Identity
For Kashmiris
By Dr Shabir Choudhry
28 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org
No
matter what my neighbours think of this but my identity and culture
are important to me, even if they think it is against their ‘national
interest’ to recognise my identity and respect my culture. As
a human being we all need identity, recognition and sense of belonging
is very important. Society is made of different social, cultural and
ethnic groups. All groups have some distinct identities and cultural
and historical traditions, and these differences should be recognised
and respected.
Depending on how one deal
with these differences, this could be a source of strength and richness
to society. In every society there are problems, and in a multi cultural
society problems could be of different nature. But one thing is sure
that problems do not go away by ignoring them. We need to formulate
appropriate policies to deal with these differences.
Culture could be of two kinds:
Material Culture and Symbolic Culture. Material Culture includes arts,
architecture, utensils, dress, crafts, sports etc. The Symbolic Culture
is about views and feelings, for example, beliefs, values, language,
religion etc. These cultural values are generally associated with regions
rather than religion. We as human beings associate and identify ourselves
with different cultural, historical and ethnic values, and identity
in that context is very crucial.
When people from former princely
State of Jammu and Kashmir arrived in Britain in 1960s they used Pakistani
passport as a travelling document. Many Pakistani brothers erroneously
believe that this act of travelling on a Pakistani passport makes them
Pakistanis. They forget that it is a travelling document, and Palestinians,
like Kashmiris have no country, and they travel on Jordanian, Egyptian,
Syrian and many other passports, and that does not take away their Palestinian
identity from them.
These Pakistani brothers
also conveniently forget that it is an international obligation that
people of disputed areas are given travelling documents, and that does
not change their national identity and there are many examples of this.
Once they are countered here then they take refuge in the Two Nations
Theory, and when they are told that it did not apply to Princely States
and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan also agreed with this.
When they are cornered here they start talking of Muslim Umma, and that
we should not talk of divisions. Unity in Muslim Umma, if this Muslim
Umma exists anywhere, is a separate topic and it won’t be appropriate
to discuss it here.
Majority of first generation
of Kashmiris who came to Britain were not educated and came here for
economic reasons. Intention was not to stay here, but to earn and save
some money - general thinking was to save a few lakh rupees and go back
home. They were not too much concerned with issues related to identity
and cultural heritage. They also accepted, without too much resentment,
dominance of their Pakistani counterparts who were relatively better
educated and provided some kind of leadership in the community.
This thinking however changed
after mid 1970s. People decided to make Britain their new home. And
second generation of Kashmiris, unlike their parents and other elders,
started asserting their role and looked for their place in the society.
They also developed consciousness of being Kashmiris with rich culture
and history of their own, which was distinctly separate from that of
Pakistan.
By and large the Pakistani
community in Britain looked down at the Kashmiris as being illiterate
and ‘uncivilised’. This attitude was resented and opposed
by the Kashmiris, especially second generation of Kashmiris which resulted
in rift within the wider ‘Pakistani community’. Differences
of opinion grew sharper with time, especially when their dominance was
also challenged.
It was at that time the Pakistani
community leaders used their most lethal weapon, which their leaders
in Pakistan have been using successfully, and continue to do so: declare
that these people are ‘anti Pakistan’ and ‘Indian
agents’. To most Kashmiris at that time this label was a ‘death
warrant’, and still quite annoying and troublesome. This labelling
meant that this person is a ‘traitor’, unreliable and must
be opposed in all aspects of social, political and cultural life.
It was in 1972 when I first
labelled as being ‘anti Pakistan’ and an ‘ Indian
agent’; and my crime was that as an energetic and rebellious teenager
I wrote some articles promoting Kashmiri nationalism and helped to establish
Kashmir Youth Movement, which championed the cause of united and independent
Kashmir. Apart from me there were others who were decorated with these
labels, some in Britain and more of them in Azad Kashmir.
Since that day, apart from
being labelled as ‘Indian agent’, I have been labelled as
‘Pakistani agent’, ‘British agent’, ‘American
agent’ and ‘Israeli agent’. How many times I have
been called this I don’t know; and honestly speaking I don’t
care. I know what I am, and my prime responsibility is to promote the
cause of people of Jammu and Kashmir, and in doing so if I am accused,
abused and intimidated it is a price for being a true nationalist Kashmiri
who refuses to see things through lenses provided by Islamabad and New
Delhi. I must add that I am not alone who has been targeted this way,
but I was among the first few who were decorated with these labels in
Britain for being pro people and for speaking for rights of the Kashmiri
people.
Baroness Emma Nicholson has
done us Kashmiris a great favour by painstakingly producing very comprehensive,
pro people and pro democracy report and getting it approved from the
EU Parliament. She has now agreed to promote cause of the Kashmiris
in Britain as well. She has kindly put forward two motions for debate
in the House of Lords.
Baroness has requested the
British Government to discuss the position and future of Kashmiris living
in different parts of the forcibly divided state of Jammu and Kashmir;
and whether these Kashmiris have got their basic rights and facilities
and in what condition they are living.
The second motion is related to the ethnic identity of Kashmiris living
in Britain. Baroness Emma Nicholson has suggested that the government
should determine the ethnic identity of Kashmiris in UK. Baroness Emma
Nicholson thinks that in rapidly changing situation, especially in the
21st century the rights of Kashmiris can’t be ignored.
In Britain we have Kashmiri
members in Parliament (House of Lords and House of Commons), many Councillors
and Mayors, and many Kashmiris wonder why they have not taken ‘trouble’
to promote cause of the Kashmiris in UK, especially supporting ethnic
identity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Perhaps they didn’t
get a green signal from Islamabad and High Commission London to do so.
It is generally believed that these people don’t want to annoy
Pakistani establishment for two reasons: fear of being labelled and
fear of losing protocol which they enjoy here and as well as when they
go to Azad Kashmir and Pakistan.
The state system in Britain,
as noted above, does not recognise Kashmiris as a separate ethnic group,
and because of this they do not qualify for any grants or help which
is generally available to ethnic groups who lack behind in education
or have other problems in society. In view of Adalat Ali, Coordinator
of Kashmir National Identity Campaign, not only Kashmiri people suffer
because of this but it also creates problems for the British society
as well.
In Adalat Ali’s view
because of lack of clear sense of belonging, lack of funds and help
and support available to Kashmiri youngsters, they increasingly find
themselves out of jobs and are influenced by crime and delinquency.
Apart from that these unemployed Kashmiri youngsters are ‘used’
by Pakistani leaders to promote their political or religious agendas.
Also these ‘unrecognised’ youngsters who have little sense
of belonging and clearly lack identity, are easy prey for extremist
groups to recruit them and give them an Islamic identity in place of
their national identity.
KNIC and Association of British
Kashmiris have done a considerable work on the issue of Kashmiri identity,
and with help of local people have successfully persuaded a number of
Councils to recognise Kashmiris as a separate ethnic group. But this
is not enough, a lot more need to be done, and I believe that Baroness
Emma Nicholson’s initiative will give this campaign boost and
moral support.
Writer is Chairman Diplomatic
Committee of JKLF, Director Institute of Kashmir Affairs and author
of many books on Kashmir. He could be reached at: [email protected]
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