An Indian author..Devarajan Sundaravaradan-Kashmir Issue - A Fresh Look
Introduction
We all know that the people of India have sacrificed a lot for the cause of Kashmir since the days of our Independence. The sacrifices had been and continue to be in terms of people, time, energy, political stature, disrespectful bashing by Pakistan in every forum to deny us any fruitful role other than to defend ourselves. The list can go on and on.
Now, we are seeing Pakistan possessing Nuclear weapons. It is one country whose Prime Minister said that to get nuclear weapons his people would not mind eating grass. Now, I can tell that they will not hesitate to become grass if by doing so would consign India to the grass. Do we need this? What is the cause of this kind of hatred? Undoubtedly, there are two reasons. One, is religion and another is Kashmir.
The religion has not been successful in keeping the unity in that country. The fight between Shia and Sunni Muslims are well known and of course every Muslim who has migrated to Pakistan also knows their status in that country. The glue that is holding that country together is the Kashmir issue. Forget that, the people in Pakistan occupied Kashmir are not accorded the similar benefits as enjoyed by other Pakistan nationals.
In contrast, we have provided special privilege to the State of Kashmir under the provision of Article 370. We supply most of their necessities too. We had protected them from the tribesmen who looted them in 1947 with the active support from Pakistan. They burned their houses, raped their women too. What have we got in return?
These guys tell our jawans that they are Indian dogs. They hoist the Pakistan flag on August 14th and burn our flags on August 15th. They kill Hindus and Muslims who support the cause of India. They do not collect the taxes and pass on to the Indian Government. The newspapers publish Pakistan propaganda. They listen and watch Pakistani radio and Television.
I have been reading a lot about the history of Kashmir and anything related to it in recent times. I would like to bring to the notice of our people the facts. I will also provide my suggestions to solve this problem once and for all.
I expect United States and Britain will try to interfere on behalf of Pakistan as a method to punish India. So, instead of following some other's dictates I urge India to seize the diplomatic initiative and establish itself as a worthy leader to follow in the 21st century.
The opinions voiced by me may not be to the liking of many and before casting judgment on me I urge the every one to read this article fully.
Facts
1. Maharaja Hari Singh did not decide to join either India or Pakistan at the time of Independence.
2. Pakistan had supported actively anybody who would fight its cause. The Pathan tribesmen from east Afghanistan were provided with the transport, fuel and food to liberate the Kashmir from the Maharaja. The Pakistani army men were encouraged to join these tribesmen by providing leave to them. That is why Pakistan says that people in individual capacity supported the cause, not the Pakistan State, and hence the argument that it had not started the First Indo-Pak War.
3. The attack by the tribesmen was started on October 22nd 1947. On October 25th evening, Maharaja Hari Singh sought the help of the Indian government. At the extraordinary cabinet meeting called to consider the request next morning, Lord Mountbatten questioned the legality and constitutionality of intervening in Kashmir in the absence of the formal accession of the state to India. Indian leaders overlooked this remark.
They sent the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of States, Mr. V.P. Menon to Srinagar to talk to the Maharaja the same day. Maharaja was advised to leave immediately to Jammu. After the meeting he returned to Delhi the same evening and on the next morning (27th October 1947) he went to Jammu with the Instrument of Accession. The Maharaja Hari Singh signed it. He also wrote a covering letter to Mountbatten along with this. In that letter he announced the formation of an interim government headed by Mr. Sheikh Abdullah. He retained Mr. Mahajan as the Prime Minister of Kashmir. Curious things happened now.
In his reply to the accompanied letter to Hari Singh, Mountbatten wrote, "It is my Government's wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and its soil cleared of the invader, the question of the state's accession should be settled by a reference to the people". Ten days later in a report to his cousin, the King of England, Mountbatten wrote, "I am convinced that a population containing such a high proportion of Muslims would certainly vote to join Pakistan".
I do not know if Mr. Nehru knew these opinions of Mountbatten. Later when Mountbatten advised Mr. Nehru to refer the issue to the United Nations, Mr. Nehru heeded without hesitation. On 1st of January 1948, India lodged complaint against Pakistan. In the complaint Indian Government had unilaterally declared that a plebiscite would be held in Kashmir after the invaders had been driven out of the state. In the complaint presented to the Security Council on 15th January 1948, Indian representative, Sir Gopalaswami Ayyangar, in the Sixth section declared: - " (Kashmir) people would be free to decide their future by the recognized democratic method of a plebiscite or referendum which in order to ensure complete impartiality, might be held under international auspices".
Why did not the Indian Government conduct the referendum? The reason was, Mr. Jinnah objected to it. In the minutes of the meeting with Mr. Jinnah recorded by Mountbatten he wrote, " I asked Mr. Jinnah why he objected so strongly to a plebiscite and he said he did so because with the troops of the Indian Dominion in military occupation of Kashmir and with the National Conference of Sheikh Abdullah in power such propaganda and pressure could be brought to bear that the average Muslim would never have the courage to vote for Pakistan. I suggested that we might invite the UN to undertake the plebiscite.... I reiterated that the last thing my Government wished was to obtain a false result by a fraudulent plebiscite. Mr. Jinnah repeated that he and I were the only two who could organize a plebiscite... Lord Ismay and I went to great trouble to explain... that Mr. Atlee (the British Prime Minister) would not give his consent."
By making an impossible demand Mr. Jinnah had scuttled the Indian offer of a referendum in Kashmir.
4. At that time, Mr. Sheikh Abdullah arrived in United States to bolster India's case at the United Nations. He spent most of the time discussing the possibility of Kashmiri Independence rather than the question of accession. Even here the opinions of many people were such that, he seems to have favored independence more and the question of accession to him seemed to be only with Pakistan not about India. Now, remember that Dr. Farooq Abdullah is the son of that man. Now, he says that Kashmir is part of India. When India needed his fathers' help, he worked overtime to undermine the role of India. It is a fact. There is a saying ' Yatha raja thatha praja' meaning 'as is the Raja so is the common man' . There have been several recorded and published instances in which Mr. Sheikh Abdullah had stated that Kashmir is not part of India.
5. England did not support India at the UN even though it knew the whole problem. This had been a clear backstabbing by the British.
6. Indian People have lost thousands of people in protecting the Kashmir.
7. Many thousands of crores of Rupees must have been spent in protection of this land over this 50-year period.
8. The ordinary Muslim Kashmiri does not want to be part of India. It is irrelevant to us if he is involved in the insurgency or not. If majority of them were for India then at some point in time in this 50 years we would have seen the end for insurgency.
9. We had more than 300000 thousand Hindus living in Kashmir at the time of independence. Now hardly 6000 Hindus live in Kashmir. The rest were either killed or driven out.
10. The special privilege of article 370 accorded to this State is demanded or put on the original list of demands by all the groups which have been fighting and/or have fought for autonomy or state hood so far in other parts of India.
11. This issue has been the glue for existence of Pakistan as a country even today. Without this it would have disintegrated.
My Suggestion
I urge the Indian Government to hold the referendum. While doing this I suggest India to follow certain Do's and Don'ts.
Do's: -
Referendum should be held under United Nations.
The choices given should be either to join India or Pakistan. Independence option should not be provided. If the Kashmir people want independence then let them fight for it after joining Pakistan.
Indian Government need not talk about Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The people there will start opposing the Pakistan occupation slowly with no support from us. Another option is that we can pay back Pakistan by providing moral support to the people of POK in their just struggle to choose their destiny (The moral support should be in the similar lines of what Pakistan is doing to Kashmir people now). My suggestion would be to keep the hands off except to tell Pakistan at all the forums to hold referendum in its occupied area and put Pakistan on the defensive.
Tell the Kashmir people that they can continue in the Indian Union without any special privileges. Discourage as much as possible for these guys to join us. Then only these people will understand that they are having the cake and eating it too so far. These people are behaving as though they do not want to be with us and whenever Indian Government challenges them directly about the statements made by these people, they try to be ambiguous. We should call the bluff.
The United Nations' contingent to conduct the referendum should not consist of nationals of Britain, Pakistan, China, Australia and Middle East countries.
Tell Pakistan, United Nations and the members of the Security Council that if Pakistan meddles in the referendum then India will not be responsible if its people on individual capacity attack Pakistan. We will payback Pakistan in the same coin by encouraging the people and army men to go on leave and attack Pakistan and to state euphemistically, we will provide moral support.
India should clearly spell out the conditions, terms and obligations of Pakistan and Kashmir if the Kashmir decides to join Pakistan and also should spell out clearly what are the options India might exercise to get it implemented.
Negotiate for the maintenance of Hindu temples and the number of devotees to be allowed to visit it every year. (E.g. Vaishnavi Devi temple).
Negotiate the river water flows.
Don'ts: -
India should not provide the choice of independence.
India should leave to Pakistan to hold referendum in the POK at this time or not. If Pakistan does not hold the referendum, then it is better to India. POK will become a thorn to it.
India need not canvass openly with the Kashmir people to join India. They have seen and heard in these fifty years how they are living here and the people in POK are living.
India should not provide a role to the United Nations' without any negotiations and conditions. The cost of conducting the referendum should be borne by the United Nations. We can share the cost if the result comes out in our favour.
India should not enter into any obligations to protect the Kashmir people if they choose to join Pakistan. If we are to undertake some obligations then we need not even conduct the referendum.
Expected Result
The result could be 40% in favour of India.
Pros
1) This can help to reduce the tension in the region and thereby we can reduce the defense expenditure.
2) We can call the bluff of the Kashmir people if they choose Pakistan. If they choose India then we will get the legitimacy.
3) We will deny Pakistan the glue that is holding it together.
4) If Kashmir decides to join us then the special privileges would be withdrawn and Kashmir would have joined the main stream of our nation voluntarily.
5) Will get the opportunity to make investment for productive purposes in that land. So far it has been a waste investment.
Cons
Might lose Kashmir to Pakistan
Might set precedence for further splits.
Pakistan may still support terrorist activities in the rest of India.
The current Government or party in power might lose the elections.
Credits
Many of the original statements I mention in this article are printed in the book ' The Kashmir Tangle - Issues and Options' by Rajesh Kadian. I have just reproduced them here to make my point. I advise every Indian to read this book. |
