It must be poetic history that the fight to give the Hindu community voice and weightage in the state of Jammu & Kashmir should begin from Jammu, from where a valiant Dogra once pushed the boundaries of India into Tibet and Xinjiang, and brought her close to Central Asia and Afghanistan.

The kingdom built by Maharaja Gulab Singh was ably defended by his successors until the Pakistani invasion of 1947-48, when the vanity and political myopia of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was exploited by Governor General Louis Mountbatten to take the issue to the United Nations, a body created to perpetuate the power of white colonial countries in the post-Second World War era.

Ayodhya connection

Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia has compared the spontaneous and sustained Hindu agitation over the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board land allotment-cum-cancellation case to the Ayodhya movement, where burgeoning Hindu emotion removed the Babri structure on 6 December 1992. The comparison is apt, and the link between the two civilisational.

Kashmir (Kashyapmira) derives its name from Vedic Rishi Kashyap, one of the revered Saptarishis (seven sages) of Hindu tradition. It was Kashyap’s son Vivasvat (Vivasvan) from his wife Aditi, daughter of Prajapati Daksh, who started the famous Suryavansha (solar) dynasty which became known as the Ikshvaku dynaasty, after his great-grandson, King Ikshvaku. The line of succession continued unbroken and under King Raghu the dynasty came to be known as Raghuvansha. Sri Ram, son of King Dashratha, prince of Ayodhya, thus descended from Rishi Kashyap.

The Ayodhya spirit necessarily suggests the involvement of Hindus from all over India, and this is why yatris from neighbouring states joined the Jammu agitation – not for ownership or tenancy rights over a plot of land at Amarnath – but for Hindu asmita in Hindustan.

Fight for Hindu asmita

This is the crux of the issue that is literally burning the minds and hearts of Hindus all over the country. For the length of his 30-month tenure as Chief Minister, Mr. Mufti Mohammad Saeed first agreed and then backtracked, repeatedly, over the land allotment for Amarnath pilgrims. Then the more moderate, more decent, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad steered it through the cabinet as a routine agenda item; six ministers of Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party were present.

Things seemed normal when suddenly agent provocateurs in the Srinagar Valley realized its potential to inflame passions. The strident Ms. Mehbooba Mufti lost no time climbing on board with the anti-Hindus, and the rest is history.

What needs assertion is that nothing in the land transaction – whether giving the Shrine Board permanent lease or full ownership of the 100-odd acres of land for pilgrim facilities for the duration of the two-month yatra – in any way affected Muslims living in the Srinagar Valley and adjoining districts from where Hindus have been systematically and brutally exorcised over the past two decades. The sheer intolerance to a normal administrative decision – to the extent of raising the bogey that the demographic pattern of the state was being tampered with – enraged Hindu opinion all over the nation.

It is time to ask some questions. [1] How did a Hindu kingdom become a Muslim-majority state in which Hindu identity could first be ruthlessly suppressed under a façade called Kashmiriyat, and then Hindus brutalized and ethnically-cleansed? [2] How long will the Centre take to abrogate “the temporary” Article 370, so that manly Indians can purchase land and settle in the State, driving terrorists and jihadis back to Islamabad? [3] Finally, when will the Indian State become manly enough to think in terms of walking with the people and taking back the Northern Areas, Gilgit, and Baltistan?

Ignited Hindu

If there is one thing the current agitation has proved, it is this – no one has the stomach to face the fury of the Ignited Hindu. It is striking that the Jammu agitators were vociferous, but largely non-violent. Recall the mayhem unleashed by Col. K.S. Bainsla in Rajasthan recently, and you will see what I mean. But a small blockade of the highway had Muslims sweating profusely, threatening to go to across the border.

We should recognize the fear in their eyes. Jinnah placards, Pakistani flags, and high-decibel rallies notwithstanding, Kashmiri Muslims know that they cannot take on the might of the Indian State or the awakened Hindu people. Article 370, the constant pampering of Indian Muslims, and the tolerance of Muslim intransigence in so many things – will end the day New Delhi loses patience with the present state of affairs.

Alternately, Article 370 will go when the people of India march into the Valley and surround the State Assembly. There is no reason to believe it cannot or will not happen. This is India – we do not need George Soros, MI-6 or CIA to ‘inspire’ us. We are moved only by ‘maryada’ – that which must be done to uphold honour. No sacrifice is too great for such a people; the sands of Haldi Ghati are still stained with our blood.  

Amusingly, Pakistan is taking the Amarnath-Jammu-Kashmir issue to the UN. Pakistan is today the most undesirable entity on the world stage. A self-confident India should think in terms of undoing the forced Partition wrought by British treachery, and cleanse the region of its long legacy of sin and evil.

Sadly, India at present lacks the kind of indomitable religious leaders who could stride the region preaching true dharma and attracting the millions back to the Hindu fold. For peace, harmony and prosperity in the region, we need to take Hindu dharma and religion back up to the Persian border. The likes of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar – who flew all the way to Seattle, USA, to endorse the disreputable Indo-US nuclear deal – and love to be seen embracing the likes of Yasin Malik, have no status with the Hindu community. They would be well-advised to desist from the constant quest for cheap publicity.

The Jammu agitators have already made one singular achievement. It is no longer going to be possible to articulate views or undertake actions that upset Hindu sentiments in India. To that extent the era of Muslim appeasement is in irrevocable decline.  

Amarnath, like Ayodhya, is part of a Dharma-yudh. Hindus must stay the course. 

The author is Editor, www.vijayvaani.com