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:: NEWS ::
Hindu Voice UK, August 2008
After several days of protests and rioting by Muslims in Kashmir, the Central Indian Government revoked the decision to grant the land to the shrine board. Most political parties in the state, which include several anti-India separatist outfits, had decried the land grant to the Hindu shrine board as a conspiracy to settle more Hindus in the state and reduce the Muslims to a minority. Currently, citizens of the rest of India cannot buy land or settle in Jammu & Kashmir, under Article 370 of the constitution, which was designed to appease “moderate Kashmiri separatists.” The street protests succeeded in forcing the government to deny the land grant, which was to be used solely for facilitating a night’s stay and food in that snowy area just for two months per year. The land was barren; not a single tree grows there and not one person was to be stationed there permanently. Hindus across India, and particularly those belonging to Jammu have unanimously expressed disappointment that the donation of a small strip of land to a revered Hindu pilgrimage could evoke such resistance from Muslims of the Kashmir valley. It was pointed out that the there are several houses and hotels exclusively dedicated to housing Muslims going on their Hajj pilgrimage, maintained at government expense, so this incident shows a double standard towards equivalent Hindu needs. The eventual refusal of the land grant to the shrine board has been followed by huge protests in the Hindu dominated Jammu region, and in several other parts of India, most notably Indore (Madhya Pradesh). The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) declared a nationwide “bandh” (shutdown), which was designed as a show of Hindu protest, although it met with only partial support, and many Hindus who tried to get on with their daily lives by running their shops or going to work were attacked by these “guardians of Hinduism”. While the all-India bandh only elicited a minimal response, the Jammu protests have not yet ceased, and are on an unprecedented scale. Normal life has been paralysed as virtually every Hindu in Jammu has taken to the streets. The anger has spilled beyond the issue of the Amarnath pilgrimage. They have simply had enough of being ignored and disrespected by the central Indian establishment in Delhi and the Kashmiri Muslim dominated state government. It should be noted, however, that despite the protests there are no significant reports of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the state. The protests escalated when a young man carrying the Indian flag, named Kuldeep Kumar, recited a patriotic poem in public and then took his life by consuming poison. This was a mark of his frustration with the never ending humiliation of his community which he had witnessed all his life, a community which wants nothing more than to achieve closer integration with the rest of India. The police took his body and tried to burn it at night with old tyres, kerosene and liquor, on the outskirts of a quiet village. Villagers realised what was going on and assembled there, attacking and chasing the police away, while reclaiming the body. The Indian
PM Manmohan Singh has called an emergency meeting to end the protests
and restore normality. The army have been called in and have threatened
to shoot if necessary. What transpires in the next few days and weeks
to solve the impasse will have great significance for the future of
Jammu & Kashmir and its level of integration with India. |
Unrest
in the troubled Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir rose to levels
not seen since the late 1980’s, after the state government’s
decision to grant the use of approximately 40 hectares of land to
the Sri Amarnathji Shrine Board, for provision of overnight housing
and food for the millions of Hindu pilgrims who visit the site every
year.