CHAPTER TEN

Jammu and Ladakh: Colonies of Muslim Kashmir

In democratic dispensations, it is the minorities of all hues that are to be safeguarded and protected lest their democratic rights and privileges should be trampled upon. It is how such systems have evolved channels ensuring the participation of minorities in the overall functioning of their systems. But what has been the Islamic method in Kashmir is to choke and stifle the Hindus and ensure all safeguards and protections for the entire community of the Muslims in Kashmir. That the Muslim majority of Kashmir has been living a posh-style of life is the result of siphoning off and cornering the entire economic and political cake. Yet they are instinctively given to grumbling, holding firmly fast to the exhortation of Mirza Afzal Beg, rank communalist and sly lieutenant of Sheikh Abdullah - 'Muslims, come in hordes, eat all you get and go on grumbling' - Walivo Khyavo ta Barav Deevo.

The Hindus of Jammu have been subjected to the similar unfair treatment. The Kashmirian brand of Muslims abhorrent of the sections of population not subscribing to the faith of Islam have trampled upon their rights, privileges and constitutional guarantees perpetually their backwardness by administering law, by making law and by resorting to frauds and manipulations. What is objectively perceptible is that Jammu comes nowhere to match the development graph of Kashmir, lagging behind in all spheres and sectors of development. The step-motherly treatment of Jammu is communally motivated as the Islamised bureaucracy has been manipulating the diversion of the development funds to the Muslim Kashmir resulting in an unprecedented boom in the economy of Kashmir benefiting the Muslims alone. It is well-known that Kashmir has registered an exemplary advance in the sectors of agriculture, horticulture, tourism, handicrafts, and more than most in the domain of education.

The opinion leaders in the region of Jammu have been long clamouring and highlighting the demand for declaring Jammu as a separate autonomous region only to ensure the development of the province in varied fields of economy. They of whatever political hue are unanimous that the unjust and tyrannical governance dominated by the Muslim chauvinists has been responsible for and instrumental to their poverty and economic backwardness. The Gajendra Gadker and Sikri commissions constituted by the governments of Jammu and Kashmir have upheld the contention of the Jammuites that the Muslim rulers have deprived them of the basic infrastructure of development and more than most of the institutions for manpower development. Sheikh Abdullah also chose Kashmir as the site for the construction of the Institute of Medical Sciences with the funds from Government of India. The Jammuites have been crying hoarse and justifiably so for an Engineering College, Agriculture College, Institute of Medical Sciences, Agriculture University, roads and communication links and allotment of due share of development funds with a view to achieving parity with the province of Kashmir snatching away lion's share of development money. The immediate scrapping of the communal rationale for development as devised by the Islamised bureaucracy of Kashmir is on the agenda of all opinion leaders hailing from the regions of Jammu, Ladakh and minorities of Kashmir.

The fate of the Buddhists of Ladakh has been even worse off. The Muslim tormentors have been exploiting them ruthlessly depriving them of all opportunities for progress and development. The key positions are held by the Kashmirian Muslims, who are and have been subjecting them to loot and plunder. Basking in the sun of state patronage, the Muslims launched upon conversion campaigns resulting in an open revolt by the valiant Buddhists. The two communities of the Buddhists and the Muslims otherwise lived in peace and amity. Ultimately the 'Reformation Campaign' was said to have been led by Pir Ghias-ud-din and Noor Mohammad, two ministers in the Sadiq Cabinet, who are said to have sown the seeds of religious discord leading to the absolute segregation of the two communities in the province of Ladakh. The DIG of Kashmir, Pir Ghulam Hasan Shah, had also a contributory role to play in polarising the two communities leading to the de-stabilization of the entire region.

The Muslims enjoying state patronage and protection and flaunting power and pelf have been ruling over the Buddhists like sovereigns out to trample upon their sense of pride and honour. Deeply hurt, the non-violent Buddhists are left with no other option but to launch upon a vigorous agitation for the ouster of the Kashmirian Muslims, who have been oppressing them and rejecting them as non-entities. What has offended the Buddhists most is that the Muslims have been denuding the gompas of priceless artifacts and consistently working for their conversion. The Christians also do not lag behind in conversion campaigns, but stand rebuffed by the stiff resistance from the simple and un-sophisticated Buddhists.

The Buddhists have understood the game-plan of the Islamised bureaucracy of Kashmir. To shrink their sway over the entire region, the Muslim rulers bifurcated the region into Ladakh and Kargil, one dominated by the Buddhists and the other by the Shia Muslims though they belong to the same stock. The Buddhists have been demanding an autonomous hill development council only to break loose from the Muslim tyranny. During the 'Quit Ladakh' movement, the Buddhists bared their non-violent teeth leading to the flight of Muslim tormentors from the frontiers of Ladakh along with all who shared the booty of loot and plunder only to find shelter under the protective wings of the Islamised bureaucracy ensuring their pays, allowances and other modes of relief.

The Kashmirian Muslims gnashed their teeth in utter wrath that the knave Buddhists of Ladakh had the courage and guts to touch the Kashmiri Muslims serving the cause of Islam on the soil of Ladakh. They were out to wreak vengeance on them and were lying in wait for an opportune moment. One evening, finding a group of Ladakhis moving about in the premises of the Tourist Reception Centre, Srinagar, a crowd of Muslim lumpens ran in their direction in all fury only to manhandle them and inflict hurt on them. Sensing the peril, the Ladakhis immediately dropped their trousers and flaunted their genitals only to establish their credentials. After due verification of their Muslim identity, the Ladakhis were let off. To the dismay of Muslim lumpens, the Ladakhis turned out to be the Muslims, not the Buddhists, who were to be fleeced and lynched for their anti-Muslim agitation.

The Islamised state apparatus has been concertedly at work to contrive a rationale giving sanctity to the entire frame-work of political and economic preponderance over Jammu and Ladakh and also silence the fragile minority of the Kashmirian Hindus clamouring against violation of their normal human rights. If thoroughly perused, all the measures touching multifarious departments of life contrived since 1947 smack of blatant communalism and discrimination. Jammu and Ladakh as two components of the State of Jammu and Kashmir have been virtual colonies of the Kashmirian Muslims, who have created yawning chasms between various religious groups only to perpetuate their hegemonic position. The Buddhists have been pitted against the Shia-Muslims, the Muslims against the Kashmirian Hindus and the Muslims of Doda against the Hindus of the mountainous region. As the faithful executors of the ISI plan of Greater Kashmir, the Islamised bureaucracy enjoying the political patronage of the rulers that be injected the baneful virus of communalism designed to weld and fortify the Muslims of various regions into a bond of Islamic fraternity for achieving political ends formulated and projected by the combine of the local bureaucracy and the outside mentors.

That the Muslims of the Valley are to be benefited and have to be pushed ahead at the expense of other ethnic groups has been the rationale devised by the Muslim rulers and the Islamised bureaucracy. Distortion of facts, manipulation of records, tampering with records, concoction of data, destruction of records, shady seniority lists, super sessions, relaxation of all rules and norms for Muslims, two seniority lists, one for the Muslims and the other for the Kashmirian Hindus have been the rationale in vogue in Kashmir, an integral part of a secular democracy. That the entire population of the Muslims in the valley is backward, poor and deprived has been the rationale. All Muslims, one and all, from Sheikh Abdullah to a boatman, from Mir Qasim to a butcher are poor, bereft and hence need be pushed ahead over the heads of others, who are the Hindus. the Buddhists and the Sikhs and as per the rationale are rich, prosperous and hence curbs are to be applied to their onward march.

At a glance, the rationale appears to be lop-sided, communal and sectarian and it has been in vogue since 1947. It was under the facade of the same rationale that small holdings of land owned by the Kashmirian Hindus were grabbed and orchards spreading over miles owned by the Muslim tycoons left untouched and intact. The same rationale Islamised the whole bureaucracy in Kashmir leaving others down and out and it has worked wonders for the Muslims adding to their prosperity levels, posh life-style, superfluous wealth and incomparable affluence. Yet there are men like Saif-ud-Din Soz and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who shed tears that the Kashmirian Muslims are terribly poor, wallowing in dust and dirt and living on alms.

To perpetuate their dominance in legislative bodies and executive machinery, the Kashmirian Muslim rulers without a pang of conscience resorted to the measure of manipulating the population figures of various ethnic groups. The Muslim population figures of the Valley were inflated beyond the credible limits only to maintain their political hegemony over the entire state and also to justify the near-total grab of the financial resources for the Muslim Kashmir. The Muslim rulers got a shock of their life when the population figures of the region of Jammu registered a steep rise and the government tried its best to suppress the census figures, but could not when a powerful voice against the suppression of such figures was raised. The Muslims undoubtedly are in dominant numbers in the Valley. But the attempt of the Muslim rulers has been to establish the declining growth rate of the Kashmirian Hindus, thus proclaiming to the world that they, just a 2 percent minority, have grabbed everything only to justify their onslaught on them by way of blocking their entry into various service slots and other professional institutions.

The census figures collected by the state administration are revealing only to establish a case of 'population manipulation', a deliberate attempt at showing population figures of the Kashmirian Hindus suffering a steep slide.

Census could not be conducted in the year 1951.
 
 

Overall growth rate in the entire state as per census records has been:
 
 

Frauds by Census Department

1. Pakistan occupying huge chunks of the territory of Jammu and Kashmir consolidated its position in such areas, thereby reducing the overall Muslim population as the areas were dominantly Muslim. It is estimated that 10 lakh Muslims lived in Pak-occupied areas. As there could be no census operations in the year 1951, the Census Department working under the state administration projected 10% growth rate in the overall population of the state. It is really dubious that the projected growth rate of 10% was applied to the Kashmirian Hindus, who never inhabited the Pak-occupied areas. Thus, the growth rate of nearly 15% of the Kashmirian Hindu population was not projected for 194l-5l and 25% for 1951-6l as determined by the growth rate of the Kashmirian Hindus in 1931-41.

2. It appears that the growth rate of the Kashmirian Hindu population was 84.1% in 1971 and suffered a steep decline to 9.4% in 1981 and again shot up to 29.9% in 1991.

3. The Census Department did not work out the actual Hindu population of Kashmir for the year 1951. Without determining it, the Department put their numbers at 63,000 which, in fact, was the Kashmirian Hindu population in the year 1931.

4. The Census Department recorded a decrease of more than 44,000 Kashmirian Hindus during 1941-1961 at an average growth rate of 25%.

5. The census operations conducted by the Islamised bureaucracy have never counted the Kashmirian Hindus  in full, thus recording a precipitous fall in their numbers.

6. It is incredible that the Kashmirian Hindus had just 9.4% growth rate when the growth rate of the entire state was 28.97%.

If the growth rate of 25% of the Kashmirian Hindus in 1931-41 is any guide, the population of the Kashmirian Hindus in 1951 should have been 98,585 as against 78,868 in 1941. In the same fashion deducting 2000 killings in 1947 and the migration of nearly 8000 Kashmirian Hindus till 1951, the population of the Hindus in 1961 at 25% growth rate was 1,13,231 and in 1971 it was nearly 1.47 lac as per 29% growth rate of the overall state population and in 1981 it was 1.90 lac approximately as per 30% growth rate.

As per 30% projected growth rate for all segments of the state population, the numbers of the Kashmirian Hindus stood at 2.47 lacs in the year 1991.

Besides, eighty thousand (80,000) Hindus speaking Hindi and other Indian languages have been permanently living in Kashmir as in January 1990 when the Muslim marauders raising a battle cry for the Prophet's governance (Nizam-e-Mustafa) forced them to leave Kashmir for unknown destinations, scattering them as straws in the wind.