The Rural - Urban divide in Kashmir
By K.N. Pandita

The rural-urban divide is more or less a general phenomenon in the developing countries. India is no exception. In some cases the divide is sharp and prominent and in others the advantages and disadvantages are shared equally.

In the case of Kashmir, the divide has been peculiar in many respects. The nationalist movement led by late Sheikh Abdullah developed a very strong rural base. The primary strength of that movement was the slogan of the land to the tillers. Thus it could become very popular and effective only in rural segment. One of the reasons why NC could break much ground in Jammu region despite its open revolt against the ruler, was that it reached the rural segments of Jammu society.

The National Conference, which spearheaded the movement, accepted the plough on the red background as its party banner. It carried a strong message for the rural population. Bards of Kashmir composed attractive verses to emulate the movement with the plough and the peasant at the centre. Therefore the National Conference movement really became the movement of the peasants and the labourers. It had extensive acceptance as the redeemer of the ills of the poor Kashmir peasantry. Therefore it is obvious that National Conference retained a strong base among the Jammu & Kashmir rural population.

However the question is how then did the rural-urban divide appear and with what ramifications? The answer is that as long as Sheikh Abdullah lived, he was too towering a figure to allow any urban or city based elitist group to hijack the movement and the party. But with his exit, the minions in NC developed myopic vision and concentrated on the urban cliques.

There was no dearth of psychophants and flatterers. A few Srinagar-based Muslim elite began to claim the leadership as their private property and NC as their fief. The rural leadership began to be relegated to back burner. Their importance diminished and their voice was no more as effective in the parity decisions.

The urban segment developed vested interests. They tightened their grip on all avenues of employment, promotion, professional training, economic benefits, and political power decision making. Nepotism became rampant and twenty-two elitist families of the city of Srinagar, linked up through matrimonial alliances, ruled the roost.

The first to feel the damage to the urban interests in Kashmir was late Abdul Ghani Lone. He was a Congressite to begin with and then an NC activist. He took up the cause why the urban elite only dominated the politics and economics of Kashmir. He revolted against it, albeit crudely and without the diplomatic finesse. Nevertheless, he took a stand and he raised his cadres round the slogan of proper share of power to the rural segment. In a sense, the entire district of Baramulla was sensitized to the slogan raised by late Lone Sahib.

In the case of Anantnag district, the impact of the divide was a bit less than in the district of Baramulla (now comprising two districts of Baramulla and Kupwara). The reason was that the lieutenant of late Shiekh Abdullah was a man from Anantnag who had carved a strong constituency. He was the next powerful man in the party after Sheikh Abdullah. His rival late Maulana Masudi (of Baramulla district then) was a scholar-politician after the fashion of great moralists in politics like Gandhiji. He was too big a man in mind to be led astray by petty and inconsequential matters like rural-urban divide. He represented the true secular and non-parochial character of the party and, of course, he suffered for that. On the other hand, Mirza Afzal Beg did give his home district a place in the overall approach of the National Conference. This is the reason why even today, the people in Anantnag district are more politically oriented than those in the district of old Baramulla are.

However, Lone Sahib did not lose the sight of the simmering discontent among the rural segment in other parts of Kashmir. The second tenure of Sheikh Abdullah rule beginning 1975 was the turning point; He had become old and disenchanted.

He knew his and NC real strength lay in the Muslim majority of Srinagar valley.. He was surrounded by younger generation of leaders who were not thoroughly trained in the political school. A very ambivalent bureaucracy and administrative structure pestered him. Therefore, he succumbed to the urban elite that was dominating the political stage in Kashmir.

The urban elite gradually centralised great power and influence onwards of 1975 with the Titanic symbol at the top of the Government. They threw an iron curtain around them and it was extremely difficult to find entry into this protected fort. On the other hand, the distancing of the covetous urban elite from the rural segment resulted in gradual upsurge of anti-urban protest among the rural population. The Jamaat-i-Islami that did not have any political agenda in the beginning now found the time ripe in the rural Kashmir to play its role. It supported the cause of the rural population and thus became popular with them. The movement some call the "Freedom Movement" and others "Terrorism" was essentially a movement of the deprived and discriminated rural population against the urban elite that ate the cake and had it.

On the instance of Jamaat-e-Islami, and later on goaded further by the Allahwale Movement, the rural population of Kashmir and particularly north Kashmir in the beginning, showed clear signs of revolt in late 1980s against the Government controlled by the urban elite (both of NC and Congress chapters).

It was this anti-urban sensitivity which the clever and cunning elite of Srinagar diverted into anti-India movement giving it religious colour. They are superb in these maneuverings. The ISI, always on the prowl, caught the time by forelock and entered the scene. The anti-urban movement became the so-called Freedom Movement directed against India and Indian presence in Kashmir. The rest is history.

The recent polls show very convincingly that even after the decade-long killings and destruction in Kashmir, the sensitivity of rural-urban divide remains intact. In the eight city-based constituencies of Srinagar, votes cast were only 2 to 3 per cent whereas in its two muffasil constituencies the voting was in the neighbourhood of 11 per cent. In the rural constituency of Budgam it was 51 per cent. Likewise in the towns of Sopor and Baramulla, the voting was less than 6 per cent but in the rural areas it was about 45 per cent. The rural-urban divide had long back penetrated the Kashmiri Pandit community from distant times to the limits of mutual bias and jealousy, which seriously impeded their ability to forge political consensus. Their response to boycott call by some amateurs snatched from their hands a good opportunity of making political presence in the impending assembly for the first time.

The pattern of voting indicates that while the urban pockets dominated by the elite want to retain and insulate their power and influence, the rural population wants a change in power sharing system. The urban elite took recourse to boycotting because status quo is the only way of keeping themselves saddled in their seats of power. The rural segment came out with a heavy turnout because it craves for a change and recognition of its rights. The tussle between the rural and urban power brokers will continue in Kashmir unless a leader is thrown up by events of history who bridges the divide and provides an egalitarian dispensation. Unless the rural areas are provided with better infrastructure, employment chances and job opportunities, better educational and medical facilities, road, electric power and small scale industries, communication and housing programmes, the rural-urban divide will prove a disaster for the State.

Secularism through religion

By Vazeeruddin

More important than the fact that the Supreme Court has upheld the National Curriculum Framework for Secondary Education (NCFSE) is the observation that with ''the word 'religion', as it is used in the national policy of education, secularism would (not) be in peril''. In other words, the apex court has shown the way to reinforcing secularism through the teaching of religions.

That is no dialectic. On the contrary, true secularism can come only through a proper understanding of religions and their teachings. But, how that understanding is inculcated in school children remains to be seen ? One way would, however, be to teach them the essence of all religions, with all their diverse interpretations of the same essence.

For instance, school children should be told repeatedly about the fundamental unity underlying all religions and the oneness of the God they all profess to worship, though they call Him by different names, and ask children to learn to pay attention to man's inner world, 'the kingdom of heaven', rather than to external trappings of religions.

Professor Parrinder said : ''The religions of the world today face a completely new situation. Never before have they been in such close contact as they are now. The world in which we live with its close communications makes nonsense of religious isolation and greater nonsense of religious antagonism''.

The unity of man must transcend all physical and geographical boundaries and override all man-made barriers. The realization of the unity of man will impart an element of spirituality to human thought and action.

This truth has been beautifully expressed in a memorable verse in the Upanishads. It can roughly be translated as follows: ''Man may try, through his technical advances, to roll up the sky itself as if it were a piece of leather. But, with all that, he will never succeed in achieving peace and the end of his sorrow without realizing the luminous Divine within him.''

Decades ago, the UNESCO emphasized the influence of spiritual values on political structure and techniques. The element of spirituality depends upon the correct understanding of the evolution of man in the environment of nature, in a wider sense, and the discovery of the true relationship of man with God.

Religion is a personal and intimate relationship of man with his Maker. It is a part of one's being and an integral part of one's emotions and feelings. The object of all religious quests is essentially the same, to know the Supreme Truth that pervades all creation.

A religions seek to lead man to a common goal. They appear to differ from one another because they were originally preached at different times and in different environments. Promotion of understanding and appreciation of the essential unity of all religions will help people perceive and comprehend the fact that all of them utter the same truth, though in different idioms.

While it is perhaps natural that each individual should cherish a special feeling of reverence for his own religion, every Indian should appreciate the true meaning and depth of other faiths. This is possible only through a dialogue with one who has personal experience of the particular religious faith that one may try to understand.

A religion seen from within is very different from what it looks like from outside. We must experience that feeling, which has thrilled the followers of another faith, if we wish to understand it. That is the sum and substance of the observations of the Supreme Court.

For instance, the Hindu regards every religion as true if its adherents sincerely and honestly follow it. Sankara had a comprehensive apperciation of different expressions of the One Truth even though he spoke of six orthodox systems of religion.

Ibn-al-Arabi, the Arab philosopher, said : ''My heart has become capable of every form. It is a pasture of gazelles and a convent for Christian monks, a temple of idols and the Kaaba of pilgrims and the book of the Kora., I follow the religion of love whichever way His camels take. My religion and my faith are, therefore, the true religion.''

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who had a simple but firm faith in the oneness of God, himself passed through spiritual experiences peculiar to different religions''.

The Vedantic dictum can be roughly translated as : ''He is one without a second, but sages comprehend Him differently and call Him by different names.''

Vedantic philosophy illustrates the truth thus: ''As different streams, having their sources in different places, all mingle their waters in the sea, so, O Lord, do the different tendencies take. Various though they appear, all lead to Thee.''

Maulana Rumi, the celebrated Sufi saint, said : ''The lamps are different but the light is the same''. Gandhiji realized the universality of religion and invoked God by the various names by which different religions call Him.

Arnold Toynbee rightly observed: ''The missions of the higher religions are not competitive but complementary. We can believe in our own religion without having to feel that it is the sole repository of truth.''

If such observations by such blessed souls could be incorporated into the school curriculum, as suggested obliquely by the Supreme Court, at least the future generations would have the satisfaction of having become secular through study not of any particular religion but of the essence of all religious.

(Syndicate Features).