The delusions of the Hurriyat I am specifically referring to have to do with their total and deliberate ignorance of the political history of Kashmir, beginning with the pivotal role of Sh Abdullah in the 1930s and 1940s (they have to dismiss him as the Pakistanis do as a traitor and stooge and Quisling, when in fact he was staunchly Muslim and entirely averse to the whole Pakistan idea and the one man who galvanised the Valleys Muslims politically against the potentate at a time SAS Geelani was a youngster), followed by their idea that if only the Sikhs and Dogras, as Non-Muslims, had not ruled the Valley for a century and a half, all would have been well, which is manifestly false because the Sikhs ending the insanely cruel rule of the Durrani Afghans was welcomed by all Kashmiris and the Dogras, all things considered, were a major progressive force, bringing transport, communications, education and the modern world. All this leads to their idea that if only India chose to walk off and leave the Valley to itself (which it is never going to do), an Islamist Utopia may finally arise there along with the help of the friendly Pakistanis, etc etc. It is all sheer nonsense. What leads to psychological damage of ordinary people is the propaganda that Hindu soldiers are torturing and killing the Valleys Muslims, raping women as a matter of policy, etc. And there are people in Delhis leftist academia as well as in the West who have fallen for this nonsense, mostly produced by alienated disgruntled Pakistanis sitting forlornly in some British working class neighbourhood or some dismal New Jersey housing estate...Even Pakistanis of Pakistan are largely fed up with the Valleys crazies, partly because when the Pakistanis of Pakistan come to India and participate in Muslim prayers and festivals they can see that Islam is thriving in India and the Hurriyat and friends are intellectually lost. The most telling fact may be simply demographic. The Valleys population, mostly Muslim, was at a maximum value of some 840,000 in the 1890s; today it is some seven or eight million -- caused by longer longevity which itself is caused by better health, education, awareness, transport, communications, technology, etc, i.e. progress... so much so that many of the young, well-educated on Indian public money, are happy to emigrate to richer destinations, not to be grateful for being Indian rather than Pakistani but to try to continue the Hurriyats propaganda from abroad... It does them no good, or anyone else. There are a lot of things wrong with the Government of India but its basic position on secularism and on J&K is not one of them.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 03:22:39 +0000
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