Kashmir revisited
Jawaharlal Nehru, the staunch anti-imperialist leader of India and the third world, acted like quite an imperialist in his own house. The famous crackdown on the erstwhile Sheikh Abdullah and his supporters is just one of the many examples of this great ‘democrat’ and his ‘democratic’ policies. That he went back on his own word on the issue of Kashmir continues to perpetuate the great tragedy of our subcontinent. Indeed Nehru was a sensitive man, especially when it came to his own ego, but could be quite intolerant and insensitive when dealing with others. In a way I suppose he deserved the treatment he got from the Chinese. One could say he got the taste of his own medicine.This article is not about Nehru however. But it is about one of those young men who did face the brunt of Nehru’s policies. Maqbool Butt, an affectee of Nehru’s crackdown, escaped to Pakistan in 1958 to organize his struggle for the liberation of his homeland. It was here he realized that the question of Kashmir was merely a political stunt for the Pakistan government, and no one was really interested in the liberation of Kashmir. It was this realization that led to the formation of National Liberation Front, which was an indigenous armed resistance against Indian occupation of Kashmir.
What did Maqbool Butt stand for? He stood for a united, independent and secular Kashmir, something which was unpalatable to the two countries that are laying a claim to it. India chose to crush him, while Pakistan saw Kashmir as a good enough cause to divert the Islamist fighters created to fight the godless Soviets in Afghanistan. The result Kashmir is a greater mess than ever before. The great irony of our times is that what was once a great secular freedom movement is now being portrayed as an Islamist insurgency. Indeed Maqbool Butt, a revolutionary at par with Che Guevera, has been forgotten by both sides.
In 1968, the government in Islamabad also imprisoned this great man, but back in the day, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had a conscience. It released Maqbool Butt and his comrades as ‘true patriots of Kashmir’. Through out the 1970s Maqbool Butt laid the ground work for an indigenous Kashmiri independence movement, which ultimately led to his imprisonment and judicial murder by Indira Gandhi’s government in New Dehli. What the father had started, the daughter completed. That too was a great drama of the last decades of the 20th century. A mysterious group kidnapped an Indian diplomat and called for the Maqbool Butt’s release. Then without warning they killed the diplomat. Making this a pretext, the Indian government sent Maqbool Butt to the gallows. If Kashmir ever had a Yasser Arafat, it was Maqbool Butt. It seems however that much like Israel, India too is scared of genuine freedom fighters, and would rather fight ‘armed insurgents’ involved in ‘cross border terrorism’. Maqbool Butt died because he was a genuine Kashmiri freedom fighter, and revolutionary and not the sort propped up by intelligence agencies.
Where are the Kashmiris today? General Musharraf is winning praise for his pragmatic vision for Kashmir. Yet his vision amounts to nothing but a sell out for the Kashmiri people, who have been fighting for a united Kashmir. He is being encouraged by the Indian government. An issue that dealt with a people’s right to decide their fate, has been relegated to a mere territorial dispute between two nuclear armed neighbors. It is anything but that. Pakistan and India have no doubt become parties to this dispute because of their actions, but they don’t have the moral currency to resolve this dispute. Let us be unambiguous about the real situation. The reason why India is involved in this dispute is because it occupies 2/3rd of Kashmir. The reason why Pakistan is involved in this dispute is because it occupies 1/3rd of Kashmir. Neither India nor Pakistan have any moral justification to be in Kashmir. Kashmir must be independent.
The typical Indian response to the idea of an independent Kashmir is simplistic at best and sinister at worst: If Kashmir goes what will become of the 130 million Muslims in India? This amounts to a veiled threat almost. After all why should 10 million or so Kashmiri Muslims affect 130 million Muslims in the rest of India? Besides it is India that tries to present the Kashmir in separatist colors. Kashmir was accorded a special status under a binding agreement that was subject to the UNSC Resolutions. Now if Kashmir has been made the ‘atoot-tang’ for India by self serving politicians, whose fault is that? Why must Kashmiris be denied their right to nationhood and statehood because India can’t put its own house in order.
And we Pakistanis also have to decide once and for all if we intend to be sincere to our Kashmiri brethren, or do we plan on screwing them over for our own interests? Our role has been roughly similar to that of the Arab states vis a vis Palestine. It is only time, before we too drink the blood of the freedom fighters, but if we are sincere to the Kashmir cause, we must recognize that our backing of the hard line Islamist factions has only discredited the Kashmir cause and alienated us from the true leaders of the Kashmiri people. We must build bridges with the genuine Kashmiri leadership, and respect their wishes. This must also mean no bilateral deals with India, and greater autonomy to the government of Azad Kashmir. We should be prepared in the future to allow an independent and democratic republic in Muzaffarabad, as the genuine voice of the Kashmiri nation, which can then demand the end to Indian occupation over the rest of Kashmir. A united and independent Kashmir for all Kashmiris is the only just solution to this 60 year old dispute.