ABOUT THE BOOK
fjrigjwwe9r0pp_Books:Description
A veil of darkness shrouds Indian
political discourse with respect to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Its genesis
can be traced to Jawaharlal Nehru’s decision to extract J&K from Sardar
Patel’s mission to integrate the Princely States with the fledgling Dominion of
India. Nehru’s subsequent inability to manage the war with Pakistan in the face
of the duplicitous manoeuvrings of Louis Mountbatten whom he imprudently
appointed as Governor General of India and chairman of the Defence Committee,
waffling in the face of the steely British backroom diplomacy at the UN
Security Council, and above all, abject surrender to the intractable Sheikh
Mohammad Abdullah whom he had unleashed upon the hapless Maharaja Hari Singh
and his subjects, have bequeathed a bitter legacy. The forced abdication of
Hari Singh and the invidious Article 370 (followed by Article 35-A) paved the
way for the sustained marginalisation of Jammu and Ladakh provinces and hence
of the Hindu and Buddhist populace of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. This road led
inexorably to the rise of separatism and fundamentalism and the brutal exodus
of the Kashmiri Pandit community in 1989-90.
The Nehruvian paradigm has so
dominated the public discourse that few have dared to see Jammu and Kashmir
outside the framework of Hindu-Muslim relations or India-Pakistan relations.
This is a wholly artificial construct. Had the State been allowed to accede to
India in the manner of other Princely States, it might have emerged as just a
border State with a significant Muslim majority in the Kashmir Valley. Nehru’s
“communal award” to Sheikh Abdullah has proved far more lethal than that of
Ramsay Macdonald. The current demand to revive the old abomination and
designate the chief minister of the State as “prime minister” is the logical
outcome of this mindset that insists upon special weightage for one community.
For the Indian nation-state, this is a decisive crossroad.
ABOUT Author
fjrigjwwe9r0pp_Books:aboutAuthor
Sandhya Jain is a Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum &
Library, New Delhi. A writer of political and contemporary affairs, she writes
a fortnightly column for The Pioneer, New Delhi. Her concerns range from
India`s civilisational ethos, national integrity and national security, organic
farming, environment, et al. Jain is a post graduate in Political Science from
Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, Delhi. Her published works include
Adi Deo Arya Devata. A Panoramic View of Tribal-Hindu Cultural Interface (2004)
and Evangelical Intrusions. Tripura: A Case Study (2009).