Can it be all peace one day?
They may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
People who know me well can make an educated guess that one of my favorite pastimes is writing. Who would know this better than my family, especially my father, who got me into the habit of writing from early on. And on his last visit to the US, he even bought me a book titled "The Little Brown Handbook for Writers." It is a fantastic book for budding writers and has all information that one would need, neatly arranged in easy to find sections. On the topic of essay writing, the book suggests that each essay should focus on one idea, which we should divulge early on in a thesis statement, and the later paragraphs should primarily develop the main idea. I however intend to break that rule for this write up and will attempt to squeeze in multiple ideas totally unrelated to each other. Therefore if this article seems like a south-bound Shalimar express which snakes through and stops at every little station on its way, please do not start dozing off as you would on a real train; but instead, sit back and enjoy the ride.
I have to confess that the issues I will attempt to address are not something that anyone would "sit back and enjoy" per se, but these are real thought provoking, serious issues facing us today and need meaningful debate. The first issue that I would like to talk about today is the recent ruling by a Supreme Court judge ridiculing the choice of many Muslim men to grow a beard. I feel that this verdict is preposterous, not only because it has every sign of religious intolerance, but also because the choice of words used by the judge while delivering the verdict only highlights his insensitivity to Muslim religious practices.
This is not the India I know and love. This is not religious coexistence. I keep wondering what on earth could possibly be the motive behind the judge's reasoning. What did he really want to accomplish? The only thing that these kinds of events help in is that they further alienate Muslims and helps fan the flames of religious extremism. I have to concede that it does vindicate some people in Pakistan who hold the view that there are anti-Muslim forces within India.
I talk about Pakistan a lot because I feel we are part of the same family. Talking about a different nation as being our sister-country, for instance, China, would be un-natural; however, India and Pakistan have a millennia of shared history. We have cultural similarity, have same tastes in food, same musical likings, and even share the same national sport; therefore, it pains to see both our countries being ravished by extremist forces, who try to exploit the only difference between the majority of Indians and majority of Pakistanis - religion.
There are extremist elements in all countries. They come in all flavors. If Pakistan has its vocal share of extremists, so does India. The only difference is that their religions are switched, and perhaps the colour of the clothes that the perpetrators are wearing (which may or may not include a beard in case of Indian fanatics, however. But they perhaps will be wearing saffron bandanas). The motives of harassing non-believers remain the same, and so do the curtailing of women's rights and freedom of ordinary people, especially minorities. The stakes are higher when these extremists assume a position of power.
The verdict by Justice Katju gives credence to the fears of many Kashmiris who harbor separatist’s ideals. These type of events seem to vindicate their fears they have had all these years. I will not deny that the fear that communal forces within India such as BJP, Jan Sangh and others disperse among Kashmiris is real and understandable. The recent threat by BJP to abolish Article 370 is a good example of their polemic tactics to further alienate Kashmiris. This brings me to an anecdote about a thick-bearded, pious, and well-spoken acquaintance of mine who also happens to prescribe to separatist ideology. He happened to stop by my place on his way to Hazratbal. While we were arguing about issues all and sundry, it was natural that he would bring up this topic of the Supreme Court ruling against Muslim beards into the discussion. Surprisingly, the usually soft-spoken and mild mannered friend lost his cool when I reasoned that we should not take this rare and isolated ruling and paint all of India with the same brush. That would be wrong and flawed reasoning. Hearing my argument made him quite furious and I should have known better, because I had to be the recipient of his anti-India tirade for almost half-an-hour. Once he was done frothing at the lips calling me an array of names such as an Indian agent, an IB agent, a traitor, the heated discussion ebbed a little bit with the arrival of Kehwa and biscuits, and we were back to exchanging pleasantries.
I mentioned to him that there is always an ongoing battle between progressive elements in the society and the conservatives. Between the welcoming and the bigots. Between the peace-lovers and the intolerant. In short, there has always been a battle between the good and the evil, and there always will. This is true of any country in the world. Even if Kashmir were to secede from India, these very forces would rear their ugly head and the same cycle would be repeated again.
We would be doing a big disservice to the secular, progressive movement in India by taking an isolated incident and painting a picture of gloom over all of the good that India has to offer. I have always felt that Kashmiris should not give a reason to embolden the communal forces in India. Hypothetically speaking, should Kashmir ever separate from India, we would be deceiving the millions of Muslims and other peace-loving majority of Indian citizens.
However, given the volatile circumstances, I would suggest that national politicians not further confuse the voters by claiming that because 60% of Kashmiris voted in the assembly elections, that is a verdict to shelf the Kashmir issue. I truly believe that Kashmiris cannot withstand anymore double-crossing. It is a blatant disregard for the sentiments of Kashmiris to take them for a ride like this after six decades of insincerity from successive central governments. Most candidates in the last elections, including myself promised the voters that their vote is not a verdict to forget about resolving the Kashmir issue between India, Pakistan and all Kashmiris.
It is clear though that Kashmiris voted for peace, for change and have very high hopes tacked on the current government. Everyone can sense the enormous amount of expectations sought from Omar Abdullah. Are these expectations and hopes of ordinary Kashmiris from the current CM unrealistic? I do not blame people for having such high hopes considering the spate of governor rules and other governments that they have had to suffer through.
I believe there is a certain permanency in the words a person writes, but there is even more permanency in a person's actions. For instance, there is no better indication of a Chief Minister's caliber other than his actions. The speeches and interviews will be forgotten. The good news stories will be a distant memory just a short while from now. However, only ethical, upright and principled actions of the CM will be remembered by history. Spoken words are forgotten the next day; the written word is too much work to be dug up by historians - but actions are what make history and how he will be remembered many decades from now. The actions of Omar Abdullah in his few months of office speak for itself, and the only reason for mentioning this here is that Omar Abdullah should take it upon himself to be the catalyst for the resolution of the Kashmir issue.
I would not be exaggerating if I mentioned that Omar Abdullah has an enormous amount of goodwill in India as well as in Pakistan. He could capitalize on that goodwill and bring both India as well as Pakistan to the discussion table. Better yet, he should demand that the two sides sit down and hammer out a solution. Because of the goodwill, he could get away with many things that other former CM's could not. For instance, he could host a "Indo-Pak peace summit" in Kashmir and invite all stake holders in the conflict to an open debate here. This would include representatives of the Pakistan government, the Kashmiri separatist leaders, representatives from all mainstream Kashmiri parties, and representatives from the Central Government. The idea is that more interaction between all stake holders will hasten the likelihood of a solution being agreed upon which is acceptable to all sides.
There can be no other permanent engraving of one's name in the history of the Indian subcontinent than to be remembered as the person responsible for bringing peace to Kashmir and turning the enmity of India and Pakistan into long-lasting prosperous friendship.
How far away is the day when a saffron-clad sadhu from Varanasi can travel to Pakistan, without needing a visa or without having to fear for his safety? Or how many decades till a long-bearded Moulvi from Balochistan can similarly travel to anywhere in India without needing a visa or have to suffer being called a "Taliban terrorist"? Is this mere wishful thinking? I do not think so. Reminds me of my all time favorite song by John Lennon, "They may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."
Greater Kashmir 16th April
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/today/full_story.asp?Date=16_4_2009&ItemID=26&cat=12
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