The Recent Turbulence in Kashmir
Burhan Wani's killing by the army has led to a large-scale turbulence in Kashmir. It was not simply another militant liquidated in Kashmir and over. The huge groundswell of the Kashmiri masses, desperately facing the flying army's bullets, the brutal killings, maiming and blindings by pellets, proved that military might cannot just sweep away the Kashmiri people's discontent by sheer force. Rather Wani's killing inflamed passions of the Kashmiri masses to such an extent that even after two months with bloody disfigurement and deaths Kashmir has literally remained a battlefield between stone-pelters and heavily armed military with open rejection of all - the state and central leaders and the governments. The staunch pursuers of elimination of militancy in Kashmir by the gun and repression of the army have once again found themselves confronting with a reality that questions their policy. The present BJP government, a strong advocate for use of more fire power, has stirred up another big wave of mass protests.
But such a situation has been brewing for some time. The present outbursts are not simply a bolt from the blue. There has been a comparative long lull after the armed insurgency attempted by JKLF and the later stone pelting episode of the masses confronting the army brutality with the likes of infamous Jagmohan at its helm, in the 1989-1990s. It was there till about the end of the first decade into this century. The view gained ground that the new generation hasn't seen those and the violent large-scale movement of the Kashmiri masses is a thing of the past. But with the intentional precipitation of Amarnath Shrine land allotment dispute in 2008, the more blatant 2010 Machhil fake encounter killings and the recent Handwara outbursts against an incident of an armyman misbehaving with a school girl, repeated mass protests indicated that once again the ground was getting heated. The killing of Burhan Wani stoked up accumulated passions and mass anger on a scale rarely seen.
Only after facing such unending huge protests and the spread of descriptions of brutality of the armed forces and the reaction thereof in the Indian heartland the Prime Minister and Home Minister Rajnath Singh have been seen echoing the erstwhile Prime Minister Vajpayee's platitudes of jamhuriat (democracy), insaniyat (humanism), kashmiriyat (Kashmiri nationalism with its long tradition of amity between different communities), etc. for the Kashmiris. None of them dared to have the honesty to mention a word about how every moment this very Indian state that they represent, violates the Kashmiri people's democracy as an oppressor armed with the might of the military and draconian laws that protect them against all misdeeds with impunity. Can there be democracy under crushing power of military boots? Does the Indian state show insaniyat by firing bullets and pellets on the Kashmiris?
Chidambaram, who himself as Home Minister of the earlier Congress Party led UPA government oversaw the brutal oppression of the Kashmiri people violating their basic rights, whether due to a belated saintly realization or some other reasons which he only knows better, spilled the beans in an interview. He admitted, "I think the approach (towards Kashmir issue) was wrong. We ignored the grand bargain under which Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India. I think we broke our promises, we broke the faith of the people of Kashmir,...". Instantly his party leader, the Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad in an attempt to save face by suppressing the truth, issued instructions, "We urge all leaders to stick to the party line on Kashmir,". BJP also seized upon Chidambaram's remarks to accuse Congress of playing partisan politics at the cost of national security. Another Congress Party MP Jyotiraditya Scindia spelt out that there should be "plebiscite" in Kashmir within the Lok Sabha itself. BJP leader Venkaiya Naidu was soon to cover it up declaring that he did not mean it. Obviously reminding such words related to the history of Kashmir, in public, like ignoring "the grand bargain". "we broke our promises" or "plebiscite" are very much forbidden for India's ruling class politicians because these reveal the root of betrayal of the promises made to the erstwhile Kashmiri leaders by the Indian ruling classes. The Indian ruling classes, their state, the ruling parties and sections of the people in their service, due to their position and hence class interests do not want to recognize the root of the Kashmiri people's grievances. To them, especially to the present BJP regime, any other opinion that differs and questions this policy of theirs, is anti-India and hence deshdrohi and they being the self-declared claimants of being deshbhakts do not want in any way to concede the truth before those questioning their policy of force and subjugation.
The previous Congress led UPA government appointed team of interlocutors' report on Kashmir published in 2010 revealed this clearly - "Here for six decades, people have experienced what in their own eyes, constitutes a systematic denial of their democratic rights. They have been witness to rigged elections, the dismissal of elected governments and installation of pliant ones, the arrests of their popular leaders, the choking of dissenting voices through harsh laws, the detention of political prisoners without due process of law; the failure to bring to book those guilty of violating human rights; and not the least violence perpetrated by the militants and by the security forces." [J&K Interlocutors Report, page 34, point 7]. So by whatever name Burhan Wani may be called - a terrorist, or martyr, a villain or hero, the reality has revealed the fact that, to the thousands who rallied in mourning and protest of Wani's killing, Wani had in the recent times become a symbol of their protest. Like numerous other Kashmiri families he and his elder brother faced torture at the hands of the police, his brother got killed by the forces. Hence what really is the matter of utmost importance is the scale of outburst of the huge number of masses against the Indian state. That speaks volumes about the extent of oppression faced by the Kashmiris. The present happenings with its distinctive feature involving children and women, representing spontaneous protests, once again prove it cannot be just wished away, covered up or denied, neither can it be suppressed by force. It's oppression of a community, the people of a particular nationality, suppression of their particular bonds of tradition and common history, economy, culture, etc. living for centuries within a common geographical region which is often admitted even by the ruling class leaders as Kashmiriyat - Kashmiri nationalism. It's not simply based on Hindu or islamic religious beliefs but a history of common traditions that has been shared by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs of that region together in their common struggle for democracy, obviously from national oppression.
Of course it is out-and-out improper to think that Kashmir has only posed such a problem for the Indian state with the aid and incitement of Pakistan as it is often made out to be. Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland are also states where the nationalities at different times face similar oppressions. Remember the protest against rape by naked Manipuri women in front of the regional head quarters of the Indian army in Manipur. Recently Manipuri constable Herojit Singh openly confessed that one Sanjit Meitei accused of being an insurgent declared to have been killed in an encounter had been actually brought and killed unarmed on the orders of the Additional SP. In 2013, the Supreme Court of India set up a Three-Judge Committee to examine a case alleging 1,500 fake or staged encounters in Manipur carried out by the Indian security forces. Led by Justice Santosh Hegde, the Committee selected six cases and found that none of them was genuine. The Supreme Court declared recently that armed forces cannot use excessive force even in areas that come under the AFSPA and ruled that over 1,500 cases of alleged fake encounters in Manipur, over the last 20 years, "must be investigated". Thus Indian state oppresses people of different nationalities brutally to carry on with its suppression of democratic urge of the masses, whether there is Pakistan or not.
For the Kashmiris it is a long history of oppression and betrayal. The truth is that the struggle of Kashmiris ? Hindu-Muslim-Sikhs together ? for democracy started against an autocratic monarch to whom the British sold the Kashmir valley. It was not a part of India that the British ruled. Further with the going-back on the promise of holding a plebiscite by the Indian ruling classes when the leaders of Kashmir conditionally acceded to join India, post-1947, that struggle for independence and democracy continued. Pakistan's ruling class tore away a part of Kashmir keeping it under its subjugation. And the Indian ruling classes set up one of the most highly militarized zones in Kashmir to keep another part in its possession. Anyone who doesn't want to juggle with history and suppress real facts like the BJP and the Sangh Parivar Hindutva nationalist forces, claiming Kashmir to be an integral part of India since a long time, cannot deny this. The development of events in this way has led to suppression of the democratic right of the Kashmiri people to decide their form of rule in their own way through brutalities of a continuously present army protected for all its torture and killing by anti-people, undemocratic laws like AFSPA, Disturbed Areas Act, and Public Safety Act. On March 25, 2003 former State Law Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig informed the Assembly that since December 1992, about 3,744 persons were reported missing. Parveena Ahangar a Kashmiri mother whose son remains untraceable puts the number at anything between 8,000 to 10,000 persons. There are numerous cases of rapes, torture and killing by the armed forces. Shopian murder case of two women ? after 47 days of continuous protests the state government formed a special investigation team, evidences revealed wrongdoing only to be suppressed by sudden change of statements of witnesses, suspension of doctors. Five army men in Pathribal case of murder of five in a fake encounter was on the verge of being proved guilty when the army on the alibi of AFSPA got it transferred to the military court and all got acquitted "due to insufficient evidence". Only in the Machhil fake encounter case five army men got a life-term punishment. The repeated outpour of Kashmiri masses are in protest against these continuing atrocities and undermining of their urge for democracy by the armed forces. The Kashmiri masses want independence from the oppressive Indian state. Evidently there is no denying the fact that more the Indian ruling classes use the force of army and anti-people laws the more the Kashmiri masses are being pushed towards this. Militants like Wani are products of such a situation.
We can get only an inkling of such a kind of oppression i.e. national oppression if we remember the incidents of attacks and hatred targetting Biharis, and those from Uttar Pradesh in Maharashtra by the Shiv Sena or MNS some years back, or the attacks on Bihari and UP workers in the industrial areas of Punjab where they were beaten up, oppressed and sneered at and their earnings snatched by local bike-riding youth. The recent incident of harassment of a Manipuri woman at New Delhi's international airport also reveals this when she had to face a barrage of racist questions like, "Indian toh nahi lagti ho", "Pakka Indian ho?". All this shows how this oppressive nationalism is in existence throughout society. If we call it regionalism it is actually oppressive nationalism of some regional dominant nationalities often represented by some regional political parties. Similarly there is oppressive nationalism of the ruling classes of India. It operates through the Indian state, which represent the dominant oppressive nationalism of ruling sections of Indian big bourgeoisie of the mainland that oppresses the less developed North-Eastern states and Kashmir.
The ruling classes and those preaching communal hyper-nationalism for their interests of continuing with forcible hegemony over Kashmir, make the Indian masses forget that the Kashmiris, even with a majority of Muslims, did not join Pakistan. Rather against the attacks from Pakistan it was not only the king but also Sheikh Abdullah and his National Conference with its huge following of the masses who agreed to join India on the condition that the independence of Kashmir will remain to a large extent. Later it emerged that a referendum will be held to decide finally whether they will be an independent nation or remain within India. It must be noted the Kashmiri people, both Hindus and Muslims, reposed faith in India that it would honour their national aspiration and not Pakistan obviously whom they even fought against when it raided Kashmir. Naturally is it not relevant and justified to question how did it happen that the Kashmiris as a whole turned away from India and turned pro-Pak as alleged by the ruling classes of India? Even if it is true to an extent then who is responsible for it ? Actually the way the Kashmiri people have been betrayed and the very policy of Indian ruling classes to forcibly keep them within India by all such brutalities has continually strengthened the urge of the Kashmiri masses for independence from India. Meanwhile it cannot be overlooked that a similar tale is being witnessed even in the part of Kashmir ruled by Pakistan. This July there has been protests and burning of Pakistani flags by the Kashmiris there against elections rigged by the Pakistan government. The Pakistani governments have done this repeatedly in different elections at their will to set up their puppet governments. Some months earlier the Kashmiri youth also protested against rising unemployment and discrimination against them. Thus there is an urge among Kashmiris on both sides of the border for independence from both the oppressors ? the Indian and Pakistani states. One should not, however forget that a whole nation can in no way act on instigation by some outside force. Yet, the Indian ruling classes repeatedly campaign that the Kashmiri people's protests are solely as a result of infiltrations and instigations by Pakistan, obviously with a view to undermine the real essence of Kashmiri people's struggle i.e. the struggle for self-determination.
It is however no less relevant to note that in this regard Indian ruling class also cannot escape the same accusation that Pakistan is now accused for meddling in Kashmir. What about Sikkim when the Indian rulers meddled and gobbled it up? Every now and then there is much hue and cry over India's big-brotherly attitude in Nepal's government making. Its role in Sri Lanka and in the separation and formation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, even to the extent of arms training and supply is an open fact. Now its interference in Balochistan is also revealed. But in any case, Pak oppression over Baloch people does not in any way absolve the Indian ruling classes of what they are doing in Kashmir or the North-Eastern states. To the working class, as consistent fighters for democracy, both are wrong.
Moreover in this enmity and war-mongering over Kashmir by the two ruling classes of the two countries, communal sectarian forces have also been fanned up and supported to give the actual struggle of the Kashmiris a communal colour and build up a frenzy of communal nationalism among the masses of respective countries. The Kashmiri people's struggle from pre-1947 was anti-communal. The Sheikh Abdullah-led National conference opposed the Muslim league. In 1944 the Muslim people of Baramullah garlanded Jinnah with shoes. The Hindus and Muslims attended each others festivals and had a common heritage of Kashmiriyat. Even the communal massacres during Partition in the adjoining states could not affect them. But with increasing frustration due to repeated suppression of democratic urges of the Kashmiris and communalization of society on both sides of the border spreading over the sub-continent as a whole, in the form of Islamic and Hindutva nationalism, it has also crept into Kashmir. Still then it can in no way be said that the Kashmiri people's struggle for democracy has fallen into the clutches of communal forces. It is relevant here to note that anti-India slogan is raised from the protest rallies but never anti-Hindu.
It is true that Pakistan, from the days of Kashmiri people's agreement to accede to India, has targeted Kashmir. There has been infiltrations and arms supply from Pakistan. Even pro-Pak sections exist among Kashmiris. But beneath all such complexities the urge for democracy and independence is the prime concern of the Kashmiri masses as has been displayed once again by the latest spontaneous outbursts of large masses. The official media also confirms that Pak infiltrators have a waning influence at least during the recent decades. Thus many have referred to these protests as "leaderless protests". Even the Indian capitalist controlled media reports are recognizing the fact that the involvement of the Kashmiri masses in protests has increased on a large scale and spread into the villages The Kashmiri mass are disillusioned with the PDP and National Conference and are even seen questioning the Hurriyat which have a sizeable section of the separatists. The people from rural areas, said to be PDP strongholds, have been swarming to the protests. The appeal by Geelani of the Hurriyat Conference, till now considered to be more credible of the leaders among the Kashmiris, to the protestors to calm down, brought back jeers for him from the protesting crowds. Thus in an open letter a Kashmiri girl writes to Hurriyat leaders (August 12 2016), "With due respect, I try to remind you time and again in this letter that Pakistan is as much responsible for our situation as India is, why are you giving so much importance to them?" It's a new generation of mass protesters, stone pelters that had emerged from the 2008-2010. Reports are now being published that even when Wani was alive young boys in his home town declared that they were preparing for a long struggle in which there would be no leaders, that there are no more leaders for the government to engage with, no one subscribes to any leaders. Even children aged 10-12 years have been out on the streets with stones in their hands. Much fewer terror strikes are reported now. But what has emerged are large scale mass protests continued in spite of brutal force used on them. The governments, the leaders, have no answer except accusing Pakistan and advising the youth that they should have laptops instead of stones in their hands.
The Indian working class must understand that they are also the victims of the same exploitative and oppressive system of the Indian ruling classes and their state which oppresses the Kashmiris while at the same time raises the bogey of Indian nationalism among the masses of heartland to deceive them. This same oppressive system of rule is the main obstacle in the path of struggle of working class and toiling masses for their rights and livelihood where even the rights of struggle and organization is being denied. They must not be deceived and become part of this oppressive nationalism. The common people are often seen to become part of this ruling class oppressive anti-democratic nationalism. Thus incidents of Manipuris or people from the North ?East being harassed, beaten and mocked in the capital city of New Delhi, or Bengaluru happen recurrently. Without raising their voice of protest against all kinds of oppression on different sections of masses the working class will not be able to advance their struggle for democracy. Without being at the side of the oppressed Kashmiris they won't be able to forge bigger unities of different democratic sections from the masses that they require for this struggle. The Indian ruling class by using all kinds of force in the name of unity and integrity of this country wants to continue with their rule of oppression and exploitation. The working class fighting for real democracy of the masses must expose all lip service about jamhuriat, insaniyat, etc., and raise their voice against the tremendous repression and recognize the right of the Kashmiri masses that is emerging as the foremost to decide their fate ? their right to self-determination.
The right to self determination is the right of a community of people, of a given nationality to decide by themselves their fate, their form of rule, in accordance with their history, tradition and their struggle. It is a democratic demand but it is incomplete if the right of secession is also not recognized. Recognition of that would be the first hand victory of democracy. The success of their struggle for democracy depends on democratic section of the Kashmiri people fighting not only against the oppression of the Indian ruling class, but also against Pak machination & intervention & also fighting the communal sectarian forces from within & outside. But the subsequent important question intertwined with is how and in which way this right would actually be exercised. In the event of the Kashmiri people having earned the right of self-determination up to the extent of secession, they will have to think in which way they would be able to protect, at the first instance, their hard-earned democracy & advance further towards real democracy, i.e., people's democracy. To be precise, they would have to think then, in that concrete condition whether divorce is necessary, i.e., whether secession with India would be convenient for them for the achievement of above object, taking into consideration that small nation state stands vulnerable to the external conspiracy, particularly, in the face of Pak machination & most importantly, the imperialist manoeuvre. In this context, just giving calls of unqualified "azadi" for the Kashmiris in fact fail to recognize the point that this democratic right of self-determination is guaranteed subject to taking the path towards a real democratic state of the masses, towards a real voluntary unity of the masses based on full equality of nationalities, taking into account the balance of forces in the Indian sub-continent at present. Abstract sloganeering for "azadi" does not help. Anyway, Kashmiri people is to first achieve democracy by way of earning the right of self-determination up to the extent of right to secession. Indian working class as consistent fighter supports them in their struggle for their right; and, at the same time, along with workers & toiling masses of Kashmir would urge upon the working class of Pakistan to raise their voice against the intervnetionist policies of the ruling classes of Pakistan in relation to kashmir. And while doing so, it would explain to the toiling people, specially the toiling people of Kashmir & convince them how their struggle is interwoven with the working class of the whole of Indian sub-continent. Contrapose to the policy of forcibly imposed unity of geographical boundaries from above by the oppressive ruling classes, working class of different nationalities thrive for unity from below to lead the struggle for people's democracy that recognizes end to all big nation oppression and ensures establishment of voluntary unity among different nationalities. The struggle for unity of all the working people of India as well as that of Kashmiri and other oppressed nationalities will be leading further towards the abolition of the exploitative rule of capital. The ultimate answer lay in abolition of that rule and establishment of socialism. Sept 10, 2016 ▆
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