Beyond Pahalgam: Civil Society's Role Becomes Crucial In Restoring Peace And Trust In Kashmir

Pune’s ‘Sarhad’ and other patriotic NGOs should establish ‘Kashmiriyat Sabhas’ to strengthen a people-to-people bond to help end the alienation of the Kashmiri people.

Kashmir is today an integral part of India only because of the stellar role played by the civil society of Kashmir during two critical episodes in Indian history, in 1947.

In October 1947 itself, India would have lost Kashmir when Pakistan tried to seize it forcibly by sending in armed tribals on October 18. Before the Indian army could be airlifted to decisively repulse the tribals, it was the Muslim residents of the Valley “who maintained law and order, provided transport and guides and guided vital installations”, helping the army thwart this attempt.

About three weeks later, Maharaja Hari Singh signed Kashmir’s accession to India on October 27, 1947. This was endorsed by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the immensely popular founder-leader of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, reflecting public sentiment.

Recalling this critical role played by the Kashmiri civil society, the late journalist Ajit Bhattacharjea has described in his book, Kashmir: the Wounded Valley, how Sheikh Abdullah was attracted by “Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, both committed to secularism and socio-economic change, if in different ways.”

One shining moment in India’s history last week was the united face of the nation, presented most eloquently by Col Sofiya Quraishi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh during the official media briefings on Operation Sindoor against Pakistan. The choice of these officers conveyed India’s intrinsic ethos of social harmony and multi-religious diversity and the promise of young Indian women representing our collective resolve for women’s empowerment (Nari Shakti).

From a high of late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s public call for Insaaniyat (Humanism), Jamhuriyat (Democracy) and Kashmiriyat (Social Harmony) as the approach to bring peace to Kashmir; the Lahore Bus Yatra (1999) and the Agra Summit (2001), when India and Pakistan came closest to solving the Kashmir dispute, the Kashmir imbroglio has worsened with the Pahalgam tragedy.

While Operation Sindoor has clearly conveyed that India will inflict a heavy blow on the enemy for any act of terrorism against the nation, military action alone is not going to be enough to win the war against terrorism. India’s civil society has a critical role to play in restoring normalcy in J&K and in ending the alienation of the Kashmiri people from the rest of India.

This is rather critical for strengthening India’s unity, solidarity and the national spirit that one saw from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in the aftermath of the April 22 terror attack in which 26 innocent people were killed in cold blood at Pahalgam.

The attack was unprecedented, as it was not just targeted at Hindu tourists but was also a direct assault on the tourism-linked livelihood of the people of J&K. It was also an assault on the very idea of India, with one Kashmiri Muslim pony handler dying while trying to save a Hindu tourist.

Pahalgam ought to mark a major turning point in India’s war against terrorism. While the government and the defence forces are capable enough to deal with the external aggression, internally, we in the civil society have a big role and responsibility in helping end the alienation of our fellow countrymen in Kashmir and in strengthening the spirit of Kashmiriyat—that unique blend of brotherhood and religious tolerance. The mood is conducive in Kashmir, where the entire state assembly, led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, spoke in one voice across party lines condemning the terror attack.

There is no denying that Kashmiris are deeply alienated from the rest of the country due to a complicity of factors over the decades, including political power play under the Congress and the BJP; Pak-sponsored terrorist and separatist movements which went on a rampage, drove out Kashmiri Pandits, and destroyed the spirit of Kashmiriyat. The alienation has only worsened following the abrogation of Article 370, downsizing of the state to a union territory and massive suppression and disempowerment of the people, politically and economically.

Going beyond Pahalgam, how can we in the rest of the country contribute to the war against terrorism and help strengthen the spirit of Kashmiriyat and national solidarity with the people of Kashmir?

For nearly three decades now, the Pune NGO Sarhad, led by the dynamic social worker Sanjay Nahar, has not only provided educational support for Hindu and Muslim orphans of Kashmiri terrorism but also provided outlets for selling Kashmiri products. Sarhad has held numerous public events and discussions, bringing Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims on a common platform to sensitise the public and highlight issues, and pathways to peace and normalcy.

These interactions could well be termed as the Pune Kashmiriyat Sabha gatherings and need to be organised in different parts of the country to end the alienation of Kashmiris from the rest of India.

During Sarhad’s most recent event on May 3, Haseeb Drabu, the former finance minister of J&K, urged for greater interaction by the civil society for an “assimilation of cultures” and strengthening of economic linkages between Kashmir and the rest of the country. Lt Gen Sudarshan Hasabnis (Retd) spoke of the Indian Army’s humanitarian initiative, Operation Sadbhavana, for people affected by terrorism, which was given exemplary shape by the then 15 Corps Commander, Lt Gen Vinayak Paktankar (Retd). Urging for greater civil society interactions, Gen Hasabnis asked, “Why are we converting an external issue into an internal issue of bickering?”

It is, finally, a people-to-people bond that will make Kashmir an integral, indisputable part of the Indian Union.

The author is a journalist, public policy scholar and former Director, Pune International Centre. He microblogs at @abhay_vaidya