Ruminations on Kashmiriyat

I had written this piece and another, sometime in 2003, on my native land - Kashmir. I did not do anything with this piece of writing then, but now I want to share my thoughts with you. The piece may be dated in terms of chronology, but the facts and sentiments still remain unchanged.

KASHMIR – KASHMIRIYAT

"Gar Jannat Bar-ru-e-Zamin Ast ; Hamin Ast , Hamin Ast, Hamin Asto”

If there is paradise on this earth; this is it, this is it, and this is it. These words are believed to be the expressions of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. Bernier, who was the first European to enter the territory as early as 1665 AD, called it "a kingdom of unsurpassing beauty". Francis Younghusband, another great admirer, has said in his charming book on Kashmir that when "the clouds roll by, the haze lifts and a real Kashmir spring or autumn discloses itself, the heart of even the hardest visitor melts and he becomes a Bernier himself !"

The chronology of the Kashmir Kings written by Kalhana in his Raj Tarangini eulogises the beauty of Kashmir and says “ Kashmir is manifest with the beauty of Goddess Parvati; and its owner is Lord Shiva himself.”

Legend states that the Kashmir valley was once a large lake and in it lived an abominable demon. The demon was killed after the lake was drained with the collective help of Brahma's grandson, Kashyap and the goddess Parvati. Parvati killed the demon by dropping a mountain upon him and thereby crushing him to death. This legendary mountain is believed to be 'Takht-i- Sulaiman' or Shankracharya that forms the famous backdrop to the city of Srinagar.

Beauty and Kashmir are synonymous. Kashmir has been the poet’s paradise, the dreamer’s “heaven”, and its beauty has made it the envy of the region. Surrounded by three Himalayan ranges, Karakoram, Zanaskar and Pir Panjal - majestic with snow covered peaks, the valley is a tourist’s delight. These mountains are the birthplace of the great rivers that flow through the valley.

Every season offers new vistas - spring, when the air is heady and the valley is filled with the fragrance of a million flowers that blossom on trees, shrubs and creepers; summer and autumn, when these effects are heightened with the colors of warm introspection; winter, when the snow paints the landscape with a brush of white.

However, the most beautiful of all, the gem that made Kashmir a real paradise, was its multifaceted and unique cultural blend. Its different cultural forms like art and architecture, fair and festivals, rites and rituals, seer and sagas, cuisine and language, embedded in ageless period of history, created an unparalleled cultural cohesion – called ‘Kashmiriyat’.

******

Myths and history, language and literature, art and architecture, culture and tradition, in Kashmir all worked towards strengthening the concept of 'kashmiriyat'. In Kashmir, Buddhism reached the zenith of its glory, Hinduism extended its philosophical frontiers into Shaivism and Shaktism, and Islam achieved a new meaning and practice in its tradition of Sufism.

'Kashmiriyat’ was an evolution of a people isolated by geography and interdependent on each other. This interdependence grew into a common culture, a native pride, a togetherness and mutuality amongst the peoples – something local and ingenious to the valley.

The concept of togetherness and mutuality was passed on by wandering mendicants, male and female, Hindu and Muslim. Their songs and utterances penetrated into the imagination of the people. Their hymns were in their language, Kashmiri. It was the memory and compositions of Lal Ded and Noor-ud-Din and Habba Khatoon that continued to inspire the Kashmiri Muslims and Hindus alike, irrespective of class or religion and promote ‘Kashmiriyat’.

The 1990’s saw an attack on ‘Kashmiriyat’. It started with threats, abduction, torture and killings. It resulted in the flight of nearly a quarter of a million of Kashmiri Pandits of the Kashmir valley into neighboring Jammu and the plains of India. Death and destruction came to the valley, with armed bands burning down educational institutions bridges and vital communications, looting, vandalizing and burning the leftover properties of Pandits. They also started enforcing Islamic diktat on the masses and holding civil servants to ransom in order to run the administration by proxy.

The story of the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit from the valley and the aftermath is the story of our family and many like us. We lived in Habakadal in Srinagar. Though our family branch of the family left the valley in 1948, my uncles used to live in the ancestral home. One night in early 1991, the neighbors told them that they should leave. It was not safe for the family to continue living in the mohalla. My uncles hired an auto rickshaw. The family packed some of their most precious belongings and went to the bus terminus in the dead of the night. When they tried to board the bus to Jammu, they were told to leave their belongings behind as there was no space in the bus for their luggage. They left the valley with a suitcase, which was all they could carry. Our ancestral house was burnt down a few years later.

These refugees also carried away with them the centuries old tradition of ‘Kashmiriyat’. It was there in 1947. It enabled the Kashmiris to counter- attack the Kabalis. The Kashmiris could have thrown their own lot with the invaders and thus could have opted for Pakistan. But they didn’t. They threw their weight with secular and democratic India rather than with theocratic and authoritative Pakistan. They showed more concern with Kashmiriyat i.e. their Kashmiri identity than with their Muslim identity. Is it still there?

A change is taking place – the Kashmiri Pandits have left the valley. People who visit the valley notice a difference in the social and economic fabric of the valley. Much of the political and economic power in Kashmir is now in the hands of many who would normally not have such power. In a major thrust to expand literacy, ‘Madrasas’ have gained importance amongst the population. Many of these institutions are believed to focus on the Islamic identity of the students – weakening the concept of ‘Kashmiriyat’.

Is it an accident that Sheikh Abdullah, who was considered a pillar of ‘Kashmiriyat’, made all his major political announcements out of Hazratbal, a mosque? His son, Farooq Abdullah, and his grandson follow this tradition. Interestingly, the expansion of the ‘Madrasas’ started during the Sheikh regime. Considering politics of the country where religion, language and caste have become the vehicles to create vote banks – it is not surprising. To an extent this is a legitimate strategy in a democracy – but when focusing on votebanks based on religious beliefs can result in fundamentalism, there is need to re- examine this issue.

There may be vast differences between perception and reality. A study conducted by Dr. Mir Zafar Iqbal in his book, 'Unrest In The State Of Jammu And Kashmir - A Quest Of Some Psycho-social Correlates', (Mohit Publications, 2003) showed similarity in attitudes towards Kashmiri nationalism (that envisages ‘Kashmiriyat’) being cherished by Muslims, Hindus and militants equally. In groups, he studied from Kashmir, he found no Hindu –Muslim prejudice. He concludes that the Kashmir issue is not an ethnic problem between Hindus and Muslims but is a problem about Kashmiri nationalism.

A combination of Kashmiri nationalism and the temptation of a plebiscite make up a deadly cocktail. It is, therefore, no wonder that Pakistan and many of the political parties in the valley keep the issue of plebiscite open. As long as plebiscite is a possibility and this concept is kept alive in the minds of the people, there is the incentive to change the demography of the region and the mindset of the people.

**********

As an optimist, I hope Dr. Mir Zafar Iqbal is right and ‘Kashmiriyat’ has temporarily gone underground. If this is the problem, the solution lies in restoring law and order and taking back control of the civil governance. This is a difficult task, and requires external influences to be minimized and internal influences maximized.

External influences can be restricted using diplomatic processes, improved security arrangements and technological options to halt cross-border movement and publicity. Internal processes can be strengthened only if the people have the will to do so.

The average Kashmiri has to start fighting the threats of the armed groups - who have no accountability and play by rules of their own making. Tradition and morality has once again to take precedence over other issues. This will be possible by reawakening ‘Kashmiriyat’ and using it as the resource to provide a healing touch. This task is difficult and requires patience, but reawakening the conscience of the people is the way to bring back peace in Kashmir.

I remember the pride my father and my grandfather took in the fact that we were Kashmiris and of the spirit of ‘Kashmiriyat’, amongst us. It took just a few months of violence to tarnish a tradition that had a genesis of over a thousand years. Secularism, that has become the essence of Indian pluralism, is based on the concept of ‘Kashmiriyat’ – the tradition of respecting the identity of diverse ethnic groups, enriching their cultures and contributing towards their social mores. It was Nehru’s background and what he saw of ‘Kashmiriyat’ in the valley that made him believe that secular India could be a reality. Kashmir exported the unique concept of ‘Kashmiriyat’ to India and now it needs to be brought back into Kashmir.


Upendra Kachru