{"id":3609,"date":"2018-06-04T10:23:35","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T04:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=3609"},"modified":"2018-06-04T10:42:27","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T05:12:27","slug":"kashmir-dusting-archives-to-know-beyond-dulat-durrani-discourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/kashmir-dusting-archives-to-know-beyond-dulat-durrani-discourse\/","title":{"rendered":"Kashmir: Dusting Archives To Know Beyond Dulat-Durrani Discourse"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Punchline<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dusting Archive To Know More<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Kashmir Dispute Has Solution In Its Archives <\/u><\/p>\n

By<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Z. G. Muhammad <\/u><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Sometimes a new book for its contested contents makes one dust the archives and look for answers and explanations for the controversies raised in it. \u00a0In a situation like that of our where people are caught up in a morass of political uncertainty and are struggling for ending it many times, books are sponsored by the establishment to cloud the historical realities.\u00a0 Or books are written to dampen the resolve of the people for realizing their cherished political goals by creating alternative discourses suggesting the futility of chasing their cause. Two weeks back, a new book based on ideas exchanged by tow spymasters of unfriendly countries; sharing a bitter history of four wars, hundreds of border skirmishes and conspiracies against each other hit the newsstands in India.<\/p>\n

    Last week, I wrote in this column, about the book \u2018Spy Chronicles, ISI and Illusion of Peace\u2019 by A.S. Dulat and Assad Durrani published in India. I did not review the book in its entirety but tried to make some points about the implications of the discourses about Kashmir set into motion by the freewheeling discussions over drinks by the two for spies and recorded by journalist Aditya Sinha.\u00a0 The journalist has also co-authored A.S. Dulat\u2019s earlier memoir, \u2018Kashmir: The Vajpayee years. In January 1996, when New Delhi was still toying with the idea of holding the Assembly elections in the state and working on bringing into electoral arena one or two \u201cseparatist\u201d leaders with high media profile his book \u2018Farooq Abdullah, Prodigal Son of Kashmir: A Biography\u2019 \u00a0hit the newsstands. \u00a0The timing of the book of publishing of the book was important, and it seemed with a purpose. \u00a0At this point of time, it was on the grapevine that some \u201cseparatists\u201d leaders engaged in behind the scene talks with New Delhi had been promised a \u201cBhutan type Status\u201d after partaking in the elections.\u00a0 The book by Aditya Sinha had caused a renewed debate in the power centers of New Delhi about Farooq Abdullah relevance in the situation as was obtaining in the state at that time. New Delhi was convinced instead of trying \u201cseparatists\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Farooq Abdullah was the right choice for watching India\u2019s interest in the State. Equally, ending New Delhi\u2019s direct rule in the state and restoring fa\u00e7ade of democracy in the state will give a diplomatic mileage to India at international forums and to an extent puncture Pakistan\u2019s discourse on Kashmir. \u00a0During the early nineties, Washington had renewed its interest in Kashmir, and US Ambassador Frank Wisner was keenly monitoring the situation in the state, even visited the state.\u00a0 The elections in the State were held over two months from September\u2013October 1996. How these elections were conducted in the state has been documented by many.\u00a0 The two senior bureaucrats directly connected with these elections in their self-congratulatory book while narrating how the exercise was carried out in itself expose these travesty of these election. However, these elections have passed into the electoral history of the state as yet another sham elections.<\/p>\n

    Since the publication of my column many reviews have been written on the book, and perhaps many more will appear in the coming days. Seen, in its totality the discourse though revolves around peace between the two neighbors countries, it subtly pleads to maintain status quo in Jammu and Kashmir as the only route available for peace.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Like all books of the hour, the euphoria this book has generated is short-lived, but the debate between the two spymasters will leave behind some questions that will occasionally engage the attention of analysts, researchers, and academia. Nonetheless, it is not various discourses that the authors have endeavored to bring into the public domain that attracted my attention. It is the controversy that this book generated in Pakistan- the country putting Assad Durrani on the exit list that made me visit archives to know if some other generals like Assad Durrani have ruffled feathers in their country.<\/p>\n

    Lots of Pakistan army officers including some generals after retirement have written their memoirs. For sharing their experiences, many have used official language Urdu as a medium. \u00a0Only a few out of plethora have \u00a0reprinted in India by publishing houses like Vikas. \u00a0Since the birth of the two nations as Independent countries, the non-resolution of the Kashmir has been the core issue that has bedeviled the relation between New Delhi and Islamabad and caused one after another war.<\/p>\n

    From \u00a0\u00a0Akbar Khan’s, \u00a0\u00a0\u201cRaiders in Kashmir\u201d to General Pervez Musharraf\u2019s \u2018In the Line of Fire\u2019 Kashmir has largely been the central theme of most of the memoirs. Dusting archives took me to a memoir \u2018General in Politics \u2013 Pakistan 1958-1982\u2019 authored by Air Marshal Asghar Khan (He died on 5 Jan 2018 at 96). In his 220 page book published in India by Vikas, in 1983 he is highly caustic about Pakistan Kashmir policy. He writes, \u2018except for the first year or two, after the creation, when Pakistan was prepared to risk a military adventure with her more powerful neighbor over the issue, no government has since been serious about doing anything more than paying \u00a0\u00a0lip service to the cause of Kashmir.\u2019<\/p>\n

    Critical of his country for depending too much on the United Nations, despite knowing that this organization had substantially done nothing for Kashmir he provides us insight into the genesis of the \u2018Operation Gibraltar\u201d of 1965. \u00a0Neither General Mohammad Ayub Khan \u00a0\u00a0in his biography, \u2018Friends Not Masters\u2019 nor Altaf Gauhar in \u2018Ayub Khan: Pakistan\u2019s First Military Ruler, has mentioned about it.\u2019 To mobilize more support for the settlement of Kashmir, delegations were sent to various countries. He writes \u2018one delegation led by Khawaja Shahabuddin in the early sixties was sent to the Middle East and North Africa. Khawaja Shahabuddin pleaded his case with Ahmed Ben Bella, at that time the President of Algeria. When the head of Pakistan delegation finished his lengthy discourse, Ben Bella beckoned the Pakistani minister to a window in his office. The window opened to the view of the vast cemetery of martyrs who had died while fighting against French occupation. After\u00a0 \u00a0Pakistani minister viewed the scene of the martyrs\u2019 graveyard, Ben Bella had told him, \u201cWords alone will get you nowhere, and speeches and talking will not get you Kashmir. And asked him to build a cemetery like this in Pakistan.\u201d Ashar Khan writes, the first real attempt at following Ben Bella advice was 1965.\u2019<\/p>\n

    The book makes one realize that many a Pakistan Generals have been yearning for resolution of Kashmir Dispute not through war but peace.\u00a0 Many of us, believed that the Musharraf\u2019s \u2018Four Point Formula\u2019 was inspired by some columns on Kashmir by Eqbal Ahmad in the Dawn newspaper. Not agreeing with my friends, I had seen it inspired by a paper prepared by CPR on Kashmir in the early nineties- as debated in Pran Chopra Book, India, Pakistan and Kashmir Tangle.<\/p>\n

    Asghar Khan writes that he had in the early sixties suggested to Ayub Khan that in his view, \u2018Constructive and practical solution would be converting the whole of Jammu and Kashmir into a condominium with India and Pakistan both being responsible for its defense. The state could have a single legislature and government. Both the countries could keep minimum troops in the State.\u2019<\/p>\n

    One may agree, or one may not agree what Asghar Khan had proposed to Ayub Khan, but it does speak that even those who have been part of Pakistan\u2019s military have been looking for a solution of Kashmir not through war but peace, interestingly outside the stated policy of their country. But, in New Delhi people, whether part of military or outside instead of recognizing the historical reality of the Kashmir Dispute and working for its resolution for lasting peace in the region have got stuck up at Nehru\u2019s doctrine \u2018procrastination is the only way forward.\u2019 \u00a0There is need to bury the Nehru\u2019s doctrine and address the Kashmir Dispute in its historical context for lasting peace in the region.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

     
    \nPunchline
    \nDusting Archive To Know More
    \nKashmir Dispute Has Solution In Its Archives
    \nBy<\/p>\n

    Z. G. Muhammad <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Sometimes a new book for its contested contents makes one dust the archives and look for answers and explanations for the controversies raised in it. \u00a0In a situation like that of our where people are caught up in a morass of political uncertainty and are struggling for ending it many times, books are sponsored by the establishment to cloud the historical realities.\u00a0 Or books are written to dampen the resolve of the people for realizing their cherished political goals by creating alternative discourses suggesting the futility of chasing their cause. Two weeks back, a new book based on ideas exchanged by tow spymasters of unfriendly countries; sharing a bitter history of four wars, hundreds of border skirmishes and conspiracies against each other hit the newsstands in India.
    \nLast week, I wrote in this column, about the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-take"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3609"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3612,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609\/revisions\/3612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}