The first confusion about the invasion of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 is that “tribals” invaded the State of their own accord to help their Muslim brothers and sisters against the “oppressive” regime of Maharaja Hari Singh. The second confusion is that the tribes were not involved in loot, rape, and destruction of the properties. The third confusion is that the tribes had no connection with the Pakistan military or rulers of that time.

The fourth confusion is that there were no tribesmen at all, but that these fighters were actually from Poonch and Jammu, who were mujahidin, local tribes, and former military personnel from the British army. There are many books and documents on these four confusions.

A Pakistani Jihadic Job: Role Exposed

Among those who planned, lead, and financed the tribal invasion, the most prominent was Sardar Shoukut Hayat Khan. In his famous book, The Nation that Lost its Soul, Shoukut Hayat Khan has written in detail about the tribal raid in Kashmir.

According to him (p. 278), he was appointed Supervisor of the Kashmir operation, and requested Brigadier Akbar Khan and Brigadier Sher Khan to provide him with their services. Both officers belonged to 6/13 Frontier Force at that time. They also requested the services of Colonels Dara, Kayani, and Khanzada, along with guns from Lahore Fort.

Shoukut Hayat Khan reveals (p. 218) that the Minister of Treasury, Ghulam Muhammad, had named Khurshid Anwar for the command of this operation. Khurshid was a reserve officer in the Railway battalion and former National Guard of Muslim League.

1947 was a jihadic enterprise, which continues to this date. The only solution is to identify the problem correctly, articulate it and fix it. The first defence of the enemy is that this armed jihad is due to poverty and unemployment. This is disingenuous.

In a recently released study, “Economic and Social Inclusion to Prevent Violent Extremism”, the World Bank asserts that:

-        Recruits into the Islamic State group are better educated than their average countryman.

-        Those offering to become suicide bombers ranked on average in the more educated group.

-        Poverty and deprivation were not at the root of support for the group.

-        Fighters joining Islamic State’s Syria and Iraq based forces had several more years of education in their home countries - whether in Europe, Africa or elsewhere in West Asia - than the average citizen.

-        The data reflected in the report clearly shows that poverty is not a driver of radicalization into violent extremism.

-        Out of 331 recruits described in a leaked IS database, only 17 per cent did not finish high school, while a quarter had university level education.

-        Around one in nine volunteered for suicide operations, and their educational levels were on par with those who sought to be administrators.

-        Most of the 331 recruits also reported having a job before travelling to join the Islamic State.

-        The report finds that IS did not recruit it’s foreign workforce among the poor and less educated, but rather the opposite.

A second defence of the violence is a reference to the nation’s famed “Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb (culture)”. The question is posed in some places, what happens even if this demography changes? We are 80%.

Here, the answer is clear. Change in religious demography in India led to its partition in 1947. World over, it has been known to lead to civil wars. Hence, demographic change is an important area of study. It takes 500 years to extinguish a civilisation the size of India’s. of these, 300 years have already passed.

Between 1881 and 2001, Indian Religions (Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism) in the Indian subcontinent have shrunk from 79.32% to 67.56%. Muslims in the same period have grown from 19.97% to 30.38% and Christians from 0.71% to 2.06%.

The above mentioned data makes it evident that officially there has been a 12% decline in Indian Religions in just the last one hundred years. Informed sources, however, claim that the actual decline is around 16%. According to Demographic experts, this is a very serious development. If population change continues at the same pace, Indian Religions will be reduced to less than 50% in the entire Indian subcontinent by 2061.

In his three decades of research, Prof. R.J Rammal has traced the killings of humans from the 5th century B.C (499-400 B.C) to the 20th century A.D (1900-1999). He estimates that some 680 million to 1.2 billion people must have been killed during this period. His research is very interesting and reveals some ‘must know’ facts about India. Rammal’s study shows that up to the 13th century A.D., there were no mass killings in India. These began only later; the inference is obvious.

A third defence is that ‘All Muslims are not terrorists”. This is undeniable.

-        There are approximately 1.2 billion Muslims in the world; not all of them are radicals.

-        Depending upon the reports of all Intelligence agencies of the world, nearly 15% to 25% of Muslims are radicals. This amounts to a staggering 180 to 300 million, almost the size of the US population.

-        The remaining 75% Muslims never step up or organise themselves to seriously oppose these radicals. In fact, terrorism is the 10th step. A large section of the so called ‘moderate Muslims’ participate in or acquiesce in radicalism up till the 9th step.

The 15% to 25% radicals are hell-bent upon destroying Hindu civilisation; their literature clearly exhorts that India is an unfinished chapter of Islamic History. This essentially means that even after 700 years of Islamic rule in large parts of India, they couldn’t convert the majority of Hindus to Islam, and are determined to accomplish this now.

Today, the Indian Muslims are being poisoned slowly to fall in line against the Hindus. That is why we see homegrown terrorist organisations of Indian-born Muslims, such as the Indian Mujahideen, Students Islamic Movement of India, Hurriyat et al. These organisations are a manifestation of Wahhabi Islamic ideology.

History teaches us that the so-called ‘moderate majority’ is irrelevant. One has only to recall that

-        The majority of German citizens were moderates. But the Nazis drove the agenda and killed 60 million people. The majority was irrelevant.

-        The majority of Russians were moderates. But the Bolsheviks killed 50 million people. The majority remained irrelevant.

-        The majority of Chinese were moderates. The communists under Mao Zedong killed 70 million people. The majority did was irrelevant.

-        The majority of the Japanese were moderates before the Second World War. But the Japanese butchered their way across South East Asia and killed millions. The majority was irrelevant.

Finally, it took merely ten Pakistani nationals to bring war to India in November 2008, and kill hundreds of innocents before the Indian Army could deal with them. The majority in Pakistan may be peace-loving, but they simply do not count.

This writer believes that India will ultimately have to attack Pakistan and smash it into its constituent units so that jihad against India is defeated and contained.

Based on a speech delivered at Press Club Jammu on the topic “Pakistani Attack on J&K in 1947 not a Tribal Invasion but full-fledged Jihad - The way out”, on 22 October 2017. The views expressed are personal