K B Jandial
Naeem Akhtar, State Education Minister shared his thoughts at the 6th Sat Paul Sahni Memorial Lecture hosted by IIPA last week that found wide acceptability in the gathering of Jammu’s civil society comprising retired civil servants, academicians, businessmen, university students and media persons. His thought provoking observations should have unleashed a debate but regrettably it was not so.
After witnessing an absorbing presentation of Prof Ashok Ogra on the Story of India through the lens of Bollywood, Naeem acknowledged existence of trust deficit between the people of various regions of the State, and said that “we have built ‘China Walls’ around us” that are coming in the way of amity and harmony which was once our enviable identity. Naeem made no bones about the widening gaps between the people on regional and religious lines and said that he considered J&K State as the last bastion of God’s creation as it accommodated God’s almost ‘all loving children belonging to all faiths’ who lived in total harmony and peace till we started building ‘China Walls’ around us.
Making a fervent appeal to the civil society to accept the challenge to help removing mutual mistrust and preserve the uniqueness of Jammu and Kashmir, Naeem in an emotive tone wished that “the coming generations need to be spared from the tragedy that our generation was forced to live in”. He lamented that the people have become uninformed about each other and despite knowing for decades, they started judging them on the happenings taking place elsewhere. As Education Minister, he has asked the policy planners to reflect and address this critical issue in the State’s new education policy.
Laudable thoughts, indeed! It is right that in an environment of friendship and peace, men of different religions and regions sit happily in the comfort of each other and share their nostalgic moments of the happy days of the past. But how to re-establish these moments into a permanent reality and bring back acche din? Who will demolish these ‘Walls of China’ and how? Can this be realized in real time?
Harmony and tolerance are at the very foundation of our ethos, traditions and history. The national Constitution cast a fundamental duty on every citizen to promote harmony and the spirit of brotherhood amongst the people transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities. Despite overall secular outlook of our people cutting across religious lines, the tyranny of the small minority of bigots coupled with some institutions and factors negate the silent desire of the majority. How do we make people to reflect on their individual and collective obligations to promote goodwill and amity in our polity and society?
Even if it is much larger issue the fact remains that upsurge in secessionist sentiments and outbreak of militancy that led to migration of KPs is the one singular factor that soured intercommunity and inter-regional relations. But with waning of militancy and consequent fading of secessionist feelings, inter- community relations improved even though prejudices remained. After restoration of democracy and huge participation of people in election in defiance to separatists’ diktat prejudices and suspicion watered down. Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore on Friday has created thaw in Indo-Pak relations and bonhomie at highest political level, things would further improve in J&K as well.
The major challenge comes from none other than our politicians, especially the traditional ones. Our present day democracy doesn’t allow people of different regions and religions to come closer. They, in fact, look for issues to fuel tension, putting one section of the people against the other. All political parties who cry hoarse about the well being of the people, are squarely motivated by the vote-bank politics for which they would not shirk from shedding each other blood, what to talk of cementing the bonds of amity. Their interest lies in disharmony and discord, perhaps little knowing that disharmony results in discord; discord disturbs social peace; absence of social peace impedes progress and development. Could there be a greater social sin than creating disharmony for petty political gains or even for a headline? Which politician can be credited with working for cementing the bonds of amity among the people of different regions or faiths?
The regional “intellectuals” pose another challenge to this admirable objective. Some call them “villains” of the peace. These “intellectuals” through their writings in the newspapers and lectures at seminars at regional, state, national and international level seldom preach harmony and friendship among people of all regions and faiths who live in God’s final bastion of creation. Their agenda is well defined. The discourse for those coming from Kashmir is to air anti-India; and anti- Kashmiri Muslims, if belonging to the tormented migrant Kashmiri Pandit community. There is insignificant participation from Jammu in such seminars except the famous few, unfortunately two of them are not with us, and their discourse was never pro Jammu. So there was no real pusher of Jammu’s views except at times by people having RSS background. Such discourse by and large, cast a negative spell on the common man of opposite region or religion and in no way serve the purpose of uniting people.
The edit pages of Kashmir press are full of anti India or at times anti Jammu material. The columnists probably relish on such narratives even though nothing can be said for sure about people’s acceptance of such material which some in Jammu call contemptuous. Reading such material will not bring the present and future generations of Kashmir coming nearer to Jammu or for that matter, India. The Jammu press, at least the leading newspapers, is devoid of such scornful material. Kashmir writers justify such tone and tenure on the ground of conflict, human right violations, Kashmir dispute etc. The unchecked venom against India and prejudices against Jammu in the media is not conducive to razing of these “China Wall”.
One is reminded of an anecdote on the subject. On a reporter’s suggestion of seeking services of an ex- bureaucrat to resolve the problem, Gen. Musharraf curtly replied, “kya kareyn woh to ab ‘tabligi’ ban gaye hain. Patta nehi yeh sab log retirement ke baad ‘tabligi kyun ban jatey hain?” We too have many such ‘tabligis’.
Media,a force multiplier, is another impediment. While the leading newspapers of Kashmir play up anti-India and anti-Jammu news on their front pages having potential to mold the minds of the people, certain national TV channels have also taken upon themselves the role of super “nationalist” and every incident in Kashmir is debated in such a manner that bound to outrage Kashmiri sentiments. Without maligning the media persons of the valley the newspapers do display news with certain slant that strengthened the people’s anti-Delhi and anti-Jammu sentiments. Can anyone moderate their news presentation without taking away their fundamental right of press freedom? Not an easy task.
Role of education sector -syllabus to teacher, is indeed critical. The curriculum needs to be reformulated to bring about the desired attitudinal changes in the youth who could guarantee and carry forward J&K’s lofty traditions of peaceful coexistence of people of all faiths and respect for all religions. Such values can only be imbibed at educational institutions with the cooperation of parents. Academicians’ main duty is to train the young minds in academics to meet future challenges and make them responsible citizen. It is here that our future is shaped.
But some of academicians especially in Kashmir University are known ideologue of separatist movement who often appear on national TV debates where they brazenly articulate separatism. Their anti-India views vitiate the harmony and run counter to cementing the bonds of friendship among the people already distrustful to each other. J&K is an integral part of India, it is not because BJP says it as “atoot ang” but J&K Constitution says so. Teachers’ ideology bound to impact the thinking process of otherwise gullible students. The existing environment in Kashmir University campus is clearly reflects the impact. Students and some faculty members do not show respect to the national anthem played at functions attended by the Governor as per protocol requirement.
The mutual prejudices that exist between the people of various regions and religions are too deep rooted to be surmounted lightly. There has to be frequent people-to-people contact across the regions and religions. The faded culture of post festival ‘milans’ could be revived, not only at official level but at social level also. Maintaining personal contacts between friends across regions and joining each others’ festivals and other happy occasions should be encouraged to remove some of the misplaced prejudices.
Some novel initiative has to be thought of to bring people closer to each other and promote communal harmony. There is out-of-box initiative of a small village near Mumbai which may not be role model for the State but spirit is relevant. Early this year, Hindus and Muslims of Burondi village about 230 km from Mumbai did show something unheard in our life time. They signed a 100-year pact between themselves to maintain communal harmony. The pact, which was notarized, lays down a code of conduct for 4000 villagers to avoid communal strife. Unique in many ways it provides a code of conduct for the people for all situations including processions passing through the religious places. Hindus processions including barat passing in front of masjid will stop and wait till namaz is over and Govinda procession will pay obeisance. Members of both the communities will take part in each other’s festivals which will be celebrated in an inclusive way. For public programme, members of both the communities should be present on the dais and senior members of both the religions felicitated.
While Kashmir remained oasis of communal harmony in sub continent during the communal holocaust of partition, its traditions got mauled in nineties when Kashmiri Pandits were targeted leading to their migration. Whenever Kashmir’s secular credentials are questioned for savage acts of nineties, bloodshed of Muslims in Jammu in 1947 is referred to. Putting each other to shame will not lead us anywhere. The feelings of gory past have to be put aside if the State has to move forward and rewrite a new chapter of harmony, friendship and peace.
Even though the road to harmony and friendship between the people of all regions and religions is full of roadblocks, yet it is desirable Strenuous and sincere efforts of all stakeholders are called for to demolish these formidable walls and bring people closer, re-establishing the nostalgic era of the past.
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