Kashmir day has come and gone yesterday, but I am still trying to understand why we are still celebrating this holiday? Ahh yes Kashmir is our sheh rag and all I do get it, but why is its shehness still viable?
I happen to think of things from this side of the border, whether international opinion or Indian buzz supports it or not. Consider this, for the last 62 years we have been trying to win back a riasat, a piece of land which did not accede to us because its Maharaja went the Indian way while the public wanted to join Pakistan. We have done it all, diplomacy, supposed militancy, cross border trips to hell you name it we have done it to get this piece of earth back into our fold.
Along the way however we have seemingly closed our eyes to the three most glaring truths about Kashmir amidst our parroting the age old line of “human rights abuse” (which is indeed prevalent in Kashmir as it is in Fata as well)
- The people of Pakistan do not care!!Bit of a shock yes? But somewhere along the way our nation has realized that we have bigger problems than a lush valley not being part of us, problems like food, water, electricity, basic rights of law etc etc. I think we all can agree that we would rather see any of the above issues addressed then the “holy grail of Kashmir”
- The people of “Occupied Kashmir” do not care either. Their leaders can lay oath to their fidelity and loyalty to Pakistan as much as they want and have a second wife here or there in Pakistan but the truth is that the “aam junta” wants to be with us as much as they want to be with India
- If we never move on from our past there will not be a future. The past is a constant fixation with us, we learn it in school “our great Islamic past” then in secondary level “our great mughal past” and so on and so forth. We live in it we revel in it and we refuse to give up its old disputes, Kashmir being the biggest one. We have clung onto this so much that in doing so we have taken the rivalry of our neighbor to the limit in our defense spending and done everything possible to commit national suicide, no wonder the kashmiris do not want to join us, why we might break apart into several more “Kashmirs” pretty soon.
Now someone tell me why we are still fighting over this when we stand at the brink of extinction ourselves? Why we want to shed blood countless money and political capital and god knows what else for a people who do not even after 57 years want to be with us. If such a thing happened in our normal lives we would scream in Kashmirs face. We would scream “you ungrateful SOB, I have spent my entire life raising you and supporting you but you want to move out now”
Reminds you of something doesnt it? As for Kashmir day it remains as much of a waste as does the movement. another ode to laziness, bitterness and inability to strive for the future.
this article makes so much sense, i found it hard to read.
(just wish the title didn’t have a pun in it)
asalam u alikum.
brother Faisal, i read your post oh Kashmir. its unfortunate from your side that you care for food, electricity and other stuffs of life than unity of Muslim ummah.
brother its not only a matter of a piece of a land or something like that as you think. Pakistan do not fight just for a mere piece of valley but its to be a united Muslim state.
Kashmiri’s do not need pakistan because pakistan is a well developed state but they want to be with it as a muslim state otherwise we get more than what your state offers to your people.
hope you ll re think about this bond of religion and forget the issues like bijli, sadak aur pani……
wasalam,
a kashmiri.
Wsallam Brother Muneeb
Muslim ummah you say? Does anyone in Kashmir stop you from practicing Islam there? As far as i know India has a larger Muslim population than Pakistan which practice their religion without any distress.
The bond of religion will stay whether you are a part of Pakistan or not…and by the way the majority of Kashmiries do not want to be a part of Pakistan for “any reason” this has been well proven by gallup polls as well as polling stats in the recently held elections there. Where most votes were given to pro India parties.
The point is Muneeb why should the average citizen of Pakistan suffer for this religious bond you speak of? We as you magnanimously pointed out get less of what you have more of there, simple public services and utilities so I think it is better if we spend our resources on bettering our country for our citizens rather than engage in problems of others.
Every rupee spent on Kashmir and its cause is a rupee taken away from the gharib ummah of Pakistan which is dying a little each day.
Same feeling from India,Why mumbai attacks,why our innocent indians should die in the name of kashmir liberation n terrorism.If India leaves kashmir n spend the amount on military on other areas we could have been more developed,we too r more interested in space exploration,manned moon missions n development on par with western countires ,rather than thinking about religion and land,so better if both countries feel content of the area of kashmir they have n move towards development
Faisal:
I might not agree with your first two points but I definitely agree with your third. If we never move on, then all we’re doing is limiting our growth.
Just think of the combined economies of Pakistan, India and China. We could take the world by storm but nah…an (important) problem like Kashmir is holding us back. We need to resolve it ASAP.
if you do not agree with the first or second that implicitly states you are for the feud and thus against the nations progress man 🙂 so how can u say ok to the third without okeing the other two?
Faisal, people of Pakistan actually do care. Yes, you are absolutely correct that maybe Kashmiris don’t care to accede to either India or Pakistan but Pakistanis do really care about Kashmir. Again, not a pressing problem such as inflation, poverty and lack of education but we do care and that is why we need this to be resolved.
Because all it’s doing is taking up a lot of our resources; diplomatic, military and so on…
why don’t you look at some gallup polls on this issue man taken in Pakistan to see the real picture.