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Understanding Minority Status of J&K Hindus
Punchline
Minority Status Demand?
Z. G. Muhammad
Thank you the PDP-BJP combine for your soiled machinations. These have enabled people to understand your intents and gird their loins to offset your moves targeted at disempowering them into submission. First, you talked about the abrogation of the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution followed by initiating hideous moves for changing the fundamental character of the State.
For decades, the Article 370 had got drowned in the discourses invented by the National Conference. The party had made people believe that it was a bridge between India and Jammu and Kashmir. So strong was the sway of the National Conference discourse that even the resistance leadership saw it as biblical truth and talking about this article they believed was subscribing to the New Delhi’s Kashmir narrative? But, for your intentions of abrogating this article you made a host of our contemporary historians and political analysts to demystify the ‘dominant discourse’ about it. That the Article 370 was not incorporated in the Indian Constitution because of bonhomie between Sheikh Abdullah and Jawaharlal Nehru. But, in recognition of the fact that people of Jammu and Kashmir were yet to decide their future according to the UN resolution of 1948 and 1949. The revisiting of the Article enabled the historians and writers to put the proviso, ‘temporary and transitional’ suffixed to the Article in the right context that “the constitutional relations between Kashmir and India continue to be temporary and transactional.” The debates in the Constituent Assembly of India and speeches of N. Gopalaswami Ayyanger and subsequently by Jawaharlal Nehru stand as testimonies that the said Article stands as a guarantee in Indian constitution to New Delhi’s commitment to the international community for abiding by the UN resolutions and International Agreements on Kashmir.
Since its birth in March 2015, the PDP-BJP combine has been working overtime for politically disempowering the overwhelming majority and reducing it into minority. It has been initiating one after another move: Starting with issuing of the State Subject Certificates in contravention of the laid down norms it initiated moves for constructing permanent shelters for “shelterless” state subjects and “non-state subjects”- intriguingly over a million non-state subject labourers are working in Kashmir. Creating ghettos for migrant KPs, building Sanik Colonies for retired army personal and couple of others. All these moves ostensibly initiated for changing the demography of the State have long and short term goals. The long term goal is engineering the demographic changes with the objective as and when an impartial plebiscite is conducted; India wins hands down. And the short term goal is engaging leadership and intelligentsia in these dominant discourses to relegate the people’s narrative to the back seat.
In keeping with its policy of conjuring up controversial discourse one a day for covering up its failures on Thursday, June 22, 2016, yet another discourse ‘according to minority status to Hindus in the state’ was added on the floor of Jammu and Kashmir to already long list. The demand voiced by two Jammu members from the ruling alliance did not spark much of debate in “the House” except response from a cabinet minister. In this column, it is not my concern if the “Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir” empowers the “State government” for granting the minority status to the Hindus of the State or it fall within the dominion of Government of India. It is not equally subject of this column if the minority status is accorded to the Hindus of the state what benefits and privileges they will be entitled to than the disempowered majority community more particularly those living in various districts of Jammu province. Whatsoever has been the response of the government to their demand the two legislators have said nothing but the truth. The Hindus are a minority in the state. And when one considers the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir as it stood on August 14, 1947, the Hindus are a minority in the Jammu province. The Constitution of India, the United Nations Security Council Resolution and the Constitution of Pakistan recognise the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir as one Unit.
This demand has once again brought to the fore the fundamental cause of the birth of the Kashmir Dispute, internationally recognised as a nuclear flashpoint in the South Asia. In fact, it was the non-recognition of the population profile of the State by the Indian National Congress leadership and Maharaja Hari Singh that gave birth to the Kashmir Dispute. To understand this, it will be important to look at the demographic profile of the state. The population ratio in the Kashmir province between Muslims and Hindus has not substantially shown any drift; it varied between 98.4 percent Muslims and 1.6 percent Hindus in 1941 to in some later censuses 96.6 percent Muslims and 3.4 percent Hindus and others. In Jammu province, out the total population of 19.81 lakhs, the population of Muslims was 12.15 lakhs, Hindus and others 7.65 lakhs. So Muslims in Jammu province constituted 61.33 percent, Hindus and others 38.66 percent.
Had the Indian National Congress leadership accepted the fact that Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir were in a minority and lived up to the terms and condition as envisaged in the Partition Plan of the British India- there would have been no Kashmir Dispute? Implying the concept of ‘Paramountcy’ Nehru coerced the Maharaja of Kashmir to join India but did not recognise the independence of Hyderabad on the same principle. As pointed out by Lamb, “What is important in the present context is that the state not only had clear ethnic and communal divide, but also a political fault line within the State to further undermine the value of any doctrine which empowered a single Ruler to decide on his own the future of all his subjects.”
So, the government should recognize the demographic realties of the State without working overtime to change these.
Published in Greater Kashmir on 27-6-16
Filed under: Editor's Take · Tags: Changing Demography of the State, Hindu Minority, PDP BJP ALliance, Z.G. Muhamma
In Kashmir all sorts of political manoeuvrings and hammerings turn around certain defined political objectives of GOI and that is the problem right from 1947.
We all know very closely and even the GOI knows it very well that Kashmiri pundits as a community are falling entirely outside the constitutional parameters of minority community as elucidated vividly by article 15 and 16 of the constitution and the scope of these articles have been elaborated time to time by supreme court in different full bench judgements and there are equally judgements of Allahbad High court etc on the issue, further analysing beyond ambiguity the defined principles, rules a and guide lines to grant a certain community minority status.
The cat and rat game of Indian political strategists have been enjoying golden days from 1947 to 2016, PDP BJP administration. They used Abdullah Sheikh at will and now it is turn of PDP to render its selfless services to disempower the people of Kashmir and reinforce the dominant political discourse.
The Article 370 was introduced in the constitution to satisfy world opinion and Indian out ward honest intentions being in conformity with resolution of security council to keep the temporary accession legally valid till the plebicite will be conducted. Abdullah Sheikh used it as his contibution as this stupid man had nothing to do with it but used it to befool people to get his pathological power greed satisfied.
Over the time as India emerged as a economic power article 370 started to get targetted as the ramifications of political dis course changed. And innovative stratigies have been devised to change the very basics of Kashmir problem through demographic modification, which finds its expression in extending state subject to a million imigrants, creating south African type town ships for non Kashmiri workers and colonies on the blue print of occupied Palestinian territories for Kashmiri pundits.
We don't know where this unabated political hammering on Kashmiris and their institutions will end up. Wish tall Abdullah be alive to answer these question as it is he who landed us in troubled waters.
In RSS BJP governance even the constitution has started to lose its sactity as wrong and political interpretations are being associated for political purposes with the very articles enshrined into the constitution with clear and defined aims and objectives, guided by the judicial jurisprudence of supreme court .
When one looks at judgement of Jammu high court validating beef ban we wonder which secular India we are living in. Beef ban is unconstitutional as it is in complete violation and contradiction with civil rights guaranteed by the constitution. In Qurashi VS state of Bihar supreme court clearly justified beef eating and cow slaughte except cows and buffalos used for economic and commercial purposes.
The backdoor political interpretation of constitution is a very dangerous game as it is constitution that works as a fabric that hold the multi religious and multi cultural. India United for the good of all. Any political manoeuvring abusing the Devine sanctity of constitution can have far reaching negative consequences on the very idea of secular democracy that India as a nation proudly claims to be.