Kashmiris’ indomitable struggle for freedom

India’s services chief confesses blinding protesters

Through a host of draconian measures, India has gagged digital and voice protests in disputed Kashmir. It has barred local and foreign journalists from visiting Kashmir. Indian forces fire pellets (called `birdshots’) with pump-action shot-guns against unarmed protesters or stone throwers, even women, and children five to eight years’ old.

India cheated Kashmiris. Indian forces fire pellets (called `birdshots’) with pump-action shot-guns against unarmed protesters or stone throwers, even women, and children five to eight years’ old. A New York Time report portrays a gruesome picture (“An Epidemic of ‘Dead Eyes’ in Kashmir as India Uses Pellet Guns on Protesters”, New York Times, August 28, 2016`) It says` the patients have mutilated retinas, severed optic nerves, irises seeping out like puddles of ink’. Doctors call them `dead eyes’. A similar report in Washington Post (December 12, 2024) is no less poignant.

Let India realise it can’t stifle Kashmiris’ dissent. To stifle the Kashmiri’s fighting spirit, the dogra (1846-1947) punished even Kashmiri children who played with fork-slings (ghulail in Urdu) and stones (Muhammad YousafSaraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, vol. 1, p. 50). Struggle for freedom goes on despite Indian forces’ reign of terror (abductions, custodial deaths, rapes, arson, and pellet shelling). `The Security Council should make clear that it opposes Mr. Modi’s brutal tightening of India’s control on Kashmir. While Mr. Modi may think he can control this volatile conflict on his own, he almost certainly cannot’ (The U.N. Can’t Ignore Kashmir Anymore, New York Times, October 2, 2024).

Defence services chief’s ergonomic confession: Irked by international-media censures, BipenRawat, India’s ex-army chief, now Chief of Defence Services has tendered a funny explanation.

He says, ` Most of the eye injuries are caused because those pelting stones bend to the ground to pick up stones and because pellet guns are fired at the legs they get hit them in the eyes (Indian Express, January 17, 2025). Indian opposition took him to task for explaining how Kashmiris were being “radicalized”. They advised him to desist from dabbling in politics. AsaduddinOwaisi asked him, `Who’ll deradicaliselynchers and their political masters? `Yogi (UP chief minister] and “Pakistan jao” Meerut SP?

An unending struggle: An immutable lesson of history is that Kashmiris never reconciled with foreign rule. If they could no longer fight an invader with arms, they pelted stones on invaders (Moghal). The stone throwers were called dilawars, and the Moghal, were addressed as shikasmogle. This Kashmiri-language expression, akin to French C’estdommage (it’s too bad), is spoken when something is lost. The Moghal were Muslim. Yet, the Kashmiri hated them. Shikasmogle affords a peek into the Kashmiri heart and mind. They cursed foreigners, be they Muslim.

Kashmiris hate cheating and consider Akbar `the Great’ an epitome of treachery. Akbar invited Kashmir ruler Yusuf Chak (1579 – 1586) for talks. But, he treacherously imprisoned and killed him in Bihar state. Be it noted that Akbar had failed to subjugate Kashmir in his earlier two expeditions. After take-over, the Moghal lived in a walled nagri (city), later called Sri nagar. The helpless Kashmir used to throw stones at walled city to express their anguish. The general feeling of hatred, kashmiriat, was akin to what Ibn-e-Khuldoon calls asabiya (national cohesion). It ran across all sects (shia-sunni), religions, castes and creed.

RSS’s role in persecuting minorities: The present-day anti-minority India caricatures Mahatma Gandhi’s and Ambedkar’s vision of India. They both envisioned India as a modern country with due place for minorities. Gandhi did not care a fig for RashtryaSwayemSevakSangh leaders in his life-time. So was the case with Ambedkar also. Yet, tragically RSS-BJP conglomerate and their offshoots are trying to portray Gandhi-Ambedkar as Hindu communalists. They are v trying to co-opt Gandhi and pitch him against the Congress.

What a wonder it is hard to find RSSs’ founding father, Hedgewar’s mention in the 21 volumes of the writings and speeches of Ambedkar. Hedgewar thought of Hindu raj, rule by Hindu Rashtra. Chiplunkar, Tilak and their disciple Hedgewar abhorred Gandhi `a Bania leading the freedom movement’. After Tilak’s death, Hedgewar left the Congress-led freedom struggle and began struggle to regain past glory of Aryavarta. Ambedkar explicitly rejected idea of the Hindu Rashtra. He stressed, ` No matter what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. On that account it is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any cost.’ Renowned lawyer AG Noorani rightly said `their [RSS’s] bible is V.D. Savarkar’s essay ‘Hindutva’ published in 1925. He called Muslims `hissing Yavana snakes’ (Dawn, October 5, 2024).

RSS is a terrorist organisation: Terrorism Research Centre, an American think- tank based in East Virginia, enlisted RSS among the world’s leading terrorist organisations. It is significant to note that the Indian media is heavily tilted towards the RSS. In fact the RSS has of late become the unofficial spokesman of the Indian government. Even the enlightened Hindu and the military writers believe that India’s prosperity during various periods of history, for example during the Maurya and the Gupta periods, rose or fell paripassu with rise or fall of military leadership (Major General RajendraNath, Military Leadership in India: Vedic Period to Indo-Pak Wars.1990.Lancers Books).

Upsurge in Hindutva: Hindutva ideology is being pupularised in India to persecute minorities, particularly Musims in Kashmir and other Indian states. It is controversially defined in VinayakDamodarSavarkar in his book Hindutva, and adopted by Hedgewar as the basis of his ideology (An Indian parliamentary committee resurrected him as a hero by allowing his portrait to be hung in Indian parliament). The RSS’s aims are a mix of cultural, religious and political objectives – To serve Hindu dharma (religion), sanskriti (culture) and rashtra (nation). Sarvarkar distinguishes ‘Hinduism’ from ‘Hindutva’. He clarified that the `Hinduism’ was concerned with `relevance of life after death, the concept of God and the Universe’. ‘Hindutva’, on the other hand, was ‘Hindus being a nation, bound by a common culture, a common history, a common language, a common country and a common religion’. Kootayuddha is an article of faith with the RashtriyaSwayemsewakSangha. All its recruits, 10 years’ old and above, are obliged to take the following pratigya (oath): In the name of God and my ancestors. I hereby become a member of the RashtriyaSwayamsewakSangh for the all-round progress of Bharatvarsh (ancient name of India) by strengthening the holy Hindu dharma (religion). Hindu sanskiti (culture and Hindu society). I shall do the Sangha work with all my heart to the best of my ability and that I shall be bound by this oath for the whole of my life. Bharat Mata Ki Jai ! (Glory to Mother India!).

Minority Lynching: Beef eating people are lynched in public. A Christian priest was murdered right in front of his son. The RSS’s genocidal role is a caricature of Preamble to The Constitution of India which states: “WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a [SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC] …” Besides, Article 15 of the Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Not only the RSS, but also Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and Indian political parties tacitly believe in kootayuddha. Reason: The minorities together are not more than one third of the Hindu population (read Brihaspati’s udyogparva principle justifying 2,800 years back merciless attack when one is numerically three times superior). Illustrations of kootayuddha are Gujarat carnage under prime ministerNarendraModi, then chief minister, burning of Christians’ alive, attack on Golden Temple, anti-sikh riots of 1984, killing of beef-eating minorities by cow guards (gaorakhshak), persecution of Kashmiri students in Indian states, and so on. A crystal-clear manifestation of this mentality was ruling-BJP- supported then Gujarat chief minister NarendraModi’s 11-phase gaurav or papadshahiyatra (pride parade) in July 2002. Earlier, in June 2002, BalThackray had said, ‘Muslims can never be trusted. They are like snakes’. Wake-up call for Pakistan: History tells that only countries with a stable equilibrium between its centrifugal and centripetal forces stay afloat in comity of nations. At the time of Partition, it was predicted that both India and Pakistan would break up into ‘congeries of states’. The basis of this prediction was inability of the new republics to deal with myriad centrifugal forces gnawing into the body politic. In post-independence period, India was fortunate to have visionary leaders who tactfully muzzled centrifugal forces like insurgencies in East Punjab and eastern states, besides the Dravidian and Naxal Bari movements. Indian Union bowed to insurgents’ demands for creation of new states. And, insurgency leaders became chief ministers! India forgot yester years when they burnt to ashes copies of Indian constitution, uprooted rail tracks, immobilizing everyday life. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland and the East Punjab appeared to secede from the Union. India stayed united because of its resilience, we disintegrated. Pakistan learnt nothing from East- Pakistan debacle (Asghar Khan, We’ve learnt nothing from history). India is now engaged against Pakistan in what Kautliya calls mayayuddha (war of tricks) or kootayuddha (all-out warfare). She is out to isolate Pakistan, get it dubbed as a terrorist state, and corner it by presence in Chahbahar and some Central Asian airbases (Aeini or Farkhor airbases in Tajikistan). Ibn-e-Khaldun says that it is asabia (nationalism) that enables a country to withstand challenges. Toynbee’s Challenge and Response Theory also reminds that if challenges are too heavy, a nation becomes apathetic to environment. Apathy leads to mental degradation, decay and extinction. Pakistani leaders, including prime-ministers-weres and prime-ministers-to-be should take off their blinkers and try to understand how India, through kootayuddha, hands in glove with likeminded countries, is trying to wreck their economy and country.

Inference: History tells that ebbs and flows of Kashmiris’ resistance never ceased. Palliatives failed to stifle the struggle. A lasting solution is to allow Kashmiris to determine their own fate. It’s no use harping integral-part (atootang) mantra any longer. In marked contrast to India’s colonizing policy, Pakistan gives an iron-clad constitutional assurance to Kashmiris to re-craft their relation with Pakistan under Article 257 of its Constitution. It states: `when the people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir decide to accede to Pakistan, the relationship between Pakistan and that State shall be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of that State’.