In last few years, there has been an increasing assertion of Jammu’s regional identity. Various political parties, leaders and organisations have been speaking on behalf of the people of the region. However, if one has to point out one person who consistently gave voice to Jammu’s personality and regional identity, it is not difficult to do so because for quite some time it was one man army, known as Balraj Puri who singlehandedly kept on referring to ‘Jammu’s neglect’ and kept on demanding ‘regional autonomy’ for this region. On his first death anniversary, it is very appropriate that we should pay him tribute by referring to his contribution to the case of Jammu region.
Simply stated
Rekha Chowdhary
It would not be inappropriate to say that Puri’s was the only written academic work that brought Jammu to the national and international attention. In a world of journalistic and academic writings, it was only ‘Kashmir’ that was the centre of attention and not much was known about the society and politics of this region. It was through three of his books of his and plethora of articles written for national newspapers, magazines and journals that he not only talked about the society and the people of the region but also made a strong case for political parity of the region with that of Kashmir. These three books are: Jammu: A Clue to Kashmir Tangle;Simmering Volcano and Jammu and Kashmir: Triumph and Tragedy of Federalism. The point that he made in all these books was that Jammu as a region had a personality of its own and though internally it was quite plural and had ‘mosaic’ -like qualities, yet, it had a regional continuity in terms of its culture and sensibilities. Further, he referred to the regional urge to be politically empowered. In his understanding it was lack of political empowerment of the region and its political neglect which not only made the region erupt in one agitation or the other but also led to tensions between the two major regions of the state.
While demanding the regional empowerment and the regional autonomy for Jammu (as well as Ladakh) Puri applied the federal argument. In his opinion, the autonomy guaranteed to the state under Article 370 would remain incomplete if it does not incorporate the structure of regional autonomy. Since Article 370 reflected the federal principle of providing autonomy from the Centre to the state, it needed to travel further to the regional and other lower levels. He always lamented that while the state was given a constitution of its own to commemorate its autonomy, but the constitution did not recognise the pluralities of the state and was monolithic in nature. He therefore demanded that there be a five tier system of autonomy with power being dispersed at various levels including the State, Region, District, Block and Panchayat.
Balraj Puri’s relentless campaign for Regional Autonomy made him a well-known champion of of the cause and he was given the opportunity to head the Regional Autonomy Committee by the National Conference government in the mid-1990s. However, the reluctance of this government to accept Puri’s ideas led them to remove him from the Committee. This Committee (minus Balraj Puri) came up with a report on Regional Autonomy which negated the very idea of Jammu (or even Ladakh) as a region. In protest, Balraj Puri put on record his own report and got it published. This report not merely makes a strong case for recognising Jammu as a region, despite the pluralities within and despite the social and political differences but also gave a formula to tackle these differences by recognising that after the state and the region, there is a need to further devolve the power at the lower levels.
Balraj Puri’s definition of region therefore was very dynamic. While maintaining the argument that Jammu region had its own personality and regional identity, he was careful in giving a very broad and inclusive definition of the region. This was not a region in which a particular community or caste or linguistic group was privileged but a region which represented different communities and social groups. This region was to be owned by Hindus as by the Muslims; by urban people as by the rural people; as much by the Dogra heartland as by the Gujjar and Pahari areas in Poonch-Rajouri; and different communities within the Doda belt.
Being a liberal democrat with a bias towards socialist principles, Puri emphasised on plurality as the social, cultural and political resource. Rather than finding the linguistic, cultural and religious differences within Jammu, a problem – he saw in these the strength of the region. That is the reason he identified himself with various identities and also fought for the recognition of these identities. Thus he was as much sympathetic with the demand for inclusion of Dogri in the Eighth Schedule of Indian Constitution, as with the demand for recognition of the rights of the Gujjars and Paharis. He spoke for people of the Doda belt and also identified with the issues of people living near the borders and various kinds of displaced people.
Jammu fascinated Puri as a multi-cultural society that provided a clue to deal with chauvinist ideologies. Diversity, in his opinion made a way for a living secularism with people not only co-existing with each other but also having respect for each other. That is the reason that he found that of all the regions of the state, Jammu is one which has greater social and cultural depth.
Recognising Jammu’s diversity as its cultural resource/ capital and recognising its plural character as its political base – is the best tribute that one can pay to Balraj Puri
(Feedback welcome at rekchowdhary@gmail.com)
Follow our WhatsApp channel