[Reader-list] Kashmiriyat - the face behind the veil

[Pawan Durani]

 Kashmiriyat - the face behind the veil

Author:            *Sanjay Kaul*
Publication:      *SKMedia*
Date:                January 2003

Every time there is a spate of killings in Kashmir, almost everybody with
any investment in the Kashmir situation rushes in to protest the incongruity
of the event in the context of the fabled liberal traditions of Kashmir, or
what is now fashionably also known as Kashmiriyat.

It has been a while since Kashmiriyat began doing the rounds, to the extent
I can't really say who  or what actually coined it - it could've been a
coinage of the Maharaja era; or even the JKLF's accidental discovery in
arguing the cultural isolation of the Kashmiris, although why they would
ignore Jammu-yat or Ladhaki-yat I don't know. It could also have been a
National Conference plant, in arguing its case for greater autonomy for a
very special people;  it is a pliant enough word to be used by the rag-tag
Hurriyat, in their hurry at becoming amenable to any international platform
that seems available; and it is often used by the Indian political
establishment across the floor when they want to rub in the distinction
between this Kashmir and the one that is not this.

The truth, in this case, is not somewhere in between but somewhere
completely else. Kashmiriyat as an attempt to brand the socio-cultural ethos
of the Kashmiris, as distinct from the Jammuites and the Ladhakis serves to
not only undermine the other two cultural identities, but it accents
dangerously the distinction of being a Kashmiri. That this is also patently
incorrect is another matter, for how different is essential Kashmiriyat from
Punjabiyat? What is it that makes the Kashmiri unique which does not the
Jammuite or the Ladhakhi? Or even the Bihari or the Bengali? Is it the
salubrious climate? Or is it some stunning example of secular behaviour
that, some would hope, puts the Gujaratis to shame? No Sir. Kashmiriyat is
only as unique or as average as any other socio-cultural component of the
region. And in that too, it does not possess as flattering a lineage as say,
Bengal, if only for a people's intellectual and other achievements.

Kashmiriyat as tokenism, is yet another variation on the theme. When we want
to propound the fictitious secularism of Kashmir, we use this variation
wholeheartedly. But when it takes on meanings as a distinctive community of
a people who have other politico-religious ambitions, we duck. This is
precisely what Prime Minister Vajpayee had to skirt when he famously
proposed 'insaaniyat' as a more encompassing paradigm to bringing peace in
the Valley. And when it is used to speak of a distinct culture, its users
usually fail to provide its context; if the Kashmiriyat of the Kashmir we
still have with us is the liberal and benign variety, what of the Kashmir on
the other side? Is that Kashmiriyat too or is it POKashmiriyat?

For the world community this word is fast achieving a flexible quality of
application depending on what the pressure points are. The West is beginning
to like this word because it gives them the handle to rub in the
distinctiveness of the Kashmir region, and therefore its problem, with no
reference to the state, and without upsetting the Indian viewpoint. This
dubious quality of the word, quite in keeping with the political character
of the region, is the perfect way to talk in a variety of tongues about the
same thing without anybody discovering the real intent.

Then there is the quintessential spin-doctored version of Kashmiriyat, as a
wonderfully benign, Sufistic version of Islam that is so unique that you
find it nowhere else in the world. Quite right, that you find it nowhere
else on earth - for where else do you find a land that has over the last 400
years, systematically expelled wave after wave of Kashmiri Pandits from its
confines with no weapon other than religion. Here is a people who stand
testimony to startling reduction in their count repeatedly - from over
twenty-nine per cent of just Srinagar City in 1873, (Fredrick Drew; Census
of 1873) to less than one per cent in the entire valley today...is this is
the tradition of Kashmiryat?

That a minuscule minority, representative of the last remnants of any
figment of pluralism in the valley, could become the focus of such an
organised onslaught over such a long time! - and we are still all keyed in
to watching The Pianist win an Oscar for its Director, a Jew who purportedly
survived the Holocaust. Hey! we have our very own holocaust here, and its
called Kashmiriyat, but is anybody looking?

The only constant, it seems, is that nobody seems to want to put the reality
in its correct perspective - after all, if this sort of violence does not
belong to Kashmir by culture or religion, why does it happen with such
regular frequency?

I can just about visualise the champions of India's secular traditions
rising in an echo against what is implicit in this statement. But would they
care to ask if this kind of a campaign can survive century after century
without bearing in its soil a small seed of what makes all this possible? No
it can't, for without the seed there can be no tree; without a nurturing
climate there can't be fruition.

There are commentators who want to wish away any finger-pointing at
Kashmiris by pointing fingers at the north western borders - and the
tradition continues even till today. But is the pusillanimous nature of the
Kashmiri the only weak link that allows one morbid regime after another to
find just the right environment in this place, all through its history, to
practice such a long drawn cleansing? Be that as it may. To absolve
Kashmiris, for what has happened in the valley, is to excuse a people their
complicity in what has always happened in Kashmir.

*Let us not allow the word to veil the truth*: *If Kashmiriyat represents
liberalism, Aushwitz was **Disneyland.. *

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