Dogra Angst

Manu Khajuria
I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel and the more I have travelled the more I have realised that the soul is a wanderer but the heart in this lifetime belongs to the Land of the Dogras.I was in Spain the last weekend and in every narrow Spanish street I walked upon, I saw reflected in them the bylanes of the old Jammu City. Every serpentine river we drove along reminded me of Tawi and of the many mountain streams plentiful in winter and barely there in summer.I saw glimpses of Jammu the three days I spent in Catalonia, a Region which is surrounded by hills and has houses perched on its slopes. Walking down tree lined roads I remembered the similar Arnia Pandori road which takes me to my Village, a place where I spent every summer as a child.
The vacation got over with a jolt as I came back home to the news of my city of joy being in a state of ‘Bandh’. This was also followed by a Jail Bharo call from the Valley over lack of ‘Political space’. If one follows the news from our State famed for its beauty both in people and in land, it is not hard to conclude it has become a Land of bandhs/jail Bharo; a land of much agitation and strife.
The improbable State with a mind boggling diversity in culture, religion and political alliances, has ploughed on post Independence amidst constant turmoil of varying intensities, with both internal and external sources playing catalyst. The post Independence history paints each stakeholder black or at least a shade of grey. Each is a victim, some more than the other. Some stories one hears often and some have never found an audience.
As a Dogra I have asked myself if someone’s greater pain both real and perceived, negates my angst completely. I grew up outside the State and spent all my lifetime explaining to my fellow Country men my ethnicity. It amazed me that no one knew much about the Jammu Province and its people. It was heartbreaking to see some Dogras giving up and letting others choose an identity for themselves, that of either a Punjabi or a Kashmiri. Admittedly it was easier to do so. I would of course take time to explain to anyone who asked me what a Dogra was, such was my acute sense of identity crisis. When someone knew about ‘us’ it brought me joy and relief.
I was aware that even I knew very little of the history of my people other than what my Family told me and it was not because of a lack of desire on my part. As I grew older and began reading, I realised there was very little available in terms of easily accessible literature on Dogra History and Culture. This was in sharp contrast to the grandeur of a Kingdom which was the largest at the time of India’s Independence ; a Kingdom which had managed to bring territories as far as Baltistan, and Skardu in Gilgit under its control. The Dogra Army had marched into Tibet under the most valiant warrior in Indian History, General Zorawar Singh and very few I met, knew this.
I read the wonderful Amar Chitra Katha comics as a young girl and soaked up stories of the Heroes and Heroines that our Country has produced. As a Dogra child I looked for someone who spoke my language and looked like me and never found anyone. As an adult I finally read about a Maharaja who stood up to the British bullying; who was brave enough to enforce social and political reforms; who had abolished untouchability and opened the doors of Temples to all; who who had offered Namaaz with his Muslim subjects; who suffered in silence so that a modern India could be built. I finally felt I was getting to know my roots but it is an arduous task. It is as if my roots are shrouded and cloaked on purpose.
It is painful that today very few know of the legendary General Zorawar Singh. His Samadhi lies unvisited and in ruins somewhere in Tibet. Brigadier Rajinder Singh Jamwal, the first Gallantry award winner of an Independent India; critically wounded somewhere on the border of Uri-Domel alone and with only a revolver in his hand keeping the promise to his Maharaja that enemy would pass only over his dead body; a story from those dark times when J&K faced the brutal Tribal Invasions, lost somewhere with the rest of the Dogra History. The far reaching and visionary reforms initiated by some of the Dogra rulers have been hushed up and it is almost politically incorrect to speak of our Dynasty today. All this was is in direct conflict with the narratives of the local people who barely hid the pain of such a tremendous loss of history and indigenous culture.
As an Indian first and then as a Dogra I wanted to hear these stories but with a resigned sadness I am beginning to conclude that these stories are largely unheard because the political environemnt has been unfavourable. It is not a part of the curriculum of the State Board, for obvious differences in regional political alignments. But to rob a people of their history is to rob them off their sense of pride and belonging. It is to steal from their youth role models and leave them adrift and seeking. The State Finance and Culture Minister Haseeb Drabu recently mentioned the need for Cultural Education in a Function in Srinagar but spoke only of Kashmiri Heritage. I can only hope that the final Policy will be inclusive of and true to the other two Regions of Jammu and Ladakh.
As a young idealistic Delhi University student in the late 1990s I attended a couple of events which were aimed at demanding a rightful place for Dogri as a National Language. Somewhere between listening to Late Ustaad AllahRakha Khan speak in Dogri about his love for the language and   familiarizing myself with the movement, I did note that Dogri being given its due, had taken a  surprisingly long time. Surprising indeed when the the people of Jammu had been instrumental in keeping the State within the Indian Union. As I asked these questions the locals and the elders spoke in hushed tones of Nehru’s dislike for the Maharaja and his friendship with Sheikh Abdullah who was clearly anti Dogra despite his allegations of being merely anti autocratic.
I often wondered why the picture postcard beauty of Jammu Province remained in obscurity. The places I had seen or heard of Bhaderwah, Patnitop, Sanasar, Sunderbani, Billawar; the ghats in Akhnoor which has an ancient Temple and caves dating to the Mahabharat times, Shiv Khori, Buddha Amarnath; all in Jammu Province had not been promoted at all or enough. The potential for tourism both religious and otherwise is immense. The roads leading to these destinations though leave much to be desire and the rate of fatalities arising due to road accidents alarming. The political will is clearly lacking and Jammu Region is overlooked in more matters than one.
Jammu is the Refugee capital of the Country. The Refugees or migrants are there not as a matter of choice and each have a painful story to tell. The notable point is that the City that gives Refuge had a choice and a heart in the matter. It accepted and gave room. Jammu gives space for the politics of these groups and joins them too at times. It extends support and refuses to ignore the crisis of the refugees and people in exile. The question is that isn’t the narrative and the character of the one who gives Refuge important to note too.
During the Amarnath agitation of 2008, I was in the U.S. and the way the Agitation was covered caused me much heartache and dismay. The National Media chose to ignore the finer layers of complex and historical regional differences, doing Jammu and its people injustice. The Media conveyed a distorted image of the Province to a Nation which remains largely unfamiliar with the historical Regional polarisation. Jammu was painted communal and rabid whereas all it asked was for its right to practice a Faith peacefully and in a way it had done for centuries. The television debates had few representatives from the Jammu Region and those that were there could not articulate well especially in English. One does not have to look much to know that there still remains no well known name at the National level who speaks or writes to lend a Voice to the Dogras.
The fact that Jammu has long harboured the feeling of being treated as a pariah for being Patriotic spilled over on the roads and especially on social media during the Amarnath Agitation. Many blogs, websites and Facebook pages mushroomed to give voice to what the people had been feeling for so many years. The Region is still less savvy than its cousins from the Valley  and does not make it to the National News often, but it is getting there. It would be naive to think it was only the Land Transfer Row that had Jammu come together like never before in recent times. The land transfer was also an an excuse to give vent to the frustration against what has been seen as a virulent Anti-Dogra Movement which began in 1931 and never really ended entirely despite successive governments. The 2009 Central University agitation was an extension of the same feeling of discrimination. These agitations are also directed at the Centre for its inability to address these issues effectively.
The recent confusion over granting of a much needed AIIMS in Jammu which will have the capacity to serve people from across State lines has been a source of discontent and the recent Bandh. The ambiguity over its status seems deliberate and a delaying tactic by the State Government to reach a decision. The fate of the summer secretariat too hangs in a limbo. Two capitals Jammu and Srinagar and the Durbar or Civil Secretariat Move was a testimonial to the political and social need for keeping the scales even between two important Regions of Jammu and Kashmir. The lack of a balance between Regions has been and will remain in the future, a cause for contention. Policies which deepen the divisions must be avoided in the larger interests of the State. The protests are not an example of a City or Region centric politics as National Media and some newspapers from the Valley would like us to believe. They reflect a long standing issue of the people of the Jammu Province of being denied fair play and equal rights.
Jammu and Kashmir has been a battlefield for the last decades or so. Some see it as a Kashmiri Pandit- Kashmiri Muslim issue. For others it is a India-Pakistan problem.  Many believe it is an internal problem not to be internationalised. For every Nationalist J&K is an indisputable part of India. Mostly the Jammu and the Ladakh are easily forgotten. Whenever they have spoken they have been unheard or are labelled Regional or communal and the real issue is pushed under the carpet. Every time they want to be heard the City of Temples had had resort to Agitations.
There undoubtedly exists a before and a beyond which must be taken into account when we look at Jammu and Kashmir. For long term peace and harmonious co-existence we have to rise above the historical issues and work to correct them. There is no single story and all narratives must find space. Silencing one and continuing the politics of discrimination will not resolve the strong sense of disparity between Regions.
Sometimes you have to travel far to look at home with eyes that are kind yet critical. There can be no development if people are in a fight or a flight mode as they are in the State of Jammu& Kashmir. Just as the stone pelters do no good to the Valley, the Bandhs only harm Jammu.
The Dogras are fabled for their sweetness and their sweet language; we have been traditionally agriculturists and warriors and for us it is time to look beyond Bandhs. We need a Movement but in the form of an Army of writers, policy makers, lobbyists and story tellers. It is time when we picked up our pens and wrote our History again, articulated our issues and worked at the solutions; gave a constructive direction to our frustration which is in the interests of our People, the State and the Nation. It is time that we speak well and are heard.

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