Loving your
motherland, you should be quite disturbed over the massacre
witnessed at Pulwama three days ago – when a nineteen-year old Islamic terrorist
triggered explosives and killed more than forty of India's
security forces moving on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway. You will have some
troubling questions too.
A chief
reason for India not decisively succeeding in the war on terror in Kashmir
is this: much of the regional population, including local political leaders in the
Valley, are more beholden to separatists and extremists than to India. When
militants hold sway over there, and many local politicians too have open or concealed allegiance
to them – out of choice and out of fear – people will also tend to trust
militants as their true protectors and saviours more than a law-abiding Indian government. So, militants
appear even more powerful to all, and people growing up in Kashmir naturally
look up to militants as heroes and saviours. Pakistan too trains and aids those militants
and has gained a soft corner among Muslims of Kashmir. This is well
known.
We are repeatedly
failing to win over much of the local population in the Kashmir Valley,
alienate the terrorists and vanquish terrorism in the Valley. After
all, as a huge nation India is capable of ushering in development in Jammu and
Kashmir state, including the Kashmir Valley, on a larger scale and faster pace
than what a decadent Pakistan or J&K's selfish local politicians and
chieftains could do. This should be obvious to everyone including the
Kashmiris. Why is a great nation continuously faltering
in Kashmir and suffering such a loss of honour and authority in
a tiny part of its land, in the Kashmir Valley?
Assume
for a moment that Kashmir, its people and its militancy stay, but that the
geography of the rest of India is composed of the United States of America,
with Americans living here and Trump ruling from Delhi. Do you
think a Delhi-based American government will be failing for long to stamp out
terrorism on its own territory, Kashmir Valley, and losing its
soldiers like Indians who actually rule from Delhi? No is the answer
you'll get.
In the
US, Americans take pride in being Americans, as simply belonging to that
country. Their Christianity plays no part here. They feel proud as a nation
which is affluent and dominating the world in many spheres. They would feel ashamed to let any group of people
in a miniscule part of their own territory hold the nation to ransom and kill or injure American troops for long. The whole of American people and Opposition
politicians will also back their government in any stern action on terrorists to impose government’s authority on disturbed areas. India is not strong that
way, and we have problems among people too.
In
India, Hindus form 80% of the population.
Here, Hindus take pride being in the Hindu religion and revere the many
temples, holy places, holy rivers and holy mountains that dot
the Indian landscape. They derivatively love India which houses such venerable kshetras or localities. They look upon their land as a protective mother, and almost worship their land
as Mother India or Bharat Mata. It is this sentiment of being
Hindus that holds them together, and it is that way Indian Hindus love
being Indians - not the way of Americans in the US.
Now,
look at Muslims of India who form about 13% of the country’s population.
They do not revere the land of India for the presence of any place they
consider holy, and have no such religious or emotional attachment to the land
of India. Their allegiance to their religion is a stand-alone, and it stops
there. They don't have much of relish being Indians for non-religious reasons,
like Americans love being Americans. Not being idol worshippers, they
don't relish calling their country as Mother India and do not share any such
sentiment with Hindus. Still however, many of them would like to multiply
and expand their presence in India and diminish the presence of Hindus, which
is simply a desire to subjugate Hindus in the land of their origin.
Sadly, from
a very young age many Muslims get infused with a passion to consolidate among
themselves and not bond with Hindus. Since it is difficult for anyone to pull
away from one’s religious masters, especially among a preaching-oriented Islam,
the mental divide between Hindus and Muslims of India is not easy to bridge. This
phenomenon is most pronounced in Kashmir, where Muslims vastly outnumber Hindus
and the urge to dominate Hindus and distance themselves from a Hindu India is proportionately intense. Separatists, militants and terrorists among
those Muslims appear as protectors of the common people and rule their minds. With all
this, when India’s Constitution too supports a special status to Jammu and Kashmir
and sanctions exclusive privileges to persons considered permanent residents in
that state, the militants and separatists in the Valley feel more entrenched –
because, for them, this legal provision automatically separates their state
from the rest of India half-way. It is
like thrusting an AK47 in the hands of someone who is just wielding a lathi. These combined realities in Kashmir stand in
the background of the Pulwama tragedy.
Let the
Indian government act against the plotters of the Pulwama carnage. It should
know when and how. But Hindus across India have an important thing to do. They must
bond among themselves in a deeper and more demonstrative way. They must not remain disjointed or loosely-joined
in their mutual relations. This is not to cause any harm to Muslims of India,
but to signal to them that India is the land of origin for the Hindus and that
the Hindu character of India cannot be weakened by anyone, but is to be
respected by all others in India practising other religions. This will announce that Hindus are a giant in
India, though gentle, and that a giant is not to be teased and tossed. Nothing
is a greater tragedy than a giant mentally cowering before a pigmy and not
looking a giant. Nothing is a pleasanter sight than a giant treating a pigmy
gently and honourably – not also letting the pigmy ride on the shoulders of the
giant to look taller and stronger than the biggie. Hindus of India must come
together and show such an image of a giant which they are.
Centuries
back, when alien Muslims invaded India and killed and humiliated Hindus, the
invaders held strong swords and had their way. Now Muslims of India hold strong nerves and
overawe Hindus in the same India. So there is a need for a robust psychological
unity among Hindus themselves for a just equation to settle among all in Indian
society. If that happens, wily politicians will realise that taking Hindus for
granted and appeasing Muslims for narrow politicking will not be rewarding. We
have already seen the benefits of Hindu unity in the protests against Tamil
lyricist Vairamuthu who denigrated Goddess Andal, and in the recent Sabarimala
solidarity movement in Kerala.
Indian Muslims,
including their mullahs, should know that their ancestors were Hindus, and in
any case Indian Muslims live in a Hindu majority nation. They cannot hope to live a better life elsewhere,
even in a Muslim majority nation – least of all in Pakistan – and should be
grateful for being in India.
Recognising
the strength of the majority people of a nation where one lives as a minority
group is no insult, and is the normal courtesy to be shown to the majority. Indian
Hindus living in the US or Britain as a minority do it and are happy for it – enjoying
no special privileges in those nations. Indian Hindus living in Saudi Arabia or
Dubai have also no special privileges for them in those countries and they
could be subject to some restrictions over there, and are still contended.
With a
healthy and honourable outlook, Indian Muslims too can live with dignity in
India without causing anxiety or suffocation to Hindus of India. This awareness among Indian Muslims will promote a true fellow-feeling among Hindus and Muslims who have to co-exist in this nation. So, in different ways Pulwama should prick the conscience of India's Hindus and Muslims and prod them to introspect for their mutual good. But
first, the giant should fully wake up, realise his strength and stature and
reveal the same, so his gentleness is not abused. He has to help himself, and
no government can do it for him. Will he? That’s the big question.
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Copyright © R. Veera Raghavan 2019
