Resolutions and missions

Prof. A N Sadhu
The demography of Kashmir changed during the last six hundred years. It was not a natural transformation but was designed and implemented by coercive methods. However, the valley tended to build and live in a composite culture with people from different faiths living together with trust and respect for each other. The valley came to be known as a land of saints, sufis, rishis and mystics giving the sermons of humanity and nurturing brotherhood among all faiths, religious and ethemic. With initial periods witnessing violence, the valley settled as a peaceful place and it got further consolidated during the Dogra regime before signs of turbulence appeared again in early thirties of the last centuary marking the protest against autocratic rule and also raising a simmering of communal tension in the region.There could be several reasons for it. Political, social and religious as the country was feircely  engaged with the colonial powers seeking to throw them out of the country and the  Britishers were bound to conspire against us. Political leaders seeking to divide the country on two nation theory were also desperate although not with much success but nevertheless able to sow the seeds of communal discord. 1947 tribal aggression and the ceasefire thereafter, marked the beginning of the era of strife  and constant pin pricking by the neighbouring country of Pakistan.1965 and 1971  wars manifested the desperateness of Pakistan and the humiliation it suffered by loosing East Pakistan and surrendering to Indian army along with a lakh of soldiers, made things worst for them. The present turbulence in Kashmir is a by-product of Pakistans helplessness and unless they come out of that syndrome or get effectively  rebuffed by the rational thinking world community, their tentacles of terrorism in Kashmir will continue to spread and any number of resolutions and peace missions will not succeed.
The turmoil since 1990 has not abated in any substantial manner, although we have witnessed periods of lull before fresh storms. The brutal killings and inhuman torture is unprecedented in a civil society. The administration has miserably failed to restore law and order and the Governments have remained confused all through and there has been absolute bankruptcy of ideas to deal with situations on ground. Confusions have been created in the public mind by drawing subtle distinctions between integration and merger, technical integration and emotional integration and varying interpretations by those who were entrusted with the responsibility of bringing back the state on rails. The present alliance, I am afraid is not in order. So far it has not made any dent on the statecraft and presented itself as an innovative model. The present socio political scenario is not reflective of a promising future, nor has it evinced any public approval, by and large. People are indifferent, feel unconcerned and slowly becoming insensitive towards the existing environment. They hardly take note of any resolutions and missions.
Should it take 27 years for a democratic Government to pass a resolution on the return and rehabilitation of a displaced community who are the ab- origins of the valley. Should a commission of enquiry not have been constituted during the intervening period as a fact finding mission. Should a resolution not have been passed that Government will get distress sale properties vacated and restored to the displaced persons. Should a resolution not have been passed that legislature will unanimously pass the Kashmiri Hindu Shrines bill. By passing a two line resolution without any commitment and a working plan along with a time frame, nothing new has been done. There has not been any dearth of lip sympathy during all these years but when it came to act and translate these lip sympathies into action, it did not happen. The trust deficit has increased overtime and all the opportunities of reducing this deficit were thrown to winds. Be it the case of package employees, the shrines bill as also the civic amenities to those who stayed back, nothing substantial has been done.
Well intentioned missions seeking to restore order in a trouble torn place should be welcome but those who have been the part of state administration and the Central Government should feign  lack of understanding of Kashmir turmoil and make a fresh effort to understand it and sensitise the country men about the same is not understandable. Do they mean that country does not understand the troubles of Kashmir and what all has been done during the last 27 years was not right. No right thinking person will like violence, shut-downs, closure of educational institutions and disruption of normal life but who is to ensure that this does not happen?
The missions from outside the state will never succeed in winning the confidence of the masses, be they from the majority or from the minority. The problem of the state is not what these missions understand or what they intend or pretend to understand. The problem is different both in content and dimension. It needs courage to portray  it and then suggest measures to handle it. Missions or no missions, resolutions or no resolutions, the problem has to be understood in its global perspective and in the light of its fall out in the years to come. The rational thinking people from within the state will have to come out and take the challenge and handle it within the realms of humanity. The missions subservient to limited reporting are handicapped to portray the real problem and the solution thereof. The world is passing through a difficult phase of history. Turbulence all around the globe, huge investments in war weaponry, expansionist tendency and demographic explosion have the portent of creating upheavals in any part or perhaps in every part of the world and the problems and issues of long standing have not remained insulated against all these developments on the international scale.
Several volumes have been written on Kashmir and several missions have ventured into researching and suggesting a solution to its woes. History takes its own course and its date line is drafted by both overt and covert interventions.
Nevertheless a peep into history is essential to analyse the present and draw the outlines of future. History does play a corrective role, if objectively interpreted and in the absence of the same, the extremity    may obliviate  the future and darken the course of events for the posterity. History is replete with several similar situations around the world at different times where statesmen rose to the occasion  to act with courage to steer their people through troubles to smooth state and open new vistas of forward movement for them to forge ahead.
The State of Jammu  and Kashmir is multi dimensional ethnically as also geographically and socio culturally as well unless there is cohesion, harmony and understanding among the people as also among the regions, howsoever small or large the number or area may be, stability will not return. The number may make a difference on elections but it does not in so far as the basic premises of democracy are covered.
Enough of Experimentation has taken place. There is no dearth of rational thinking people in the state. Should they not came out and put an arrangement in place to examine the multiple dimensions of the problem in an objective manner and hammer out a resolution in an honest way That mission alone will succeed in bringing back the state to normalcy; Let us open our eyes to global turbulence and close our doors not to let it in.
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