Jammu and Kashmir: In the Shadow of Imperialism Home
Maharaj K. Kaul
[Taken from Essays in Inequality and Social Justice (Essays in honor of Ved Prakash Vatuk), Edited by Kira Hall, Archana Publications, Meerut, India, 2009]
FROM SEPARATIST BLACKMAIL TO JEHAD
The significance of the imperialist push to sever Jammu and Kashmir from India was not lost either on the separatists or on various political leaders of the Kashmir Valley. The separatists, who had been an insignificant minority in 1947, realized the power of their demands because any public expression of separatism invited international attention. So did opportunistic political leaders. The seeds for this variety of politics were sown by Abdullah after 1949, when he began to use secession as a weapon to intimidate and bully the Central Government into yielding to his demands.
One of the crucial demands fulfilled by the Central Government as early as 1952 was to allow a level of autonomy to the state that bordered on virtual independence. This was embodied in Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. It gave Abdullah dictatorial powers, which he abused by suppressing the development of democratic pluralism in the state. He continued to play this game until his tactics back-fired, causing a serious split in his own party and leading to his removal from the political scene in August 1953. With Abdullah’s expulsion from the National Conference, the leadership of the party passed to Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed. Bakshi’s administration brought immediate and long-term benefits to the people, made possible by the lavish generosity of the Central Government, which rushed in with liberal aid. This generosity was not accompanied by the normally expected oversight, because Article 370 of the Indian Constitution simply prohibited it. The lack of this oversight led to widespread corruption, nepotism, and cronyism, criminal waste of resources and development funds, and manipulation of elections.
Bakshi too had seen India’s vulnerability, but he was much shrewder in playing the game than Abdullah, whose inflated ego and hot-headedness had caused his downfall.
Indeed, the political leaders of almost all shades in the Valley understood that the “existence of such elements” was essential to maintain the flow of unrestricted Central funds into the state.
The policy was effective. Between 1950-51 and 1987-88, the proportion of Central Revenues to the total revenues of the state increased from 3.71% to 72.04% (Misri and Bhatt 1994:54). Among the seventeen largest states of the Indian Union (excluding the Union territory of Delhi) in 1970-71, the net per capita income of JKI ranked twelfth. By 1981-82, it had improved its rank to sixth, a rank which it maintained until 1985-86. JKI was thus ahead of industrial West Bengal at rank 7, Karnataka at rank 8, Andhra Pradesh at rank 9, Kerala at rank 10. U.P. and Bihar were far behind, at ranks 15 and 17, respectively. The state also improved its literacy rate from 5% in 1947 to 54% in 2001, with 66% male literacy. The 1998 infant mortality, at 45 per thousand, was the lowest of all other states except Kerala. The 55th Round of the National Sample Survey (2000) reports the poverty rate in 1999 in JKI at 3.5%, which was the lowest of all the states in the Indian Union except Delhi. This compares with a poverty rate of 14.1% for Gujarat and 25.0% in Maharashtra, the two states considered to be the most economically advanced states in the Indian Union. Indeed, Central funding and other support has been so massive that these impressive indicators of progress were made possible despite pervasive corruption. A 2005 survey, conducted by Transparency International India along with the Centre for Media Studies (2005), found that of the nineteen largest states of the Indian Union with population of over 10 million, JKI is the 2nd most corrupt state in India, after Bihar.
Among the fourteen districts of the state, Srinagar district stands ahead of the rest, as measured by various development indices. On the Social Index, Srinagar scored 58, on the Infrastructural Index 137, and on the Economic Index 91. The lowest scores for these Indices were 18, 48, and 11, respectively, in two districts in the Jammu region (Misri and Bhatt 1994:63-64). Yet it is from Srinagar district—with its non-pastoral urban Sunni elite who have controlled the state’s politics and administration since 1947—that separatist voices emanate. The separatist sentiment in the Valley serves this corrupt elite well for it directs popular anger for state’s misgovernance at Delhi. Separatism has thus been deliberately and assiduously fostered by the corrupt and wealthy in Srinagar to escape the wrath of the population. Such tactics take Islamist colors, which receives Pakistan’s support as well as imperialist backing. Separatism thus also has an international dimension, in which Pakistan has been a critical link.
[Bakshi] knew that if the elements, who were struggling against India, turned weak it would result in weakening his power which could end also. Conscious of it he kept financing, though secretly, some people of the Plebiscite Front and the Political Conference. Some other Pro-Pakistani elements too received liberal financial help from him. He told me many times “existence of such elements was necessary otherwise New Delhi will do here anything it liked.” (Butt 1981:69-70)
