Listen to the Weeping Kashmir

By Ali Sukhanver

Majority is authority; that is why the Indian extremists have always been afraid of Muslim majority everywhere in India particularly in the areas like Indian Occupied Kashmir. They want to turn the Muslim majority into a minority and for this purpose they are doing all their best. Under the ‘kind’ command of Mr. Modi precautionary measures are being taken seriously. Special lands are being allotted to the families of Hindu Pundits to form Hindu majority constituencies in Muslim majority areas of the valley. Major development projects are being approved only in these newly formulated constituencies. The Modi government is trying to convey an impression to the people of the valley that they will have to co-operate with the BJP supported candidates if they desire to live a peaceful and comfortable life.

According to a recent report, an estimated 68,000 people have died in the fighting and ensuing crackdown by Indian forces till now. Resentment over Indian rule in the disputed region is now mostly expressed through street protests. The people of Kashmir have to face a new kind of atrocity at the hands of the Indian security forces every day but the cruelest one is the disgrace of Kashmiri women. Dr Anjana Chatterjee is a Kolkata based activist and anthropologist. While speaking at a seminar ‘Experience of Detainees’ in Srinagar, Chatterjee referred to a Human Rights Watch report, ‘Disgracing of women is being used as a war weapon by the Indian Army to punish Kashmiris for their demand of right to self-determination, 7000 Kashmiri women have yet been gang raped in homes, streets and army camps by Indian troops in occupied Kashmir.’ This situation calls for sincere attention and efforts of the international forces who claim to be the care-takers of the suffering humanity throughout the world.

After Modi’s coming into power, things have worsened a lot in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. With the help of RSS and the Hindu extremists belonging to BJP, Mr. Modi is trying his best to change the face and fate of the Indian Occupied Kashmir. The main target of Mr. Modi, the BJP and the RSS is to win the expected elections of 2020 but everyone knows that they could never succeed in their efforts because the Muslims are in majority there in the Indian Occupied Kashmir and they also know that the Muslims could never vote for a Hindu extremist or anyone supported by them. To tackle with this situation the BJP thinkers are planning to bring demographic changes in the valley. BJP and RSS are busy in changing religious identity of the State. Special concessions are given to expand the horizon of Amarnath Yatra to project that Hindus have greater stakes in IOK than Muslims. According to an authentic report, in the 1901 Census of the British Indian Empire, Muslims constituted 74.16% of the total population of the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu where Gujjar Muslims constituted 20% population, Hindus, 23.72%, and Buddhists, 1.21%. The Hindus were found mainly in Jammu, where they constituted a little less than 70% of the population. In the Kashmir Valley, Muslims constituted 95.6% of the population and Hindus 3.24%. These percentages have remained fairly stable for the last 100 years. According to that report, in the 1941 Census of British India, Muslims accounted for 93.6% of the population of the Kashmir Valley and the Hindus for 4%. In 2003, the percentage of Muslims in the Kashmir Valley was 95% and those of Hindus 4%; the same year, in Jammu, the percentage of Hindus was 66% and those of Muslims 30%. In the 1901 Census of the British Indian Empire, the population of the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu was 2,905,578. Of these 2,154,695 were Muslims 74.16%, 689,073 Hindus 23.72%, 25,828 Sikhs, and 35,047 Buddhists.

On 5th January 1949, United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan UNCIP passed a resolution which stated that the question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan would be decided through a free and impartial plebiscite. Unfortunately this resolution could never be materialized because of the continuous stubbornness shown by India. The Indian authorities are misguided by their misconception that they could crush the people of Kashmir with force of arms and weapons. Things are getting worse and worse in the beautiful valley of Jammu and Kashmir. The people of the Indian Occupied Kashmir are looking forward to someone who could save them from the cruelty and brutality of the Indian government and the Indian Armed Forces because life has become a blazing hell to them. They have no freedom no liberty. Their lives, their businesses, their honour and their women, in short their each and every thing is at risk; the Indian troops deployed there do not give them more importance than voiceless animals. Is there anyone who could listen to the cries of helpless Kashmiris?????