
Today on the birthday of Hazrat Mohammad Saheb, I am trying to give you information about how the people of Kashmir have been practicing one of the teachings he gave to his followers for centuries.
There is a saying in our Vidarbha region! ‘Kanphatya’ means that a lot of true and false allegations are made against a person! So people consider even good news about him to be false! Because a notion about him gets embedded in people’s minds, they consider everything he says to be wrong! So it is called Kanphatya in Vidarbha! Exactly, since independence in India, so much information about Kashmir, in which there is more false than true, has been spread through different mediums! So some good work is also being done in Kashmir! Most of the people of India do not believe this! And among these disbelievers, the majority are those who have never been to Kashmir in their life!
Mahatma Gandhi is one of the first politicians of India who brought the matter of India’s six and a half lakh villages into public discussion! And in the same sequence, Acharya Vinoba Bhave tried to take forward the movement of Gram Swarajya towards the upliftment of villages! But it has disappeared along with Vinoba! Now some people are trying again! But it is very less for India’s six and a half lakh villages!
There is hardly any other state in today’s India, where efforts are being made to fulfill the dreams of Gandhi-Vinoba? But looking at some traditions of Kashmir, it seems that looking at some of the traditions going on in this misunderstanding-ridden region at present, I get a glimpse of the India of Gandhi-Vinoba’s dreams! (2019) For the last five years, efforts are being made to celebrate Gandhiji’s 150th birth anniversary with great fanfare! But the India of Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams is nowhere to be seen in it! Because Gandhiji’s dream India is settled in villages! And on the 150th birth anniversary, villages were not included in the discussion anywhere! Which I see somewhat in the villages of Kashmir!
I have been coming and going to Kashmir for the last 50 years! And I stay for more than a week! And I try to stay in villages mostly! Since 2016, I have been living in a village in Baragaon district. And looking at the conversations of the villagers, their lives and the social system of the village, I feel that the jealousy and suspicion in the villages in other parts of India, due to which, according to Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, the inequality with the Dalits living in the village and the untouchability, Baba Saheb inspired the Dalits to leave the villages and live in the city. And he said that the villages of India are amorphous crowds. And being born in a small village myself, I agree with Baba Saheb. Dozens of examples of insulting the Dalits keep happening every day.
It is a reflection of the abhorrent conditions of Dalits, tribals and women. After watching Prakash Jha’s film Damul yesterday, I spent the whole night in restlessness because the lives of people at the bottom of the society are worse than insects. How do people from upper castes treat Dalits, tribals and their women? This has been shown in a very correct perspective in Damul.
And in the villages of Kashmir it is almost negligible! The disgusting form of poverty is seen in more or less quantity in all the states of India except Kashmir! The land reform work done by Sheikh Abdullah immediately after coming to power in Kashmir has not happened in any other part of India. Today every person in Kashmir has some land and they produce the things they need. That is why the number of people dying from starvation is negligible.
Which can be adopted by other states of India as well! But in our country some elements are engaged in propaganda 24 hours a day for 12 months! Be it Kashmir or the 90 percent population living there which are Muslims! Here there is a debate on what color the stones of the temple should be! But the common devotee who goes to pay obeisance in that temple is dying due to hunger! And no one is even ready for his burial! So in comparison, the tradition of humanity going on in Kashmir is commendable!
5 decade old tradition in 900 villages of Kashmir; people donate to help the sick! People also bear the expenses of the deceased’s house! Mohalla committees increased 4 times during the lockdown, the needy meet them first! Funding in religious institutions of Jammu and Kashmir has been viewed with suspicion!
But even before the beginning of terrorism, these organizations have a tradition of providing financial help for the treatment of the sick. Money is collected for the treatment of the sick in more than 900 villages of the valley. Death committees are also formed here. They bear the entire expenses for four days of the houses where someone has died. Many times the local police also helps people in this noble work.
Former Sarpanch and Maulvi Mohammad Maqbool of Jokoo Kharian village said that “It is said in the Quran Sharif! Therefore, earlier this work was done through mosques here! A person used to donate a part of his earnings every Friday! But during terrorism, the administration became strict on this collection of money in some mosques, so people themselves started helping and carried forward the tradition! Today this is the practice in all villages!” Badagaon SP Amod Ashok Nagpure says that “The tradition of collecting money for the treatment of the sick is very old here! People from the mosque and Auqaf Committee collect help! Death committees are also doing good work! These committees bear the expenses from the burial of the deceased to the food and drink of the family! On the information of the Sarpanch or anyone else, we also try to make other arrangements including ambulance!
Writer Zarif Ahmad Zarif says that “This process of help has been going on from generation to generation for 5 decades! Now the family of the sick person asks for help through the village sarpanch or an elderly person! And the rest of the people help him financially! This tradition of help has now reached the cities! But the format has changed! Small committees have been formed in the city’s neighborhoods! In these, the people of the neighborhood help the needy! In the lockdown, such committees have increased fourfold! In Srinagar alone, their number has increased to more than 50!”
So many misunderstandings have been spread about Kashmir in the whole of India! That no one knows that the people of the village have been helping the needy people for centuries, from treatment to after death! Why can’t this be done in more than six lakh villages of our country? This question is coming to my mind again and again!
Dr Suresh Khairnar is Ex. President of Rashtra Sewa Dal