Nawang Tsering Shakspo
In its more than one thousand years of cultural and religious history, several times Ladakh has gone through political upheaval but on socio-cultural front the region succeeded in maintaining the century’s old essence of Mahayana Buddhist culture and civilization.
Well documented religious, political and social history on the region say that commencing from 900 A.D. the descendent of the Mythical king of Tibet, Nyathi-tsanpo ruled over the region for about 1000 years and only in the year 1834, the forces of Maharaja Ghulab Singh led by General Zorawar Singh subjugated the region and from the time onward it became a colony of the successive Dogra Maharajas naming region as Ladakh Wazarat and the Dogra rulers divided the region into three tehsils namely Skardu, Kargil and Leh.
On August 15, 1947, India gained its independence. With that, most of Ladakh became part of Jammu and Kashmir State. However, Skardu, historically part of Ladakh Wazarat, was annexed to Pakistan. In the new post independent setup of Jammu and Kashmir State, the region was divided into two tehsils namely Leh and Kargil and from administrative point of view, together was given the status of a district, placing Leh as the district headquarter. With the passage of time Kargil was made district in the year 1975.
From the day Ist, when of Ladakh was made as a part of Jammu and Kashmir in the year 1947, the successive government at Jammu or in Srinagar treated Ladakh indifferently. This discriminatory policy of the Government was openly challenged in 1952, by none other than Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, the then undisputed leader of Ladakh and presently acknowledged as the architect of Modern Ladakh on the floor of State assembly in presence of Sheikh Abdullah, who in the year 1947, emerged as the savior of Kashmiri people in the aftermath of the partition of India and Pakistan.
And on the other hand Ladakhis coming with the protest march against the step motherly treatment had become a common phenomenon in the region and on due to the first massive Buddhist agitation of the year 1967, in order to resolve the stalemate, a cabinet minister of then Kashmir Government was deputed among the corrective step taken aftermath of the visit of the minister was creation of 32 Ladakhi/Bodhi language teachers, some numbers of Arabic teachers and induction of a Buddhist minister in the Kasmir Government. Still the grievances of the Buddhist could not be resolved. This led the Government of India and the State Government at Srinagar to constitute a number of commissions for the redressal of the grievances.
Among the commissions which were constituted was Gajendragadkar Commission after the Buddhist agitation 1968, the Sikri Commission in the 1975. Among the major demands of the Ladakhi was to open a degree college at Leh. Since the State Government could not fulfill these demands, the Buddhist again came on the street and made demand of NEFA type administration, which finally turned for the demand for UT status for Ladakh. With that momentum was gained for the grant of schedule tribes status to the region in the year 1972, the status which was finally confirmed to certain tribes of Ladakh in the year 1985. Still the demand for separation of Ladakh from Kashmir and grant of Union Territory status to Ladakh stayed unresolved. This resulted the successive Government at New Delhi to intervene in the Kashmir Government affairs, which coincided with the long spell governor rule in the J&K State. The Government of India without touching the sanctity of section 370, granted the c Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDC) Leh and Kargil instead of UT status thorough a President of India notification.
With the emergence of two Hill Councils, 30 persons in each of Leh and Kargil district got elected as councilors. On the other hand discontentment started brewing in the youngsters particularly among the unemployed youth. As the State government did not empower the to the Hill Council regarding creation of posts and promotions, particularly of the Divisional Cadre posts, the two LHDC could not do much fafour to the unemployed educated youths.
On the other hand in those days for the Government of India, the main task was to to cool down the turmoil in the Kashmir Valley on the priority basis. Towards this direction the Government of India appointed three men Interlocutor Group on J&K in 2010 and the report was submitted in 2012. In the report of the interlocutor among the many recommendations, it was said that Ladakh may be separated from Kashmir, means recommended to grant Divisional status. Unfortunately on this attention-grabbing recommendation, Ladakhi leaders belonging to various political parties kept silent and interestingly in the year 2013, I attended the 14th conference of International Association for Ladakh Studies (IALS) held at Heidelberg University, Germany with a paper on Divisional Status to Ladakh, highlighting the benefit from the Division Status particularly to educated youth regarding to employment. In this regard itosome extends succeeded in mobilizing people opinion on the issue. Interestingly, Greater Kashmir news paper in its editorial published my writing in the issue of July 5th, 2012 under the caption,
“The report of the Central Government’s appointed interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir is now available for public debate. Among the proposals which surfaced in the report, and which I found significant for Ladakh in particular, is that, “Ladakh would no longer be part of Kashmir division, as was the case presently”.
On one hand in Kashmir valley, the separatist carried unabated activities, on the other here in Ladakh, the demand of UT status got momentum. In the General Election of year 2004, Thupstan Chewang contested election for the lower house of Parliament (Lok-Sabha) under the banner of Ladakh Union Territory Front, a newly formed political party,. Interestingly in the year 2014, he again contested the Lok Sbha election but this time on the ticket of Bhartiya Janata Party with the same demand of U T status to Ladakh. He remained as member of Parliament for more than four years, later he got disillusioned with the functioning of the Bhartiya Janta Party and understood that Government led by BJP is not serious by taking the issue of UT status to Ladakh, he resigned from the primary membership of BJP as well from the seat of member of Parliament (Lok-Sabha) in the year 2018, only some months ahead of the General election for the 17th Lok Sabha.
On the other hand grant of UT status to Ladakh was very much in the agenda of the BJP manifesto. In a significant political as well as administrative development, on February 8th, 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Governor, Satya Pal Malik granted the Divisional Status to Ladakh region, separating it from the Kashmir Division. This historic decision of the governor turned out to be the first step toward implementation of the BJP agenda. In the month of April, 2019, the general election for the 18th Lok Sabha was held and in May 2019, the result was declared. BJP Government returned to power with thumping majority and came in a position to implement the party manifesto. Interestingly, Ladakhis do not have to wait for long. On August 5th 2019, the Government of India revoked the special status or autonomy of the J&K State granted under article 370 of the Indian constitution, declared Ladakh as a Union Territory, completely separating from the administrative bullying of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir Government based at Srinagar or Jammu.
Now time has come for the people to rejoice but with more responsibility. No doubt the centre will liberally pour funds to the region and will do great progress outwardly, but for inner development relies on giving priority to develop the centuries old cultural value of the region which the region is known for. For me the top most priority sector for the development of the region is teaching and promotion of indigenous language and culture, which one can find enshrined in the local language and scriptures, which is Ladakhi or alternatively we also call it Tibetan language. Now time has ripen for the administrators of the Union Territory Ladakh to make Ladakhi language a compulsory subject at least till the 5th Standard in every school of the region, following the education pattern of the neighboring UT of Chandigarh, where Punjabi language is taught compulsory in the schools.
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