It is by now well known that the Bush administration has undertaken to “guarantee” India’s unity and integrity in lieu of Delhi joining the U.S. camp as a client state. We have been repeatedly emphasizing in this column that the Indo-U.S. collaboration cannot prevent India’s disintegration. Neither India nor the Bush administration can wish away the objective conditions prevailing within as well as outside India. The sweep of freedom movement is not limited to the erstwhile Soviet Union or countries of caster Europe. Several nations with in India are up in arms. The freedom struggle in Jammu and Kashmir has gone on for more than four decades. The movement for Khalistan is hardly a decade old but has been picking up despite phases of ups and downs. But the levels of political consciousness or organization are not the same in the two states. The Kashmiris have very little in common with India. Not many Kashmiri Muslims are settled in India’s other states. Within Kashmiri society there are not many socioeconomic groups. Most Kashmiris are poor and have very little at stake staying with India. On the other hand a large number of Sikhs are settled (outside Punjab) in India. The ratio of Sikhs in Punjab and the rest of India is about 5:1. The Kashmiri leadership has never made any common cause with Indian Muslims nor has it emphasized the unity of all Kashmiris living in India. On the other hand the traditional Akalis lose no opportunity to call for “unity of all Sikhs in India:” Various Akali Dals have set up their candidates in elections in Punjab’s neighboring states notwithstanding the fact that most Sikhs tend to merge their identity with the ruling party at the Center in order to safeguard their own interests. Even today a section of Sikh students are a part of “All India Sikh Students Federation.” India does not have much at stake in Kashmir in so far as its economy is concerned. On the other hand Delhi leans very heavily on Punjab’s economy for the country’s very survival. To suit Delhi’s vital interests not much is done by Punjab’s Sikhs to break themselves free from the Indian colonial stronghold on Punjab’s economy. No amount of support from Sikhs overseas or others for the Khalistan movement can wish away the harsh realities with in Punjab. These realities largely govern the amount or intensity of freedom movement and no other factors. A lot can be said about the sacrifices made by the Sikh youths who laid down their lives in lakhs during the past decade. These sacrifices however noble cannot by themselves deliver the goods. The Sikh movement leaders will have to account for and contend with the politico-economic factors peculiar to Punjab to be in step with the Kashmir movement.
Despite problems faced by the Kashmir and Punjab freedom struggles the fact cannot be denied that the Kashmiri and Sikh nations are bound to succeed before long. This is no longer concealed by India’s ruling class however Bush’s administration may describe the nature of the struggle. For the first time a Hindu journalist-author of India has dared to call for letting Kashmir secede from India. The journalist-author Arvind Kala writing in a prestigious Indian business daily “The Economic Times” (August 21992) argues that giving freedom to Kashmir will be “cost-effective” for India. The text of the article is published elsewhere in this issue of WSN. Kala’s thrust is on the economic dispensability of Kashmir for India. The Bush administration cannot shut its eyes to the emerging Indian reality boldly reflected by an Indian journalist author belonging to the majority community.
What every Indian Hindu has come to believe about Kashmir has been stated by Kala After all India’s ruling establishment comprises the Brahman-Bania combine which is good at arithmetic calculations. Kashmir is a millstone round the Indian Hindu’s neck. This cannot be said of Punjab at the moment at least not in the economic sense. India cannot afford to dispense with Punjab. But it is for the Sikh underground leadership to respond to the objective Punjab reality and make conscious efforts to break this state free from India not merely emotionally or politically but also economically. This can be done by severely curtailing food grains production and by withdrawing Punjab’s water supply to India. This in our view is how the level of struggle in Punjab can be raised to the one obtaining in Kashmir. This is the way how India’s Kalas can be compelled to include Punjab with Kashmir as dispensable to India. This is how the Bush administration can be forced to recognize the true nature of the Sikh struggle in Punjab as namely a freedom struggle and not terrorism.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 14, 1992