Jammu and Kashmir; A strange union.

 Jammu Division

     

It all started in 1846 i.e. when the erstwhile princely state of  Jammu & Kashmir was founded by the then ruler of the state, Maharaja Gulab Singh. With the decline of the Sikh empire, the Dogras started enjoying more autonomy over the Jammu region  and slowly got complete hold of the Jammu region and then adding to the expansion of the newly found kingdom many areas were annexed to its geographical boundaries, such as Gilgit and Baltistan and Kashmir, and hence the Princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was formed.

Similarly, there were many other princely states throughout India. But, after independence the legitimacy of the geographical boundaries was challenged under the influence of democracy, which was outrightly against the claims on the basis of conquest and new federating units based on ethnicity, language and demographics were formed for eg. Harayana, Himachal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, etc. etc. But the new state of Jammu and Kashmir(erstwhile princely state ofJammu and Kashmir) wasn’t lucky in this case, though comprising of three different ethnicities i.e. Dogras, Kashmiris, Ladakhis and all three with altogether different cultures and faiths were entitled as a single entity and then started the till date continuing, discrimination against the cultural and ethnical minorities, Dogras and Ladakhis.

The so-called secular state of India has nothing but failed to implement its principles of fair play in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. In the past 69 years of post-independence period, there has been no person belonging to the minority community, not only religiously but even culturally and ethnically been the chief minister of the state and on the other hand say principle of secularism has been very well implied throughout the rest of India, as people belonging to the minority communities shared the highest offices of the country, Former President Giani Zail Singh and Late Dr. APJ Abdul kalam being the chief examples for that matter. But in Jammu and Kashmir, the view is altogether opposite, here the people who keep beating the hoarses of secularism appear to be pure hypocrites, as they just extend their support to appease Kashmir and from last 69 years this has been the same, and the other parts of the state, Jammu and ladakh has just been subject to discrimination and negligence. People from Jammu and Ladakh face heavy discrimination at the hands of predominantly Kashmiri government and state machinery, and even are neglected by the Indian union as its all focus and apprehensions are for the terror sensitive Kashmir region of the state. And even if not sensitive state, it’s very difficult to take so many ethnicities together at a time with equality and fair play and especially when a particular region is politically so dominant and even the seat distribution is not done fairly. How can fair play be delivered to other regions and its people?. In such a case discrimination and bias is inevitable. For such a case the only best option can be separation, over regional, linguistical and ethnical basis, as done throughout India, so that, cultural protection can be guaranteed, as in case of Jammu and Kashmir the worst suffering are the Dogri language and culture which under kashmiri dominated administration is subject to negligence and has resulted in such a big crisis of the Dogra Mother tongue.

“This is indeed, a very unnatural union, as there are no similarities between the three regions on any basis, all three look different, believe different and speak different but still are considered as a single entity, because it was brought sometime together by some conquerer by the sword, against the principals of democracy. For how long, we can carry such an un natural union successfully and keep neglecting other people under the appeasement policy for the people of a certain region”

As there seems no end to the Kashmir issue any soon and hence the state appeasement of the kashmiris, it seems very difficult to take all the regions together. In this situation separate state of Jammu is the only option for the better of the people of the region. The Dogra identity is based on the linguistical approach irrespective of faith. To talk of a separate State of Jammu means to talk of a separate administrative unit which guarantees security to the interests of the Dogra people, their culture, history and language.

Here a point which is noteworthy is the official language of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Urdu, the state has a significant no. of a non-Urdu speaking population which doesn’t approve Urdu as it’s language, as two of its three big geographical parts are not Urdu speaking or writing regions. Reporting as a Jammuiet at the first place, people here completely can not read or write urdu and same applies to the Ladakh region. Despite a big no. of state’s population not able to relate to Urdu, it remains to be the official language of the state. Instead of looking into these matters, the state is completely focused in appeasing it’s kashmiri population. This negligence itself is going to be the chief cause, if separation is ever initiated.