Manu Khajuria
The demand for a Public holiday on the birth anniversary of Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu Kashmir, which had reared its head tentatively a few years back, turned into a lionesque roar this 23rd september, showing promise of being a game changer in the coming years. 55 years after his death, the silence which the Maharaja chose as his response to the gross injustice meted to him, has found words in his people and their voice is reverberating in the Dogra heartland and beyond.
A massive rally saw Jammu City coming to a grinding halt, and the region saw celebrations far and wide. Many schools were closed and offices remained unattended in defiance to the state governments’s inflexible stand on this issue. This was a demand supported by not just ethnic Dogras both Hindus and Muslims, but by other state stakeholders and community organisations like the State Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee and Panun Kashmir. The ripples were felt worldwide as messages of support came from community members from as far as U.K., US, Canada.
London the city where Maharaja Hari Singh, the sovereign of one of the largest independent Princely states had fearlessly demanded honour and equality for India, in the Round Table Conference in 1930-31, saw the community gathering and remembering him. The Dogra community under the banner of Voice of Dogras with the support of Bob Blackman, a Conservative MP, had celebrated Maharaja Hari Singh’s birth anniversary at the UK Parliament in Oct 2016. This will remain a milestone in the emergence of a Dogra Narrative free from the shadow of Kashmir. Eighty five years after the Maharaja spoke for an undivided India, and invited the wrath of the British, who unleashed a conspiracy against him, resulting in a virulent anti Dogra campaign, British Parliament witnessed an event which was not just about celebrating him but it attempted to initiate the correction of historical wrongs committed against him, and against the Dogra people and Dogra history.
Notably this year there was visible support on the social media from Dogra Muslims living in POJK. This highlighted the fact easily hidden by the incorrect semantics of POK, that the majority of the area under the illegal occupation of Pakistan is mainland Jammu and not Kashmir. There were articles, posts, declarations about the greatness of the Dogra dynasty and Maharaja Hari Singh in particular. In POJK a student organization called Azad JKSLF hoisted the erstwhile State flag and declared the first Dogra Maharaja, Maharaja Gulab Singh, the Founder of Jammu Kashmir state and Maharaja Hari Singh as great leaders of the state despite being at the receiving end of brutalities by the Pakistani agencies. In fact one of the Azad JKSLF leaders Mudassir Shah has had to go into exile.
The massive rallies and all round support was a reminder of the Amarnath Land Row Agitation of 2008, which had seen some of the largest rallies in the history of Jammu Kashmir with more than 500,000 people participating. Young and old, all in the Jammu Region were ready to Jail Bharo in 2008. This 23rd September was something alike. Both the grandsons of Maharaja Hari Singh, PDP MLC Vikramaditya Singh and BJP Legislator Ajatashatru had tabled a resolution in the Legislative Council, demanding a public holiday on Maharaja Hari Singh’s birth anniversary, but there was no positive response from the state government. Other political parties continued to test waters and occasionally individual legislators like Devendra Rana from the National Conference, mindful of the aspirations of their respective constituencies broke rank, asserting a demand for a public holiday. The state BJP looked feeble and unconvincing as it also asked for a public holiday from its coalition partner PDP. The partnership and BJP’s token role in it has been clear for the people to see soon after the government was formed. Such was the anger and frustration of the people, who saw through this tokenism, weakness and delayed activism of its own representatives, that BJP Dy CM Dr Nirmal Singh was heckled, prevented to speak and driven away from one of the venues of celebration.
To most, ranging from media, the so called Kashmir experts/activists whose bread and butter is Jammu Kashmir and even the ones with an armchair interest in JK, have either been surprised by this demand and outpouring or have dismissed it as romanticism with monarchy. It is most likely to be considered irrelevant to warrant any discussion on it. It is the misfortune of the people of Jammu that it’s image was tarnished during the Amarnath Agitation too, as media mostly portrayed the only secular region of the state as communal even though all it had asked for was its right to worship peacefully. This was the fault of the media which put forth a skewed narrative, the lack of articulate spokespersons from Jammu barring a few and very few or no writers at all from Jammu writing about this issue on national print media. The Jammu Voice was purposely distorted and pitted against a suave, articulate and a very vocal Kashmiri voice which has mastered the art of making every other story irrelevant and a lie other than theirs, Jammu stood no choice.
But come 2017 things have changed. With the Social media revolution, Jammu does not depend only on a still disinterested national media for its voice to go far. The earlier reticent Jammu has taken to the social media like duck to water and has not left any stone unturned or rather used every available social media platform to tell its story. From Maharaja Hari Singh display pictures on Whatsapp and Facebook to corresponding hashtags on Twitter, for the first time a people who have to explain who they are and where they come from, Dogra word was trending on the Twitter India.
So to those who are wondering why Jammu wants another holiday and like the British loves it’s monarchy so, it was more than about a holiday. It was definitely about its last Monarch who historians have wronged and Kashmir has painted black. It was about a Monarch who believed that justice was his religion, who was a great educationist, a socio-religious reformer and worked hard to make the state a force to reckon with in terms of health care, tourism and small scale industry. It was about a King who acceded the state to India, while preserving its special status. But more than that this the demand was about the double standards of Kashmir leaning on the Maharaja when it wants the special status not toyed with and at every other time choosing best to either lie about his role in the history of Jammu Kashmir. It was about anger on celebrating people who lead the anti Dogra campaign or days which are markers of the same. The people were also protesting against these false narratives which have kept the regions divided and the Dogras suppressed. It was about a King, a Dogra, the first forced exile from the state who died a heartbroken man far away from his beloved Jammu Kashmir.
23rd September, was about the history of a people and a land which founded the modern state of Jammu Kashmir as we see it today. The systematic erosion of Dogra history has been a way to strip its people off their self esteem and their legacy. It was about the 101years of Hindu Dogra rule, which saw no conversions or exodus and the state retained it majority Muslim character. What should have been a best case study was wiped out from the textbooks and people’s memory. The history of modern Jammu Kashmir starts from Sheikh Abdullah and ends with NC. This agitation was about a people, the finest and bravest warriors who were so busy fighting wars, expanding India’s boundaries to the northernmost frontiers and standing tall between the enemy and the rest of the nation that they wrote very little of their history and accomplishments leaving a wide room for mischief. They are still facing fire, mortar shells destroying lives and livlihood in the Jammu border villages. They still remain invisible. It was about them and the immediate need of Dogra history finding its way back to the state’s textbooks.
The unified voice ringing across Jammu Region was also about the land which has been home to different refugees and the only region in the state which upholds any claims the state makes of a secular and diverse fabric. It’s inclusive and peaceful nature has been exploited to an extent that Jammu is being made to forget what it was and is. Victimhood has become the exclusive prerogative of only a few and Jammu is silenced before it can speak. Jammu is made to feel guilty for talking about itself, hence it is misrepresented and the issues projected as Jammu’s are not really Jammu’s. It was about this voicelessness and misrepresentation.
It was about Jammu Region’s culture and language. It was about the rightly placed fears of the local Dogra culture dying in absence of adequate promotion and protection. It was about the symbols of Dogra heritage that have been allowed to whither away. We have lost many Dogra forts, ruins now and those remaining have been turned into prisons and offices. One even has a water tank built right in this middle of its compound. The archives are gathering dust and any promotional event or revival project is a half hearted attempt. Jammu came out on the roads to let out a cry against against this purposeful disrespect and non chalance. It was about the endless promise the history and beauty of this Region hold not only for tourism but for uplifting its people.
It was about years of misgovernance and regional discrimination. It was about Jammu’s issues being diluted by other issues which do not directly concern it. It was against the lack of coherent policy on JK and equal treatment of Jammu Region by the centre. Jammu is an afterthought for the Centre who have taken the region’s loyalty for granted and fly past to the Valley to exchange hugs and hold unconditional dialogues. Decades of subverted idea of nationalism has been sold to Jammu where it has been taught not to speak of itself. Jammu does not need to prove its patriotism and regionalism is not a dirty word in Jammu’s context. We need to care of ourselves first, to serve the Nation best and let not anyone tell us otherwise. Dissolution of our identity can never be good for the Nation too.
What Jammu witnessed on 23rd September was about history, identity, language, culture,preservation and survival. It was about a people, their land and their ways. It was about what they had founded and the so much more they were capable of, if they were allowed to see their true relflection. When that dust is polished off what would stare back at the Dogras, would be their legacy of being warrior statesmen, self reliant, tolerant and inclusive,with the power to build and uplift. It was a reiteration of the fact that time had come where Jammu needed to tell its story, reclaim its history, embrace its legacy, speak in one voice, loud and clear. It was an awakening and just the beginning.
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