so that when certain people, serving their own personal interests,
wanted to mislead the Kashmiris, they were able to provoke them
into aggression. But this was a temporary phase. Events tell us that
now people are returning to their true nature.
Now the final hour has come for the Kashmiris to return to their
past, to revise their forgotten lesson, to reshape their lives again in
line with Sufi traditions, to make Kashmir once again a region of
peace and love as it had always been in the past. This is Kashmirness.
A return to this Kashmiriat holds the key to progress in Kashmir.
Refusal toAccept the Reality
I have been writing about Kashmir since 1968. My first article was
published in the UrduWeekly,
Al-Jamiat
, in its issue of June 8, 1968,
(p. 4). One part of this article about the politics of Kashmir is quoted
here: “The time for receiving one’s rights is when the decision is in
one’s own hands. But our leaders come to the realization of this fact
only when their case becomes a moral one. I have this feeling when
I read the speeches of Shaykh Abdullah, the leader of Kashmir. His
present political campaign is nothing but the refusal to accept the
reality of having lost the war.
In 1947 he was in such a position that, had he opted for a realistic
policy, he could have succeeded in deciding the matter according to
his choice. But he missed the bus by indulging in unrealistic dreams.
In national matters, when the time for decision has slipped
from one’s hands, the problem becomes much more complicated
and difficult to resolve. National leadership is a task which can be
performed only by those who can envision the future in the present.
Those who can see only the present and the past cannot lead a
nation. Indeed, by their unwise steps, they can certainly complicate
matters.”
These words were penned forty-five years ago. The reality
of these words has now become a proven fact. The Kashmiris
must learn a lesson from this experience. They should never
repeat the mistake of continuing the failed politics of the
past under new names. Now the final hour has come for the
people of Kashmir to take a fresh look at the whole matter
of the construction of their future, and, taking realities into
consideration, reconstruct their national policy. A viable
policy is only that which is sustainable. An unsustainable
A Return to Kashmiriat
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