Kashmir – Paradise turned Hell
Posted on January 12th, 2014
By Latheef Farook
“Indian brutalities meant that India may have lost Kashmir”, Said Late Minister Rajiv Gandhi. India dispatched troops and occupied Kashmir on 27 October 1947. Kashmiris observe 27 October as BLACK DAY.
Kashmir which continues to bleed today under Indian atrocities has often been described as “Emerald set in Pearls”, “Jewel of Asia ” and ” Heaven on Earth”.
These enchanting beauties provoked the famous Persian poet Urfi Shiraz to say that” if roasted fowl is brought to Kashmir not only shall it come to life, but shall be on its wings again”. In his first visit to Kashmir, the founder of Mogul Empire, Emperor Zahiruddin Bahar said” if there is a paradise on earth, it is here”.
Such is the indescribable beauty of the snow clad mountains of Kashmir with all its delightful flower beds, luscious green forests, lakes and canals.
Kashmiri Muslims like Palestinians in and around Jerusalem before the advent of Zionist Jews, have been one of the most gentle and peaceful people in this planet. However they were an oppressed and exploited lot by foreign dynasties which rued them one after the other.
The British Empire which brought Kashmir under its control sold Kashmir to Raja Gulab Singh, a Hindu warlord of Dogra family in Jammu for Rs 7.5 million under the illegal and immoral 1846 Treaty of Amritsar.
Kashmiri Muslims opposed the sinister sale which placed them under a forced Hindu ruler.
Kashmiris rose up. Their uprising was brutally crushed by the Maharaja with the support of the British. More than 200,000 Kashmiri Muslims were killed and around 300,000 fled to the Pakistani side of Kashmir.
Maharaja’s favorite past pastime was persecuting Muslims including skinning them alive. Unable to put up with Maharaja’s sadistic anti Muslim policies his Prime Minister Albion Bannerji, a Bengali Christian, resigned .In a public statement he stated that Maharaja treated Muslims like dump driven cattle ,press was nonexistent and the economic conditions were appalling”.
This situation continued until 1947 when during the partition of the Subcontinent the Hindu maharaja, once again fraudulently ceded Kashmir to India without consulting the Kashmiri people who fiercely resisted this move.
However years of political frustrations, political maneuverings of New Delhi, rigging of elections in 1987, and later in 1996, economic problems and poverty combined with many other factors led to 1989 uprising which has become the crucial point in Kashmir Muslims freedom struggle New Delhi responded by unleashing violence to silence the Kashmiri Muslims.
Indian armed forces, mostly Hindus with often hate filled mindset towards Muslims, were given free hand under numerous Indian draconian laws to arbitrarily arrest, indefinitely detain under inhuman conditions, brutally torture and kill Kashmiri Muslims whose only crime was their demand for freedom and justice.
Raping women have been an integral part of the atrocities committed by the Indian armed forces since early 1990. Here are some of the comments by leading human rights organizations and independent …………………..Read full article from www.latheeffarook.com
January 13th, 2014 at 12:22 pm
The history of Kashmir has played an integral role in Hinduism and Buddhism. It is out of Kashmir that one of the most powerful Shiva philosophies emerged. Kashmir is also home to one of the most sacred sites in Hinduism or the Armanath Cave where there is an ice Lingam. In Buddhism Kashmir again played a pivotal role as the three great councils that finally defined Buddhism, took place. In the last council the Buddhist monks from all parts of India came together and created the Hinayana branch where those monks believed the Buddha to be a philosopher and nothing else. The Mahayana Branch deferred in doctrine that the Buddha is more than a philosopher and closer to a God. This division took place in Kashmir.
Vajrayana Buddhism to the various other branches of Buddhism formed independent of these council meetings and most were destroyed by Muslim invasions culminating in the burning of the Nalanda monastic university.
In our time Kashmir still plays a crucial role. If Kashmir were to become an independent nation and even though she would be landlocked, Kashmir as a nation would share borders with Russia, China, India and Pakistan, or simply put share borders with most of the major powers of Asia. Neither India nor Pakistan can allow that to take place leading to the increasing levels of suffering as the Kashmiri Muslim leaders demand autonomy. A side foot note. The Kashmiri Muslims have successfully purged that Indian state of the Hindu Kashmir pundits who continue to live a life of a refugee within India and are never included in any talks between New Delhi and Srinagar.
It is a festering wound that the radical Hindu parties use as a tool. The Bharata Janata Party has made the plight of the Kashmiri Hindus as part of their platform.