KASHMIRI HISTORY THROUGH ISLAMIC LENSES

Mukesh Devrari

A former civil servant Khalid Bashir Ahmad recently published a book ‘Kashmir: Exposing the Myth, Behind the Narrative’. Respected Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari who has the expertise to write on the edges of varying narratives emerging from Kashmir wrote a review of the book for the Frontline Magazine.

The book is an ambitious attempt by the author to replace the recorded history of Kashmir by the Islamic version. There were certain things in the review which were suggesting how majority Muslims view Kashmiri Hindus in the valley. After a long time, this author came across such an article which puts forward almost all politically incorrect arguments against the minority community in the garb of larger notions of Islamic victimhood. It is just amazing how Kashmiri Hindus have been described as enemies of pious, gullible and innocent Kashmiri Muslims.

The first argument, the reviewer claims that scientific methods have been used to correct the Kashmiri history. However, he does not mention any in the review. He explicitly and implicitly implied that all known history of Kashmir has not been recorded with any scientific methodology. The current attempt in the book to rewrite the Kashmir’s history from the Islamic perspective and reframe the characterization of Muslim rulers of Kashmir has more credible basis. It perpetuates the true character of scheming and manipulative Kashmir Pandits.

The second argument, Kashmir Hindus, also known and Kashmiri Pandits, fled the Kashmir valley not because of Islamic terrorists but because of the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Jagmohan. Muslims in Kashmir tried to stop Kashmiri Hindus, but they decided to leave anyway. Book also says that the sufferings and affected numbers of Kashmiri Pandits have been highly exaggerated. For the author and reviewer of the book, it does not matter much that Kashmiri Hindus is the only community in the world which became a refugee in their own motherland. They ignored how Islamic terrorists burned their vacant houses, once they left them.

The third argument, Kashmiri Hindus were always in power. Even during the Muslim rule Kashmiri Hindus oppressed and exploited Muslims through their machinations. This Islamic way of seeing things tells us a lot about collective psyche of the majority of Muslims. It also hints at what would have happened to the minorities in Kashmir valley, if the Pakistani would have succeeded in occupying entire J&K. In Germany, fascist Christians were saying similar things about Jews before the Second World War. They described Jews in a similar fashion as the author of the book has described Kashmiri Hindus. Jews were projected as the masters who were controlling Germany. When these fascists came to power, they killed more than six million Jews.

Fifth, Kashmiri Pandits are not Kashmiri Hindus. They must not be called Kashmiri Hindus. They themselves asked for the separate identity to mark their unique differences and identities from upper castes Hindus of living in other parts of India. To highlight how Hindus are against Muslims, the author highlighted the protest by Kashmiri Hindu community after a Kashmiri Pandit girl Parmeshwari married a Kashmiri Muslim Gulam Rasool in 1964. Author of the book and reviewer highlighted this point because Muslims don’t like wide sympathy Kashmiri Pandits have across the country.  

Sixth, everyone who has written Kashmir’s history so far has written it with Non-Islamic perspective. The correct history of Kashmir has to be seen from an Islamic perspective. Same has been done in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. For fundamentalist's version history of Pakistan starts with the invasion of India. This book is another contribution by conspiracy theorists to rewrite the secular history of Kashmir. It attempts to spread disinformation, conspiracy theories, lies and hatred for Non-Muslims and trying to erase the true history of Kashmir.

(Note- this article is a comment on the book review.) 

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