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What Next in Jammu and Kashmir

 Dt:  21/7/25

What Next in Jammu and  Kashmir

(Jammu as a  full-fledged separate state  like

Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand……)

Dr T H Chowdary*

The Supreme Court of India  had pronounced on 11-12-23 its judgement   that the  government’s act  in removing the temporary Article-370 (and 35A) in the constitution of India is  absolutely valid  and also directed the government  to hold elections  in J&K before Sept 2024 , we must consider  as to what should be the  structure  of  the state for J & K areas. Should  it be restored as a full-fledged state  as it was some time ago or  should  it be split into two  states,  Kashmir and Jammu .

2. There are  weighty reasons   as to why J&K should be split  into two separate  states so that  justice  can be done to the  people of Jammu region. Although  the Jammu  region area at 26,223 sq.kms (62.2% of J&K)  and  its  people  are  53,50,811  constituting  43.7% they  never got  adequate  representation in the governance   or benefits  in the composite  state. There had been ten Chief Ministers  in J&K between  1947  and 2025 .  None of them  was a Hindu.  Bihar,   Rajasthan, and Maharashtra three  predominantly Hindu states  had Muslims as Chief Ministers . Abdul Ghafoor  was the 13^th  Chief Minister of Bihar from 2 July 1973 to 11 April 1975 . Janab Barkhtullah Khan was the 6^th  Chief Minister of  Rajasthan between July 1971  and Oct 1973.  Janab Abdul Rahama Antuley was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from  June 1980  to Jan 1982.  The Muslim population  in these three states as a proportion of the total population  is less than that of the  Hindus in the  combined state of  J&K .  A  Kashmiri Muslim  Mukfi Mohammad Sayeed was the  Home Minister of the Union of India  in 1989-90.  Four Muslims were Chief Justices  of the Supreme Court of  India and more than  a score  Muslims were Chief Justices

in different High Courts of the country. A  Muslim  Idris Hasan Latif  was the 10^th Air Chief Marshal of the Airforce of India in 1978-81.  But never a Hindu was the  Chief Minister of  the combined state of  J&K . The SCs and  STs  in  Jammu as well as Kashmir region never had the benefit of  reservations in the Legislative Assembly or in  government jobs.   UntillArtice-370 was deleted in 2019   there is no  Minority Commissions in the Muslim   majority states, there is no  Minority Commission in J&K  (and other states where Hindus are a minority - Punjab,  Meghalaya , Mizoram, Nagaland…. .)

3. In 1989-‘90  Pandits , Hindus  had been  expelled  from   the Muslim majority Kashmir  area of  J&K from their  millennial home land.  Muslim clerics from mosques  went on calling  upon  Hindus to convert or get out or  get killed . It was   clearly the onslaught of Muslims on Hindus.    Not one Muslim leader  in the  National   Conference  or the   Congress or any other party  ever  came to the rescue  of Hindu Pandits. They were all complicit in the expulsion of  Hindus ,  Pandits. 

4. This is a repetition of what happened  to  three Jewish  tribes in Madina on the express orders  and  supervision of   Prophet Mohammad himself.  First it was  Beni Kainuka tribe who  were expelled,  permitted to quit  with their movable  properties . The second  tribe Beni Nadir  was  expelled;  they had to leave  all their movable and immovable  properties in Madina; the third  tribe Beni Koraiza  of 800 men were be-headed  under the  oversight of the Prophet himself and their  severed  bodies were thrown into the trench  got dug by themselves. Their properties  were confiscated . Their women and  children  were made   slaves or  converted . It is this  precedent     set by the Prophet himself  that  Muslims  of  Kashmir  expelled non-Muslim Hindu pandits  from that territory.  During all these over thirty  years,  no  Muslim leader of Kashmir  or of India  ever   demanded that the  Pandits should be  brought back and their  properties and rights  restored in Kashmir.  Just as  the Hindu-Sikh  population of  Pakistan  has been decimated, so has been the Hindu Pandit population of  the Muslim majority  Kashmir  got decimated / extinguished. 

5. Hindus and Sikhs continue to suffer in the  Muslim majority combined state of J&K.  To add  insult to injury,  the Bangla -speaking Rohingya Muslims  coming out of  Myanmar are settled not in the Muslim majority Kashmir  but in the  Hindu   majority Jammu so that  the demographic content of the  latter can be  adversely affected .  Rohingyas are also getting settled in Hyderabad  and in some Kerala cities.  Should Kashmir’s Hindu Pandits  continue to  live as   internally- displaced  persons, refugees  in other  parts of India?  Relief to  Hindus  in Jammu  region  can  come   only if  Hindu majority  Jammu  region of  J&K becomes a separate  state. 

Districts in Kerala , Haryana and Punjab were divided one after another to create Muslim majority districts out of them - Malappuram out of Malabar in Kerala, Mewat out of Gurugram in Haryana and  Malerkotla out of Gurudaspur in Punjab,  the first  by a Communist government and the latter two by Congress ; the BJP-led NDA government of India divided  Bihar , Madhya Pradesh and  Uttar Pradesh to create Jharkhand , Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand  respectively. The creation of Jammu state out of J&K is much more justified  as the people  in that area  are communally discriminated.

6.  Jammu and Kashmir must be divided into two States &  one  UT , Ladakh :  How do the separate states of Jammu & Kashmir  compare with some  other sates, especially in the north east.

7. It would be seen  that  both  Jammu and Kashmir  states  as  separate full-fledged  states will be far more justified  even when compared to Himachal Pradesh  . It is necessary that  the public and the intelligentsia   assert themselves to see that justice is done to the long- neglected  Hindus  and Sikhs  of the Jammu area of  J&K that alone. Nationalist parties  in India   and J&K must agitate for the  re-organisation of J&K into two  separate full-fledged  states. That alone can ensure justice to the long  humiliated and deprived Hindus of the Jammu area.  The Pandits  must be assisted to resettle  in Jammu state or  preferably in a liberated safe area  of Kashmir adjacent to  and merged with the Jammu state.

8. That J&K are very sensitive areas because  they are   neighbors to our inveterate enemy  Pakistan  cannot be any reason for keeping these two together.  Arunachal Pradesh and  Sikkim  and even UP  have borders with  another  bullying and non-friendly, nearly inimical state China .   Punjab and  Rajasthan  and Gujarat  are also  having borders with another  enemy state Pakistan.  We have non-Hindu  majority states   - Meghalaya , Nagaland,  Mizoram, Punjab. Very soon Kerala and   perhaps even West Bengal  may become non-Hindu majority states.  We may have to live with them  by devising administrative and security systems  that will prevent them from any separatist or secessionist  courses.

9. The bifurcation of the  combined Union Territory of J&K and  upgradation  of  the two regions  Jammu and  Kashmir separately  as  full-fledged states like Telangana  will be the correct solution  to end adverse discrimination  to the  people in Jammu region. 

10. Js. Sanjay Kishan Kaul while delivering the  Supreme Court’s  verdict on Aticel-370 on the  11^th Dec 2023 wished for Truth and Reconciliation Commission  for and in J&K to bring about  mutual good-will, tolerance and fraternity between the Muslim majority  and Hindu minority,  especially  the Pandit community which was forced out,  ethnically cleansed in 1989-‘90.  Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa and Peru  might have worked because the adversarial populations, though racially different,  were of the same faith . Christianized  indigenous people and the  colonist white European settlers and their progeny . Islam’s theology instructs and inspires and obligate Muslims not to fraternize  with non-believers ( in Islam) like Hindus and other Indic peoples . There are  scores of Ayats  in Koran that  obligate  Muslims to wage struggle ( jihad) to subdue the kafirs .  Prophet Muhammad  ordained that  in his land Arabia  none but Muslims should inhabit . It is an article of  faith  of Muslims that they  irrespective of their character  are superior  to even persons  like Mahatma Gandhi as  asserted by no less a  person than Maulana  Mohammad Ali  who took Mahama Gandhi as the partner to lead the   khilafat movement in 1919- 22.

11. If indeed  there can be a  Truth and Reconciliation Commission , it should be not only for J&K but for the whole of  Bharat where  thousands of  Hindus’  temples were destroyed  by Muslim invaders and rulers  and   mosques were constructed  on these very sites   or  the temple structures altered  to serve as mosques.  The Babri in Ayodhya,  Gyanavapi in Varanasi , Shahi Masjid  in Mathura, Mahakal in Dhara (Madhya Pradesh)    are the well-known “Hindu masjids”, apart from Somnath (Gujarat). Generations of  Hindus will not  forget the injury done to them and which remains  unacknowledged and genuinely regretted .  It is a burden of immense crime . That is why  the National Integration Council  has  failed to  bring about national integration.  (1,487 words)

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