Jammu & Kashmir- Tragedy of Errors -by Ashok Banker
JPR:
Here is an interesting article about the imbroglio in Kashmir in case you are interested.
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'Like most people, I was under the impression that the problems in Kashmir had a lot to do with the fact that the state's population mostly comprised Muslims. I soon discovered I was wrong,' says Ashok Banker.
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.......... Recently, I started to feed the vetaal in a more or less organised manner on a subject that's been of interest to me for some time. This was partly thanks to a project I was commissioned to work on. The project involved researching the subject of Kashmir. And part of the job -- besides travelling extensively in the state, interviewing several dozen people in all walks of life there and compiling a fairly large library of press clippings on the subject -- was reading all the major books written on Kashmir.
You may not be interested in Kashmir. But if you are interested in India, then you can't afford to ignore this beleagured state. Because like it or not, J&K has become the flashpoint of the greatest crisis facing India since Independence.
The Kargil conflict of 1999 was only one face of this crisis. The greater trauma is the continuing proxy war waged by Pakistan in the valley, disguised as militancy and rebellion.
Like most people I know, I was always under the impression that the problems in Kashmir had a lot to do with the fact that the state's population mostly comprised of Muslims. And that the rebellion there was the result of their disatissfaction with the (essentially) Hindu, secular, national government.
I soon discovered that not only was I wrong, but this impression was, in fact, the brilliant creation of certain forces with vested interests in the region. The fact that I had been fooled into believing this line showed how badly misinformed I was about the real issues at stake. As I continued to read and research, my cheeks burned red with embarrassment.
I knew so little, it was shameful! Not only was the problem in Kashmir completely different from my half-baked notions and impressions, it was in a way far simpler and much more complex both at once.
Simpler, in the sense that the problem basically comes down to two root causes:
[1] One, Partition. Pakistan has never been able to get over the fact that a Muslim-dominated state could continue to stay with India and be reasonably prosperous and content with the status.
This is the reason for the Pak-sponsored terrorism that destroyed Kashmir's tourist economy and turned the world's 'second Switzerland' into a virtual battlefield. It is also the reason why, as long as the Kashmir problem is not resolved, Pakistan and India will always face the possibility of war and even (in these post-nuclear days) nuclear war.
[2] The second cause that I was vaguely aware of, but had no clear information about, was the series of political mishaps, mishandling and outright misuse of power by political parties and successive central governments with regard to the Kashmir issue.
The greatest blame, I now realise, lies with Nehru and his daughter, Indira. While his errors were mostly those of omission -- supporting Sheikh Abdullah and later abandoning him to the wolves before making a typically gallant but ineffectual attempt at reconciliation -- Indira Gandhi's sins were those of commission. She, more than any other single individual in our history, was the greatest single cause of Kashmir's problems. (Her mistake in Punjab was perhaps worse -- but after all, she died as a result of that one while, in Kashmir, thousands of other citizens continue to die as a result of her mistakes).
Coming a close second to her was Sheikh Abdullah himself, with his foolishly sentimental and idealistic attempts to change the course of Kashmir politics outwardly while (perhaps) unwittingly breeding a culture of corruption and dissipation in the valley's political system, making it one of the worst-managed states in the country.
Other politicians and adminstrators who successively tangled up the mess that is Kashmir today were Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, V P Singh, governors Jagmohan and Saxena and, of course, Farooq Abdullah himself, who has brought new shame and disgrace to his father's already stained reputation.
But to really get to the complexities of the Kashmir problem, you would have to read some of the books I read. And then some more.
If you're interested, I'd recommend a few as starters:
Flames Of The Chinar by Sheikh Abdullah (translated by Khushwant Singh) is a good place to start for background of the origin of most of the valley's problems in the post-Independence period.
The Discovery Of India by Jawarharlal Nehru, while very wide-ranging and containing very little direct information on Kashmir, makes a good companion volume to Sheikh Abdullah's memoirs as it gives us Nehru's general mindset and an insight into his own sense of values and the idealism that made him a great Indian, but not necessarily a great adminstrator.
Kashmir: Beyond The Vale and India: The Siege Within, both by M J Akbar, are an excellent analytical overview of the national political embioglio that caused the Kashmir problem, among others. Although Akbar has his own axes to grind and spends a lot of space on 'setting the record' straight, he continues to be the best 'long-distance' commentator on the communal and historical aspects of Kashmir.
Civil Wars by Ved Marwah has a very concise overview of the history of militancy in the valley. It also offers some amusing insights into the quibbling and bickering between the different government figures and state officials who contributed to the mess.
Countdown by Amitav Ghosh is indispensable reading for an understanding of the current state of Pakistan's and India's attitudes to one another, nuclear war and Kashmir and the communal issue.
Kashmir: A Tragedy Of Errors by Tavleen Singh is a very enjoyable book by one of the best-known political journalists in the country. Largely a memoir of her own experiences while covering the Kashmir beat as a journalist in the eighties and early nineties, this book makes up what it lacks in hard information and objective reporting by providing interesting first-person insights into the people and politics of news coverage in the valley.
The Lost Rebellion: Kashmir In The Nineties by Manoj Joshi is the best book on Kashmir militancy you can hope to find. Extremely well-researched, competently written and thoroughly objective, this large (480 pages) book is also the most up-to-date one. Unfortunately for Joshi, his book was released in the same week (May '99) that the Kargil conflict broke out. But I'm sure that future editions will include a chapter on Kargil and, in any case, there are already a heap of books coming out on that aspect.
But if you have a genuine interest in feeding your own vetaal and learning a little more about what makes India what it is today, warts and all, especially with regard to Kashmir, then this shortlist is a good place to start.
(Ashok Banker accepts views and abuse at ashokbanker@email.com )
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