The Counter Argument: Political Islam in Contrast with United States of Kashmir. by Afzal Tahir
There has been dozens of ideas, solutions and working papers surfaced time to time in the name of pragmatism and changing ground realities in order to imposed a foreign inspired agenda or political system over to Jammu and Kashmir. The bilateral treaties that had been concluded time to time whether an out-come of a war or a realization to improve bilateral relationship, never reflected an indigenous aspirations, urges, ideals and contradictions. There fore any agenda, plan or ideals that contradict indigenous realities would never produce any conditions conducive for a better environment. The situation in Jammu and Kashmir on both sides had been and has been gone bade to worse.
The concept of the United States of Kashmir; that reflect the declaration of our forefathers that was adopted during 1944, gaining ground for acceptance with every passing day and we hope that all stake-holders would ultimately converged around this idea. Though, there are much visible quarters even this day and age, unable to distinguish the inclusive values of human life from exclusive one, and see religion as a determining factor in the
There are those who believe that the partition of the Indian subcontinent was based on the question of Muslims, as the majority Muslim population of sub-continent had to become part of Pakistan. There fore Jammu and Kashmir is comprising of majority Muslim population, hence should become part of Pakistan without any reason. This thinking, in fact further extend itself into an urges of false historical consciousness of Empire building, stimulating an ideology of political Islamic movement to build a Muslim Empire over the territories of Muslim majority population, “Dar-ul-Islam” in opposition to “Dar-ul-Harb”.
This ideology on one hand crippled Muslim mindset dreaming in an over exaggerated and false glory of past as well as provides the basis for al-Qaeda like movements that represents all the Islamic political movements and unit them under one slogan “to rebuild historical Empire, the Caliphate”.
It is now an established fact that the International Jhadi movement runs with its centers and sources from Pakistan. It
Abu Suffiyan, who was the head of the council before the fall of Mekkah, later turned a model adopted by the Companion of the Prophet in Medina. Abu Suffiyan’s son Amir Maaviyyah, waged war against Caliph Ali ibn Abu Talib, the cousin and son in law of the Prophet and finally he managed in grabbing the power. After his death, his son Yazid took the power and he was the one who massacres Prophets family along with his grand son Hussain in Karbilla. To the best of my knowledge 99.9% Muslims cursed Yazid, no one prefer this name for their sons and this is the reason there is no names of these historical personalities among Arabs or Muslims. On contrary these names considered as devils indication. There is in fact a small segment of whabby who called themselves "Selfi", do not idealize the spiritual aspect of Prophet's Islam but they do idealize the Empire building of Umayya, that in fact would be more truly described as Arab National Movement. There fore these names surfacing in Kashmiri politics is a clear evidence of an expansionist movement of Arab Nationalism in the disguise of Islam.
There fore the idea of USK based itself on people relation to land regardless of color, gender, faith or ethnicity, is a counter argument to empire building process of a religious community known as “UMMAH”, that is exclusive in nature. There fore they have to come-out from the absolutism and to cross the barriers of prejudices of any kind to give a fresh look to the idea of USK. I will try to expand my argument in details to prove the point in the hope that more people would support the idea not only Kashmiri or Kashmiri origin, but also from India, Pakistan and rest of the world.
The variable aspects and future of Jammu Kashmir.
The divergence and conflicting forces have always been an influencing factor on the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir and so is the case with any other State or societies of the world. The element of divergence has been expressing itself historically in different shapes and contents. The question that may be the population holding different denomination, hence it is natural that Muslims, Hindus and Buddhist, would not agree to live together or would not subscribe to USK? To identify the element of faith in the divergence, in my opinion, is generalization and over simplification of a society. It is important, that a balance and unbiased approach must apply, while reading the socio-cultural, socio-political and socio-economical aspects of the society, whether it is Jammu, Laddakh or Valley of Kashmir. It has always been a known policy and intentions, both from Islamabad and Delhi, to show case the maximum contradictions and drawbacks of Kashmiri society, to prove the point of its dependency on Pakistan or India. The society which we tend to make of an empirical study, pose very simple question: what is the stage, the society is in? Let us examine and analysis the question that always used forcefully by the groups upholding political Islam, with full force and aggressiveness, that Kashmir question is the question of Muslims and Islam. There fore as they claim, the winds from Medina, nothing more, nothing less. Their reference to Medina, means the Medina of the time of the Prophet not even the Medina of today. There is no other way except that we have to trust the historical evidence so to see the differences of medina at the time of prophet and the Kashmir of today. The historical evidence and Islamic literature shows that the “Medina society at the time of the Prophet”, was a slave society.
The values, norms, ethics, behaviors, attitudes, habits, laws and prejudices were of a slave society; very much reflected in the historical accounts. There was slave trade before, during and after Islam. The human beings had been brought and sold, openly like any other commodity. The historical accounts even take us further, thousands of years, when Prophet Moses, for example, was intent on abolishing slavery, but was unable to do so just because in practice the objective conditions of the time of the society was not ready to accept the changes, because the opinion and faith of the society of the time was influenced by the prejudices against slaves and this may be because slaves traders and owners were in the position to make and shape the opinion of the general public based on the faith, that it was God’s will. There fore for slaves answer to “samena-wa-attiyna” (listen and follow) could not be different from “amna-wa-sidaqna”. No one was ready to challenge this notion, otherwise would had to face ready made blasphemy tool.
Though the laws of Thora had been applied to free men also applied to slaves, but only after set free of a period of seven years of servitude. The Islam, too, had introduced the trends and promoted an organized movement to free the slaves. There are examples in Islamic literature, of an instigation of to pay the masters for the freedom of the slaves, in lieu of rituals penalties or to provide food to the needy etc. Further more, one can observe in the Islamic history a trend of persuasions and motivation, to treat slaves with compassion and kindness, “do not force your slave girls into prostitution if they want to live in chastity”. Here, the Qur’an make reference telling us the conditions on ground at that time and giving a relative relief to slave girls, but it does not meant that masters, too would be bar to not have sex with slave girls if they wished otherwise. The reason, because the society was slave society, there fore, slave trade was not forbidden. The ethics, norms, values and even laws of the time were the reflection of the slave society. There fore history bear witness that slave society have the longest tenure and till the first ever famous law case in 1769, where Lord Justice Mansfield ruled that an imported and run-away slave, James Somerset, whose master demanded his return, should go free: triggered a debate, and shifted public opinion in Britain in favor of slaves, influenced by evangelical Christians like William Wilberforce (1759-1833) and by slave revolts in the West Indies, led to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
There fore, the portrayal of Jammu Kashmir’s political history must be seen in time and space.
The question of Empires that had been ruled by the rulers of Muslim faith such as, The Umayyad in Cordova, Abbasid in Bagdad, Ottoman in Istambul and Mughal in Delhi, were in fact congeries of kinship settlement. The Empires were interested in their subject groups only for the purpose of collecting taxes and revenue from them and keeping peace and order within its boundaries, while it left them to enjoy, what we may call, the autonomy of kinship life and activities. Each tribe, clan, caste, or local brotherhood was left to run its own affairs by its own customs and traditions etc.
The, term “nation or nations” used in religious or history books, does not bear the same meaning what we interpret today. In the words of Charles Cooley (1864-1929), “meanings are not fixed entities as they depend in part on the context of the interactions”. The book written by Muhammad Din Fook, with the Titl,e “The Nations of Poonch” is a case in point. Further more in FATA of Pakistan, the tribes too use the term nation and nations, such as, “Masood Nation” etc. In this context the dimension of prejudices would be tribal and reading into the ground realities, can not ignore the natural prejudices between the tribes. There fore the prejudices of a pure tribal and tribo-agrarian set-up would be different from a cosmopolitan and industrial set-up of a society.
The question of Islam or Ram Raj, do not have any relevance to the socio-political, socio-cultural or socio-economic questions of a society in today’s term, whether that is Kashmir or any other conflict of the world. Today’s questions are how to deal with prejudices, discriminations, hate crime and racism etc.? Today, we are living in societies where the relationship of a State and its citizens not Empires and its subjects.
The fact of the life is that a white, black, men, women, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist are and could be the citizen of any State of the world. The governments representing the states are bound both in letter and sprit, to guarantee all rights and equal treatment to all it’s citizens and there should be effective safe guards regardless of any variables. There fore to suggest that religion, race or any other exclusive variables of the people are problem, shows lack of understanding and deficiency in knowledge. These questions, already settled on academic level and those who criticize academic face of fact finding in the reality of daily life do not offer us any substitution. There are no two opinion that the questions have to settled first at the academic level before it go out through the text books, media or through any other learning or information venues to the public domain. To suggest that some thing is okay for universities, is not part of daily life, is in fact a lake of understanding of the reality on ground.
The socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions of the State.
The Valley, Laddakh and even Jammu, by applying socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political rules of this time, the society is by and large tribo-agrarian. There fore to expect industrial or post industrial cultural behavior would be a long distance task, as T. Parsons put it “behavior is largely directed by the norms and values of social system.”
If the latest index is of any trust worthy; 80% population (80% Indian side while more than 90% on Pakistani side) are rural with very low trends of urbanization. The agricultural mode of production has been and still, is lacking of modern tools and equipment that is necessary, tried and tested in other parts of the world, only effective way to link-up the agro products to industrial production, activating the dynamics of the transformation of a society. In the pure economical terms, the Indian side is on top among India market in supply of walnut, and number 6, the world over; while in dairy products such as milk is heading for self sufficient. There is though trends been noted in recent past in an inward investment, with very encouraging annual productivity. The Pakistani side is worst. In fact a well thought out policy had been in place to keep both AJK and Gilgit Baltistan dependent to supplies from Pakistan. The huge foreign remittances of Kashmiris from Europe and Middle East directed in to land investment in Pakistani Punjab. The fact that Gilgit is a town center for trade between China and Pakistan, never allowed to be developed itself into a Capital attractive and investment place.
The main city center such as Srinagar, is very ancient, had evolved into cosmopolitan city, but unable to develop itself matching its contemporaries of the world. It is unfortunate that J&K was an exporting Country in early 19th
The critics of USK and specially those who see things always in a sectarian angle and negative approach would feel difficulty to digest that it is in fact the nature that put all of us into a geographic proximity. They would agree that the nature of the state is based on a people of a particular geographical proximity. We all regardless of exclusive variables, share a common political history. We all by and large share mountainous feature of a society.
The mountainous aspects, both having advantages such as tourist industry but in today’s terms, it is in fact catalyst of bring the world market on to your door-steps, not only for tourist related goods and services but also for the manufacturing/exporting goods. For example, Thailand, in relation to tourist industry and its impact on manufacturing and exporting goods is a case in point.
The mountainous societies do have very serious disadvantages and a realization in the academic field for a separate research and analysis with a specific feature whether or not old grazing parks would turn into a gulf courses or skiing resorts etc. Further more the fact that difficulties in building the infrastructure, that effect the socio-economic development of the State has been playing a decisive role against the transformation of Kashmiri society.
The mountainous aspects are common to all mountainous societies of the world. As Martin noted the reasons that why Afghanistan was not able to transfer itself into an industrialized society? One of the main reasons had been the
RELIGION: A DIVISIVE FACTOR IN A POLITCAL LANDSCAPE?
Let us to observe industrial or even a semi-industrial aspects of a society, in order to compare with tribo-agrarian society and to identify the variables in both.
In an industrial society, people come from different places to work together in a work place. The force that dictate and unite people is work place (means of production) and turn them into workers, in spite of their exclusive variables such as white, black, male, female, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Sunni, Shia, Sudhan, Jatt etc. They all must have to work together in a work place and even an option of to form the trade union in order to protect and defend their employment rights.
In case of mountainous societies, the valleys surrounding by the mountains had and has always been transformed and evolved into an Industrial and Cosmopolitan Cities. The person or group of people, having money (Capital) would invest in hope to make more profit, provided that the security of their investment, skilled work force; regardless of their color, gender, or faith, and the aspects of profitability, better infrastructure, easy reach to market etc. There fore the owner would be an owner/investor, regardless of his religion, color or gender.
I haven’t seen any Church, Mosque, Temple etc, employing thousands of people, producing vehicles, aircrafts, tractors or even the goods that been used by the leaders and participants in the places of worships. In the history books, there is not a single evidence that they have had ever produced any socially benefited product, except the “GOD”, of fear, hate and prejudices.
All the parents send their children to study, chemistry, physics, biology, medicine, geography, social sciences, anthropology, even theology etc. The mosques, churches, temples etc have very minimum role so far the reality of the human life is concern, though it is essential and important aspect of one of the exclusive aspects of human urges and expressions especially human relationship in psychological and spiritual matters and leading them in their ritual and traditional ceremonies.
The misconceptions arises, may be the difficulty to distinguish between inclusive aspects of human life from exclusives one. This is some time mere ignorance, some time intellectual dishonesty that confuse one with the other. Historically, it had never been a problem. For example even Ottoman Empire, used to identify its subjects such as Millet-e-Islamia, Millet-e-Massia and Millet-e-Jewish. There were 32% Christians, 10% Jews and 58% Muslims. Again, it was not a state in the modern sense, where state and citizenship is the fundamental question. In contrast to an industrial culture, an agrarian culture organized itself on a land-peasantry basis. The work places such as farms turned people into a village community, dictated by the geographical necessities of life, instead of ideals or urges of faiths of the people. So one would not deny the fact that the village communities, has always been set-up inclusively taking all features of human variables such as color, gender or faith in to its fold. Regarding to the work, they carried out in their fields, also dictate by socio-economical necessities where evidence shows that peasants committees too cross barriers of kinship, color, gender or faith has never been a problem. They do have very much a religious life as an exclusive aspect of a religious community within the fold of a community that encompassing all aspects of human life and always identify with land, such as Delhi-wala, Jammu-wala, Srinagar-wala, Mekki, Medini, Karachite, Lahori, Poonch, NewYorker, Londoner ect. The work of Shah Wali Ullah is important in this regard from Islamic point of view.
The mosques, temples and churches do not belong to whole community but to an exclusive community. For us in London even mosques been identified with further exclusiveness such as “Mosque Deobandi Hanifi”, “Mosque Brailwai Hanifi” and same with Temples and Churches. The exclusive communities do not share many of their exclusive family value systems such as marriage etc. This is not only between the people of different faiths, but it is very much existing between different tribes, whether they are Muslims or belong to a different faith system. Though they don’t engage in relationships but they participate and socialize the ceremonial aspects of the events. The transformation from agrarian society into industrial society, certainly bring many changes but to expect changes based on Friday sermons without changing the means of production, would be nothing more than a “Utopian” wish.
It is may be the innovation that always in the position to lead the rest and cut the barriers across. We have seen innovation went through the barriers of the States, cutting across the modern immigrations and customs, “ran their horses in lands, seas and been putting their teeth on the top of the Mountains”. There for to suggest that people of a particular geographical proximity, just because, majority of them do share a common feature of exclusiveness, expecting and idealizing a wind from a particular city, could be a wishful thinking but can not be a fact of life. The question is very simple, would that particular city in a foreseeable future would be able to turned itself into the seat of an innovative city? I don’t see any evidence, just because history is suggesting otherwise.
The production of only product, the “GOD” is an over production and the market is already shrinking. There fore those who bang on Islamism in Kashmir in this day and age, in order to exploit the sentiments of the people for a political gain to divide masses, is a known an old tactic that almost have been out-dated and discredited and even Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order even with the help of OBL , also failed to shoulder the forces of division in order to divide societies on exclusives features. The messengers of ignorance, prejudices, hate, fear, conflict and confrontations are banging on the opposite side of the historical growth and the evolution of natural forces, ultimately would die down of their natural death. The chances that class interest would always play an important role in driving the history forward but only in a pluralistic and inclusive vehicle.
The discontent between different ethnicity:
The fact that different cultural and ethnic variables of Jammu Kashmir on both divides had been and still are projected out of all proportions, which do not reflect or suggest any positive or innovative element in support of a conflict resolution, better understanding or an assumption of general good. Even a microscopic survey would not detect any positive angle of this policy. If we take a look historically, it would reveal that always a negative mindset with utopian expansionistic ideals, influenced by a tunnel vision have been a driving force behind such approach that was to hide the facts and spread and portray a distorted picture of Kashmir.
The fact of matter is that there are natural variables between different cultural entities of the state, having their roots in historical evolution. This is nothing new in the world of politics, and in fact very common feature of the world we are living in. The constitutional experts would tell us that in every society and political system, two forces always would be visible determining the course of events. The trends of separation and unity, very much detectable and present at all levels of a society, be that a lowest cell in the shape of nucleus or extended family, or a province of a Country, or Country of a Regional Alliance. The student of political science would not face any difficulty to identify these forces at work.
The experts and participants generally do approach to identifying and stringing together the uniting features and isolating the elements of divergence. This enables the bridges of unity a further exposure to remove the ignorance that was the result of simply because of living in isolation from each other and resulting in a mutual understanding of the reality of an inter-dependency. The bond of inter-dependency between Jammu, Valley, Laddakh, Baltistan, Gilgit and AJK is stronger in terms of economic and geographical proximity. They do have centuries old common history. They had been ruled by the dynasties of Gilgit, Laddakh and Jammu while Srinagar as a center. There fore the uniting factors are way above the dividing factors. Further more, one can not ignore the fact that relationships of people, nations and countries is ever changing, adjusting, evolving, dynamic in nature and as Marx said “major changes in history are the result of the new forces of production”.
To read a dynamic aspect of society by a static angle, ignoring the changes in space and time, would mislead into wrong assumptions and conclusions.
Those who are expecting the fragmentation of the State by relying their assumptions that Jammu and Laddakh would never join the system of the United States of Kashmir, and would prefer to remain with India, would agree that they have lived together for centuries, an evidence of a common history. Further more the representatives from all over the State including Baltistan, Hunza and AJK had been sharing the law making body under one roof since 1934. There is not a single example to prove that representatives from any part of the State, ever had expressed any opinion, disassociating themselves from the State institutions and instead, displayed their intention to subscribe to Pakistani or Indian institutions. There is no such evidence and on contrary it is the force division of the State has been stopping people to share their lives from different parts. For example, Pakistani and Indian forces has not been allowing Kashmiri of any free movement in both parts but they had and have been allowing flow of guns and weapons to create death and destructions. Further more, the Pakistani authorities, even don’t allow AJK and Gilgit Baltistan to sit together. The AJK leaders including Chaudhry Gulam Abbas never allowed to visit Gilgit, Baltistan or Hunza freely. Those who tried and went their by dodging the authority, been deported. The political leadership of Gilgit Baltistan, even this day and age are not allowed free access to their people. There had been on number of occasions many political worker been imprisoned, tortured or expelled from their own homeland. There fore those who bang their argument against the unity of the State, are weakest link and on losing end.
Those who suggests, specially the upholder of political Islam, that Jammu and Laddakh had never supported the movement but they failed to elaborate, what do they mean by movement? The events and actions always carry  strings attached to; it effects people’s minds and shape new trends. There can not be two arguments that the popular government of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah during 1953 was toppled by the then Indian government by using its proxy tools of politics, resulted in constant breeding ground of ignorance, narrow mindedness and hate.The situation ultimately expressed itself in a violent outcome brought death and destruction. The elements of hate against India contributed the seeds in the social fabric of the society that had been creating a false consciousness and division within its ranks by exploiting the essential human variables such as faith. One can see its reflection as pro-India and anti-India and it too affects the trust between Jammu, Laddakh and Valley.
The movement that was spearhead after 1953, no doubt was a popular movement, a peaceful and democratic and yet India had never allowed it to express itself in Kashmiri society, a further mistrust and false consciousness. Even Sheikh Abdullah and others were bar from taking part in the election, the sample reason was that Sheikh Abdullah was always in a position to win a landslide. The problem with the movement, which we as a second, third, and forth generation see it in the socio-historical context and try to create the synthesis out of that historical events to learn a lesson and try to avoid the same mistakes are:
1) National conference (Bukshi/Sheikh Shaib), ideologically deviated from the declaration of 1944.
2) NC under Sheikh Shaib, failed to identify its original battle ground that was to press the demand in order to enforce the terms of the provisional treaty of accession.
3) NC under Sheikh Shaib failed to read correctly the cold war aspects and prove itself opportunistic counterpart of Bukshi and Muslim Conference, by pledging itself with the slogan of plebiscite. The Treaty of Accession had given the position and recognition of the Statehood. Instead of to press the demands for re-unification and election in the entire state, a vague slogan of plebiscite, giving space both India and Pakistan to use Kashmiri soil for their battles. This approach created distance between Valley, Jammu and Laddakh in their thought process. Had the demands clear from the day one and NC in reaction should not move itself into a Muslimism, the trust deficit could have been minimize? Having said all this, the question is, do we don’t have prejudices prevailing at different levels?
4) The historical struggle under the leadership of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah no doubt, had played very important role for a pluralistic and scientific consciousness of civil society. The people from Jammu and Laddakh were always part of that struggle though may be in minority, so is the case with the Pandit community of the Valley. The denial of the historical role of Dogra Dynisty in uniting Kashmir and progressive steps in many respects is nothing but historical prejudices of some quarters. But we do have to admit the real politics. There are multiple reasons to identify the minority role, for example from Jammu:
a) The Government of Pakistan rush without spearing any time to hijack the struggle after 1953 giving it a religious color scaring the population in Jammu and Laddakh in order to create wider gape by stimulating fear of religious hatred ;
b) Neutralizing the leadership of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in order to influence the political landscape of Kashmir, direct from Pakistan. This policy of neutralizing of Kashmiri leadership, even continue till this time and has been applied on both sides. Certainly Pakistan’s involvement on this scale, in spite of the fact of its illegal occupation was a scaring factor, not for non-Muslim only, but also for those who had not and has not been ready to subscribe to a politics of sectarian hatred in Kashmir. Further more why we are only putting blame on Jammu, Laddakh and Pundits? What about Bukshi and all those who were the instruments of toppling the government at first place? I have meet countless people who had spoken very high of Bukshi because of his services in health, education and other areas.
What about Jamat-e-Islami and their role in Kashmiri politics? Is it not a fact that at the time when Sheikh Shahib and his party were busy spearheading movements for national rights, JI was participating in election along with Congress? Those who are trying to single out Jammu, Laddakh and Pundits do not offer us any thing else except it seems that they are filled with hate and prejudices against non-Muslims and this approach is and has been number one enemy of the people of Kashmir. We do have people of this kind in Europe who just hate Asian, blacks, gay and lesbian, but they has never been able to gain even 0.01% support from majority white community. People are highly social conscious and fully aware about the consequences of extremism.
We have seen in most of the third world, where people often influenced by personality cult rather than socio-political issues. For example, Shaid Z. A. Bhutto had been very popular leader of Pakistan. He was toppled by Pakistan
Conclusion:
The prejudice affect adversely, unfavorably, giving a bias influence to others minds or judgment of beforehand unfairly or opinion formed beforehand. A performed opinion, usually an unfavorable one, based on insufficient knowledge, irrational feelings or inaccurate stereotypes or holding of ill informed or the holding of opinion that are formed beforehand on the basis of insufficient knowledge. This is more of less are the meaning given in the English Dictionary for prejudice.
The political Islamic movements solely based itself on non-Muslim prejudice while reading history as a static force by mixing with super-natural illusions with natural realities. This aspect of religious hatred had been exploited in Kashmiri politics especially after 1989 and directly added, abated and controlled from Pakistan for no reason other than to destroy the bridges between Muslim and non-Muslims. Keeping this scenario in mind, certainly, one would face difficulties while persuading Jammu and Laddakh to sigh-up for the United States of Kashmir.
The two states solution of British India, instead of producing any positive results gone mad. There is no doubt that Congress had failed historically to recognized, adjust and accommodate the diverse trends in the political landscape of British India resulted the popular emergence of Muslim League, directly played in the hands of Colonial administration.
Though Muslim League campaign had dominated on a negative note and played with the sentiments of the people but as soon as Pakistan emerged as reality, Mr. Jinnah by realizing the negative aspects, distanced himself from exclusive politics and asked his law makers to be inclusive. His famous speech he had delivered before the constituent Assembly in Karachi, “Today you are not Muslims, Hindus, Christians but you are all Pakistani, not in a religious sense but in a political sense”. This speech has been bitterly contested in Pakistan. Those in favor of secularism using this speech to prove their point but those against and usually bang on the sectarian side of the spectrum feel, always had been unease in the battle of their ideas. The subject speech with letter and sprit, clearly swing against Islamist ideology and giving weight to the others.
The fact of the matter is that Mr. Jinnah was a constitutional expert and was aware of history and had repeated the historical speech of Queen Elizabeth I. This speech was originally of the Queen Elizabeth I, of Britain. The phrase she had used the same only the names are different. She said, “My Lords, we are not Protestants, Catholic or
Similarly Mahatma Gandhi, when he said “I am a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew or a Buddha because all the religion leading into the same direction” also expressing of his inclusiveness of his leadership putting his weight on the side of uniting factors against the divisive one.
The United States of Kashmir in contrast to the position of Pakistan, India and Islamists, based itself on a positive note, that it recognized the relationship from bottom-up, that is people’s relation to their land, recognizing their culture, history, language and minimum political powers should remain with federal government. Kashmir is the Center of Asia, and could turned into a cooperated spot rather than conflicting on the world map. The world is uniting by developing effective communication systems, enabling their people a free participation of the reality of the life, goods and services by removing barriers of ignorance that has been creating taboos turning states and societies into conflicts, leading deaths and destructions. Out of the five gateways opening between South Asian and Far East into Middle East, Central Asia and Europe – Quetta, Gumal, Kurram Valleys, Khyber and the last one in Kashmir, is the most easily accessible and at the lowest altitude, need our neighbors a practical input to develop all these gateways, that is needed for future generations to survive and cooperation.
In the present circumstances one can not see any other option except a democratic way out; there fore USK is the best option. The voters should be able and must have free access and movement under UN supervision to elect their representatives who would formulate the draft constitution. The draft constitution would than go to people for a direct vote and would also deal the nature and contents of relationship, with India, Pakistan and other neighbors. There fore both pro-Indian and pro-Pakistani would be having a chance to adjust and accommodate their views in the subject draft constitution. END
References: 1: Cross, Earle B. The Hebrew Family: A Study in Historical Sociology. Chicago University of Chicago Press 1927 2: Faris, Nabih Amin, ed. The Arab Heritage, Princeton University Press, 3rd Printing, 1946 3: Fish, T. “Law and Religion in Babylonia and Assyria, The Sheldon Press London 1938. 4: Ahmad Hasan, The Early Development of Islamic Jurisprudence, Islamic Research Institute Islamabad – Pakistan 1970 5: George Frankl, The Three Faces of Monotheism: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. First published in 2005 by Open Gate Press, 51 Achilles Road, London NW6 1DZ, ISBN 1 871871 638 6: Life in United Kingdom, HMSO published , Crown Copyright 2004 London. ISBN 0113413025 7: Martin McCauley, Afghanistan and Central Asia: a modern history Published by Longman, 2002 ISBN 058250614X 8: Anthony Giddens, Simon Griffiths, Sociology. Polity Press, 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK 2006 ISBN10:0-7456-3378-1 9: John J. Macionis, Sociology. Published by Prentice Hall, 1999 ISBN 0130953911, 9780130953919 10: Edited by Karen Ann Dvorak, Social Science Research for Agricultural Technology Development Spatial and Temporal Dimensions. Proceedings of an International Institute of Tropical, Agriculture (IITA) Rockefeller Foundation Workshop 2-5 October 1990, Ibadan, Nigeria. 11: Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference. Tower Building, 11 York Road, London, SE1 7NX, First published 2002 by Jonathan Sacks 2002.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, ISBN 0-8264-1443-5 12: Crafting Peace in Kashmir Through A Realist Lens, Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd B-42, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi 110017 13: Suranjan Das, Kashmir & Sindh, Nation-Building, Ethnicity and Regional Politics in South Asia by Anthem Press published in 2001, P.O. Box 9779, London SW19 7QA ISBN 1 89885 587 0 14: Christopher Catherwood, A brief history of Middle East, From Abraham to Arafat by published by Constable & Robinson Ltd, 3 The Lanchester, 162 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 9ER First published 2006 ISBN 13:978-1-84119-870-5 15: Edited by Roy Ellen, Peter Parkes and Alan Bicker, Indigenous Environmental Knowledge and its Transformations, Critical Anthropological Perspectives, Published in 2000 by Gordon and Breach Publishing Group Reprinted 203 by Routledge, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE ISBN 90-5702-848-5 16: Treasures of Britain and Treasures of Ireland, Edited and designed by Drive Publication Limited. For Automobile Association Fanum House, Leicester Square, London, WC2 17: Wael B. Hallaq, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law, McGill University Cambridge University Press, Cambridge First Published 2005 18: Prof. N.J. Coulson, The History of Islamic Law. Oriental Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, first published in 1964 by Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square, Edinburgh ISBN 0 85224 354 5 19: A.H.Dani, V.M. Masson, History of Civilizations of Central Asia , First Indian Edition: Delhi, 1999, ISBN 81-208-1407-x (vol.1) 20: O.P. Kandari; Tourism, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (Tourism/Culture) Ashish Chandra ISBN: 81-8205-033-2 21: Jack D. Ives, Himalayan Perceptions, Environmental change and the well-being, of mountain peoples First published 2004, by Routledge, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN ISBN 0-415-31798-3 22: Romola Parish, Mountain Environments Pearson Education Limited, Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex CM20 2JE England, First published 2002 ISBN 0 582 41911 5 23: Rashid Faruqee, Strategic Reforms for Agricultural Growth in Pakistan, Edited The World Bank Washington D.C, 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433, USA First printing April 1999 24: Eckart Ehlers & Hermann Kreutzmann, High Mountain Pastoralism in Northern Pakistan, (eds.), Stuttgar: Steiner, 2000, Edkundliches Wissen; H.132 ISBN 3-515-07662-X 25: Editors: Filippo Osella and Katy Gardner,Migration, modernity and social transformation in South Asia, First published in 2004 by Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd B-42, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi 110 017 26: Teresita C. Schaffer, Kashmir the Economics of Peace Building, A Report of the CSIS South Asia Program with Kashmir, Study Group Published in December 2005 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, ISBN 0 89206-480-3 27: Naveed S. Sheikh, The New Politcs of Islam, Pan-Islamic foreign policy in a world of states First published 2003 by Routledge Curzon, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE, ISBN 0-7007-1592-4 28: Kashmir: a disputed legacy, 1846-1990, By Alastair Lamb, Published by Roxford Books, 1991, The University of Michigan.
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political landscape of Kashmir. They try to understand and visualize situation in an absolute and static terms by putting Jammu, Laddakh verses Valley of Kashmir (Imran Gazi facebook). They argued that Jammu and Laddakh, would never join and prefer to remain with Indian Union, because historically they had never been supportive of “liberation movement”. They further argued and in fact alleged that non-Muslim, popularly known as pundits of Kashmir valley, never supported the movement even at the time of Sheikh Abdullah, in fact, they had been the “collaborators and conspirators” of India. This line of thinking based on religo-historical prejudices pre-dominates in the Valley and similar prejudices among non-Muslims predominate in Jammu and Laddakh.
shed some lights on the historical setting of the subject movement. For example, a news item published in a Pakistani News Paper, Daily Jang London on 29th January 2009 from Srinagar: quote. “The important commander of LeT Abu Suffiyan had been martyred and Abu Hamza been arrested by Indian forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir”. unquote. There is an other news item published in the News International of the same group of news papers on Jan. 31, 2009 on page 12. I quote: “An al Qaeda leader, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, in an interview with a Pakistani news channel aired in July last, said the bomber who attacked the Danish embassy had come from the Muslim holy city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia”. unquote. The question is who were Abu Suffiyan and Yazid in history? And what is the historical significant relate to these two names, and how these names surfaced in Kashmir politics.
Century and a hugely popular tourist destination because of its unique terrain and climate. The historical accounts shows that in summer even at the time of British rule in India, Srinagar used to filled with tourists and subsequently in June, when temperature in Srinagar rose, the visitors migrated to Gulmarg which was a fashionable hill station during British rule. The great influx of visitors had been resulted in a corresponding of game for sportsmen. Rawalakot, was another popular destination. In spite of all these natural advantages, why Jammu Kahmir left behind, just because political uncertainty, culturally backwardness, reluctant to accept changes or any other reason, offer us many lines of enquiries.
absence of a railway transport system. It equally applied on Jammu Kashmir, where historically, railway tracks were available even before 1947, linking Jammu with Sialkot, but it took long time to reach Srinagar. It is understandable because of mainly a difficult terrain. For example, just from Jammu to Srinagar, there are: 158 bridges, 20 major tunnels, the long one is 2.5 km, the highest bridge counted 77 meters of height, reflect both in terms of hardship and cost. There fore a mountainous terrain need a mountainous specific innovative, research and development approach. This again makes us different from India and Pakistan because our problems are to some extent are variables from theirs. The mountainous societies need a mountainous look not Islamic, Hindu, Christian or a Zionist.
Army mostly from Panjab, stimulated very serious reaction in Sindh, because he was Sindhi. Bhutt’s toppling and subsequent death burnt many bridges between Punjab and Sindh. There fore the fact that events and actions never remain isolated, and always strings attached. It is very easy for a political worker to attract religious sentiments in Srinagar, tribal sentiments in Rawalakot and Mirpure but it would have clear implications some where else. This is the reason that in civilized societies, people don’t subscribe to the politics of hate, prejudices, extremism or just bang on any exclusiveness. The result is in front of every one.
Orthodox, we are all English”. She was trying to unite her people to an identity of inclusiveness (English a land base ID) from exclusiveness (Protestants, Catholic or Orthodox a faith base ID). In her reign Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, Drake circumnavigated the globe, and England rose from a second-class nation to the dominant power of the 16th Century world.| Visitor Counter: | |||||||
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