Srinagar: Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JeI) decision to contest the upcoming assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir marks a significant milestone in the ideological trajectory of the socio-politico-religious outfit which has played an important role in shaping the erstwhile state’s troubled history.
A statement purportedly issued by a Srinagar-based spokesperson distanced the outfit from the individual decisions of its serving and former members, who will slug it out in the electoral arena in coming weeks as J&K goes to polls in its first assembly election in a decade.
However, political analysts believe that the expression of electoral ambitions mirrors the crisis that the outfit has been facing since 2019, when the Union government tightened the strings on separatist groups and their sympathisers, including Jamaat, ahead of J&K’s demotion into two Union territories.
Some in Kashmir also believe that after remaining in political wilderness for more than three decades, Jamaat’s decision could change the contours of the conflict in J&K.
Jamaat’s roots
JeI, which started out as a puritan and reformist movement for social and religious causes, is widely seen as the ideological fountainhead of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest among more than two dozen militant outfits that have been waging an armed struggle in Kashmir against New Delhi since the early 1990s.
With a three-tier organisational structure, JeI has around 3,500-4,000 basic members (Rukun) in J&K who preside over associate members (Umeedwar-e-Rukun). Only basic members are eligible for voting in the organisational elections to elect Ameer-e-Jamaat (head) and Majlis-i-Shora, the top decision making advisory council.
However, those affiliated with Jamaat or Jamaat aspirants, though part of the three-tier structure, can’t vote. Then, there are Jamaat sympathisers who take the cadre strength to an estimated 20,000. Many of them used to participate in Jamaat congregations and also vote.
The JeI is rooted in Maulana Maududi’s radical political and Islamist thought. The outfit has also called for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations which has put it under the spotlight of the government agencies.
However, the outfit has historically been flexible to the idea of elections in J&K which were held under the auspices of the Indian Constitution. Though the banned outfit never ran any poll boycott campaign, it unofficially discouraged Jamaat members and their families from voting and also endorsed the boycott calls of separatist groups following the eruption of armed insurgency.
Change of tack?
Speculations about the fledgling political trajectory of the outfit started doing rounds during the recent parliamentary elections when some Jamaatis, who are part of the three-tier structure, voted at few places in Kashmir.
Then, a five-member panel, headed by Jamaat member Ghulam Qadir Lone, was formed to hold parleys with the Union government, with J&K Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari mediating the effort.
Also read: Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Polls: The Likely Impact of the Last Five Years on the Verdict
Amid rumours that the government was planning to end the ban on Jamaat, the outfit’s prospects of participating in the upcoming elections gained momentum.
However, the ban is unlikely to be lifted soon. Sources said that the Union government was holding its horses in case JeI’s proxy candidates in the upcoming election don’t perform well. If they manage to pull off some upsets, it will hand the kind of ammunition the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) requires to silence its political detractors, especially in Kashmir.
A political analyst based in south Kashmir, which has been a bastion of Jamaat, said he didn’t add much significance to the “fluid” decision of the Jamaat members and its affiliates to contest the election which, he claimed, “lacked official sanction”.
“Most members of the Jamaat’s advisory council are in jail. Ideally, this decision [to contest elections] should have come from them. Those in the panel who are talking with the government are not part of the advisory council,” he said.
‘Unanimous decision’
However, there are others who argue that since JeI is a banned outfit, it can’t contest the election directly and was hence fielding its proxy candidates. This argument has prompted speculations that there could be some understanding between the Jamaat and the BJP, which has failed to make any significant electoral impact in Kashmir even after being in power at the centre for more than 10 years.
It is being speculated that the saffron party was now relying on the Jamaat and other players, such as Awami Ittehad Party led by Engineer Rashid and Bukhari, to cut regional parties to size by getting ‘sentimental’ voters to cast their ballot and disturbing the traditional voting patterns.
Sayar Reshi, the deputy director of Jamaat-run Falah-e-Aam Trust, which is involved in charity and educational work, claimed that the outfit had unanimously decided to join electoral politics and work for the welfare of the people of J&K.
“If a leaf gets detached from the tree, it wilts and dies,” Reshi, who is contesting the election from Kulgam assembly constituency, said, quoting a verse of Pakistani philosopher and poet Sir Mohammad Iqbal.
He added, “We have to be a part of the system and work for the welfare of our people”.
The JeI was a part of the system in 1969 when it fought the Panchayat elections. Its romance with Indian democracy lasted till the assembly election of 1987, whose rigging is widely believed to have sparked armed insurgency in Kashmir.
Some of Jamaat’s former members include the Hurriyat hawks Syed Ali Geelani and Ghulam Nabi Sehrai.
The outfit was banned from 1990-1996, when it espoused Hizbul as its armed outfit following which the party held internal elections and elected Ghulam Mohammad Bhat as its chief.
In 1998, Bhat distanced the outfit from the ongoing guerrilla warfare in Kashmir. From 1995- 2002, Jamaat was hounded by state-backed militia Ikhwan during which thousands of Jamaat members were killed.
Two sons of former Jamaat amir Sheikh Ghulam Hassan were killed. Another top Jamaat leader from Shopian, late Hakeem Ghulam Nabi, also lost his son in an encounter. It is a saga of personal tragedies that remains unresolved for many Jamaat members.
Ideological shift?
Jamaat got some political space when People’s Democratic Party (PDP) founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed formed a coalition government with the Congress in 2002. Under Mufti’s rule, the outfit reopened its offices, schools, libraries and charity organisations which continued till February 2019 when it was banned again.
The outfit, however, remained affiliated with the Hurriyat till 2004 when the separatist conglomerate split into Geelani faction and the moderate faction led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. The Jamaat stayed out of both.
A Jamaat insider told The Wire that some young activists and members seem to be moving away from the radical Mawdudi school of Islamic thought to the reformative and liberal Ghamidi school, propounded by Mawdudi’s pupil and Pakistani scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi.
However, the political analyst quoted above said that the division in the ranks of the Jamaat was unlikely to alter the electoral landscape in Kashmir.
Apart from the three Jamaat candidates from Devsar, Pulwama and Kulgam, going to polls in the first phase of assembly election scheduled on September 18, there are speculations that the outfit might support the candidate from Zainapora in South Kashmir and contest the Langate constituency in North Kashmir.
Former Jamaat member Dr Talat Majid, who briefly joined the mainstream, is contesting election from Pulwama assembly constituency as an independent candidate backed by the Jamaat. Asked whether the Jamaat was going through an ideological shift, he told The Wire that the outfit was going “more through a political shift”.
“Ideologies work in time and space. We have to be accommodative and flexible. Separatism worked in Kashmir but what were the reasons? The rigging of 1987 assembly elections created a situation for separatism to thrive which prompted a mainstream leader like Abdul Gani Lone to become a separatist. Today, the geopolitical scenario has changed. The sooner we realise it, the better.” he said
