Simmer
Discontent
By Syed Ali Safvi
30 July, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The
sun of July 13, 1931 confirmed the truth in Margaret Mead's saying,
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
On that fateful day, thousands
of Kashmiris had gheroed the Srinagar central jail demanding an open
trial of a youth, Abdul Qadeer, who was tried for 'sedition'. His crime:
pointing his finger to the Maharaja's Palace in protest against the
desecration of the Holy Quran at the hands of Dogra troops in Jammu.
The Dogra governer, Ray Zada
Chand, in order to disperse the crowd, ordered his soldiers to open
fire. The scene that followed was no less horrific and horrendous than
the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. In a matter of few seconds, twenty one
protestors were left lying in a pool of blood and many more were seriously
injured.
Kashmiris have, throughout
their history, been at the receiving end only. The history of Kashmir
is replete with incidents of inhumane and tyrannical oppression of the
dejected Kashmiris by the rulers. Be it the Mughals, the Afghans, the
Sikhs or the Dogras, a common Kashmiri has never found solace.
These rulers treated them
merely as scapegoats and any voice of dissent would be severely strangulated.
During the reign of King Unmattawati (939-944 AD), the king ripped the
abdomen of a pregnant woman to see the foetus. One of the Afghan rulers,
Azad Khan, raped, plundered and killed the innocent Kashmiris like a
maniac.He slit the stomach of a doctor when the latter failed to cure
his eye ailment.
When Zulchu (Zulfi Khan or
Zulaji) invaded Kashmir, his soldiers resorted to indiscriminate killings,
bloodbath, plundering beyond all limits. They carried out wholesale
massacre of Kashmiris, killing everyone who fell into their hands. One
of the Dogra rulers, Ranjit Singh, never visited Kashmir, but solicited
women and taxes from the valley.
The Dogra rule, arguably,
was the darkest period in the history of Kashmir. Such was the degree
of oppression that Kashmiris were skinned alive for speaking against
the Maharaja. The incident that took place outside the Srinagar Central
jail on the fateful day of July 13, 1931 was nothing new for Kashmiris
but it provided the much-needed impetus to the anti Dogra sentiments
in the valley.
However, most of the freedom
fighters who fought for the complete freedom of Kashmir from the tyrannical,
oppressive and autocratic rule of the Dogras have remained by and large
unsung in the pages of history. Courtesy: The Successful regimes of
Kashmir Politics and the so called political interest of their spin
doctors.
It's a travesty of justice
that we do not have a single building, road, hospital or any other public
infrastructure named after any of our freedom fighters who laid down
their lives only that we could breathe in the ambience of freedom, peace
and tranquility; where we would not be forced to pay tax to live on
our own soil. Instead of commemorating them, we have roads, colleges,
public parks named after the Dogra rulers who had been cruel and savage.In
their rule, Kashmiris simmered in the smoldering fire. in return, that
is what our state has given to the martyrs! It is, nonetheless,'never
less than mortifying and humiliating both the denizens of the state
and for the state itself.
In 1983, the then chief minister
Farooq Abdullah inaugurated a bridge at Rambagh named after one of the
freedom fighters, Mohammad Sultan Khan alias Sula Galdar. Unfortunately,
during the heydays of the armed struggle, a rocket hit the stone plaque
on the bridge and completely destroyed it. The administration did not
deem it necessary to replace the stone plaque.Instead, the hole, caused
by the blast, was plugged in with cement.
If every nation would 'honour'
its freedom fighters the way our governments do, sincerely,the world
would no longer produce the likes of Mandelas, Gandhis, Khomeinis, etc.
Every year on July 13, we remember our martyrs, but are we really doing
justice to their memory and role? Do we respect and honour their neverlasting
sentiments and resilience towards saving our motherland.
(The writer can be reached
at [email protected])
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