Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh (Retd)
The bicameral legislative assembly of the ‘State’ of Jammu & Kashmir was dissolved on 21st November 2018, only to be reorganized into a lesser framework of a unicameral legislature that was in consonance with the reduced status as a ‘Union Territory’. It was the second time in less than 75 years that the landmass and relevance of the greater ‘State’ of Jammu and Kashmir had been cut, especially in consequence for the southern region of Jammu. Earlier the honour of the largest ‘Princely State’ of the Raj Days including the regions of Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Aksai Chin and areas currently under Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (POK) were partly severed from the grand Jammu & Kashmir State, due to the nefarious designs of the hostile neighbourhood and erstwhile colonists. Certain amount of pusillanimity and miscalculations in the handling of the aftermath of the 1947-48 war with Pakistan didn’t help matters, either. Pre-independence, Jammu had been the undisputed epicenter of the glorious, inclusive and progressive Dogra Kingdom, that was effectively diminished and forgotten in the national consciousness, post-independence.
Since Independence, Jammu region has continued playing its patriotic role of defending the nation with its blood, unflinchingly – unbeknownst to most citizenry of India, the Dogras of the larger Duggar lands have the singular distinction of the highest number of gallantry awards if added collectively from the martyrs list from catchment Regiments like the Jammu & Kashmir Rifles, Dogras, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir Rifles and in other ‘Uniforms’ of all possible lanyards and denominations. Even though most in the country would still think and attribute that preeminence of gallantry to States like Rajasthan, Punjab or Haryana – this too is symptomatic of the fabled reticence, underlying reserve and civilisational humility that besets the Dogra’s martial identity, which is often taken for granted. The net result of this lack of ‘marketing’ (in an era of ‘pitches’) by Dogras and to the wider expanse of Duggar lands spilling into tracts of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab is that they remain a blurred, indistinguishable, and underappreciated, considering the sacrifice of these lands since eons. It has been the first, foremost and the bloodiest frontier against the invasive forces and hordes that threatened the larger part of what is now territorially, India. While most of the country is well versed with warriors like Rana Pratap, Shivaji, Ranjit Singh, Rani Jhansi and so many other deserved heroes/sheroes, the simply unmatched heroics (even if assessed by independent and unbiased historians in terms of conquests, topography of operations and other elements of militaristic challenges) of a General Zorawar Singh is travesty of justice- and to only blame the local politics after independence is basically ostrich syndrome, as the blame must accrue onto the Dogras themselves who haven’t made a compelling, persuasive and ‘well marketed’case of their own heroics. In recent times, the healthy re-imagination of the relatively unsung heroes like the Assamese Ahoms, Birsa Munda or Babu Kunwar Singh is a case in point – whereas the Dogra storyline languishes. Sadly, and increasingly, it is known only as a narrow religious ‘identity’ (which too is incorrect) which is made to contrast sharply with the supposed religious identity of its northern ‘K’ landmass of hyphenated identity, in the recently reduced ‘Union Territory’. Too simplistic a narrative.
The purely whittled and bigoted ‘divide’ between the North and South of J&K is neither part of the glorious Dogra culture, heritage or Kingdom, but only a ‘divide’ that helps galvanises electoral passions in the ‘rest of the country’ – it may even have elements of undeniable truths, but it remains an infinitely poor, petty and revisionist identity for an otherwise people of much unsung secularity, dignity and unrecognised loftiness. The fact that the many within the Duggar lands fell for this simplistic ‘divide’ as the only reason of blame and misery has led to the perpetuation of the ensuing stalemate, that haunts the Duggar lands. The essential conversations have only been in the realm of ‘us-versus-them’ or ‘Jammu-versus-Valley’ – this in many ways facilitates the untruths as propagated by Pakistanis, at all forums. It has become a reductive narrative that almost got sanctifies the shortness-of-spirit posited from across the Line-of-Control (LOC) or by our ownlazy politicians, within. The day Jammu gets out of its fixation with an undeniable ‘part’ of its own in the North and moves on to articulate and shape the right questions and answers for itself, is the day when the essential storyline and fate for the much deserving resuscitation of Duggar land, changes.
In the context of India’s constitutional framework, the empowerment to Indian citizens within the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir to elect their ‘own’ leaders and shape their ‘own’ destiny as they deem their ‘own’ priority (as opposed to what ‘Delhi’ decides), will be through the next legislative assembly elections, tentatively in 2023. But the onus of defining what ought to be that ‘own’, is extremely important – If yet again, the said ‘own’ gets divided into the age-old, regressive and thoroughly unproductive prism of religiousity or ‘Jammu-versus-Valley’ script – nothing will change substantially, and more of the same will continue.
Jammu needs to go beyond emotional demand (relevant, but not critical) e.g., requesting for a state holiday for a former leader’s birthday, demanding Bharat Ratna for another, restoration of old Durbar infrastructure etc., All these may be emotively important but that does not tantamount to tangible transformation for the future. What Jammu needs is a hard, time bound, initiative-based economic plan – it doesn’t need vacuous generalities like ‘Smart City’, it needs a financial number to be specifically committed with transparent implementation schedule. It needs specific vision, unprecedented imagination, and sheer scale of on-ground initiatives.
It needs to go beyond partisan language, passions and most importantly ‘packaging’ of politics e.g., the vision of Jammu Smart City is, “Transforming Jammu into a sustainable and economically vibrant city focusing on tourism, quality of life and trade by leveraging its heritage and location” – now, with over 2/3rd projects already completed, it would be safe to assume that a substantial transformation of the socio-economic-infrastructural-civic status of the region, has happened? Has it happened, think again? Is the local citizenry satisfied with the changesbeyond the brouhaha of partisan agendas? Has the employment (which ought to be the most pertinent issue) issues been addressed? Has the traditional occupation of ‘Soldering’ for the region been satisfactorily addressed with Agniveer plan? Have new industries or corporations announced transformational investments? Have new economic zones come up? Is the society less divided and less polarised than earlier?
Indeed Article 370 is done and dusted, but looking beyond its national ramification, important to introspect on its ostensible benefits to Jammu? Most people often invoke the delimitation exercise as the new ‘manna’ that could deliver Jammu, even though what ought to be a standard and institutionalised exercise of reorganisation of the electorate framework is also given a context of partisan/religious angularity – it is more of the same, yet again!
Neighbouring Himachal Pradesh which is going to the electoral hustings and was decidedly the lesser region of Duggar lands in terms of socio-economic conditions vis-à-vis Jammu given its outlying status of the Duggar lands, has made far more impressive strides – one of the reasons is their ability to delink national and regional issues, and fight for each with equal sincerity and not fall prey to chicanery of national/regional parties. It kept rotating governments and partisan outfits to keep each on their toes – but Jammu seems to have become a hub for one sort of political persuasion, just as the Valley has become for another sort of persuasion, and the proverbial twain never meets.
Time for Jammu to navel gaze and accept that all national/regional parties and their incestuous coalitions have done precious nothing since independence. If anything, then they have invested in ‘dividing’ and both, Jammu and the Valley have regrettably fallen for it, and basically emerged as a laboratory to play larger national politics, at their cost. Vote for honest, dedicated and ‘inclusive’ individuals (irrespective of the parties) and not for sweeping statements of bravado, jingoism, divide and future-pointing dreams, especially when the reality of today remains unarticulated, unfixed and unaddressed.
(The author is former Lt Governor of Andaman Nicobar Islands & Puducherry)
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