Being a Kashmiri myself, I salute the Kashmiris who are holding massive protests and agitations in the Pakistan army-occupied Kashmir against inflation, particularly the huge rise in electricity bills and prices of foodstuffs.
To many it may seem that such protests will achieve nothing, but to my mind, they have a historical significance. To my mind, the agitating Kashmiris are providing leadership to not only their own state but to the whole of India and Pakistan, in two ways. Let me explain.
(1) The Kashmiris have rightly focused on a real, economic issue, i.e. price rise, and they have refused to be befooled by the government which usually tries to divert attention towards irrelevant issues. As the Roman emperors used to say, “If you cannot give the people bread give them circuses." Unfortunately for the Pakistan government, the Kashmiris will not be satisfied with having circuses any longer but insist on having bread.
Massive unemployment and skyrocketing prices of essential commodities have made life almost unbearable for most Indians and Pakistanis, not just Kashmiris. Kashmiris are thus showing the path ahead to all Indians and Pakistanis in this respect.
One may recall the march of Parisian women demanding bread to Versailles in October 1789, which brought down the Bourbon dynasty, and the demonstrations for bread in St Petersburg in February 1917 which brought down the Romanovs.
(2) The second significance of these protests is that in many places the people raised the slogan, "We want freedom from Pakistan." And in some places, even Indian flags were hoisted.
To my mind, this marks the beginning of the realisation among Pakistani people that, in fact, India and Pakistan (and Bangladesh), and including Kashmir, are really one nation, sharing the same culture. These were one country for 500 years (since the time of Mughal emperor Akbar). Partition of India in 1947 was a British swindle, on the basis of the bogus two-nation theory, perpetrated by the British, and must be undone. The aim of Partition was to keep Hindus and Muslims fighting each other so that we remain weak and backward, and not emerge as a modern industrial giant. We have all the potential to be an industrial giant China and be a big rival to the western industry with our cheap labour.
Unless we reunify under a secular government and with modern-minded leaders we can never emerge as a modern industrial giant, but will remain condemned to massive poverty unemployment, and appalling levels of malnourishment.
The brave Kashmiris, showing magnificent and unwearied fighting spirit, undaunted by all odds, are giving much-needed leadership and guidance to the people of the entire Indian subcontinent, who must wage similar struggles.
Long live the brave and courageous people of Kashmir, who have hearts of tigers!
No amount of military jackboots can cow down such valiant and indomitable people.
Justice Markandey Katju retired from the Supreme Court in 2011.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
