Dulat recommends something like what late PM P.V. Narasimha Rao did when he

announced elections in J&K after six years of governor’s rule in 1996. Rao had made the announcement in Burkina Faso in November 1995, pav-ing the way for the historic elections. “Rao’s way was the best way. Kashmir needs it. Let the politics play out—whether it is a hung assembly or one party gets majority. Give that power to the people,” he adds.

According to him, the Centre is foc using too much on the security paradigm while handling Kashmir. “The larger problem remains that of the people,” he says. The bigger security problem, he points out, is in North Kashmir, where foreign mili-tants, mostly the Lashkar, cross over from Pakistan. “South Kashmir mili-tancy is more the result of radicalisa-tion of local youth. It is the fallout of hopelessness about their future. The political vacuum weighs in, since there is no one they can approach for a redressal,” he explains.

He urges the local police, “who are doing a very good job”, to try and reform these youth, instead of conducting only punitive action. While foreign militants in North Kashmir should not be spared, killing local youth who have picked up the gun doesn’t help much. “You kill one, four more angry youths will come out and get killed by security forces. In the 1990s, the lifespan of a terrorist used to be two-and-a-half years. Now it is maxi-mum two-three months. My fear is that Srinagar might get trapped between North and South Kashmir and witness some big terror incident,” the former R&AW chief warns.

Congress MP Manish Tewari also fears that the UT may see increased violence. Among the few who opposed the Nare-ndra Modi government’s move to pass the bill in Lok Sabha, Tewari says there is certainly no let-up in alienation of Kashmiris after the abrogation of Article of 370. “The classical curve of extremism has three stages—alienation, radicalisa-tion and violence. Alienation has only inc reased. Even in Jammu, murmurs of discord have started. The security situa-tion is hardly any better. You cannot have the territory under curfew and then claim improved security situation,” the Congress leader tells Outlook.

For some, lack of protests signify acceptance by a people numbed by

years of bloodletting and turbulence.

kashmir 370°


It is for this reason, he says, that private players are not likely to invest in the strife-torn UT to set up indus-tries. “Money is a coward” and it goes to the safest harbour, he says, quoting former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. “Rumsfeld talked about the ‘gate test’. Open the gate and see which way the money flows. Given the security situation of the UT, who is going to go there and inv est?” asks Tewari.

Yashwant Sinha talks about the “sil-ence of the graveyard” in this context. An investor would want to ensure that things are in order. “J&K is far away from it. Even the planned investor meet did not happen,” he points out.

Let alone investments for new projects, even ongoing projects under the PM’s Development Package (PMDP) for J&K are progressing slowly due to the uncertain security scenario. In the five years since PM Modi announced the Rs 58,627 crore package in 2015, only 49 per cent funds have been utilised, as per a review done by the UT administration earlier this month. Of the 54 projects, only nine have been fully completed and eight “substantially completed”. The rest are either in the “ongoing” or “slow moving” category.

According to Raina, most people in the Valley are also sceptical about inv-estors wanting to come in any big or lasting way—at least not for such time as locals remain hostile to the Centre. “Jammu too will be cautious in this reg ard, if it impacts local economic interests,” he says.

Himself a Kashmiri Pandit, Raina does not see many from his community going back to reclaim their homeland. Though Ram Madhav asserts that the government is committed to bringing them back with “dignity, honour and safety”, Raina says that Kashmiri Pandits, by and large, remain estranged from Kashmiri Muslims in general. “The sort of iron-clad guarantees they ask for may not be deliverable, and it will be a while before a rapprochement is either desired by them or attempted. In short, the prospects of them returning

to the Valley continue to seem negative,” he says.

While most are convinced that abrogation of Article 370 is there to stay, the lawyer in Manish Tewari still believes it is not a done deal yet. “The matter continues to be under judicial scrutiny. It was something not thought through. The Constitution of India, for example, does not envisage one high court for two UTs,” he says.

THE Congress leader may be unreasonably optimistic about turning back the clock on

abrogation of Article 370; however, the possibility of restoring J&K’s statehood is quite high. BJP general secretary Ram Madhav also confirms in his interview to Outlook that as per the Union home minister’s announcement, restoring statehood will be the way forward. “I am sure necessary steps will be taken at an app ropriate time,” he says.

Dulat, a veteran Kashmir hand, bel-ieves that the BJP-led government will use restoration of statehood as a bar-gaining chip with the Kashmiris.

“There will be a price for it. In return, Kashmiris will have the sense of get-ting at least something back,” he says, reiterating that Kashmiris need to be the government’s focus area. “The gov-ernment should open communication channels with the people. There are always two sides to a story. The gov-ernment has one. It won’t do any harm for it to hear the other side too by talk-ing to people like Omar Abdullah, Sajjad Lone, Shah Faesal and even the Mirwaiz,” adds the former spy.

Sinha concurs. “The only solution is through dialogue. The government must identify stakeholders and depute some-one to talk to them, giving that person full authority to take decisions,” he says. Raina weighs in: “I do not see that any-thing definitive by way of resolution is in the offing. Not until some fundamental issues are addre ssed through open and sincerely democratic procedures.”

All serious debates on Jammu and Kash mir invariably underline the need for a reasonable dialogue with the people—the ultimate stakehol -ders anywhere. O

Private players won’t invest in an uncertain security scenario. Even PMDP

projects for J&K have slowed down.

O u t l O O k i n d i a . c O m august 10 , 2020 | OutlOOk 2 3

Jeevan Prakash Sharma

As the end of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status has been mostly seen in terms of the

region’s integration with the rest of India, most discussions on the subject have focused on its impact on the insurgency-hit, Muslim-majority Valley. It is rarely mentioned that Hindu-majority Jammu lost its special status too. A year after the abrogation of Article 370, many in Jammu feel they are destined to be a victim of the Centre’s approach to “either appease or punish” Kashmiris. “Jammu is like a doormat for Delhi-based leaders. On their way to Kashmir, they break the journey here, make promises and forget them the moment they leave for their destination,” says Pandit R.C. Sharma, a local peace activist, largely summing up the sentiment in Jammu.

Sharma, whose father arrived in Jammu from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after Partition, runs an NGO, the JK Youth Sharnarthi Action Committee. Like many other locals, Sharma feels the Centre always ignored the people of Jammu to woo Kashmiris,

In Valley’s ShadowWhy all Jammuites aren’t celebrating life without Article 370

and that now, after doing away with Article 370, it wants to change the demography of the Valley. He adds that Jammu stands to lose more of the benefits of autonomy than Kashmir, however limited they were.

“Most of those who will get domicile status of J&K under the new rules will settle in Jammu,” says PDP leader Firdous Tak. “The Dogra king Maharaja Hari Singh had made laws prohibiting outsiders from buying land or doing business in J&K as he knew the people here needed protection.”

Indeed, many locals are worried about being marginalised in the development process. “More people looking for cheaper land and business opportuni-ties will migrate here as we are closer and easily accessible from the other states, while fear of violence will deter

them from settling in Kashmir,” says Sharma. Pointing out that the people of Jammu had been meekly accepting discrimination against them in jobs within J&K, Bina Bakshi, who runs an NGO in Jammu city, says, “People of Jammu are simpler, less educated and politically less assertive for their rights than the people of Kashmir.”

The fear in Jammu is that “outsiders” may overwhelm the job market, leaving only low-paid jobs to the locals. “Anybody born and brought up in cities like Delhi and Chandigarh would have a better educational standard than the majority of students here,” says a district-level political leader who didn’t wish to be identified.

The BJP spokesperson for J&K, advo-cate Abhinav Sharma, who also heads the J&K High Court Bar Association, is quite confident that people will see the benefits of the abrogation of Article 370 once the initial hiccups of transition get over. “The previous pro-Kashmiri administration in J&K was responsible for many irregularities that deprived the people of Jammu of jobs. Now, as the Union territory is under the Union home ministry’s control, all institutions are under close watch. But, whenever there is a change in the entire system of governance, people are bound to face some difficulties initially. Just wait for a year or two and you will start noticing development on the ground due to the implementation of central laws. Power projects, broadening of roads and other infrastructural projects will ultimately benefit the people,” he says.

Not everyone in Jammu blames Kashmiris for the regional imbalance in development. “Jammu vs Kashmir is part of communal politics to incite peo-ple of a particular religion against the other,” says a Jammu-based education-ist. “A Muslim-majority state joined India when the country was divided on communal lines because certain prom-ises were made to them to protect their identity. Now, the Centre wants to change the demography and floats the-ories like Jammu vs Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir are interdependent for many business activities. If normal life gets disrupted in Kashmir, Jammu is bound to face the consequences.” O

“More outsiders will come to Jammu as fear

of violence will keep them out of Kashmir,” says a peace activist.

At long last BJP workers in Jammu welcome abrogation of Article 370

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Naseer Ganai in Srinagar

You could think of it as a final ellipsis in one man’s life, or as the turning point of a whole

phase of history in Kashmir—with India, and then Pakistan, applying the vector force. For the past 30 years, 91-year-old Syed Ali Geelani has remained the pivot of Kashmiri separatism. He symbolised Kashmir’s hardline politics against Indian rule—the door that slammed shut in the face of even the occasional peace overture. Unlike some of his former associates, more amenable to dialogue under tolerable conditions, Geelani has all along enunciated the maximalist

position: that the only condition for dialogue with New Delhi is that the latter accept Kashmir as a disputed territory. His street cred bore out that role of the white-bearded pater familias of resistance politics.

During the surge of protests post the killing of Burhan Wani in 2016, Geelani refused to meet the parliamentary dele-gation that knocked on his door at his Hyderpora residence. He described the overture as meaningless, saying they have neither the mandate nor “the intention to resolve” Kashmir. In two statements issued in September 2016, the then Hurriyat chairman asked India to accept Kashmir as a disputed terri-tory and start demilitarisation to pave the way for a referendum—only that

could “settle this issue permanently, peacefully and democratically,” he had said. That unflinching stance, in line with the sentiment on the street, meant he was acknowledged on all sides as the real inflexible one. Even if formally he was only the life-time chairman of his Hurriyat faction, he was the face and voice of Kashmir’s veto.

After years of the enforced stagna-tion of Hurriyat politics, Kashmir’s resistance had in recent times spilled over to the streets—in classic leader-less protests. The old separatist leaders often struggled to stay at the helm. Except Geelani: one word from him could still bring Kashmir to a pause. At times, militants have even wished that, if their path brings them death, it must

kashmir 370°

Twilight of the separatists?Geelani says goodbye to the Hurriyat. Did India prompt it, or is Pakistan shifting its strategy? Either way, it’s a season of bitter goodbyes in Kashmir.


be Geelani who offers their funeral prayers. And he has obliged, giving funeral speeches on video in his chaste Urdu. That’s why many mainstream leaders painted him as the political vanguard of militant separatism. And that’s why his sudden resignation from the Hurriyat Conference on June 19 came as a shock and surprise to every-one. Sharp, angular debates filled the air in Kashmir. New Delhi took notice too, with delight. BJP general secre-tary Ram Madhav called Geelani singularly responsible for pushing the Valley into terror and violence, ruining the lives of thousands of Kashmiri youth and families. Geelani had resigned without giving a reason, Madhav tweeted. “Does it absolve him

of all the past sins?”Taking the cue, state BJP leaders say

separatist politics stands rejected in Kashmir. “The Hurriyat is not relevant after the historical August 5 decision. Their dangerous, divisive politics is over,” says Altaf Thakur, BJP spokes-man in Kashmir. The revocation of Article 370 has ended separatist and secessionist thoughts in Kashmir for-ever—and thus, it was a timely decision by the aged leader, he says, a sign that the entire discourse had changed. Other mainstream parties are watching silen-tly, like they have been doing for the past few months, even after the release of their leaders. National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah stated categor-ically after his release in March this year that he will not talk politics. Omar Abdullah is also silent about his party’s current thinking. A senior NC leader,

however, described Geelani’s resigna-tion as a huge development in Kashmir’s politics. “The Hurriyat and Geelani, if he is in good health, should explain. His family should explain. This indicates the death of separatism or his brand of politics,” says the leader.

On social media, Geelani’s traditional opponents berated him, calling it a “surrender”. Pakistan has disowned him, they said, and this forced him to resign in a vain bid to show Islamabad that he still carries weight. Geelani’s supporters are bewildered. Local newspapers, which had stopped pub-lishing articles, editorials and even ground reports after August 5, 2019, were buzzing again with sharp opin-ions. In Kashmir Images, leading Urdu

editor-writer Manzoor Anjum wrote that it was Geelani’s politics that compelled New Delhi to revoke Article 370. Geelani, he wrote, tried every trick to occupy the hardline space and used his Jamaat-e-Islami and Hizbul Mujahideen influence to the hilt. “In the process, groups of stone-pelters emerged…and overground workers who would enforce Geelani’s strike programme and denounce those who dared to oppose it. The (ruling) PDP tried to exploit the situation to suit its political goals,” he wrote, saying that’s what led up to the Article 370 decision and the state’s bifurcation. “And the play ended. There were no ripples. Geelani sealed his lips, Mirwaiz did the same, Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti did the same.”

“Geelani may be upset why he alone is being targeted for post-August 5 inaction,” Anjum wrote, fairly unspar-ing. “It is because he forced people, through all means, to accept him as leader of the revolution (Rehbar-e-Inqilab) and therefore he has to answer. He made people die for

Nizam-e-Mustafa and now he quits. He talked obnoxiously about demographic changes and now when domicile certif-icates are being issued, he resigns. Wasn’t it Geelani and his followers who would tell people that azadi is ‘round the corner’? Where is that azadi? Geelani has to answer.”

But Geelani’s resignation letter was concerned more with events in PoK. He acc used his Hurriyat faction’s branch in PoK of taking decisions on their behalf in spite of being “just a representative forum”. He also accused them of corruption, nepotism and financial irr egularities. As for his Hurriyat (G) constituents in Kashmir, Geelani in turn acc used them of inaction after August 5.

At times, militants have even wished that it must be Geelani

who offers their funeral prayers.

91 not out Syed Ali Geelani, who walked out of the Hurriyat in June, is one of the most visible faces of Kashmiri separatism

P H o t o G r A P H S : U m e r A S i f


kashmir 370°

Of course, the whole landscape had been silenced—the police booked around 8,000 people, including main-stream leaders and three former CMs, under various laws after August 5. A giant shroud had been draped over Kashmir such that no huge protests could break out, like in 2010 or 2016. But the immediate trigger lay across the LoC. In one of the meetings there, the representative of Geelani’s faction had agreed to Islamabad’s decision to turn Gilgit and Baltistan into a separate Pakistani state. And Geelani says while no Hurriyat constituent was available to guide Kashmiris last year, this year they gathered to hold a “so-called con-sultative meeting” to endorse the “un-constitutional” decisions in PoK.

“WE have read Geelani’s letter and passionate commentaries on it,”

says Zafar Choudhary, political analyst and author. “The conclusion one draws of Pakistan’s infl uence on Kashmir’s separatist politics, infighting in Hurriyat ranks and the power pursuits of PoK-based representatives presents no new revelation. These issues have been int rinsic to the body of Hurriyat ever since its formation in the early 1990s.” Choudhary sees clues to some-thing more fundamental. “The resigna-tion doesn’t tell the whole story. One hint one gathers from this develop-ment is that there could be some fun-damental change in Pakistan’s Kashmir policy, currently behind the curtains, which may not have been acceptable to Geelani,” he says, adding that August 5 was a massive blow that showed Pakistan’s traditional Kashmir policy had failed to an embarrassing extent, even exposing its vulnerabilities in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan. “There are several

hints that Pakistan is considering recasting its Kashmir policy to secure what it currently possesses of Jammu and Kashmir. Geelani has always refused to engage with any policy that deals with the historic state of Jammu and Kashmir in parts,” he says.

Officials in the security est ablish-ment see Geelani’s decision as part of his dogged attempt over the years to project himself as a “last sole spokes-man” of Kashmiris. “He stood against talks with New Delhi, he went against President Musharraf’s four-point for-mula to resolve Kashmir. Now he has isolated himself from the Hurriyat, ab-solving himself its inaction. And he has levelled allegations of corruption against his own people, making them suspect before the people, to project himself,” says a senior official.

A political analyst offers ano ther take: “It can be an Indian move as well. Maybe at the end of his life, the gov-ernment wants to take away the halo around Geelani and project him as one who surrendered. You never know.” But former Pakistani ambassador Abdul Basit’s words—arguing for the pro-freedom leadership to transfer to the youth after Geelani—gives an indi-cation of Pakistan’s involvement in his resignation. There’s an overall air of avenues for politics being closed off for

“the old separatists” after Geelani. Soon after his resignation, Geelani

was quick to extricate himself from the Joint Resistance Forum (JRF) and give strike calls. Before August 5, 2019, such decisions were jointly taken by the JRF, comprising Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik. Malik has been in Tihar for the past 18 months and Mirwaiz continues to be under house arrest since August 5. Geelani, while giving a strike call on the anniversary of Burhan Wani’s killing on July 8 and on Martyr’s Day (July 13, which commem-orates the 1931 upr ising), said: “India has offi cially started bringing demo-graphic changes in Kashmir, creating settler colonies, after the annexation of August 5, 2019…. I have been warning for long about such plans.” Police ins ist the strike call was given in Geelani’s name from Pakistan.

Many in Kashmir argue that the die was cast on August 5 last year and Geelani, with no plan on how to reverse it, has res orted to his old politics of strikes. “New Delhi has crushed the organising cap acity of Kashmiris. The separatists realised it on August 5 and fled from the scene, as if they didn’t exist,” says a political observer. “Now only a person ready to put his life on the line can resist. There’s no space left for peaceful public dissent.” Most Kashmiris, he says, are looking at larger geopolitics to show the way. “Otherwise, they feel they can’t do anything to change a fait accompli.” That sense would indeed be keen-edged in a season when even the formal bulwark of sepa-ratism seems to be coming apart. O

Separatist voices Yasin malik (with mike) with Geelani during a public rally

Many see Geelani’s decision as part of his attempt to project himself as a “last sole spokesman” of Kashmiris.

kashmir 370°

August 5 marks the first anniversary of three distinct, radical and game-changing

decisions impacting the disputed state of J&K. These were the derogation— because technically it is still on the books—of Article 370; the abrogation of Article 35A; and the dismantling of the state of J&K. All three steps were taken without any reference to the people of the state or any discussion in Parliament. Yet, they were done with consultation enough to ensure legal validity while circumventing the truth, a manipulative technique at which New Delhi is very proficient.

The government’s basis of support was the ruling BJP’s visceral understanding of vast swathes of populist (as opposed to discerning) India and its calculated use of muscle. In the latter category of instrumentation was the disinformation campaign by the martial command and control of Kashmir. It was an unprece-dented psychological operation designed to cause confusion, provoke crowd panic and feelings of imminent calamity, inc luding “terrorist” attacks, communal unr est or even war. It sent Hindu pilgrims, tourists and non-Kashmiri daily-wage labourers scurrying home in confusion and fear. Ladakh and Jammu too were subjected to such disinforma-tion, but the focus of the actions was on slurring Kashmir, which has been under a year-long lockdown since, with occa-sional letups to allow the arg ument that the restraints have not been unbroken.

What has the BJP-led government achieved with its Kashmir-centric J&K policy? Ominous adverse consequences, be it in the (former) state, in the South Asian region or in the world.

From demographically tiny but strate-gically all-important Ladakh, the feed-back has been complex. In Leh district, the August 2019 announcement was fol-lowed by elated celebrations. Kargil dis-trict was cautious about the implications

of the ruling and critical of the commu-nal theme of the state’s bifurcation. But six months later, both districts were publicly protesting broken promises. The BJP’s Ladakh chief resigned three months later, citing the disempower-ment of its local cadre in the party’s praxis. In Jammu, the BJP’s bastion in the region, it is faced with sizeable scepticism because of the fear of being overwhelmed to disadvantage by “out-siders” in the spheres of commerce, livelihood and land rights. Meanwhile, Kashmir braces for the worse possible scenario—more violence as the BJP gov-ernment presses ahead with its agenda of wholesale demographic alteration.

The effects on the region (defined by the consortium of the dispute’s territo-rial “stakeholders”) of the August 2019 move by Delhi has come into focus in the last two months. Islamabad was predict-ably shrill initially, using words as strong as “fascist” and “genocide”. Since then, however, its rhetoric has subsided, giving way to a sanguine inscrutability. Beijing—an integral neighbour by virtue of its extensive boundary with South

Asia—reacted with unusual speed. In words, it objected vehemently within 24 hours, but was wide-ang led in its response on the ground. They were operationalised over the next eight months, as New Delhi discovered in early May of 2020.

The international implication of Delhi’s adventurism is a work in progress. The actions in J&K served as a testing of the waters on authoritarian-ism in all of India. Due to the BJP’s indefatigable buoyancy in its mission for “new” India, its actions in J&K were fol-lowed, in quick succession, by introduc-tion of CAA and reactivation of NRC, both religiously discriminating laws. It igni ted India-wide protests as the laws served to highlight the BJP’s crafty inter-pretation of the Indian Constitution. Internationally, the move drew wide-spread rebukes from western democra-cies and Muslim countries, which questioned the BJP’s commitment to rule of law, including in Kashmir.

Yet, even though India’s sheen—both as the world’s largest democracy, and in its capacity as an economic and military power—is being corroded, the BJP’s self-confidence has not waned at all. Persistent myopia in internal politics and growing doubt in international poli-tics—it is a dichotomy that has led to at least two modern global wars. The world would do well to remember it. O

(The writer is a professor of Central Asian and Tibetan history. Views

expressed are personal.)

The Centre’s move on Kashmir was

taken without any reference to the

people of the state.

Siddiq Wahid

Shadow of the GunA muscular policy that bulldozed a state and its people


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It has been almost one year since Jammu and Kashmir lost the special status granted to it by Articles 370 and 35A. National general secretary of BJP Ram Madhav tells Bhavna Vij-Aurora that the abrogation of Article 370 has led to “strengthening of the voices of India” in the youngest Union territory. It has also exposed local political leaders who, instead of acting as a bridge between the people and the administration, are hiding behind their Facebook walls and Twitter handles—“That is why not many tears were shed when they were incarcerated.” Excerpts:

‘Abrogation of Article 370 has strengthened voices of India in the Union Territory’

“Pandits have a right to return to the Valley. We are committed to bring them back with dignity, honour and safety.”

S a n j a y R a w a t


One year after the abrogation of Article 370, how would you describe the situation in Jammu and Kashmir?One year ago, on August 5, 2019, when our government abrogated Article 370, the Opposition had predicted bloodbath and street violence in the state. In the last 11 months, nothing of that sort has happened. Terrorist violence does happen. But that phenomenon is of a different dimension and needs different analysis. As far as the people of the UT are concerned, there has been substantial peace, allowing the administration to focus on development.Do you think we have made some progress towards the stated goal of mainstreaming J&K with the rest of the country?We need to be careful with words like ‘mainstreaming’ etc because they imply that people over there were not with India. In Delhi’s prime time TV news shows, we subject ordinary Kashmiris to a daily patriotism test due to such assumptions. There is a section of the population in Kashmir Valley that is influenced by separatist rhetoric. But the people of Jammu and a large section of the people of Kashmir have, over the decades, been fully with the national mainstream.

In the Valley, there was attachment with Article 370 in terms of a special status. No such thing existed in Jammu. Majority of those ordinary citizens in Kashmir, who lived under Article 370 for over seven decades and got nothing, now perhaps want to experience life without Article 370. That is why they are not

pelting stones or agitating violently. I conclude that the abrogation of Article 370 has led to strengthening of the voices of India in the UT.What about the economic development of the UT? Have any industries shown interest in investing there? Are you confident of getting private investment?As we settled down after the August decision last year, the winter had set in. Many parts of the Kashmir Valley become inaccessible during winter, leading to a halt in development activity.

Even the durbar —state secretariat—moves away to Jammu. As the winter ended, the Covid pandemic arrived. In addition to these natural challenges, there were issues like the new domicile law for the new UT, which took some time to be announced. We have addressed all these issues by now and the state is ready for fullsteam development. Already some investments in malls and multiplexes have rolled in. An investor summit is planned, which would pave the way for greater inflow of investment.Has there been any impact on insurgency in the state, postArticle 370? How do you see the recent killing of a top BJP worker and his family members in a terror attack?Abrogation of Article 370 has led to massive frustration in the ranks of terrorists and their masters across the border. There are continuing efforts to push in more and more terrorists. But our security forces are alert and neutralising a large number of them at the border itself or in the hinterland. Not a single week passes without the elimination of a good number of terrorists. On the other hand, local recruitment in the terrorist ranks has dwindled substantially.

Frustration at not being able to get highprofile successes has led to terrorists indulging in heinous targeting of local political activists. A few of them have been targeted recently. However, the state is taking all the necessary security measures. We tell our cadres that there is no need for panic, but there is

need for caution.Earlier, a Congress sarpanch, Ajay Pandita, was killed and another woman sarpanch abducted. Do you think it’s to keep the Kashmiri Pandits away from the Valley?Standing up for India or holding up the Indian national flag have always had challengers in the Valley. Pandits have paid a heavy price for it. Many local Kashmiris, like the family of BJP leader Wasim Bari, too have laid down their lives in the cause. Pandits had to leave the Valley in the past in large numbers. The Valley is their home and they have a right to return. Terrorists would try every dirty trick to deny that right, but we are committed to bringing them back with dignity, honour and safety. Similarly, we will ensure the safety of all the Kashmiris who stand up for India. They are far too many for the terrorists to silence. On the contrary, we are effectively neutralising terrorists in the Valley on a daily basis. The shelf life of a terrorist in the Valley is just a few months today.You have been asking political parties to start political activity. During your recent visit to the Valley, you said that the NC and the PDP are not acting responsibly. What do you think is their role at this juncture?When the UT is under Governor’s rule, people need political leaders the most, as only they can act as a bridge between the people and the administration. Almost all the leaders of all political parties are free today. But they are not coming forward to help people. They are not there to ensure people get

“The majority of Kashmiris got nothing out of Article 370 in seven decades. That’s why they are not agitating violently.”

kashmir 370°


the benefits of government programmes. They are not there when terrorists kill political activists. J&K has seen many elections in last two years, right from the panchayat level. These local parties have boycotted them and ran away. Why? They are utterly unaccountable to ordinary people. They hide behind their Facebook walls and Twitter handles. In fact, the people also realised this. That is why not many tears were shed when they were incarcerated.J&K has been under Governor’s rule since June 2018. When do you see normalcy in terms of political activity returning and elections being held? How long will the delimitation exercise take?The UT is peaceful and calm except for sporadic Pakistanpropelled terror. But by normalcy if we mean a legislature for the UT, I am sure that will happen on a priority basis. Under the new UT Act, the delimitation exercise has to be completed before going for elections to the UT legislature. The Union government has appointed a commission for that, headed by Justice Ranjana Desai. Covid has delayed the process. Once commenced, it should not take more than a few months. We hope that the process will be completed soon and elections will be held.Is it true that most of the political leaders have been released from detention against a bond that they will not speak on Article 370? Is that the reason why PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti is still under detention? Utterly false, as far as I know. This question

actually reflects very poorly on the credentials of the detained leaders. In spite of all political differences, I consider several of the leaders of these parties to be persons of conviction and hence dismiss the insinuation.Is there a possibility of turning the clock back and restore J&K’s statehood?Statehood to J&K is not about turning the clock back. As per the Union home minister’s anno uncement, it will be the way forward for the UT. I am sure necessary

steps will be taken at an appropriate time.Some sections in Jammu and Kashmir are raising concern over demographic change. Even Apni Party led by Altaf Bukhari expressed concern over the domicile law. Do you think such concerns are justified?All talk about demographic change is delusional. Under the new domicile law, a historical wrong perpetrated by successive state governments has been rectified and domicile has been granted to those genuine Indian citizens living in the Valley for many decades. In fact, the new domicile law in J&K comes with a lot of protections for the local people.A large section in Jammu feels that they haven’t got anything even after they supported and celebrated the abrogation of Article 370. They are apparently not happy with the UT status for Jammu. How do you propose to handle the situation? Any plan to make Jammu a separate state?Abrogation of Article 370 has been a longtime demand of the people of Jammu. They are happy about achieving it. They are patriotic people. Jammu got a lot of development projects in the last few years. But it is also true that people of Jammu continue to pay a price for whatever happens in the Valley. Over the decades, the administration got used to looking at the state from the Valley prism only. It is important to reward people who are peaceful and patriotic, whether in Jammu or in the Valley. Since the UT is one unit, the administration has to devise novel ways of

doing that.Many experts link China’s aggression along LAC to revocation of Article 370 and granting of UT status to Ladakh. How much credence do you give to this?There are many analyses about China’s actions along the LAC. We respect all the experts and their opinions. But China had done the same thing many times in the past too, especially even more intensely in 2013. There was no UT question at that time.You were the first to tweet about Syed Ali Geelani res igning from his faction of Hurriyat Conference. How big is this development?By now, everybody has realised that Geelani’s resignation was nothing but the result of an internal power struggle and Pakistan’s renewed priorities. Geelani was singularly responsible for decades of violence and terror in the Valley. He had led thousands of Valley youths on the path of noreturn terrorism and destroyed thousands of inn ocent Kashmiri families. All the while, he enjoyed Pakistan’s largesse as the hardline leader of Hurriyat. What did he give to Kashmiri people? How does his resignation today mitigate all the horrendous crimes he committed in all these decades and the suffering that he subjected the Kashmiri people to?Is Hurriyat still relevant?Hurriyat lost its relevance long ago. Geelani’s resignation will only add a few more factions to the already factionridden and redundant Hurriyat in the Valley. It’s time Kashmiris ignored them and moved on. O

“It’s important to reward peaceful, patriotic people in Jammu and in the Valley. The UT administration must devise novel ways of doing that.”

kashmir 370°


Circa 2014. Halfway through election campaigning, it occurred to me that the issues

of azaadi, autonomy and Article 370 were never raised in any of the meetings, anywhere. Not once was it asked of me where I stood on these. Even in private conversations with people—farmers, shopkeepers, traders, and agricultural labourers—the National Conference’s demand for ‘autonomy’ or the PDP’s concept of ‘self-rule’ were never mentioned, even in passing.

The reason for this, it turned out, was simple: people didn’t see these mainstream parties as having any role in the resolution of the Kashmir issue. These parties were only about govern-ance and, in the words of John Lewis, the civil rights pioneer, about “good trouble”. Nothing more. Nothing less either! Coexisting with this was the palpable separatist sentiment that one could sense and see. The families of militants—dead or alive—were res-pected. They were invariably seen as the “village elders” who exercise influ-ence that comes with upward social mobility. Over the years, socially, mili-tancy had become a rite of passage.

The same people who would attend election rallies would also attend the funerals of militants. In their mind there seemed no conflict between the two. The former was an individual obl igation born out of material needs, while the latter was a collective desire engendered by a certain understand-ing of political history. These two worlds were not reconciled with each other, but inevitably coexisted. In bet ween, of course, there were occa-sions of confrontation.

At the level of local political workers, the BJP didn’t exist —neither in their territory nor on their minds. No

political field worker or supporter saw the BJP as an opponent, let alone a serious adversary. For PDP workers, it was the National Conference or the Congress that was the adversary and vice versa. Politics at the grassroots, being much localised, is quite different from the view on the tree top. No wonder, at the party level, the BJP was seen and discussed as the single biggest opponent!

Article 370 was there in the people’s consciousness a la Robert Musil—not in their conversations. In fact, Kashmir’s relationship with India was

not an issue any longer.And then August 5, 2019, happened.

Kashmir, in popular perception all over the country, was reintegrated yet again; it was reconceived, if not rec-laimed. For the government of India, the barrier to democracy and develop-ment was abolished. Never mind that way back on December 4, 1964, then Union home minister Gulzari Lal Nanda had candidly informed Parliament that “Article 370, whether you keep it or not, has been completely emptied of its contents, nothing has been left in it”. Nanda was not given to

Haseeb A. Drabu

Smoke & MirrorsIn the process of slaying a shadow, the silhouette has been sharpened


hyperbole. He was absolutely right.Circa 2020. Everyone without excep-

tion—farmers, shopkeepers, traders, agricultural labourers—are feeling hum iliated, hoodwinked and helpless. The ghost of 370 is harbouring the spirit of resentment. This, in turn, has enlarged the constituency of support-ers for resistance. For the old-timers, it was more than a mere article of the Constitution, it was an article of faith. They are in an existential and moral crisis—as if they had been living in sin.

Article 370 is reborn, resurgent. This time not as an ideology or an issue, but as an illustration—an example of yet another betrayal, both by the local mainstream parties and by “Hindustan”. Kashmir’s relationship with India is now back again in conver-sation—hushed at the moment, but very much audible.

It ought to have been realised by now, but hasn’t been, that abrogation of

Article 370 has not hit at the separatist political ideology; quite the contrary. For them, it has been an “instrument of control” rather than a “guarantee for autonomy”. It has provided them with a renewed justification. But more than that, it has strengthened the sen-timent of separatism among people. How this will find expression in local politics is a big imponderable. A year down the line, it appears that a while slaying a shadow, the silhouette has been sharpened.

The only political space that has shrunk, at least for now, is that for mainstream politics—the political par-ties whose basis has been politics of ethnicity, not Kashmiri nationalism. In its most extreme form it has been a politics of asymmetric federalism.

The August 5 action has, in the words of Perry Anderson, destroyed their “seriality”—the social construct that underlies their political existence. The limits of mainstream political leader-ship in J&K have been brutally exp-osed. No wonder, in the last one year, no political formation has taken shape, despite quite a few failed attempts.

A new paradigm of electoral politics, it is hoped, will be around restoration of statehood. Hence the reports that people are more “hurt and humiliated” about being downgraded to a Union territory than the abrogation of Article 370. May be. May be not.

Until the pandemic took over, for six months, the audacious abrogation of Article 370 was seen all over the country as a 70-year-old commitment fulfilled, correcting a perceived historical blunder and honouring the political rhetoric of reframing a Hindu Rashtra. The pan-demic stymied all that in a great rush.

A year down the road, the juggernaut has rolled relentlessly. Having demol-ished the edifice, the scaffoldings are now being systematically removed. On March 31, 2020, as part of the exercise to align the state laws of the erstwhile state

of J&K with its new stature as a Union territory, the government of India amended 109 and repealed 29 state laws.

Importantly, the constitutionally guaranteed domicile rights have been replaced by liberal domicile rules and criteria. This has bred enormous inse-curity in the minds of the Kashmiri people, not completely unfounded, of a demographic change being planned.

According to the 2011 Census, there were 28 lakh “migrants” working in the state—almost a quarter of the total population. To put this number in perspective, it is 10 times the popula-tion of Ladakh. Many of them have been in J&K since the later 1990s. In principle, they will qualify for the status of a domicile of J&K.

Further, a delimitation commission has been notified, leading to apprehension that this would change the character of representation in a Muslim-majority region. The electoral demography will surely und ergo a change even if only 25 per cent of the migrants vote in the legislative assembly elections to which they are now entitled under the domicile rules.

The manner in which Kashmir has been hammered in the last one year has taken a heavy toll on the people. Abrogation of the autonomous posi-tion, bifurcation of the state, down-grading to a UT, domicile law changes, delimitation of constituencies, notify-ing “strategic areas” for use by the army, a six-month political logjam fol-lowed by a pandemic lockdown, con-nectivity embargo and the continuing restrictions have affected them physi-cally, psychologically, financially and politically. The way things are in Kashmir, it is heading to stage where, in words of Albert Camus, “your very existence is an act of rebellion”. O

(The writer is an economist and former finance minister

of Jammu and Kashmir. Views expressed are personal.)

Rubble-rousers:Villagers inspect a house destroyed during a gunfight between security forces and militants in Pulwama

Article 370 is reborn, resurgent. As an example of yet another betrayal both by

the local parties and by ‘Hindustan’.

D a n i s h J a V a i D

kashmir 370°


In conversations about Kashmir, scarcely any moment receives as much attention as the accession.

Advocates argue that the settlement is a just and final one: the Maharaja ratified the accession, and Sheikh Abdullah, ostensibly the ‘undisputed leader’ of Kashmiris, supported it. Those who contest its legitimacy argue that neither of these figures represent-ed the aspirations of Kashmiris. The Maharaja had, by 1947, been reduced to a cipher by sustained political agitation and mass uprisings. Abdul-lah, viewed with suspicion for his proximity to the Congress, swiftly fell into disfavour with Kashmiris for his role in securing the accession, and his initial insistence on its finality. Without the presence of the Indian army, and the J&K state’s own considerable capacities for coercion, Abdullah’s government would not have withstood the groundswell of political opposition. New Delhi’s policy has since remained one of foisting client regimes on Kashmiris, while repress-ing popular mobilisation and stymying the functioning of an independent political opposition. Virtually every election in Kashmir has been manipu-lated through fraud and violence to engineer outcomes favourable to New Delhi. This includes the elections to the Constituent Assembly, which in 1953 ‘confirmed’ the state’s accession to India.

Consistently denied a voice in the corridors of power, Kashmiris devel-oped numerous ways to ‘speak’ outside them. In this piece, I look at three mo-ments when the murmur became a roar. First, I discuss a mass uprising in 1931. Then I discuss a particular mo-ment of mass mobilisation in 1963, coming in a period (1953-1963) when aspirations coalesced repeatedly

around a call for self- det er mination. Finally, I discuss the formation of the Muslim United Front (MUF) and the electric impact on political opinion of the stolen election of 1987.I. ‘Wazir tsalih, Kashir bali’ (When the wazir goes, Kashmir will heal). [Kashmiri proverb, recorded in the 19th century]In July 1931, an assertive gathering of Kashmiri Muslims stood in open revolt against the Maharaja. On July 13, po-lice fired at a protest, killing 21 un-armed people. What followed stunned the authorities. People, men and women, marched through the streets of Srinagar, carrying the dead. Described by one contemporary ob-server as an “elemental upsurge”, the crowds directed their force against the regime. While prompted by a deliber-

ate insult to the Quran by one of the Maharaja’s soldiers, the uprising de-rived its force from deep wells of discontent.

Under the aegis of the British, who were keen on a friendly presence near the Central Asian frontier, the Maharajas enjoyed an unusual degree of latitude vis-a-vis their subjects. Under no compulsion to seek legiti-macy from a majority, the Maharajas directed much of their patronage—land grants, public office and religious endowments—at Kashmiri and non-Kashmiri Hindus. Although not seamless, there was a significant over-lap between class divisions and reli-gious differences: the Maharaja’s support base lay among a small, pre-dominantly Hindu, class of landlords and officials. Peasants and artisans,

Vanessa Chishti

A Carpet Woven Over A CenturyIf the political history of Kashmir is a muffled tragedy, the cry for self-determination punctuates it at every step like a balladic refrain


largely Muslim, laboured under a predatory and distressing tax burden—onerous taxes on manufacturing and professions, punitive land taxes and extensive enclosures of common lands. The collapse of the overtaxed shawl in-dustry in 1870, a major loss of revenue, prompted a punishing escalation of the land tax, with disastrous conse-quences. In 1877-79, unremitting de-mands on a poor harvest led to a famine; the Valley lost two-thirds of its population to death and emigration. This was followed, starting in the early 20th century, by endemic food scarcity and soaring rural indebtedness. Between 1860-1930, the Valley had witnessed a major revolt by shawl-weavers in 1865, strikes by workers in the state-owned silk factory in the 1920s, and sustained agitations in Srinagar against moves to raise food prices or constrict supply (the grain trade was a state monopoly). These in-surrections were contained by a policy of swift repression, and a stringently enforced ban on political activity. Nevertheless, people talked about poli-tics secretly, organised covertly, and read smuggled political literature printed on presses in Punjab, many run by Kashmiris.

In 1931, several things conspired to

shake the edifice. As the Valley felt the crushing impact of the Great Depression, news of religious insult catalysed simmering discontent into open revolt. Alarmed that events in Kashmir might stoke rebellion else-where, the British forced the Maharaja to constitute a grievance commission. The commission received a torrent of representations from Kashmiri Muslims demanding land rights, forest rights, religious freedom, education, employment, political freedoms and an accountable government. While re-form was painfully slow, the lifting of the ban on political activity in 1932 al-lowed the emergence of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference. Sheikh Abdullah was among the founding members, and soon its most popular leader. The party’s sharp rhet-oric against the Maharaja, landlords and state officials won it a committed following among peasants, landless

lab ourers and workers. The undemo-cratic political culture of the party, however, allowed popular forces little say in its direction. In 1938, Abdullah moved to transform the AJKMC into the National Conference (NC). This was presented as a discarding of reli-gious considerations by the party, and many Muslim, Hindu and Sikh party members with socialist or secular leanings certainly meant it as such. Abdullah, on the other hand, was hop-ing to win support from sections of the Hindu elite. This gambit failed. While most Hindus saw their interests as tied to the Maharaja and remained hostile, the NC lost support among a large sec-tion of Muslims. His base slipping, Abdullah cast his lot fully with the Congress, violating a tacit agreement with other NC leaders to steer clear of both the Congress and the Muslim League. This was a move he would re-peat: relying on powerful patrons in

the face of popular displeasure. II. ‘Yeh mulk hamara hai! Iska faisla hum karenge!’ In 1953, weary of Abdullah’s inability to quieten popular questioning of the accession, Nehru imprisoned him and replaced him with G.M. Bakshi. Marked by record levels of corruption and rent-seeking, and an especially vi-olent turn in the rep ression of political dissent, Bakshi’s decade-long rule was brought to an end in 1963. On December 27, 1963, a holy relic—a strand from the beard of the Prophet—was stolen from the Hazratbal shrine. The outpouring of grief and rage that followed swelled into a mass upsurge, reminiscent in its force of the revolt of 1931. Despite the bitter cold, hundreds of thousands filled the streets day and night. As the conditions of the relic’s disappearance remained mysterious, restive protesters turned their ire against the Bakshi government.

Demonstrators attacked properties owned by the Bakshi family, and also the state radio station—seen as an in-strument of false propaganda. Offices, educational institutions and busi-nesses were closed. The mood was an explicitly political one. Posters calling for a plebiscite appeared across the city. Slogans like Yeh mulk hamara hai, iska faisla hum karenge (this country is ours, we will decide its future) and We want plebiscite res ounded in the mas-sive processions that continued for days. Maulana Masoodi, a widely re-spected cleric and NC leader, was in-strumental in preventing the emotionally charged demonstrations from taking a communal turn. While outrage at the theft of the relic fed into communal tensions in East Pak istan and Calcutta, fuelling riots in both places, anger in the Valley remained focused on Bakshi and his patrons.

Though these mobilisations ceased

The open revolt in 1931 led to a grievance commission. Politics was finally legalised in 1932.

U m e r A s i f

kashmir 370°


with the recovery of the relic on January 4, New Delhi was startled by the forceful and insistent call for self-determination. Hoping to forestall further unrest, Bakshi was replaced. In 1964, Sheikh Abdullah was released from jail to a hero’s welcome. Once in-carcerated, Abdullah had begun to speak the language of self-determina-tion. In 1955, the Plebiscite Front was formed by Abdullah loyalists who had been forced out of the NC. Led by Abdullah indirectly, over the next dec-ade and a half the PF campaigned for self-determination, calling for a plebi-scite under international auspices. This opened up a remarkable cycle of popular political mob ilisations de-manding a settlement of the ‘political question’. While the PF did not for-mally commit itself to any particular political fut ure, Mirza Afzal Beg, Abdullah’s loyal lieutenant, would dis-play a lump of rock salt wrapped in a green handkerchief at PF rallies, a po-tent insinuation, given that rock salt was mined in Pakistan and in short supply since the division of the state in 1947. Abdullah had never been more popular. Ultimately, he used these mo-bilisations as leverage in negotiations with New Delhi. In 1975, the Sheikh-Indira Accord was signed and Abdullah was made chief minister. Secure in power now, Abdullah clamped down on talk of self-determination. The question, however, persisted.III. ‘No election, no selection, we want freedom’ In the run-up to the election of 1987, the emergence of a political opposi-tion independent of New Delhi ann-ounced itself in the form of the Muslim United Front (MUF), a coali-tion of 11 parties, ranging from secular to confessional, including the Jamaat-e-Islami. Upon his death in 1982, Sheikh Abdullah was succeeded in off-ice by his son, Farooq Abdullah, who too was seen a client of New Delhi,

much like his father. The MUF call for a settlement of the political question, economic development and an end to the Abdullah family’s rule drew an ent husiastic response. The election of 1987 saw a turnout of 80 per cent, the highest ever recorded in Kashmir. As was commonplace in Kashmir, elec-tion administrators blatantly manip-ulated results to favour the NC-Congress alliance, depriving the MUF of what would certainly have been a resounding victory. Despite MUF candidates leading by huge mar-gins on several seats, NC-Congress candidates were declared victorious. While the MUF won 32 per cent of the vote even by the official count, it was declared victorious on only 4/76 seats,

while the NC-Congress alliance ‘won’ the rest. Several MUF candidates and their election agents were thereafter arrested and tortured. The 1987 elec-tion conclusively demonstrated that New Delhi would not allow the ques-tion of self-determination to be raised through political institutions, and that even an organised and popular political force was powerless to change that. In the mass demonstra-tions that followed, millions rallied around slogans such as: “No election, no selection, we want freedom!” It is only after this election that the armed insurgency emerged as the most dom-inant and credible mode of pursuing a goal of self- deter mination.

India has adopted a combination of two modes of dealing with Kashmir: military and client regimes. Neither is working. Despite inestimable costs borne since the commencement of the counter-insurgency, the question of self-determination continues to reso-nate with Kashmiris, and continues to spin new meanings. O

(The author teaches history at Jindal Global University.

Views expressed are personal)

Cry for Justice st John with martyrs in el Greco’s Opening of the fifth seal (1614)

Rage at the theft of the Hazratbal relic turned into a mass upsurge. Slogans for a plebiscite resounded in rallies.

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ANANDA BANERJEEIn conversation with

Editor, Special Projects, Outlook

Naseer Ganai in Srinagar

Kashmir’s poets have been silenced by a siege—many of them are writing, but keeping it to

themselves. As the otherwise vibrant local newspapers stopped writing editorials, columns, even news stories in the last one year, Kashmiri poets grieved silently. On August 5, 2019, upon hearing about Article 370, Kashmir’s legendary poet, playwright and songwriter Bashir Dada, who writes in Urdu and Kashmiri, says he felt helpless and choked. “I thought it’s all over…what’s the use of my poetry now? I felt humiliated. I didn’t write for long. And when I started writing and posted it on social media after a partial lifting of the communication ban, some friends from Delhi called me saying you should write some light stuff. What light stuff do they expect from us?” he asks. Instead, he wrote: Haatam na yahan koi, aadil na yahaan koi / Hai takht nasheen qaatil, sooli pe sawaali hai (Haatim is long gone! The just kings are dead / Thrones for murderers, the oppressed await the gallows).

Young Kashmiri poet Nighat Sahiba des paired too: she didn’t write for six months. After August 5, 2019, she and her mother would walk 15 km from their home to reach the Achabal police station to call her brother. They couldn’t, in spite of going for 15 days straight. “That queue, the securitymen, those helpless people waiting silently, the many failed attempts to connect, hearing the voice after a long time…I will never be able to erase that from my mind,” she says. “The dust of that police station blurred my vision. The barbed wires wounded my soul.” Later, she put pen on paper…. Tse wucchut myon poshe wann / Yiman khoanan, human koc-chan / Ghali ghali ccha sarhadi / Ghali ghali wujarghi (You found my blossoming flowers / Bloom in laps here and grips

there / Each lane is a boundary now / Each lane forsaken).

Poets don’t live in another world. The heavily militarised post-1989 Kashmir was their too. Seen those images of children looking for their books in the deb ris of their houses? Well, on March 15, 2018, Madhosh Balhami, a 56-year Kashmiri language poet, was looking for his poetry in the ashes. He was sitting in his courtyard when three mil-itants, one of them injured, rushed into his house. The chilling SOP followed in a blur: security siege, his family esc aping out, house coming down, militants killed…and his poetry collection of three decades re-duced to dust. Next day, he was hunting for any stray page that might have survived.

Balhami has lived through the worst times. Between 1993 and 2000, he was arrested thrice under PSA. His poetry flowed in prison—it was in those years that he wrote most of his life’s work, now gone. “The fear is deep,” he says. “People are writing but keeping it to themselves. The priority is to save one’s life.” Lately, he wrote: Kas baawe panun haal, me kus neize saneomut / Maarun te marun myani shahruk deen baneyomut (Who should I tell what spear has pierced my heart? Dying and killing is the new custom of my city).

Novelist Mirza Waheed says Kashmir since the 1990s has been “like mini-Sara-jevos in every locality, except that snipers weren’t shooting dead ordinary Kashmiris”. Poets have responded in dif-ferent ways to this political reality, he says. “In 2010, an ‘eminent‘ poet wrote that poets must remain rooted in their aesthetic considerations, and not dabble in politics…that political issues must be left to reporters! A decade later, I still can’t make sense of that assertion,” says Waheed. “But from Agha Shahid onwards, younger poets from Kashmir have shown that engagement with one’s milieu does not translate into an abandonment of poe tic ideals.” Yes, there will be poetry…about the dark times. O

Ghalib in WinterThe snow of despair runs deep in the Valley. And the free-flowing words of Kashmiri poets are now frozen.

Baagh myon, bulbul myon, bahaar myon te ghul myeane / Cchawaan phulay kus taam wopar, haay ghulami! / Sadpaare gacchaan jighar myon, haay ghulami!

(Garden mine, songbird mine, the spring mine, flowers mine / But this slavery! Another harvests this flourishing bloom / My heart shatters into pieces, Oh! this slavery)—Madhhosh Balhami


kashmir 370°

UNIVERSITYFACT FILE

www.outlookindia.com

New Paradigms of higher educatioN

Since human capital and econom-ic growth complement each oth-er and augur well for the devel-opment of the nation, focus on manifold aspects such as skilled

and specialized workers to increase pro-ductivity, stimulating increased produc-tion through innovative methods which ultimately leads to significant rise in the country’s GDP are all being explored. This, however, is possible only through literacy in India where education means teaching, learning and training right from schools and honed in colleges and universities, which is fundamentally reflected in the ed-ucation policies of the government.

In India, universities are established following legislation by the Central or State Governments, whereas colleges are estab-lished by both the State Governments and public/private non-profit societies, besides charitable trusts. Each college or educa-tional institute is affiliated to an university. The different levels of education i.e. school education system and higher education are Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary education, whereas higher education con-sists of courses such as Under-Graduate/ Bachelor’s level education and Post-Grad-

uate/Master’s level education. These sys-tems are for basic education at the early level where as higher education focuses on specialization in subjects of choice that could range across the arts, commerce, sci-ence, engineering, medical, management and others. Doctoral studies or Ph.D level education, is available only in the univer-sities, that takes a minimum of two years and could stretch across several years to complete. Meanwhile, Vocational Educa-tion and Training programs prepare stu-dents to learn skill sets so as to take up jobs across sectors depending upon the course completed and one’s choice. In short, this course is more of skilling and hands on ex-perience.

Apart from the above, there are short term courses to choose from such as Cer-tificate and Diploma programs. The cur-rent rage is Distance Education i.e., Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system where education is imparted through the use of electronics and communication technologies such as the Internet, satellite television, video conferencing etc. The ad-vantage is that it is best suited of working people, those eking out a living to support families and have to remain at home or

even those with health issues, making it impossible for them to go to regular insti-tutions or are located in places from where access to a regular college or university is impossible. It also encourages to get a de-gree of any particular subject which is not available in the region or from any foreign institution without having to relocate away from home to pursue studies. In India, there are many institutions that offer short-term certificate course to doctoral level programs through distance mode. Several government-owned, government aided and private technical and vocational insti-tutes are spread across the country in the service and profession of imparting quality education that are relevant to today’s mar-ket demand.

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kashmir 370°


Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri was the face of peace-making all through the last decade, when Pakistan engaged the ruling Indian establishment under both the BJP and Congress...and the two sides came the closest ever to break-ing the over-half-century-old Kashmir impasse. Here, the former Pakistan foreign minister registers his disap-pointment over recent events in an email interview to Preetha Nair. Excerpts:

What have been the political and diplomatic ramifications of the removal of Article 370?We must understand what was achieved in the past and, thus, what has been lost by India’s action. History will rec ord August 5 as a Black Day for Kashmir, India and Pakistan-India relations. Having worked for and alm-ost succeeded, along with my Indian counterparts, in arriv-ing at a possible framework for a solution for Kashmir, I’m particularly unhappy. I cannot but refer to our dealings with PMs Atal Behari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh. Both had come to the conclusion that there cannot be normalcy in South Asia without resolving Kashmir, or without settling

issues with Pakistan. Vajpa-yee’s wisdom is reflected in the Kum arakom Musings published by your esteemed magazine: “Two things were keeping India from achieving its pot ential…its problem with Pakistan over Kashmir and the demolition of Babri Masjid” (January 2003). Dr Singh showed equal wisdom by expressing his des ire to turn Siachen into a “moun-tain of peace” and working towards an environment where “one can have break-fast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul”.

The details of this dialogue are given in my book, Neither a Hawk nor a Dove; its contents have not been contradicted by any Indian or Pakistani. Pervez Musharraf and Dr Singh, the principal actors, attended my book launches…so did L.K. Advani. They wouldn’t have had they

not agreed with it. Shiv Shankar Menon’s Choices and Sanjaya Baru’s The Accidental Prime Minister also confirm it. And S.K. Lambah told Outlook in an interview: “Mr Kasuri is right in what he said” (September 25, 2017). This shows how dangerously reckless the action of August 5 was; it attempted in one go to almost destroy the lessons derived from seven decades of war, friction, rivalry and, ultimately peace talks. It was a self-goal. Previously, there were three segments of opin-ion in Kashmir: those who wanted to join Pakistan, those who wanted independ-ence, and parties who took part in elections. Mr Modi has with one stroke united all Kashmiris against India.India maintains it has achieved overall integration, enabled development and stopped insurgency….

‘The action of August 5, 2019, attempted in one go to almost destroy the lessons from seven decades of war, rivalry and peace talks.’

‘I hope there will be rethinking in Delhi’

J i t e n d e r G u p t a


The brutal actions of security forces are regularly reported everywhere…a recent photo-graph of a three-year-old tod-dler sitting on his slain grandfather’s body made it to every major newspaper in the world. Even according to Indian portals, insurgency came down most dramati-cally when Pakistan and India were talking meaningfully, when I was foreign minister (2002-07). And how can there be integration when India is more isolated in Kashmir than it ever was? In law, there’s a Latin maxim for when a situation requires no proof—res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself ). As for development, it requires sta-bility. Would any serious investor think of putting his hard-earned money in such an atmosphere?Pakistan PM Imran Khan once said there may be a better chance of Indo-Pak peace if the BJP is in power….PM Khan was sincerely hope-ful…. He asked me the details of the framework agreement on Kashmir. When he visited New Delhi in 2015, he told Mr Modi that “Pakistan and India had reached very close to resolving Kashmir” and rec alled that framework. So long as India doesn’t realise the colossal blunder it has committed, how can there be dialogue? India has itself killed the Simla Agreement. I have great faith in diplo-macy, but diplomats are not magicians. There needs to be a basic environment. Natwar Singh once said “diplomacy provides hope, not salvation”.Do you think Pakistan’s non-state actors influenced the August 5 decision?No, the BJP, influenced by its RSS roots, always had Article 370 abrogation on its mani-festo. PM Modi’s action is

often read as an attempt to strengthen his Hindutva base, but perhaps the timing was determined by other fac-tors. Firstly, New Delhi wanted to divert attention from the poor economy. Manufacturing had suffered; the auto market was hit by a huge 31 per cent drop in July 2019; the media was predict-ing large-scale unemploy-ment…. Secondly, the government was upset at Pakistan’s role in a major breakthrough on Afghan-istan—India was not even inv ited to the Moscow con-ference (US, Russia, China and Pakistan), while it had spent about $3 billion in Afghanistan. Thirdly, the BJP was very upset at the warmth shown by President Trump to

PM Khan during his visit to the White House…they had invested heavily in cultivating Trump. I compliment PM Modi for his masterly han-dling of public relations. He succeeded in diverting atten-tion, but with very negative consequences.Pulwama, Balakot, Article 370, no talks since 2015…where do you see the relationship going?One reason for India’s reck-less decisions is a prevailing atmosphere of self-delusion, where it feels it can “fight two and a half wars” simultane-ously—with China, Pakistan and also the people of Kash-mir. This always occurs in an environment where the media is tightly controlled. Forget Pakistani media, even international media did not accept India’s version regard-ing the ‘surgical strikes’. PM Modi rightly felt he was able to convince the Indian pub-lic...in fact, he went on to win the next election (because of that). Leaders start believing their own propaganda when nobody is allowed to contra-dict it in any meaningful manner, and governments end up taking wrong deci-sions on erroneous assump-tions. Pakistani media management regarding Balakot, by contrast, was very sophisticated…efforts were made to restrain anger. This is what enabled the release of pilot Abhinandan Vartha-man. This would have been impossible if we too had built an anti-India hype.Many experts link the ‘abro-gation’ to the current India-China standoff.Indian actions have effec-tively made China a third party…it criticised India for “unilaterally” changing the status quo in J&K and refer-enced the UN. The closed-

door Security Council meeting on August 16 dis-cussed the human rights situ-ation in Kashmir at len gth, and the Chinese foreign min-ister was brutally frank on Ladakh. What has India gained with respect to China? We were being told about an improved India-China rela-tionship in accordance with the ‘Wuhan Spirit’. It is clear that India has provoked China. India has been build-ing infrastructure next to the LAC, but China had not pub-licly objected. Because of reckless statements by top Indian leaders about captur-ing Azad J&K, Gilgit-Baltistan and Aksai Chin, as well as certain defence agree-ments, the 2+2 talks with the US and the publication of a political map, Beijing started regarding it as part of a grand plan to threa ten China, Pakistan and CPEC. What are the geostrategic implications?Many analysts see the con-tours of an emerging Cold War between the US and China. Some analysts in India regard Ladakh as a part of that. I do not, however, feel it is in China’s interest to have India as its enemy. It would rather have business-like rel-ations, even with continuing disagreements over the LAC. These analysts also link Chabahar, where Iran has distanced itself from India and is getting closer to China, to that. They suggest India should throw its lot entirely with the US, even dump Russia.... Currently, there is little ground for optimism, but I do remember PM Modi visiting Lahore. I do not know if it is possible for him to ret-race those steps. He may not find it politically possible. I hope there will be rethink-ing in New Delhi. O

‘How can there be integration when India is more isolated in Kashmir than ever before?... Would any investor think of putting his money in such an atmosphere?’

kashmir 370°


Salik Ahmad

The fall of man requires an original sin. What can expulsion from the Garden mean if it is

wrought without a cause? The world is either godless, or a surfeit of gods (and godfathers) couldn’t help secure a piece of the earth. Much like the millions transplanted from their soil in the Partition, the predicament of Kashmiri Pandits can only cause perplexion. Unlike the earlier refugees, though, their pain is deepened by hope—the exile is not final, at least notionally, and a return to the promised land is always around the corner, just out of reach. It’s like an infinity mirror that reflects opposites. There is the promise of pain, and the pain of promise. The psychological violence of it all, reduced to the banality of political retorts (‘But what about Kashmiri Pandits?’), can only be confronted through willful amnesia—or by taking life as a memory game. Words, stories, literature, bestowing life and dignity to each little tale, refusing adamantly to allow them to be concocted into anything else, caring for the sacrosanct, battling the banality of everyday evil, defying erasure.

But stoking that furnace is a gloomy, lonely task...the lamp only renders the darkness visible. “If anything, literature has only made the void deeper,” says Niyati Bhat, a 27-year-old poet and res e-arch scholar from Delhi, whose family was forced to leave the Valley in the 1990 exodus. It’s a story-frame mined with words from the biblical mythos. “Exodus has meant that most of our culture is now ‘diasporic’ in nature,” says Kochi-based Vinayak Razdan, who runs the blog SearchKashmir that archives per-sonal stories, folk tales, old photographs, music, books, works of art et al.

Loss, nostalgia, longing…these have unsurprisingly been the chief concerns of Kashmiri Pandit literature post-exo-

dus. But these are made keener by a deeper anxiety, a sense that the culture is dying. So all the activities, Razdan says, eventually tend to be self-aware acts about preservation.

Every culture carries the seeds of anxi-ety about change…and it had crept into Kashmiri too. “Prior to 1989, literature produced by Kashmiri Pandits had con-cerns similar to artists elsewhere in India,” says Razdan. “Post 1947 and till the 1960s, the bulk of popular writing was influenced by the Progressive Writers’ Movement. We have poet Dina Nath Nadim with his concerns for the common people. In this period, a lot of literature was also about communal har-mony. By the 1970s, we had short story writers like Hari Krishen Kaul, still writ-ing in Kashmiri, but inspired by Western writers like Kafka. How modernity was changing old Kashmiri society was a major literary concern. Also, all this while, we have a lot of devotional songs and music being produced. Poet Master

Zinda Kaul’s main themes were devo-tional and spiritual. That last is probably the most popular theme in Kashmir, among Pandits as well as Muslims.”

For Niyati Bhat, whose family has lived in Najafgarh on Delhi’s outskirts for over two decades, after being dispossessed of their home and homeland, the process of immersion in Kashmir’s literary culture was, in a way, one of rediscovering loss. Siddhartha Gigoo’s The Garden of Solitude (fiction, 2011) and Rahul Pandita’s Our Moon Has Blood Clots (non-fiction, 2013), she says, were the first books in English that dwelt on the story of the exodus and became popular. “At last, we felt then, somebody has told our story to the world,” says Bhat. But over time she came to Chandrakanta Vishin’s works in Hindi, where the exo-dus was first narrated.

Vishin is a towering figure, who has published over 40 books and 200 short stories in a literary career spanning some 50 years, including the magnum

Elegy of Sepia MemoriesKashmiri Pandits’ loss and longing for home find poignant expression in their literature

Past Sense Members of the Pandit community praying at the Shatleshwar Bhairav temple in Srinagar

august 10 , 2020 | outlook 4 9

opus Katha Satisar in 2007. The lang-uage was part choice, partly fortuitous: a graduate in English literature, she chose Hindi for its reach, but had been almost denied admission to a Master’s course by the principal of a college in Pilani, Rajas-than. “In the 1980s, my publisher asked me to write about Kashmir. Most people who had written about Kashmir so far had written from a tourist’s perspective, merely describing the geographical beauty. Nobody had explored its culture. So the stories I wrote were about Kash-miriyat—the composite Kashmiri cul-ture that had space for Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism,” Vishin tells Outlook. For Katha Satisar, recently translated into English as The Saga of Satisar, she took a much larger canvas, delving into Kashmir’s syncretic past, weaving in oral histories, tracing the faultlines of modern Kashmir to their origins. “The sting remains. Why should it not?”

Writing Kashmir in Hindi already entails an act of translation—a barter between loss and gain. But translator Neerja Mattoo, speaking in 2018, had spoken of a kind of converse of translation...a growing apart. In old Kashmiri literature, she said, there were common points of reference for both Pandit and

Muslim writers. Looking at the work, it was difficult to say if it was written by a Muslim or a Pandit. But a gulf has been created that is only widening with time. “There is a wide gap in the vocabulary of the Kash miri being written by people who have left the Valley and by those still there,” she said. The sway of Perso-Arabic vocabulary is stronger there. “A time may come when we won’t understand each other.” A natural, if perhaps unwarranted fear—for it is not the words themselves, but what is spoken through them that’s becoming mutually incomprehensible.

Growing apart also has a visual language. Kashmiri, from 8th century onwards, was written in the Sharada script—as was Sanskrit before that, and even Arabic in the transitional 14-16th

centuries. Once the Perso-Arabic Nastaliq script took over, Pandits and Muslims alike used that for Kashmiri. But after 1989, while Kashmiri Muslims have retained the Nastaliq, Pandits, esp ecially younger generations, have moved to Devanagari and even the Roman script. The Sharada legacy, how-ever, opens up another terrain: the vast contribution to Sanskrit literature by Kashmiri scholars. A.N.D. Haksar, a retired diplomat and well-known trans-lator of Sanskrit classics into English,

says this contribution goes well beyond poetics and dramaturgy. Among other works, Haksar has translated the satires of Ksh emendra, the 11th-century poet from Kashmir. “People don’t know sat-ire is a major part of Sanskrit,” he said in an interview to DD News last year. “There is a confluence of other cultures in Sanskrit too. Most people don’t know about it. I once found a text called Suleiman Chari tra. It had never been translated. It’s a Sanskrit text and is called Suleiman Cha ritra! Hazrat Suleiman finds much mention in the Quran and the Bible. But this is a story of his parents David and Bathsheba.”

Niyati Bhat’s disposition for poetry and inquiries into her identity, meanwhile, prompted a search for women poets of Kashmir. “I was acquainted with Lal Ded’s verses and Habba Khatoon’s songs, for they were part of Kashmir’s oral tra-dition, but I always wondered, did no woman write after them? It was then I stumbled upon the works of poets like

Naseem Shafaie, Sunita Raina Pandit and Nighat Sah iba. While distant

from Lal Ded and Habba Khatoon by centuries, their concerns were the same—their struggles, spiritual quests, efforts to break moulds,” says Bhat. “I always felt I was writ-ing in a vacuum, so discovering

these women poets was revelatory both as a reader and a seeker.”That vacuum is the real bequest for

the younger Pandits. The Kashmir they hear of and read about exists perhaps only in their imagination: present-day Kashmir departs from it in both tone and detail. The past is another conti-nent—rather, Union territory. There are two Kash mirs separated in time, before and after 1989. There are another two Kashmirs separated in space, with imp e rceptible strands still bridging the two. Maybe those strands are the real Kas h mir. For Pandits, holding on to the past’s many-hued palette is an essential part of coping. “I think, in a few years, we will see from Kashmiri Pandits new writings on how the community was changing and how they adapted, carried mul tiple cultures,” says Razdan. “We will possibly see writings from people either comfortable or struggling to be comfort-able with the past and present.”O

Once Upon a Time Haez Bai, a portrait by Pandit Vishu Nath, the first Kashmiri photographer (1890s)

D a N i S H J a V a i D

kashmir 370°


Director-producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra first took his cinema back to his childhood home, Kashmir, with the arthouse thriller Khamosh (1985). In 2020, he delved deeper…into personal his-tory. Shikara, perhaps the first full Bollywood feature on the Kashmiri Pandit story, had emotional Pandits streaming to the halls. But it also had a rather troubled reception—among Pandits. Chopra opens up here about Kashmir, his memories and the controversy, in an inter-view with Lachmi Debroy:

Share with us your memo-ries about Kashmir…Once a Kashmiri, always a Kashmiri. The landscape, the beauty, the warmth of the people, the food, the culture and heritage are deeply ingrained and nothing can take that away from me. Growing up in Kashmir was one of the most beautiful things that happened to me. My first crush, my first aff air, my first kiss—every thing happened in Kashmir. I tell my children that I regret not being able to give them a childhood in Kashmir.

Imagine: you have all the four seasons of the year. You have spring, then summer. Then the apples ripen and the cherries. Then there’s snow and it gets extremely cold. You sit huddled in your quilts and eat steaming hot food. You come back from school and

‘Shikara is about my mother’s home, my home, and how we lost it…. But I’ll never sell hate for profit’


sit by the bukhari listening to Binaca Geetmala on the transistor. I miss it! If I were to live my life again, I would tell God, please let me be born in Kashmir. Despite all its problems today, it is just beautiful.

One of my fondest memories of growing up in Kashmir in the 1970s is travelling with the family in a houseboat. It used to take us almost a week to reach the Kheer Bhawani temple. We used to cook on our way to the temple, stopping en route at the Hazratbal shrine. We would do this

each time, without fail. There was no distinction in our heads between those two places of worship.

There are several memories of my mother, so it’s difficult to narrate a specific one, but more important was her sanskar of optimism, of love and affection, and to ‘hate hate’, which she inculcated in all of us. For someone who went through so much pain, she continued to be positive. Knowing well that her actions will have an impact on her children and her grandchildren, she used love

as a way to heal and that I believe is in my DNA.

I will continue to live by her values and through Shikara I will tell a story of how love can heal. I believe you spent almost 11 years making this film....Shikara is a tribute to my mother. In 1989, she came to Bombay for the premiere of Parinda, but couldn’t go back to Kashmir. Shikara is about her home, my home and how we lost that home. So it’s a deeply personal story. I started work on Shikara post my mother’s demise in 2007. The Kashmiri Pandit exodus is a known issue, but the complexities and the build-up of events that led to the driving away of the Pandits is not known. This movie required significant research so we could tell an absorbing story that is fact-based and helps in bringing this conversation to the fore. I have done much work in those years, but this was perhaps my most challenging piece, as I had to remain dispassion-ate as a moviemaker to dep-ict the truth and yet make a compelling argument—that the only solution to such hatred is love and that is the centre of my movie.

The love between the pro-tagonists Shiv Kumar Dhar and Shanti Dhar (Shanti is also my mother’s name, by the way) is a binding factor that forces us to think beyond hatred.

The shoot was mostly in Kashmir, which was under heavy security cover, so we had limited time to get work done. Authenticity was the key. The writing also took significant time as I had to sift through tons of documentation and video

footage to bring reality to celluloid. Years just slipped by as I worked on this film.Why is the story of Kashmiri Pandits important?Thirty years ago, over four lakh Kashmiri Pandits were driven out of their homes in Kashmir and made to live as refugees in their own country. They still haven’t been able to return to their homes in the Valley. They lost everything—their homes, their legacies and their dignity. Yet this story of the biggest refugee crisis in post-independence India never found its place in the collective consciousness of this nation. It deeply saddens me and leaves me in anger and pain that successive governments, media, civil society and intellectuals turned a blind eye to the Pandits issue. We all know a few Kashmiri Pandits here and there, but nobody knows the magnitude of their loss.

None of us thought this issue will stretch for so long. The insurgency and our inability to handle the internal conflict within Kashmir kept the focus on Kashmir as a troubled state, so the question of Pandits returning was lost in the discussion. Had the Pandits returned, the region would have been better, more peaceful and economically powerful. The local people want communities to come together. Shikara is the first mainstream feature film to have at least started conversations around what happened 30 years ago.What did you make of the reception to Shikara? It was ironically Pandits who trolled it. Was it a manufac-tured controversy? What does that tell us about

‘On our way to the Kheer Bhawani temple, we would stop at the Hazratbal shrine without fail. There was no distinction in our heads between the two.’

kashmir 370°


politics today?This is probably the first and last time I am going to speak about the contro-versy. There was a special screening on the day of the release in Delhi where I invited several Kashmiri Pandits. The crowd full of Kashmiri Pandits gave it a standing ovation. Just then, out of the blue, a woman started screaming and howling from the back of the audience, alleging that I have not shown enough violence in the film…not enough hate. She even demanded to know why Muslim actors were playing the Pandit characters.

I was appalled. One person accompanying her started filming the whole incident. This was made viral on social media and, within minutes, trolls sprang into action maligning the film. Upon investigation, we found out that two digital marketing agencies from Delhi NCR were hired by certain people with vested inter-ests and paid huge sums of money to sabotage the film.

The whole controversy was manufactured and had been planned over days before the release. The woman who screamed during the afternoon screening drove straight from Plaza cinema at Connaught Place to Noida and was on national televi-sion within hours, giving interviews. Clearly, she was planted by the same people. Our IMDB rating was brought down from 8.1 to 1.5 within hours.

What does this tell us? These people wanted a film on Kashmiri Pandits that peddled hate and incited violence. They wanted a

film that widens the chasm between the two communi-ties so that it could further their political agenda.

Shikara was screened for several government officials and senior central government ministers; many of them called me and praised my work. But the negativity around the film was so intense that most people just chose to stay away from the thea-tres. When Shikara released on television last week, I was flooded with over-whelming messages on how beautiful the film and its message was. The famous Kashmiri artist Masood Hussain, after watching the film on TV, called me and said people got blinded by hate so much that they missed the message of peace and love in Shikara. I believe it is never too late.Looking back, do you think you should have made a more “mass-pleasing” film?

Cinema is a very powerful and influential medium, and it is my duty to use it wisely as an artist. It is very easy to incite hatred through cinema and pander to the ongoing communal discord in society. I could have made a more violent film and perhaps a more profitable film. But I will never sell hate for profit. Hate only begets hate and violence only begets violence. In my story- telling, I chose restraint over excess, poignancy over gore, and depicted events more symbolically than lit-erally. When A.R. Rahman saw the film, he loved the fact that the miscreants were depicted as shadows because violence is faceless. He chose to work on the film for months because he believed that the only way forward is to heal past wounds. I am a firm believer of that philosophy and a stubborn optimist. O

‘Some people wanted a film on Pandits that peddled hate and widened the chasm in Kashmiri society so it could further their political agenda.’

When is COVID 19 ending / will end? In my various preceding presentations, I have categorically attributed the cause of this pandemic to Saturn. The transit of Saturn in Maraka houses sends the country in distress. It happened earlier; it is happening now and shall occur in the future too.

‘Maraka,’ as the name suggests, is death inflicting. It can cause harm to the living things, and also it can devastate the non-living matter i.e., the economic condition.

Saturn presently is supercharged in its own houses, which incidentally is a Maraka house. Saturn remains in a sign for almost two and a half years, and it has transited into this Capricorn sign in the last week of January 2020. It will stay here for nearly two and a half years and negatively affect this sign for these many years. But this does not mean that the intensity of its effect will remain the same for this entire duration. The intensity curve will peak in August 2020, and after that, the intensity with which Saturn transit 2020 in Capricorn afflicts the sign slowly recedes.

But it has to be understood that receding does not mean the end of the misery, but it means that the intensity slowly goes down. By the end of October 2020, Saturn will start losing its ferocity. We can see a considerable flattening of the curve after December 2020.

But, one thing has to be kept in mind the complete negative effect of this Saturn shall end by April 2022. April 2022 is the time when Saturn changes its sign from Capricorn to Aquarius.

The fate of businesses during / post Covid-19 The future of the businesses and professions now and post-Covid 19: Many businesses have suffered dearly due to this pandemic. Some have downsized, some are still contemplating opening, and some have closed altogether, but few are doing good.

It is essential to understand the businesses which will run and those which will shut. For these purposes, also we have to construct the Shani-Chart of the present time and see through the tenth house that what businesses would shine. The businesses that are going to shine post-Covid-19 are the following:• The ones related to ITs:• The ones pertaining to E-commerce• Businesses in the Banking sector.• Businesses in health & medical fields.• The ones related to E-education. • Diagnostics companies • Professions related to research.• Consultancy business. • Farming and areas related to the farming

sector.

The above are the few indications that emerge from the Shani chart, but it is essential to match these business lines with your birth chart to reach a conclusion. If you are not in any of the above businesses, your birth chart must be suitably examined for the next year’s prosperity perspective.

Although going for a new business or expanding the business during Covid-19 may sound scary, but if there are positive indications in the horoscope for doing so, then one should not hesitate.

There may be a Dhan or Laxmi Yoga in the horoscope, which has this present timing to blossom. Still, it can also happen that the current capacity or the business’s nature might not activate this Dhan or Laxmi yoga at all. So, it becomes of utmost importance to understand the geometrics of the horoscope with the modes and methods to activate the positive Yogas present in horoscope.

Your Lagna Chart (D-1 Chart), Navamsha (D-9 Chart), Dasamsha (D-10 Chart), Nakshatra (your constellation), and the Shastiamsha(D-60 Chart) give a clear cut methodology, to the one who knows the finer techniques of horoscope readings, to win over the situation. It is not the time to sit crossing your hands but raise them and start performing the right karma. While, Covid-19 has affected many business & profession drastically. Nothing to worry as new opportunities post Covid-19 are also immense. So it is the time to think & grab new business ideas during Covid-19 than repenting oh! What happened to my business. My next article in this series will decode many such topics on the relevance of astrology in Covid -19 times.

The path for success is karma correction & not only relying on rituals & remedies says Dr. Vinay Bajrangi a PhD Vedic astrologer at www.vinaybajrangi.com , his media articles on www.vinaybajrangi.com/media-press.php or his blogs on www.vinaybagrangi.com/blog, on QUORA https://www.quora.com/profile/Vinay-Bajrangi-1 His office contact no 9278665588 or at 9278555588

The two most relevant questions are doing the rounds in these Covid-19 times. When will Covid -19 end? And the second obvious one is the fate of the businesses now and post COVID 19 period?

BUSINESS DURING COVID -19 TIMES: DR. VINAY BAJRANGI

DR. VINAY BAJRANGIPhD Vedic astrologer


The date when the film Shikara was released—February 7, 2020—may be an innocuous

accident, but it acquires meaning when seen in the context of Kashmir, the subject of the film. It was seven months into what was widely seen as the “unlawful abrogation” of Article 370…months that seemed like an eternity, with a perpetual lockdown in place. It was a time when the heavy hand of politics came down on all aspects of life, heavier than before—an evisceration of fundamental rights impossible to imagine for non-Kashmiris, and traced directly by Kashmiris to the fact of being a Muslim-dominated province seeking a political voice. A film that sets out to bring alive the tragedy of the exiled Pandit community, then, was bound to be coloured by the circum-stances of its release.

Was that all? Perhaps not. In an atmo-sphere of growing alienation, the fact is that a film such as Shikara can be used to further the popular Indian animus against Kashmiri Muslims. It may seem an odd thing to say about a film that had a rather troubled reception within

Muddasir Ramzan

Fission Kashmir: Love With An Agenda

Like other Indian films that have romanticised Kashmir, Shikara too celebrates the Valley’s beauty, but ostracises its Muslims

certain Pandit quarters—for being too soft on Kashmiri Muslims!—but we have to exit the morass of social media debates at some point and address the real themes. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film—“dedicated to over 4,00,000 Kashmiri Pandit refugees”—doesn’t add anything new to the existing populist narrative; instead, it tries to legitimise it. Representation is a complex profes-sion and, especially when dealing with “difference” (here Kashmiri Muslims), it engages feelings, attitudes and emotions, and mobilises anger and hatred, at deeper levels in the viewer.

Bollywood has a particular relation with Kashmir; it has been used as a setting of serene beauty for romance and as the watershed of violence. In the 1960s and ’70s, Kashmir was painted as heaven on earth; Kashmiris were usu-ally gentle, elegant…and apolitical. Soon after the onset of armed rebellion in the late ’80s, the perspectives changed: the depoliticised idyll, with its kind and charming inhabitants, morphed into a dangerous place where the people (Muslims) are nearly always potential terrorists. Trace this movement from

Kashmir ki Kali (1964), Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), Noorie (1979) and the like to Roja (1992), Mission Kashmir (2000) and Haider (2014), all made after the conflict took an ugly shape in Kashmir.

How does Shikara, a love story unfolding through these chaotic times, compare? Well, it doesn’t labour over the politicisation of the region; inst ead, it takes an escape route in the individual story of Shiv Kumar Dhar and his wife, Shanti Sapru. In a movie within the movie, we are transported to the late ’80s, the period that transformed Kash mir. The film opens in a time when the fruits of harmony were still being savo ured in the Valley. Muslims did not consider their Hindu brothers as ‘minorities’. Instead, they were revered as educated, intelligent members of society enjoying an elevated status. Shiv and Shanti fall in love, and have a typical Kashmiri wedding. Everything seems fine.

For a while. Soon, Shiv’s childhood Muslim friend Lateef Lone’s leader- father (Khurshid Sahab) gets killed by government forces while protesting the rigging of the 1987 elections and

kAshmir 370°


Through the Bollywood Glass (clockwise from left) Kashmir ki Kali (1964), Shikara (2020) and Ek Musafir Ek Hasina (1962)

reminding India of Nehru’s promise of a plebiscite. Things turn topsy-turvy for Lateef—who dreamed of becoming a cricket star—and for the Valley. Another leader, wearing a Karakul cap, says in an interview, “We can only win a war here, not elections”—suggesting the rise of armed rebellion. Soon, we are shown a transmogrification. Students, instead of joining college, are carrying guns; women are asked to veil their heads; policemen are attacked; Pandit houses are burned down, followed soon by the exile to “hell”—their broken lives in the makeshift tents of Jammu.

There’s also a deeper process of exile, so to speak: from tradition itself. Later in the movie, when Shiv and Shanti are invited to a Hindu wedding, they feel estranged watching a modern Indian-style affair. Reminded of their own tra-ditional wedding, their sense of loss is made keener. For, that’s the real loss for Kashmiri Hindus—their culture, their identity. In their internal diasporas, the older people who lived a large part of their lives in Kashmir carry a deep agony: a nostalgia for their lost homes, their Kashmir experience, their ances-tral heritage and values, which they had to leave behind to “save their lives”. An

old man in the movie repeatedly says, “Take me back to Kashmir.”

But the fact is, there are narratives and counter-narratives about the incidents that led to the Pandit migration. Jagmohan, then Governor, instead of offering Pandits security in Kashmir, arranged for their safe passage beyond. Muslims were suspicious and thought of it as a conspiracy; rumours were rife about impending doom. As for the displaced Hindus, their exile was first meant to last only a few months—but sadly, the promised return to innocence could never happen. They regarded their “exodus” as the outcome of a well- arranged plan of “Pakistan-backed mili-tants to throw them out from Kashmir”. Many families did not migrate at all—they still live in that brotherhood, an enfolding “Kashmiriyat”, with their Muslim neighbours. But the larger narrative was set; this film too ploughs that simplistic furrow.

Like other films that have romanti-cised Kashmir, Shikara too functions at the level of myth—celebrating the beauty of Kashmir, creating fragile visions of a harmonious idyll, but ultimately ostra-cising Kashmiri Muslims for their villainy. In doing so, it offers a literal, denotative meaning that reinforces populist narratives—that Islamist Muslims are responsible for everything happening in Kashmir—thus sidestep-ping India’s own role in bringing suffer-ings to Kashmiris of all hues, and evading the question of what prompted those Kashmiris to turn into armed rebels. Within this, there is the sub-

theme of jihad and difference. The film is threaded through with a

none-too-subtle Muslim demonology that runs the gamut of partial truth, gen-eralisation, insinuation, disinformation and dangerous propaganda. The film-maker tries to strike a balance by depict-ing some Muslims who gave their lives while saving or helping their Hindu brothers, but the motifs that stand out in stark relief are the likes of a guileful Haji, who takes Shiv’s house on the pretext of guarding it, and tells him it’s not safe to return to Kashmir given the war-like situation. The movie explains well Pakistan’s role in using religion to incite Kashmiri Muslims. In a TV report, we are shown Benazir Bhutto speaking of “Maqbooza Kashmir” (Occupied Kashmir) and how “the blood of muja-hideen runs in the veins of Kashmiris”. It’s on the other side that the film pretty much pulls its punches.

Shikara was a missed opportunity. Cinema is indeed fiction, but fiction often contains a meta-truth, or is a means of discovering the truth—espe-cially when set against a backdrop of facts and beliefs, it becomes a kind of truth-claim. By setting up a binary, here a Muslim-Hindu one, it constructs a reality that takes us towards a less com-plex truth aligned to the play of politics, political systems and their agendas.

The film ends with the arrival of Shiv in his homeland, so it directly poses the question of Pandits returning to Kashmir. The question has spawned many debates, but most new-generation Pandits, born and brought up in cultures outside Kashmir, would likely balk at the idea of swapping the security of their lives to live in a worn-out, torn-apart place. Kashmiri Pandits have suffered immensely and should now see beyond the exploitation of their trauma for agendas. Since many of them celebrated the taking away of Article 370, which was primarily meant to safeguard Kashmiri identity and sovereignty, they must ask themselves: how would their return safeguard their Kashmiri identity in post-370 Kashmir? O

(The writer researches contemporary Muslim fiction in

Aligarh Muslim University. Views expressed are personal.)

Called “too soft” on Muslims, Vidhu Vinod

Chopra’s film can, in fact, be used to further Indian

animus against them.


kashmir 370°

Sanjay Kak, documentary film maker and, by virtue of that, a classic partici-pant-observer in the field of politics, has been immersed in the Kashmir matrix all his life. Here, he responds to the situation in the Valley post August 5, 2019—an ‘era’ of siege, as he calls it. An inter-view with Sunil Menon:

Life in the Valley has not seen ‘normalcy’ for 30+ years. But what was the last year like, especially during the information blackout when no light escaped in or out?I was in Kashmir the week before August 5 last year, to do the Amarnath yatra, rev isiting the trek after exactly thirty years, after 1989. To see that pilgrimage transformed into a showcase alliance between the new militant religiosity of pilgrims—the chant of Bhole

ki fauj karegi mauj filled the air—and the aggressive militarism with which the yatra is conducted, was really quite difficult. I was probably still processing that experience when I flew out of Srinagar on August 3, 2019....

Looking back, it’s as if everything before that date was from another world; it certainly feels like another era. The abrogation of Article 370 was so unexpected, the manner in which it was done so shocking for Kashmiris, and finally the chokehold they were placed under to prevent people from expressing themselves about the decision: I think it took everybody’s breath away. It’s been a year, and no one is breathing normal even now. The information blackout was extremely difficult when it began, for it was neartotal for every

body, and it brought everything to a standstill: lives, livelihoods, education, health, every aspect of existence—including, let’s not forget, emotions. And even though landlines and mobiles now work, and a weak 2G internet has been made available, I think we should be using a different word for what is ongoing in Kashmir: it’s a siege. The blackout may have been lifted, but that siege continues.As a Kashmiri, how do you see the ‘derogation’ of Article 370?That ‘derogation’ did not happen overnight on August 5. Article 370 had been steadily emptied of real substance over the past sixty years, through a series of small and big steps, including what can only be described as a series of legislative coups. What rem

‘it’s not just kashmir, but india that needs a solution’

ained of it was a shell, but it was symbolic of the ‘special’—some would say unresolved—nature of the relationship between the people of Jammu & Kashmir and the Republic of India.

That symbolic link was crudely cast aside with the abrogation, and literally stomped upon, simply bec ause the government of the day had a brute majority in Parliament, and assumed the right to do so. It was done without the procedural or even gestural ass ent of the elected representatives of the people of the state, of the state assembly, leave alone any other barometer of the people’s will in Kashmir, which we anyway know is highly contested. Three former chief ministers of the state also had to be detained on August 5, politicians who had repeatedly sworn their loyalty to the idea of India, a good indicator of the fact that the decision was opposed by almost every Kashmiri.Did the initial enthusiasm among the Pandit community and in Jammu sustain?A lot of the initial enthusiasm for these steps must be recognised for what it was: photo opportunities. ‘Sweets being distributed in Jammu city’, or ‘Migrants in resettlement colonies for Pandits celebrating’, even ‘dancing in the streets of Leh’…. As happens so frequently in India today, these images were then played out to the applause and manly talk regularly manufactured in our TV studios, drowning out any real questioning of the implications of these changes. Their legislative and legal impropriety was buried under an avalanche of


chestthumping jingoism.Amongst Pandits, some of

the enthusiasm certainly came from abroad, from the large numbers of those with US, Canadian and European citizenship, which is really quite baffling. They were reading a future in the striking down of Article 370 (and Article 35A) which was simply not there, including, sadly, what it meant for their potential return home to Kashmir. In India, a lot of the visible support for it came from elements in the Pandit community that are deeply imbricated within the Hindutva fold. Even if the abrogation was seen as damaging for the entity called Jammu & Kashmir, for them it was a blow against those they have grown to believe are responsible for their flight from Kashmir, the Muslims of Kashmir.

The full ramifications of the changes have only now begun to sink in, particularly the reduction in J&K’s status into two Union Territories. The implications for land ownership and employment have also become clearer, and both reg ions have seen strong murmurs of protest, including from within the BJP cadres in Jammu, and amongst people in Leh, it should be noted. (People in Kargil were opposed to it from the beginning.) Which is why there is talk now of returning full statehood to J&K… What can one say of a regime that can act with such capriciousness?How do you address yourself to the Pandit predicament? You have a markedly different take on the exodus.The pain of dislocation, or the loss of home, is not

something that I have a different take on. The difference has to do with my understanding of what caused that loss and dislocation, and more importantly, what must be done with that pain for the rest of our lives. And for the future. I cannot condone the weaponisation of pain, as some Pandits are prone to do, or the deployment of that pain against their own people, different only on account of their religion. On the whole, you could say that both personally and in my work I have chosen to address myself to the Kashmiri predicament, not any other.

Does the Pandit predicament find enough space in the Kashmiri nationalist narrative? Or is it acceptable collateral damage amid a wider calamity?Sadly, no…to the first. Their predicament has almost faded away in the cauldron of what Kashmir has become over the past thirty years. Pandits have been a very slender minority in Kashmir for several centuries, although they have alw ays played a significant part in many aspects of the social and political life of Jammu & Kashmir. They were part of the ruling state apparatus, yes, but they

were also part of the social transformation of Kashmir through education, and even in the political articulation of the idea of Kashmir as an independent entity. All that was completely upturned by the mass migration of the 1990s, and those elements of their existence were completely erased from Kashmir. Many of them also fell straight into the hands of the resurgent Hindutva forces of a post1992 India, post Babri Masjid, and this strident rightwing voice was the

only Pandit that people of the Kashmir valley were now going to be able to see and hear in the thirty years since 1990. And their position was a polar opposite to the Kashmiri nationalist narrative. How do you reconcile these two positions?What do you make of the Israellike settlement plans?I think the Israellike imagination has already found a place in the new Indian state. We have seen the nuts and bolts of it showing through in what is called the ‘security apparatus’—the ext ensive use of highend surveillance technology and weapons, the way the streets were physically managed by police during the postAug ust 5 period in Kashmir. New laws have been passed that set the stage for redefining who a ‘state subject’ of Jammu & Kashmir is going to be, we have changes being made in how the armed forces may acquire land for ‘strategic’ purposes. And all of this is happening without an elected government in the state. Everything is pointing tow ards an Israellike settlement plan: what can come in its way?What can a humane, just and constitutionally valid approach look like? What’s the best future that can be imagined?Some years ago, I would have answered that question by saying the answer was democracy: return dem ocracy to Kashmir and the future will emerge out of that. But the kind of crisis India is in right now, I’d say what we need just as urg ently is ‘a humane, just and constitutionally valid approach’ to India itself. A resolution to Kashmir can only follow that. O

‘We should be using a different word for what is going on: it’s a siege. The blackout may have been lifted, but the siege continues in Kashmir.’

P T I

kashmir 370°


On May 6, when Kashmiri militant Riyaz Naikoo was killed by security forces, the all-

enveloping Covid pandemic ensured the expected eruption of vengeful jubilation across social media didn’t reach the levels seen after Burhan Wani’s killing in 2016. Yet, he was Kashmir’s longest-surviving militant. So a more modest version of the coda duly played out: the first protests in the Valley since August 2019, and on the mainland, “nationalist” channels proclaiming that the “poster boy of terrorism”—indeed, the “virus of terrorism”—had been eliminated. This was preceded by the “martyrdom” of eight security personnel, killed by militants on May 3-4. Kashmir’s reality—for the last three decades—has been characterised by this cycle of ret-ribution. And everytime a bullet hits home, it hits a human: with a history and an alternate possible-future.

But there is a difference in the legibil-ity, so to speak, of the kinds of violence. While the violence of militancy is easily readable, recognisable and con-

demnable, the nation-state’s belief in violence (internalised enthusiastically by the ‘nationalists’) remains opaque to us. We fail to read violence as the tool deployed to decide Kashmir’s fut-ure; the State stays beyond reproach. So while the call for non-violence can easily be made, the structural condi-tions necessary for non-violence remain absent. The events post-Article 370 are emphatic demonstrations of the fact that the Kashmiri does not fig-ure in the Indian nationalist imagina-tion other than as an object—our goal is precisely to render that figure a pas-sive recipient, rather than a partici-pant. The world’s longest internet shutdown, extending into the cruel den ial of 4G even during a pandemic, passes without much comment in the mainstream. So does the preventive detention of thousands of Kashmiri citizens, including those who were pro-India or without links to militancy (and the judiciary’s shocking refusal to entertain habeas corpus petitions, the bedrock of democracy). Startling facts otherwise, we have been collectively lulled into thinking of them as nor-mal—or as natural as sun or rain.

But these are volitional acts of state-making. Extant since 1947, this tendency has only gotten worse under a Hindu nationalist regime, with its intractable logic of a Hindu-Muslim binary, and the triumphal idea of a final “taming” of Muslim-majority

Kashmir, its avowed dream. This has consequences for all of us. What this conjuncture has led to is the consecra-tion of violence, both palpable and imp erceptible, as the raison d’etre of society—going beyond Kashmir. And there, the State shows no intention of envisaging the restoration of democ-racy, throwing up moral conundrums about the pathways of resistance.

Absurd false equivalences grip all nation- states and their obsession with territory sans people. India presently has nearly 1 million security personnel stationed in Jammu and Kashmir, which has a population of 13 million: that is 1 soldier for every 13 citizens! Yet, despite governing a part of one’s own nation by sheer military force, the nationalist feels he is the victim. This is similar to what activist Hanan Ashrawi argued in the context of Palestine: “We are the only people on earth asked to guarantee the security of our occupier…while Israel is the only country that calls for defence from its victims.”

To assuage this feeling of endless vic-timhood, the nationalist is willing to sacrifice an endless number of lives. From the beginning of insurgency, 15,138 civilians, 6,978 security person-nel and 25,145 militants have been killed. (The unofficial numbers of civil-ians killed are vastly higher.) The losses of soldiers the nation has to endure—and the suffering of their families—is turned into a kind of capital, mere

Jump The GunIndia must acknowledge the untenability of rule by military might

Nissim Mannathukkaren

g e t t y i m a g e s


trophies or totems of glory that ensure a continuous supply of more bodies.

In which rational universe is this kind of a ratio deemed remotely acc-eptable? Accepting the perverse fact that the nationalist is not interested in Kashmiri civilian deaths, this is a ratio of one security personnel for every 3.5 militants. Under the present uber-mil-itaristic policy, the ratio had fallen fur-ther to 1:2 in 2016 and 2019 (contrary to the halo built up around the present regime through propaganda films like Uri, the lowest number of civilian and security personnel killings was touched under UPA-II: 37, in 2012). The ‘derogation’ of Article 370 was

supposedly the death knell for mili-tancy in Kashmir, just as Balakot had taught Pakistan an unforgettable les-son. Yet, in only six months this year, 145 militants have been killed com-pared to 163 for all of 2019. Not to mention a 69 per cent increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan so far.

A process of maturation is inevitable for the nationalist imagination if it wants to evolve beyond the cruder forms of hard power. Even thinking within the framework of power, the higher one is that which seeks consent to legitimise itself. That needs conver-sations, and the obligatory first step for that would be to recognise the incon-trovertible fact that the Kashmiri self-determination movement is a pol-itical struggle and that Kashmiris are political agents. The second, despite Pakistani state-backed Islamist terror-ism and some militant groups seeing it as a jehadist struggle, would be to not reduce the Kashmiri movement to Pakistani machination or Islamism.

The State can only, at great peril, close its eyes towards the psychology of dehumanisation perpetrated by what scholar Partha Chatterjee has called “internal colonialism” through

“constitutional rules”, human rights-deficient laws like AFSPA and all that it covers up. Kashmiris have long spoken of the everyday structural violence of a three-decade-long mili-tary presence in terms of extrajudicial killings, forcible disappearances, rapes and unmarked mass graves, and its devastating consequences on mental health. The acme of anger for the Kashmiri citizen was reached with the removal of Article 370 and the humili-ating “shock and awe” manner through which it was achieved.

Even if Article 370 was systemati-cally being corroded over decades under various regimes, it had provided

a semblance of independence. But now the fear that a majoritarian India would take over Kashmir’s land, reli-gion and culture is palpable. The latest wave of violence, contrary to state narratives, also happens in the context of unprecedented legitimacy for mili-tancy and further loss of legitimacy of the Indian State that the post-Article 370 conjuncture has spawned. The res ounding cry for “one solution, gun solution” is its inevitable outcome.

In an ideal world, there cannot be any thing other than non-violent strug-gles to resist oppression. But a theoret-ical demand for non-violence cannot be made in a vacuum. It might be shocking to many that Gandhi had argued in 1938: “I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting.... But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.”

We forget that there was no violent resistance in Kashmir in the first 40 years. Kashmiri activists have pointed out how even significant shifts from vio lence to non-violence were crushed with state force. In 2008, during UPA-I,

Kashmir became the first conflict- ridden Muslim-majority region in the world to shift to non-violent methods of protest—popular support for it forced even the militants to declare a unilateral ceasefire. But what should have been a landmark moment on the path to peace was met with the killing of hundreds of unarmed protestors, which supplied the rationale for violent resistance all over again.

For the State, militancy again legit-imised its use of excessive force. Draconian anti-terror laws are now chillingly used even against legitimate democratic expressions, including against journalists. Every Kashmiri becomes demonised as a potential jehadi—Hindutva, aided by the most Islamophobic mainstream media in India’s history, particularly relishes that narrative.

Critically, militant groups have also killed Kashmiri Muslims—the so-called collaborators, moderates, Communists et al, and poor non- Kashmiri civilians like migrant labour. History is a sad witness to even Frantz Fanon’s revolu-tionary, “ethical” non-nihilistic vio-lence of the opp ressed turning oppressive in many societies. Yet, the tragedy of Kashmir is that whatever spaces remain for democracy and dia-logue that can overcome this violence have been almost completely oblite-rated in the post- Article 370 era. This, catastrophically, pushes civilians to en-dorse militancy, lending it more oxygen. Also, the long-term communalisation of a political dispute by the State, as Nitasha Kaul argues, has ensured that the narratives of Kashmiri Muslims and Hindus have now seriously diverged, and the present generation does not have the old shared stories of commu-nal coexistence even amidst conflict.

The first step away from this morass is to acknowledge the absolute moral untenability of rule by military might, move beyond the binary of State vs mil-itants, and conceive of justice for every individual. This includes the Pandits, whose tragic, forced exodus is now instrumentally appropriated. O

(The writer is with Dalhousie University, Canada. Views

expressed are personal.)

The nation-state’s belief in violence is opaque to us.... Slain soldiers serve as totems of glory that ensure a supply of more bodies.

kashmir 370°


Saikat Niyogi

WHo has not heard of the vale of Cashmere,/ With its roses the brightest the earth

ever gave/ Its temples, and grottos and fountains as clear/ As the love-lighted eyes that hang over their wave? Even before the West’s fashionable women—from aristocrats to demi mondes—were to be in thrall of its exquisite Pashmina shawls, Lalla Rookh (1817), the extravagant Orientalist fantasy by Thomas Moore about the adventures of a daughter of ‘Aurungzeb’ on her way to Kashmir to wed the King of Bucharia, made ‘Cashmere’ a byword for beauty. Yet few Europeans had actually set eyes upon its mythical charms; still under Afghan rule, it was shut off to foreigners. That started to change in 1819, when Ranjit Singh

conquered the province. After his death in 1839, his Sikh empire was riven with corruption, factionalism and bloodletting…and the 1st Anglo- Sikh War followed a mere seven years later. The Sikhs were comprehensively defeated, with the Bengal Army occupying Lahore, but the British were in a mood of benevolence, and Lord Hardinge, the governor-general, wanted a buffer Sikh state. Benevo-lence came at a cost: an indemnity of a million pounds had to be paid, and there was no money in the treasury. A tributary chief, Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu, offered to pay up—in return for the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Jammu. Thus came to exist the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which would last 101 years, over four rulers.

Kashmir settled down to an (exter-nally) placid existence under the

Dogra kings, a ruling class imposing themselves on a mostly poor popula-tion and maintaining excellent ties with a succession of watchful British residents. The latter let them be, for Kashmir was soon to be a station of rest and recuperation. The famed houseboats of Kashmir, moored on the heavenly Dal Lake, arrived around 1875, catering to Europeans who lazed on them, taking their tea and gazing on the snowy ramparts of the Zabarwans. They took to the water chiefly because Gulab Singh, fearing a British influx, forbade Europeans from owning land there—an early manifestation of that inflexible rule. Soon, like in Simla,

The Cashmere GameWith Kashmir nestled within, Britain and Russia were engaged in an all-terrain, high-stakes tussle over land, empire and perceived threats along the immense arc of India’s northern frontiers

As the British and Russian empires inched towards each other, fears of a Russian invasion of India took hold.


scandalous things were afoot, so much so that it took the iron-willed, Bible-and-sword wielding John Nicholson—famed Punjab ‘political’, fierce soldier and moraliser—to pay a visitation and ‘purify the moral atmosphere’ (per-haps aptly, Nicholson, leading the charge at the British retaking of Delhi in 1857, died at the Kashmiri Gate).

Yet, throughout the 19th and till the early 20th centuries, Kashmir was to be the still centre, an untarnished pearl around which raged a gigantic geopolitical tussle for supremacy. The British, French and others might have spectacularly grabbed realms in Asia and Africa, but in terms of territory

gained, it was dwarfed by Russia’s Central Asian acquisitions. By the turn of the 19th century, with the Siberian vastness firmly in the Tsar’s doublet pocket, it turned its gaze towards the Caucasus and elsewhere. Just as British dominion in the subcontinent expanded manifold between the 1820s and 1890s, new Russian maps now included the Caspian Sea, its eastward swathe up to the borders of Chinese Turkestan, and the edges of Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet in the south.

For the first time ever, the boundaries of the British and Russian Empires—separated by thousands of miles a gen-eration ago—faced each other.

Russia’s ultimate objective was thought to be India—that it was Britain’s golden goose was never in doubt—so Afghanistan, Kashmir and its northern reaches, and Ladakh as well as Tibet by extension were consid-ered the bulwarks, to be defended at any cost. Fears of a Russian invasion took hold of London and Calcutta in stages, before it turned into a national obsession. ‘The Great Game’—the jaunty name to a century’s worth of machination, expedition, scholarship,

Conquest In 1868, Russia took over the fabled Bokhara, visited by Alexander Burnes and final resting place for other agents

kashmir 370°


skulduggery and soldiery, consuming vast amounts of energy, money and lives—was given by Capt Arthur Connolly (1807-43), a soldier-explorer who sacrificed his life on this sinister playing field.

Early warnings were sounded by strat-egists like Sir Robert Wilson (in Sketch of the Military and Political Power of Russia, 1817), and by the Company’s ‘superintendent of the stud’ William Moorcroft, who in the guise of the search for the perfect horse for the cavalry, journeyed into Tibet (1812) and across Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Afghanistan to fabled Bokhara (1819-20). An expert intelligence scout, his reports went to the Political and Secret Department, headed by his friend, Delhi’s own Charles Metcalfe. In 1820, he was the first Englishman to enter Ladakh. He was turned away when he entered west-ern Tibet, and saw them as trading launching pads to Central Asia—a back-door to China and, as a frontier to Russia to the north, of great political interest. He also noted the intrusion of Russian agents and traders and their efforts to force open trading rights from the north, and the monopoly of Kashmiris in the purchase of the prized Pashmina wool from Ladakh and Tibet. In Kashmir in 1822-23, Moorcroft noted the misery of the people under their new Sikh mas-ters: “Everywhere the people are in the most abject condition, exorbitantly taxed by the Sikh government, and sub-jected to every kind of extortion and op-pression by its officers.”

THE Russians, he theorised, could target Kashmiri disaffection. Wil son and Moorcroft’s general

polemics about the Slavic danger took time to gain hold (Russia and Britain were allies against Napoleon), yet in 15 years theirs was the accepted opinion, as a frenzied Russophobia permeated Bri tish statecraft. This, then, was the backdrop of the First Afghan War (1838-42), as morally and tactically disastrous as any campaign in history, barely assuaged by a face-saving, pun itive occupation. The British reaped only shame.

Though the sobering effect of the Crimean War (1854-56) and India’s 1857

rebellion calmed things down between Russia and Britain, it resulted in more efficient military and administrative reforms that would prime the two for another protracted bout of rivalry. In this quiet period, as Russia breathed down from Central Asia and British India hastily built up defences, they both competed for influence in Persia, Tibet and the great oasis cities straddling the ancient Silk Route of Khiva, Herat and Bokhara—in decline but still independ-ent and militarily potent. Emissaries, spies and agents swarmed over the area—experts in topographical observa-tion and exploration, amateur linguists and scholars who published bestselling, multi-volume accounts, precursors of the wave of great explorers of the fol-lowing decades, like the Russian Mikhail Przhevalsky, the Swede Sven Hedin and the Hungarian-British Aurel Stein. All noted the cosmopolitan trad-ing community spanning Asia, notable among them being Kashmiris with their shawls and wool.

As political power in London alternated between Gladstone and Disraeli, between a prudent ‘closed border’ policy and a rash ‘forward pol-

icy’, a fresh wave of Russian victories in the 1860s and ’70s over Tashkent, Samarkand, Bokhara and Khiva, crowned by its success in the war over Turkey in 1877, brought British fears of a dominant Russia to a fever pitch. The focus was, inevitably, Afghanistan again. Though the Second Afghan War (1878-79) was not an unmitigated disaster, it was a newer model of the same machine. The only gain: control of the Khyber Pass and some border districts. The solitary occasion when the two nations were at risk of war was when the Tsar’s forces briefly occupied Pandjeh, in eastern Afghanistan.

While pugnacity and hyperbole suf-ficed for the western border, the east req uired more stealthy means. It’s here that the Great Game got its reputation for an absorbing, even sneaky adventure, dealing thrills and dangers with an even hand. At its secret heart was the vexed question of Tibet—the more fascinat-ingly mysterious for centuries of being closed off by the Chinese, the suzerain power, in 1792. The Dalai Lama, its tem-poral and spiritual head, happily acqui-esced, keen to preserve the purity of his celestial kingdom as well as his near- autonomy. Mystics salivated over the location of the mythical ‘Shambhala’, fortune-seekers over the rich lodes of gold and silver, and scholars/linguists over the richer promises of knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism.

Bayonets to Lhasa Col Francis Younghusband with his compatriots in Lhasa during the British invasion of Tibet in 1904. It made a point, but gained little.


But the British needed to pierce Tibet’s armature. The bright idea of training Indian surveyors (soon to be termed ‘pundits’) in spycraft, so they could easily, in the guise of Buddhist lamas or pilgrims, get into Tibet through Sikkim or Ladakh, occurred first to an officer of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, Thomas George Montgomerie (1830-78), who also surveyed Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and Baltistan (an area of 7,700 sq miles) and gathered intelligence, while maintaining good relations with Gulab Singh and his successor, Ranbir Singh. A staple of the Great Game was born: the ‘pundit’, trudging through high plateaus and icy passes, keeping count of distance by a measured gait, noting, snooping, mapping, trying to establish observation posts at 20,000 feet above sea level.

Among the first to be successful was Nain Singh, who reached Lhasa in 1866

and recorded the economy, topogra-phy, military and religious festivals of Tibet. He also charted the course of the Tsangpo—which, after a wildly circui-tous career among precipitous moun-tain gorges, enters India as the Brahmaputra. Indeed, just as Africa’s exploration for future colonial plunder was framed by the quest for the source of the Nile, so were spy missions into Tibet given depth by the search for the origins of the Tsangpo. The most famous pundit: Sarat Chandra Das (1849-1917), scholar, linguist, memoir-ist and intelligence agent par excel-lence, immortalised as Hurree Chunder Mookerjee or ‘R17’ in Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, that exem-plar—and sole survivor—of Great Game fiction. His true identity as a British agent spread to Tibet from China, and an iron curtain came down over the province, by which time the pundits had explored a million square miles of unmapped territory.

The 1903-04 military ‘mission’ to Tibet, directed by viceroy Lord Curzon under Col Francis Young husband—sol-dier, scholar, romantic dreamer, a stock Empire character—braved immense odds to ultimately reach Lhasa, but, in the final analysis, achieved little: sense-less massacres of lightly armed Tibetans, important trade concessions, imposition of a huge indemnity, occupation of the Chumba valley and a resident in Gyantse. Much of this was done by Younghusband without approval from London, which wanted a light probe and consequently revoked much of the puni-tive agreement. Younghusband was shunted aside as the British resident in Srinagar. The Chinese re-assumed their nominal authority over Tibet by paying off a reduced indemnity and Curzon’s dream of Tibet being an effective buffer state between India and China remained unrealised—something that haunts Sino-Indian ties. Finally, the Anglo-Russian convention of 1907 drew the

curtain on a century’s worth of trying to outdo each other on high plateaus and Central Asian deserts, amid fiercely proud peoples.

Though the Kashmir Valley was fairly immune to the high jinks of the Great Game, the frontier areas of Gilgit and Baltistan were not, and in 1893 British forces issued forth from Gilgit to relieve their compatriots besieged in a fort in Chitral, in NWFP. For the common Kashmiri, a century’s upheaval meant little, for little improved their lot. A cen-tury after Moorcroft’s observations, Albion Rajkumar Banerjee, who served as Hari Singh’s prime minister from 1927-29, resigned on moral grounds, dis-heartened by the utter indifference of the ruling aristocracy to the privations of the common people. “Jammu and Kas-hmir state…with a large Mohame ddan population absolutely illiterate, with very low economic conditions…are prac-tically governed like dumb cattle…. The administration has no or little sympathy with people’s wants and grievances.”

Like Victorian morals and prejudices, the Great Game lives on tenaciously: like Tsarist Russia’s ardent desire to make Central Asia its own, China extends itself, not just in Xinjiang or Tibet, but over those very vast spaces in a quest for developmental and civilisational lebens-raum. Just as Britain harried—and par-ried—its adversary along Ladakh and into Tibet, India and China have been bequeathed a tussle along a border determined by the Raj’s expediency. And after two superpowers—the Soviets (1979-1989) and the US (2001-) broke their backs in Afghanistan over its inter-nal politics, Pakistan and India worry constantly over the matter: ‘strategic depth’ is pitted against ‘strategic influ-ence’. Then there is Kashmir; its isola-tion from the hurly burly broken and never really repaired since 1947, when two clashing logics of nationhood pro-vided the first fissure. As decades pass, equal and opposite claims, counter- cla ims, aggression, subterfuge, terror-ism, ‘freedom struggle’ and martyr hood cloud the sky over it and contribute to a bloody, sullen impasse. An imperial tussle that split open silent and rumbling perimeters has fractured into new frontiers. O

Indian Pathfinder Sarat Chandra Das, the ‘pundit’ who reached Lhasa and made the first great survey of Tibet

It’s around Tibet that the Great Game got its reputation of an adventure, involving both thrills and dangers.

la dolce vita

Five’s a Family If 2020, this vale of tears we are

passing through, has been the annus

mirabilis for even a solitary person, that

blessed individual has to be Hardik Pan-

dya—formerly the enfant terrible of In-

dian cricket’s brash and young brigade,

currently a haven of solid equanimity

and spousal support. This snap, titled

‘Family’, shows the transformation:

terriers longingly reaching out and

shaggily dozing off, set off by the figure

of wife Natasa Stankovic, a picture of

contentment before imminent mother-

hood. Memories are made of this.

Just Letting Go There’s the exemplary figure of Nathan Lyon—as

potent as a strike fast bowler—and then there’s a void.

The world of off-spin bowling is going through a lean

phase—just look at the trials of England’s Dom Bess.

Our mind wanders to Harbhajan Singh, forever prob-

ing with his loops and flats, snatcher of ecstasy

from the jaws of despondency, a man with almost

700 international wickets. Therefore, the news

that the Punjab government withdrew his

name from the Khel Ratna award drew

outrage. Then Bhajji, in a new, calm

avatar, set the record straight:

the award considers perfor-

mances in the last three

years (he last played for

India in 2015).


Roses For Her The forests straddling Karnataka and Tamil Nadu once shed their trembling

leaves at the very mention of the brigand Veerappan—his reputation as a

poacher, smuggler, murderer and kidnapper of a top filmstar gaining in weight

as he flexed that fierce handlebar moustache. His daughter, Vidhya Veerap-

pan however, has now embarked on the marginally less tempestuous career

of a politician, as the new vice president of BJP in Tamil Nadu. Though she

might need to draw on some genetic brio to reverse its fortunes in TN, Vidhya

herself reminds us of what her father told her on the only occasion they met:

“do good, study well to become a doctor and serve people”.

Get A Gun, Girl There were two seasons (circa 2009-10) when the world of

glamour photography bowed its head to Megan Fox, then

beseeched her to show her tattoos in intimate attire, as lenses

burnt under that hazel gaze. We present her thus in her glory, in

velveteen swimsuit and fluffed up heels. Of course, there’s the

news that, after splitting from husband Brian Austin Green, Meg-

an’s now taken up with a rapper-actor called Machine

Gun Kelly. Why, is he straight out of a Damon

Runyon story, or a typical character that

James Cagney played with such relish, guns

flashing, in the Screaming Thirties?

We’re worried, but wish Megan well.

6 6 outlook | August 10 , 2020

hagia sophiaSohail Hashmiis a historian and

filmmaker

The Wonders of QustuntuniaWe had grown up reading about the history and architectural wonders of Turkey. It has bridged Europe and Asia—its architecture, food, music and arts has drawn from and given to both in equal measure. India’s links with Turkey go back centu-ries. There is much in our food, attire, language and architecture that has come to us from or through Turkey. The most remarkable of these are the dome and the true arch, first used in India in the mausoleum of Ghiyas-ud-Din Balban in 1287.

So when we landed in Istanbul, the Qustuntunia of our childhood, these thoughts kept us agog with excitement. But nothing, nothing at all could prepare us for the magic of Hagia Sophia or Ayas-ofya, as it is popularly called. The oldest dome that we had seen until then was the Alai Darwaza, built in the 14th century.

Commissioned by the Roman emperor Justinian I and completed in 537 CE, Ayasofya was a Greek Orthodox cathedral for the next 667 years. Rampaging crusad-ers converted it into a Roman Catholic cathedral in 1204. But they did not last too long—57 years later the Byzantines recap-tured Istanbul and Ayasofya became a Greek Orthodox cathedral once again.

The troubles of the cathedral weren’t over yet. The Ottomans seized Istanbul in 1453 and turned it into a mosque. It remained so for the next 482 years. Kemal Ataturk, the builder of modern Turkey, put a stop to prayers there and converted it into a museum in 1935. It was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.

Peeling the Layers of HistoryOur affable guide rattled all this off even as we were trying to capture in our cam-eras the many friezes fashioned from multi-coloured tiles. As restorers peeled off the layers of paint lavished on the structure when it was was a mosque, the friezes were slowly being revealed.

Suddenly, we realised that the narrative of our guide carried no anger, no rancour.

She wasn’t being judgemental and she wasn’t apportioning blame. She told us about the his-

tory of the place and the veneration in which Ayasofya was held not only by the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholic and Muslims, but also by those who viewed it as precious heritage spanning more than 14 centuries. Come to think of it, this structure is older than Islam. Walking through Ayasofya, we

were struck by the thought that there must be other buildings that have the same kind of

history. Two such structures come to mind immediately: the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem,

run over during the Crusades and later re-estab-lished as a mosque. The other is Cordoba mosque, with

opposing narratives about its origins, but now known as the Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba).

We have temples, churches, mosques, fire temples and synagogues. Before all of these, there were sites venerated by animists and followers of pagan practices that conquerors took over and turned into sites of vener-ation in medieval times. And yet, rarely have we preserved these clashing memories of occupation and reassignments, while also protecting the structures that were sites of medieval contestations.

Past ImperfectThe 1935 decision to turn Ayasofya into a museum aimed to preserve and highlight the contribution of the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Muslims to this building and to showcase how succeeding occupiers did not destroy the pre-existing imagery and icons. All of it was systematically restored to foreground the cultural diversity that has informed the making of modern Turkey. The narrative of the guides in Istanbul, Ephesus, Izmir, Kusadasi and other places we visited came as a breath of fresh air. What had happened was history—it did not generate hate and animosity against the descendants of those who were responsible for excesses. This, we thought, was how one should engage with one’s past—own it as the past, don’t let it impinge on your present and don’t let it inform your future.

On a Perilous PathThe recent decision by the Turkish judiciary and the Erdogan administra-tion to rescind the 1935 decision and open a designated part of the mosque for the five daily prayers of Muslims will put a stop to all that. The Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholics will protest. UNESCO has already issued a strong objection and may withdraw the World Heritage tag. The official announcement stated that except for the designated prayer area, the rest of the structure would be open for all visitors and entry would be free, as in other historical mosques. Sounds like a good deal, except that the income from the sale of tickets, a whopping $60 million in 2019, will disappear.

But that is not the only loss Turkey is going to suffer. This decision is a clear indication that Turkey is deliberately stepping away from the mod-ernist and secular path. We are facing the consequences of our retreat. Now, Turkey has chosen the same perilous path. O

I l l u s t r a t I o n : s a a h I l

Degrees · 2020-07-30 · Special iSSue August 10, 2020 Rs 70 An extra angle of pain. Revisiting...

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Transcript of Degrees · 2020-07-30 · Special iSSue August 10, 2020 Rs 70 An extra angle of pain. Revisiting...