Kashmir Quandary: Injustice to the children of a lesser god – I

By Sohail Parwaz
The same prejudiced West that shows concern for Arab Spring and lost sleep for people’s rights in Libya and Syria is ironically seen indifferent to the Kashmir dilemma. It’s a point of great concern that due to the atrocities by Indian security forces from January 1989 till mid June 2014, around 94,038 innocent Kashmiris have been killed and that excludes custodian killing which comes around 7,023. During this period approximately 126,209 arrests have been made while 22,778 women have been widowed and 107,469 children have been orphaned. The most heinous crime is of gang-raping which the inhuman Indian soldiers, shamelessly committed, thus raped and molested 10,120 women.
Dr. Subramanian Swami of BJP, a year ago, said in a television interview that the only solution to the Kashmir problem is a decisive war against Pakistan and latter must be nuked if India is interested in a peaceful Subcontinent. It reflects the mindset of Indian leadership and their interest for the peace but still if someone is interested in presenting the other cheek to the Indian hardliners then he is certainly living in a fools’ paradise. Ironically, despite a lapse of 66 years, Kashmiris are still struggling and sacrificing to achieve their alienable right under UN resolutions for the plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir. What the world needs to understand is that the global village will always remain restive if the flashpoint Kashmir remains unresolved and is not handled seriously.
The peace custodians of the world better worry for the speedily approaching Asian Autumn that may turn world into a barren globe. According to a systematic and deliberate planning the Kashmir issue is being shoved in the dusty draws. The basic issue was the freedom and Kashmiris’ right of self-determination, which was molded with the passage of time as an unfinished business of partition. The deliberate efforts were made to minimize its gravity as some ‘internal matter’ or some bilateral matter, while the history suggests that the issue existed even before India and Pakistan were founded as independent and separate nations.
The Kautiliya Arthashastra is considered to be the oldest and most exhaustive treatise on the governance and administration of a state. Kautiliya in this Arthashastra inscribes: “The Raja longing for victories and invasions should place himself at the center of the axis while all the principalities and states situated in the neighbourhood should be declared adversaries and whenever these neighbours are found bogged in internal or outer hitches and glitches, should be invaded and annexed forthwith. If these neighbouring countries are found feeble and fragile or having no support at all, then either they should be kept under stress and strain or purged from tip to toe.” Kautiliya’s advice to the Raja was to remember that the neighbours of his neighbours were not only Raja’s friends but his natural allies as well.
The Brahman’s yearning for hegemony never depleted. In the latter half of the past century the most apt case in point is the occupation of Kashmir, subduing Bhutan, suppressing Bangladesh and irritating Nepal. No mention of Hyderabad Deccan, Goa and Junagadh, those were silently and criminally invaded and occupied soon after the Partition despite the fact that principalities never desired to live under Indian Dominion. The Kashmir issue was created by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru not because he had any special attachment for Kashmir as the “land of his ancestors” as he commonly used to mention it. His primary aim was to weaken Pakistan, which had come into existence as a sovereign State in 1947 against the wishes of the leaders of the Hindu Congress, aka the Indian National Congress. If Nehru’s point is honoured that he accessed Kashmir due to great attachment for latter, as it was the land of his ancestors, then why on earth, did his forces invade Junagadh, Hyderabad and Goa? After all these three states were by no way the lands of his ancestors? The fact is that the point of Kashmir being the land of his ancestors was invented by Nehru and his henchmen only to camouflage the evil and imperialistic designs of India on Kashmir.
It was the historic day of July 19, 1947 when at the residence of Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan in Abi Guzar, Srinagar during an emergency convention, All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference adopted the ‘Resolution for Accession to Pakistan’. In the presence of Abdul Rahim Wani with 59 other prominent leaders in attendance the resolution was presented by Khawaja Ghulam uddin Wani. It was presided over by Chaudhry Hamid Ullah Khan. The genuine representatives of majority of Kashmiris passed this resolution of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan and it reflected the ambitions of the majority of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, hence was unanimously adopted on the basis that existing religious, geographical, cultural and economic ties and the aspirations of millions of Kashmiri Muslims warranted accession of State with Pakistan. It was a historic movement since it gave the liberation movement a clear objective and goal.
The discovery publishing house New Delhi published a 15 volume book under the title ‘Documents on Kashmir Problem’ in 1991. It’s a culling and compilation of original historic documents i.e. letters, telegrams, treaties and resolutions etc. Its first volume contains some dates and chronology of a number of documents those reveal the intentions and aim of the then Indian government. It clearly exposes the Maharaja Hari Singh’s and the Indian government’s nefarious nexus. It shows that the stage was set for the Indian forces landing in the valley. The plan was made immediately after the passing of the resolution by the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference about accession of the State with Pakistan, while the correspondence with the Pakistan government and the authorities was merely a cover up.
It has to be seen that, were the circumstances such that forced the Indians to intrude or it was planned drama which was staged to occupy a Muslim majority state forcibly, despite the majority’s decision in favour of accession to Pakistan? What wrath fell in 100 days that compelled the Indians to criminally push their forces into the Valley on 27 October 1947 and by force occupy Jammu and Kashmir in utter violation of the partition plan and against the wishes of the Kashmiri people? Amazingly in August 1947, an exchange of telegrams between the Kashmir government and the Pakistani authorities shows that both were interested and agreeing upon a Standstill Agreement on all matters.
As mentioned earlier that something had already started cooking up in the ‘Kashmir Kitchen’, certainly under the supervision of the ‘Indian Chefs’ and it was soon after the passing of the resolution regarding accession to Pakistan, by the Jammu & Kashmir Muslim Conference. The astonishing fact is that the events were trending rapidly. Merely in 100 days, the Indian forces had their boots in the Valley. Obviously it was not possible in such a short time unless preliminaries had already not been tied up.