Five years ago, the Narendra Modi-led Union government read down Article 370, taking Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and statehood, and splitting it into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019. The past five years have seen sweeping changes, glaring rights abuses and big developments in the region. This series looks at where J&K was and where it is now, five years after the move.
Another year of humiliation, injustice and oppression has passed. Will a change in the calendar year bring a change to these circumstances? If I were a Kashmiri, this is what would have come to my mind when I saw the date of August 5 in the calendar. The thought that I cannot do anything about this humiliation, injustice and oppression makes me small in my own eyes.
I would also see with some sadness and pain that the date that reminds me of humiliation and oppression is a day of jubilation for most of the rest of India. What is a symbol of subjugation for me is a symbol of victory for them. The devilish joy of taking over a piece of land to make it part of Hindustan completely. Or, if they had the ability to speak the truth, they would say that this joy is actually of crushing an entire population. To end its existence.
August 5 is glorified by claiming that on this day, Kashmir completely accepted the Indian constitution. There cannot be a bigger lie or deception than this. Parliament itself killed the soul of the Indian constitution when it nullified Article 370. It was a way of breaking the thread that kept Kashmiris connected to India.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.
Article 370 was not a wall between India and Kashmir that had to be broken to unite the hearts of both. It was a promise by India to Kashmir that the government of India or parliament alone could not change. For any kind of change, the approval of the constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir was mandatory. In its absence, any change could be made only with the approval of the legislative assembly of the state.
But when the legislative assembly itself was suspended and central rule was imposed, then how could the approval of the governor be considered equal to the approval of the legislative assembly?
The legislative assembly comprises the representatives of the people. Elected by them. They express the opinion of the people of the state. The governor is not the representative of the people; he is the representative of the Union government. Then how was he considered equal to the legislative assembly? But it was done brazenly, and even the Supreme Court accepted it as right!
Even if we assume for a moment that Article 370 was the last hurdle that needed to be removed from the path of Kashmir’s integration with India, what was the reason and purpose of taking away the status of a state from Jammu and Kashmir, dissolving its legislative assembly and dividing it into two parts? And turning both parts into Union territories?
If this was not done to humiliate the Kashmiris, then what else was the reason? Indeed, it was meant to tell them that now, they were completely at the mercy of Delhi and there was nowhere to go for an appeal.
No state in India today has faced this humiliation. No full state was broken and converted into a Union territory. This was done with Jammu and Kashmir. Whatever the government kept saying, its meaning was clear to everyone. This was a punishment given to Jammu and Kashmir. This was done to make its feeling of inferiority permanent.
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Along with this, it had another meaning. Jammu and Kashmir was the only state where the chief minister used to be a Muslim. Where Muslims were politically dominant. This was completely against the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). After all, the most humble person of the RSS, Deendayal Upadhyaya, had also spoken of the objective of defeating Muslims politically. They can remain in India and can survive here, but they cannot be allowed to be politically important anywhere.
Delhi sent its men as lieutenant governors to discipline the Muslim population. They were to implement Delhi’s orders there. This was a step taken to end the last obstacle in the path of the Hinduisation of India – that is, the prominence of Muslim representation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Therefore, it was not a coincidence that exactly a year after the abrogation of Article 370, the symbol of Jammu and Kashmir’s relationship with India, the bhoomi pujan was performed for the Ram temple on the land of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. This Ram temple is also a symbol of the Hindu occupation of a Muslim land by erasing its Muslim identity.
Just like the Babri Masjid was demolished, so was Jammu and Kashmir. Just like the land of the Babri Masjid was occupied, so was the land of Jammu and Kashmir. The occupation of both was an addition to the treasury of Hindus.
So it was no surprise that a wave of celebration ran across the rest of India that now, land in Kashmir could be acquired and Kashmiri girls could be theirs. This obscene jubilation is enough to understand the real nature of the supporters of abrogating Article 370. The feeling of sexual inferiority or sexual jealousy behind the hatred against Muslims is evident in this vulgar and disgusting propaganda being spread about Kashmir.
Kashmir has been mostly silent after August 5, 2019. Many people are surprised that no major resistance was seen there. All of Kashmir’s leaders were arrested or put under house arrest. The prominent people of its society were also arrested. Kashmir’s prominent journalists were arrested and anyone who spoke out was threatened with consequences.
In such a situation, Kashmiris have perhaps shown more wisdom by remaining silent. When the army is in every inch of the land where Kashmiri lives no longer have value, then another way of showing resistance will have to be found. Suicide cannot be the way.
Those who considered the Kashmiri people’s silence an admission of their approval must have heard their real answer in the results of the Lok Sabha elections this year. The BJP did not dare field a candidate anywhere in Kashmir. It could not do so. After all, the BJP has been ruling through the lieutenant governor for the last five years! If it was so good and popular, why did the BJP not have the courage to go to the people and ask for their votes?
Those whom the BJP supported all lost badly, too. On top of this, the people also defeated the biggest leaders of the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti respectively, who had advocated joining their fate with India’s. Its meaning is very deep. It is a kind of rejection of the idea of the Indian state.
Now, it is being said that preparations are ongoing to hold the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. But before that, the lieutenant governor has been given extraordinary powers. Any assembly will have no meaning as long as such a dictator lieutenant governor wields such enormous powers.
In these five years, Kashmiris have suffered the violence of the Indian state in every part of their lives. Any employee can be dismissed without being given any reason. Kashmir’s land can be handed over to capitalists by relaxing all rules and regulations. Kashmir’s apple business can be destroyed.
But the Indian state knows that there is deep rejection for it in the silence of Kashmiris. Therefore, it wants to express its affection towards them through its power again and again.
Recently, the prime minister decided to celebrate Yoga Day in Kashmir. Government employees and teachers were allegedly ordered to be compulsorily present in this program, forced to travel there starting at 3 am and asked that their shoes be removed before they reached the venue. After this collective humiliation, their picture in the closed stadium was broadcast in India. This was just a display of the power of the Indian state. A vulgar, violent display!
Kashmir’s lips have been stitched and the boot of the Indian state is on its chest. Is this the Indian way of securing Kashmir’s love for it? Or is this its way of expressing its love for it?
Kashmir after August 5, 2019 is a mirror for India. After that – although it was happening even before that day – the ‘Kashmirisation’ of India has been taking place. The usurpation of the rights of its people, the tyranny of governors in the states, the arbitrariness of the Union government. Slowly, people are realising that they have been rendered completely powerless after being given the pleasure of annexing territories like Kashmir.
But if they want their independence back, then they will have to fight for the independence of Kashmiris. India will not enjoy peace until the crime committed against Kashmir is atoned for.
Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University.
Read more from the series here.
