In his book on nationalism, Rabindranath Tagore has said that a nation is not just composed of land and boundaries, but of the people who live there. The same point applies to Jammu and Kashmir. Unless and until the people of Kashmir also wholeheartedly embrace the Indian nation, integration will be incomplete. Today there is a feeling of betrayal in Kashmir as the condition which led to Kashmir’s merger with India has been diluted. It is more important to develop trust and confidence so that Kashmir’s unique culture, customs and rights are safe from outside influences. To adopt an intransigent attitude that there won’t be alienation and resentment would be incorrect and inappropriate (Editorial page, “Piecing together Kashmir’s audacious road map”, August 6).
Gagan Pratap Singh,
Noida, Uttar Pradesh
When you need a million troops and a war-like siege in place to pass an order, the order has already failed. India in Kashmir has failed miserably; the fact that India cares only for the land and not for the people of Kashmir has been reaffirmed. One waits to see whether the highest court of the land will take cognisance of what has happened.
Umer Bashir
Anantnag, Jammu & Kashmir
Radically altering Jammu and Kashmir’s special status without political consensus was undoubtedly an exercise in avoidable unilateralism. At the same time, Article 370 metamorphosed into a lodestar to stoke separatist sentiments.
Having crossed the Rubicon, the government will have to address the fears of Kashmiris of the possibility of being swamped by ‘outsiders’. It needs to assure the people of Kashmir that a revocation of Article 370 is not an exercise to alter the demographic and religious profile of the state similar to the forced Jewish settlements in the West Bank or the Chinese ethnic re-engineering in its Xinjiang province, except for the return of Pandit families to their original homes.
V.N. Mukundarajan,
Thiruvananthapuram
Revoking Article 370 seems to have been done also because of global compulsions such as the re-emergence of the Taliban and statements by the U.S. President. The government must reach out to Kashmir by strengthening grass-roots democracy, holding immediate elections and reverting to full Statehood status after normalcy returns. Were the constitutional changes a valid process? Do the changes have the potential to strain federalism?
Punya Jyoti Boruah,
New Delhi