How
does call for a Homeland serve the national
interest and prevent the balkanisation of the
country?
It
is in the best interest of the country for us to
fight for a Homeland. Infact, it will be
anti-national for us to keep quiet about the loss
of our territorial rights in the Valley of Kashmir
and the loss of our homes and hearths, lands,
estates and jobs. If we don't raise our voice
against what has been snatched away from us; if we
keep quiet about the valley of Kashmir which has
been allowed to degenerate into a theocratic
Islamic enclave inside the secular Indian
Republic; if we shut our eyes to the existence of
this Islamic State being defended and guarded on
the frontiers by the Indian forces and being run
by the writ of the militants under the laws of
"Shariat" now being enacted in full
vigour and gusto; we will have done the greatest
dis-service to India for losing our Homeland to
communalists. The Indian nation will never be
forgiven for the total failure of its
secular-democratic experiment in the testing
ground of the valley. Even Jawaharlal Nehru, the
greatest champion and architect of secularism, had
his doubts about the success of this experiment
when he wrote on 26th July, 1962 to Shri P.N.Bazaz,
"the real problem in Kashmir is whether it
continues as a secular State as the rest of India
or not. This affects the whole India because
secularism in India also has not got such a firm
foundation as I would like it to have. Anything
happening in Kashmir will undoubtedly affect the
rest of India with its vast Muslim pupulatiun".
Kashmir
is integral to India as it has been a part of its
geographical, political and cultural mainstream
for centuries. It has its own geopolitical
importance as it stands at the cross roads of
various cultures and religious, political and
geographical entities. It is the meeting ground
between Central Asia, China, India, Pakistan,
Nepal and Afghanistan. It has to serve as the
bulwark against the pan-Islamic expansion from
across Pakistan. Iran and Afghanistan - an Indian
phalanx to counter the encroaching Islamic thrust
from Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan
trying to cut across the Indian plains to join on
the eastern front with Bangladesh, Myanmar,
Malaysia, etc. It is the only way to prevent
balkanization of the country by retaining as much
area as possible in the valley under a secular and
democratic hold of the country and allowing the
committed secularists and nationalists to settle
down in their own land. What we are seeking,
therefore, is a full accession of at least this
portion of the valley with the rest of India
There
is tremendous pressure on the Central and State
Governments for the formation of smaller States in
recognition of the urges and aspirations of the
people, for preservation of their regional
identities and for safeguarding their rights and
interests. Negotiations are going on with people
from Bodoland, Jharkhand, Gorkhaland etc. These
people have not faced the persecution and communal
discrimination, neither have they been the victims
of murderous assaults by armed
fundamentalist-terrorists, nor been forced into
exile from their own home state. Yet the Central
Government is prepared to discuss their demands
and grant the same in some measure. The displaced
Kashmiri Hindus are placed in a worse plight. They
are not only threatened with denial,
discrimination, suppression and persecution but
are facing a total loss of their identity. They
have been uprooted, brutally murdered and banished
from their own soil. Their claim for their own
land and for a full accession of this portion with
the rest of India is most genuine and rightful. If
the Government of India is ready to concede some
form of autonomy to the State, which indirectly
means conceding an Islamic State, it will be in
the interest of the country to at least have a
portion of the valley loyal to the country and
which rightfully belongs to secular democratic
Kashmiris, as their Homeland. It will be a free
democratic secular island within or by the side of
the Islamic valley, having an extension of the
constitution of India in its full play.
A
Homeland for the seven hundred thousand displaced
Kashmiris in the valley will be the only logical,
natural and permanent solution for the displaced
Kashmiris. Homeland is where home is and home is
where land is and our land is in the valley of
Kashmir. Our demand for a Homeland within the
valley, from where we have been driven out by
armed Islamic terrorists, is an assertion of our
rights as much as of our patriotism for India. In
order to save Kashmir from the clutches of
Pakistan which has been instigating, encouraging
and perpetuating terrorism in Kashmir, the Indian
nation has to shed all inhibitions and
unequivocally declare its resolve of resettling
tbe displaced Kashmiri Hindus in the Homeland
which will serve as a bastion of secularism and
democracy in an otherwise Islamic State.
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