India’s vain attempts at forced and artificial union and integration of “the Hindu Rashtra” as the fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party advocates are going to be very expensive mistakes, today the situation obtaining on the subcontinent requires India to act. The choices before it are limited. What India needs desperately is a leader of the stature of Abraham Lincoln but the ignorant masses seem to prefer petty thieves like Rajiv Gandhi.
Kashmir wants out of the Indian Union despite the billions spent there in subsides over 40 years. Kashmir’s unity was sought to be bought by free rice never development or economic uplift of the masses. Pakistan is behind Kashmir all the way and has already fought two wars over it.
Punjab on the other hand gave everything for India. It grew all the food and gave its youth for its defence. What it got in return is for the world to see even the places of worship were attacked. There is an uprising among these two peoples.
The option of war to finish these struggles for independence may prove counterproductive. There are also fears that this war may turn into the first nuclear conflict eyes. The economies of these two Asian nations impoverished as they are will be set back by decades. The outcome, no winners are likely in any case, will hardly effect these movements adversely, in fact it will help them. A war rather than diverting the world’s attention away will focus it on the sufferings the Sikhs and Kashmiris have had to endure under Indian rule. Also, India’s military superiority has been whittled down greatly since 1971. The adventure of 1965 cannot be undertaken without risk of it backfiring in India’s face.
Then there is the option of carrying on repressing the people with the police and para military and occasional sabre rattling on the borders and in parliaments. After all it has worked for 10 years already in Punjab. Or has it? Thousands have died and the jails are full. The army has had to intervene so many times that many think it will not be able to fight another army. It has become impotent and can only tackle unarmed civilians. The police is busy providing security to crooked politicians. Over 50,000 men are deployed in this nation building task where anarchy prevails and is gaining.
Force and inducement have so far only made the people firmer in their commitment to break away. India can keep pumping its precious resources into its unsuccessful attempts of destroying people. Repression so far has proved counterproductive and so will a war. These people know what they want and have the will to get it.
‘The best way out for all to end the bitterness and hatred would be to let Punjab and Kashmir go as friends and allies it’s not too late yet. India still has the potential of becoming a great world power if it gets its priorities right. To set its house in order it must recognize that the Sikhs and Kashmiris are no longer in it. Delhi must stop heaping problems upon itself. It must bravely face the problems and solve them. That in itself will right many past wrongs and prevent the loss of precious human lives.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 8, 1990
