What Agha Ashraf Ali said when I asked about Kashmiri Muslims who chant ‘Pakistan Zindabad’

Former J&K chief secretary Moosa Raza writes in his book about a conversation he had with the educationist to seek answers for Kashmiris’ disenchantment with India.

Lal Chowk in Srinagar | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

One day, I called the local officer of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and requested him to get me the budget for Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), the ongoing developmental activities in that area and the per capita expenditure by the Pakistan government on its citizens there. In a month’s time, he brought me the information from across the border. To my surprise, I discovered that we were spending four times the amount, per capita, that Pakistan was doing in its territory. Yet, there were many Kashmiris, even amongst the elite, who praised Pakistan. When I made enquiries with the Intelligence department and spoke to some of the senior officials of the BSF, they told me that the Pakistan government paid special attention to the areas that bordered India. They built good roads, provided electricity and many basic amenities and infrastructure in the villages. This was to create a showpiece effect. Villages on our side that did not have such amenities were impressed by what they saw.

A couple of weeks later, I was having dinner with Agha Ashraf Ali, a Kashmiri savant who had played a very important role in the education of Muslims in the state. He came from a highly educated family and had two brothers, both civil servants, one in India and the other in Pakistan. Sheikh Abdullah had spotted him when he returned after an excellent education abroad and appointed him as an inspector of schools at the age of twenty-eight. When he took over, the entire educational set-up was dominated by Pandits, since the Muslims had remained on the fringes of the Sikh and Dogra regimes. The major credit for encouraging and ensuring the education of Muslims, especially girls, goes to him. First, he increased their presence at the school level by enrolling them in large numbers. Thereafter, as principal of the Teachers’ Training College, he oversaw the training of a large number of Muslims as teachers. His mother was the first Muslim in Kashmir to become a director of education. Agha Ali had himself worked in practically every educational sector of J&K — as an administrator, civil servant, teacher, professor and principal. I had heard of him from several colleagues and was keen to meet him.

I asked my host over dinner, ‘Tell me, Agha saheb, why is it that the Kashmiri Muslims are so disenchanted with the Government of India when statistics show that we are spending four times more on every citizen of J&K as compared to PoK? If there is a cricket match between India and Pakistan, the Kashmiris are reported to cheer for the Pakistan team. Every now and then, we hear the slogan “Pakistan Zindabad” during protest meets and processions. Reports that I get indicate that across the Line of Control, all the regions on the border of PoK have been developed as showpieces. But the moment you go into the interior, the conditions are far worse than they are in India.’

Agha saheb remained silent for a few moments, then replied, ‘Raza saheb, you must understand that when a Kashmiri Muslim says “Pakistan Zindabad”, he does not actually want to go to Pakistan or to merge Kashmir with Pakistan. He is using that slogan to irritate India. It is his way of giving a gaali to India when he is angry with the local government for some reason or the other. He just wants to take out his frustration by using the slogan “Pakistan Zindabad”, which he thinks will hurt India. At the same time, you must recognise that the Indian establishment has done absolutely nothing to integrate Kashmiri Muslims with Indian society. India never allowed Kashmir and Kashmiris to settle down peacefully. After the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah, every election was rigged, and even governments chosen by Delhi were never allowed to function peacefully or independently. Kashmiris have always been treated as “the other”. You know, when a person goes to spend a night with a call girl, he praises her beauty, he admires her long tresses and her eyes, he extols her lips and her figure, he spends the night with her, enjoying her company and singing praises of her body. In the morning, he gives her a few hundred rupees and walks away.

‘He never looks at her as a human being with a personality of her own, her own concerns, her own problems of health and well-being, her own requirements of affection and sympathy. He never enquires how she manages her house, what problems and travails she faces in her family. He never empathises with her. Every Indian politician and bureaucrat, every editor of an Indian newspaper, every judge of the high court or the Supreme Court, has come to Kashmir only to go around its valleys, enjoy its springs, its mountains and hills, its forests, and in the early days, to shoot its wildlife. Tell me, Raza saheb, why should the Kashmiri feel any loyalty or commitment to India when the Indian establishment has only treated Kashmir as a call girl — to be enjoyed for a brief while, to be thrown a few crumbs, a few rupees, in appreciation of that hospitality? Kashmir is soon forgotten. That is the reason why, in spite of the fact that you have spent four times more than PoK, Kashmiris are still not happy with you, still do not love you, still do not want to be with you, they still shout “azadi, azadi, azadi”.’

Agha saheb, the rulers before Independence also treated Kashmir the same way. You praised the Mughals. What did they do for Kashmir? Whether it was Akbar, Jehangir, Shahjahan or Aurangzeb, they all came to Kashmir, built forts and a few gardens, enjoyed their stay, then returned to Agra or Delhi and forgot all about Kashmir. They too treated the Kashmiris in the same way that you say the current Indian establishment is treating them.’

‘Raza saheb, you must understand that neither the Mughals nor the other rulers, whether they were Sikhs or Dogras, ever claimed that Kashmir was an integral part of India. They extolled the wealth of Kashmir, but they never claimed it as a part of Hindustan. Therefore, while the Kashmiris had enough grievances against all of them, they never shouted “Afghanistan Zindabad” or “Iran Zindabad”.’

This edited excerpt from Kashmir: Land of Regrets by Moosa Raza has been published with permission from Context, an imprint of Westland Publications.