Chandan Srivastava
Can it be said on the basis of the latest incidents of terrorist violence in Kashmir-Valley that history is repeating there once again and Hindu population is being forced to migrate from the valley? The exodus of the Hindu population from the Kashmir-Valley has a bloody history, so it is easy to see the ongoing violence there through old prism. Looking through this lens, one can say that in the ongoing violence in Kashmir, mainly the Hindu population is being made a victim of violence.
However, the list of 11 civilians who were targeted by terrorists in the first fortnight of October indicates that it is not right to look at the recent incidents of violence in Kashmir through old prism.
Looking at this list (and the reasons for the continuing killings by the terrorists), it becomes clear that this time the main basis of violence is not a person being a Hindu in the Kashmir-Valley but his non-Kashmiri or Kashmiri in the eyes of terrorists. To be against nationalism. The terrorists want to create a new narrative in favor of their violence, which aims to counter the Indian government’s attempt to portray the violence in the Kashmir Valley as Pakistan-inspired and Pakistan-sponsored.
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Cashmere vs Non-Kashmiri
This time the terrorists have mainly targeted non-Kashmiris which includes Hindus, then Sikhs and Muslims and it can also be said that terrorists are not targeting only non-Kashmiris but they are targeting their guns. There are also local Muslims whom the terrorists suspect are aides to the police or the Indian Army.
The names of civilians killed in Kashmir in the past fortnight include Mohammad Shafi Dar, Majid Ahmed Gojri and Mohammad Shafi Lone. All three were local citizens of the valley (and, their religion can be inferred from the name). According to reports, these three local civilians were killed by the terrorists on the suspicion of “having links with the security forces”.
The second category of civilians killed in the latest incidents of violence in the Valley belong to the local minorities. Terrorists in the first fortnight of October targeted a Kashmiri Pandit Mohanlal Bindru who dared to remain in the Valley despite the violence in the 1990s, and in this category can be named Sukhwinder Kaur, a Sikh principal of a government school in Srinagar. The local residents of Kashmir include.
According to reports, the terrorists attributed the killing of Mohanlal Bindru to “being an RSS ideologue and indulging in drug dealing” while the reason behind the murder of Sukhwinder Kaur was to allow her children to attend the Independence Day (August 15) program. to persuade.
The third category of victims of terrorist violence is migrant workers arriving in the Valley to find employment. These laborers include Virendra Paswan, Aurobind Kumar Sah, Raja Rishidev and Joginder Rishidev (all Hindus) of deprived social background from Bihar, along with Sagir Ahmed (Muslim) of Uttar Pradesh, and Deepchand of Jammu who was the Prime Minister’s name for immigrants. As a beneficiary of the employment scheme being run in the interest, he was posted in the Education Department of Kashmir. According to the terrorists, Deepchand had also tried to persuade school children to participate in organizing the Independence Day event.
It may seem that the number of Hindus is more in the third category (of the migrant laborers who have been subjected to violence) for the sake of analysis, but if we look at the continuing violence after the abrogation of Article 370, then if we look at the violence and violence. Taking the developments back two years, the number of Muslim immigrant laborers killed would appear to have increased.
You will remember, within two months (October 2019) of the abrogation of Article 370, The Resistance Front (according to the police it is related to Pakistani terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba) killed five workers engaged in construction work in Kulgam, Kashmir Valley. murdered. The slain migrant laborers were identified as Kamaluddin, Mursalim, Rafiq, Naimuddin and Rafikul, residents of Murshidabad in West Bengal.
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New plot of violence and Article 370
Recall what were the arguments in favor of abrogation of Article 370. Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was removed in August 2019. Under this section, a person from outside Jammu and Kashmir could not become a permanent resident (and owner of land and property) of this state.
Then there was a lot of news on social media that with the creation of two centrally governed areas named Jammu and Kashmir, the avenues for buying real estate have been opened there. It was said that along with promoting development works in Muslim-majority Kashmir, there is also scope for the settlement of new population there, which will prove to be helpful in keeping the Kashmir Valley as an integral part of India.
Soon a solid reason was also found to believe so. In the year 2020, the central government made a new policy regarding being a resident of Jammu and Kashmir. In the new policy, three marginalized Hindu communities (Valmiki community included in the Scheduled Castes, refugees from West Pakistan, mostly Scheduled Castes and people from the Gorkha community brought in to join the army of the Dogar king of the old princely state) in the newly formed center He was declared a permanent resident of the governed province (Jammu and Kashmir). Despite living in Jammu for decades, the people of these communities did not have the right to be permanent residents and the Kashmiri leadership did not accept them as permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
Another change happened through the new policy. The new policy states that officers-employees of the central government or officers-employees working in public sector undertakings and banks are entitled to obtain a permanent resident certificate if they have been in Jammu or Kashmir for ten years. It was also said that any Indian citizen who has been residing in Jammu or Kashmir for the last 15 years can be given a certificate of being a permanent citizen. In the absence of data, it is difficult to say how many people got the certificate of permanent resident of Jammu or Kashmir under the new policy, but some estimates can be made on the basis of census data.
According to the 2011 Census, the population of Jammu and Kashmir was 1.25 crore and the number of immigrants in this population was about a quarter (twenty eight lakh nine thousand six hundred and twenty nine). In the 2001 census, the number of immigrants in the population of Jammu and Kashmir has been given as eighteen lakh five thousand seven hundred seventy seven.
Comparing with the figures of the year 2011, it can be assumed that there are at least one million immigrants in Jammu and Kashmir who have been living in Jammu or Kashmir for a decade or more and the new policy of residence created this possibility. That this immigrant population should be considered as permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir.
(The data of the Labor Department of Jammu and Kashmir says that 1 lakh 40 thousand migrant laborers come to Jammu and Kashmir every year but most of them return during the winter. News also states that in Jammu and Kashmir The number of immigrant workers arriving each year could be as much as three times the Labor Department figures).
It can be assumed that the new policy regarding permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir is directly related to the strong perception in the minds of Kashmiri separatists that after the abrogation of Article 370, the Indian state should change the settlement of Kashmir-Valley. wants. Kashmiri separatists consider the Muslim majoritarianism of the Valley to be the basis of Kashmiri nationalism. With the abrogation of Article 370 and the introduction of a new residency policy for the separatists, it has become easier to reinforce the fear in the minds of the Kashmiri people that outsiders will take over the employment opportunities and property of the Kashmiri people.
The latest incident of violence in the Kashmir Valley is an attempt to spread this fear-feeling of loss of livelihood and property among the people of Kashmir. The separatists want to serve a dual purpose out of this. On the one hand, they want to reduce the legitimacy of their old story of separatism being sponsored by Pakistan. Secondly, one of their motives is to emerge as a representative of the interests of the majority residents of the Kashmir Valley.
Regrettably, in these days of decline of the old Kashmiri leadership, there is no such internal mediator who can prove this narrative being fabricated by the separatists in Kashmir to be false among the people there.
(The author is a socio-cultural scholar)
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