When religion is mixed with politics, the result is what has happened in Srinagar and Jammu. Several People have been killed; property worth millions has been burnt and life in both the regions has practically come to a standstill.
Leaders-turned-mobsters have pushed the allotment of 100 acres of land to the Amarnath shrine management board and the cancellation to such an extent that they have polarised the entire state to the last person. The valley is separated from Jammu by the range of Pirpanjal mountains but now a wall of religious and regional jingoism has also come up.
This is not the first time that such a situation has arisen. Yet every blow weakens the ties between the two regions and lessens the space for pluralism. Even liberal politicians in the valley are wearing religion on their sleeves.
The Kashmir Valley was one area in the subcontinent where no communal incident took place after the partition. Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah was at the helm of affairs in Srinagar. Many Hindus and Sikhs had taken shelter there after travelling from Pakistan. Some among them felt insecure. The Shaikh arranged their transport by horse cart to Jammu. However, it is a matter of shame that when the refugees reached safely on the Jammu side, the Muslim horse cart drivers were butchered.
This partly explains why the all-party delegation which went from Delhi to Jammu and Srinagar to find a solution had to come back empty-handed. Positions have hardened beyond redemption. The delegation's hope that communalism and regionalism would be ultimately defeated is mere wishful thinking. The two regions can continue to be yoked together. But they have been cut asunder: emotionally, socially and otherwise.
Yet it would be an oversimplification of the situation if one were to conclude that the allotment of land or its cancellation was responsible for the agitation. Wounds the two regions have inflicted on each other over the years have deepened. The land incident only provided spark to the haystack of alienation which was there to burn.
The two regions have been going distant from each other for a long time. Separatists and politicians in the Valley and Jammu have been widening the gulf to see if they could become separate states. Some straws have been in the wind in the shape of demand for an autonomy for Jammu. Some Kashmiri pandits who wanted to return to their homes in the Valley have realised that there was no going back.
What is disconcerting is to see the well-read young Muslims participating in the agitation. Some of them have worked in India at important positions in the private sector. This is a message far beyond the allotment of the land. It reflects anger and desperation. It is clear that the normalcy seen in Srinagar is far from real. Once the chips are down, practically everyone is on the streets.
The BJP agenda is to bring about the separation of Jammu and Kashmir. A few liberal Kashmiris who have contacted me suspect such a design because of the ferocity of the Jammu agitation. The BJP has already created a situation where it is difficult to imagine that the two regions can ever be united.
Comparison
Remarks made by leaders of political parties in the Valley reflect a particular thinking. The Amarnath pilgrims' huts were compared to the Jewish colonies in Palestine. Some said the land allotment was meant to change the demographics, to turn the Muslim majority state into a Hindu one. This allegation is not true because New Delhi, even under the BJP-led government, has never tried to put Hindus from other states in Kashmir. The law prohibits non-Kashmiris from purchasing land in the state. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, was categorical in his pronouncement that no outsider would be allowed to settle in the state.
I can understand the BJP exploiting the situation for its Hindutva ends because it has no faith in India's ethos of secularism. But I have been greatly disappointed to find the Hurriyat leaders and the People's Democratic Party, vying with the fundamentalists, to out do them. It is well known that Mehbooba Mufti talks irresponsibly for the sake of effect. But this time she has beaten all records. Her observations on a channel TV reminded me of an extremist who did not mind setting Kashmir on fire so long as she got applause from fanatics.
When religious frenzy takes over, people do not think straight. India's politics as it is going to get more vitiated because of coming elections. The Central government is on its last legs and probably a long-term solution of Kashmir is not possible. But some exercise should begin. The Valley, Jammu and the Ladakh should become a federation so that each unit feels that it has an identity of its own. The over all solution of the Kashmir problem should follow.
The idea of blocking the Jammu-Srinagar road, the only land link between the two regions, was that of RSS, the BJP's mentor. Thousands of karsevaks (functionaries) were brought from the different states to sustain the road blockade. It is another matter that the army was able to pierce through the blockade and sustain supply of essential goods to the Valley. For some reasons, the inept government in Srinagar and even more inept one in Delhi did not think of measures to keep the road open from the day one.
The threat of Kashmir fruit growers to cross the Muzzafarabad border to take their produce to Pakistan should have made the RSS realise the repercussion of its blockades. Instead, the BJP threatened Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that it would withdraw its support to his government if he did not stop trucks moving to Kashmir. Correctly, he did not yield to the threat. Still two BJP ministers in his Cabinet were able to disrupt the supply for some time.
The government once again woke up to threats of going across to Muzzafarabad late. When people took to the streets, the police action began. The protest was bound to spread to other places because after a long time, people had a chance to ventilate their age-old grievances. It is a bigger question of Kashmir which unfortunately has been reopened on the religion lines.
The whole situation has a lesson for New Delhi. Having opposed the two-nation theory, India has a point that the Hindu majority Jammu and the Muslim majority Kashmir cannot be separated because it will tell upon India's secular polity. However, after the recent happenings in the Valley and Jammu, the whole thing becomes a question mark.
Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP.
