The winter of 1944 in Berlin was full of gloomy portents. The darkening penumbra of sepulchral gloom in the chronicle of a city’s foretold death was so thick it could have been cut clean with a knife. The war was already lost; only the last rites had to be carried out. The Nazi terror having sucked the lifeblood out of its youth had fallen for the adolescent greenhorns, who were thrown pell-mell into the burning cauldron of war, to be sacrificed for the blood lust of a racist ideologue. An entire generation was sacrificed on the whims of a war monger. Movies like “Anonyma” based on “Berlin Woman’s Diary” depict the horrors of Berlin’s female population with a combination of angst and gallows’ humour. The city was a witness to German atrocities in the beginning stages of war and some of the holocaust horrors that rebounded on the hapless populace with equal fury.
The Nazi maltreatment of Russian prisoners boomeranged on them after the Russian tanks lumbered in through the debris strewn streets of Berlin in April 1945. Around 80,000 Russians and 92000 German soldiers died in that meat grinder before the depleted Wehrmacht and SS Waffen troops, many of them child soldiers, finally caved in. The madness of war exacted a heavy toll on the German citizens, especially women and children who fell victim to the fury of victims. The war that was begotten out of hateful Nazi political ideology and social anachronisms like Eugenics bears an eerie similarity to the current battle for Srinagar being waged on the streets of Srinagar in India-held Kashmir (IHK).
The lilac blue sky of the ethereally beautiful vale of Kashmir reflects the saturnine gloom of the repressed denizens whose freedom and autonomy had been snatched through the illegal annexation of their state by the Indians. The Muslims that constitute over 68% of the 12.5 million population fear a cultural genocide through change in domicile laws in the wake of infamous Articles 370 and 35 A. As per Article 35 A the Kashmiris are being deprived of their political and property rights by allowing non Kashmiri migrants to purchase property and cast votes in the state elections. The presence of 2.5 million migrants in IHK is expected to alter the delicate demographic balance that would impact adversely on the Muslim majority constituencies after the promulgation of illegally enforced domicile law. Now the Indian occupation authorities would be able to give domicile certificates to even those who had stayed either for 15 years in the state or who studied in a state educational institution for seven years.
By this artifice even the bureaucrats who were serving in official capacity would be eligible for the domicile certificates, including their children who never stayed in the state with them. This is the most egregious miscarriage of justice if ever there was one. Prime Minister Modi’s fascism that is nourished by its RSS ideologues is not much different from the madcap ventures of Nazi ideologues drunk on Nazi ideology. The Srinagar of today is not much different from Berlin of 1945 except in one big aspect. That aspect is while Germans still had the hope of freedom after their gory ordeal the Srinagar residents nurture no such hope. The reason is the long term plans of a RSS-BJP combine that espouse Hindutva exclusivism. The rabidly xenophobic creed called Hindutva is nothing but Nazi misanthropy clothed in saffron hues.
Like “A Tale of Two Cities” it is a season of light as well as a season of darkness for Kashmiris in Srinagar
Cocking a snook at UN Security Resolutions 39 and 47 the Indians have backtracked from every commitment they gave to the international community, Pakistan and the Kashmiris. The journey for reneging from the solemn pledge for the right of self determination of Kashmiris is spread over seven decades of mendacity and equivocation. First it was the Nehruvian sleight of hand when he refused to abide by Plebiscite commitments on the excuse of withdrawal of Pakistani forces from their side of liberated Kashmir, then it was his successors’ refusal of all internationally mediated efforts to resolve the dispute, and next it was his political opponents, the votaries of racist Hindu supremacism who put a final nail in the coffin of Kashmiris’ freedom. Some of those nails are being driven in Poonch (6123 domicile certificates issued), Rajauri(6213 certificates issued), Kashmir region(435 certificates), and Doda (8500 certificates) to alter the Muslim majority. The underlying aim is to help BJP win next state elections through this gerrymandering of constituencies and then get pro India legislation passed from the state legislature.
Kashmiris’ plight is worse than that of East Timorese and South Sudan Christians who were given their right of self determination because of the international community’s sympathy to their cause. The humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Kashmir is far worse than the two examples mentioned above. 0.5 million Kashmiris have died at the hands of Indian occupation forces since 1947. The death tally clocks above 95,000 since 1989 when the movement for freedom gained renewed vigour. Over 8,000 Kashmiris are missing since 2016 and over 1,000 in captivity since August 5, 2019. During the same timeframe 137,469 Kashmiris have been arrested while 10,717 women dishonoured. The Kashmiris braved all these privations and indignities in the hope that one day they would achieve their elusive freedom. The current Indian assault on freedoms and rights of Kashmiris promised to them by India’s founding father and the UN Security Council’s Resolutions lays all those dreams to rest.
As per C R Snyder’s “Theory of Hope” it is the perceived capability to find pathways to success and then achieve it through human agency that keeps the people afloat. If those pathways are blocked and human agency is stymied then the feeling of deprivation impels humans to acts of violence and desperation. Kashmiris have lost all hope after the current Indian annexation of their land. The subsequent siege of the state and virtual incarceration of its residents along with a complete communication blackout has made the lives of people a living hell. The IHK is sitting on a powder keg where a small act could act as a catalyst to an uncontrollable conflict. The Indians are trying their best to dupe the world taking full advantage of USA’s compulsion to tolerate Indian human rights violations due to their counter China strategic relationship.
Like “A Tale of Two Cities” it is a season of light as well as a season of darkness for Kashmiris in Srinagar. Like Berlin the Srinagar is in throes of a grave human tragedy because of fascists. In German case it was the Nazis whereas in Indian case these are RSS-BJP exclusivists. What the world needs to understand is that the Kashmir tragedy is far too dangerous to be treated with such levity. Indian obduracy and the possibility of a staged black swan gimmick to deflect world attention from Kashmir might lead to an armed conflict between the two nuclear armed neighbours. The Kashmir conflict has the potential to put one fifth of human population in Indian subcontinent on the funeral pyre of nuclear fire. It is time the world community took notice of that impending tragedy.
The writer is a security analyst and PhD scholar:rwjanj@hotmail.com