Simmering Discontent

Syed Ali Safvi

The sun of July 13, 1931 confirmed the truth in Margaret Mead's saying, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

On that fateful day, thousands of Kashmiris had gheroed the Srinagar central jail demanding an open trial of a youth, Abdul Qadeer, who was tried for 'sedition'. His crime: pointing his finger to the Maharaja's Palace in protest against the desecration of the Holy Quran at the hands of Dogra troops in Jammu.

The Dogra governer, Ray Zada Chand, in order to disperse the crowd, ordered his soldiers to open fire. The scene that followed was no less horrific and horrendous than the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. In a matter of few seconds, twenty one protestors were left lying in a pool of blood and many more were seriously injured.

Kashmiris have, throughout their history, been at the receiving end only. The history of Kashmir is replete with incidents of inhumane and tyrannical oppression of the dejected Kashmiris by the rulers. Be it the Mughals, the Afghans, the Sikhs or the Dogras, a common Kashmiri has never found solace.

These rulers treated them merely as scapegoats and any voice of dissent would be severely strangulated. During the reign of King Unmattawati (939-944 AD), the king ripped the abdomen of a pregnant woman to see the foetus. One of the Afghan rulers, Azad Khan, raped, plundered and killed the innocent Kashmiris like a maniac.He slit the stomach of a doctor when the latter failed to cure his eye ailment.

When Zulchu (Zulfi Khan or Zulaji) invaded Kashmir, his soldiers resorted to indiscriminate killings, bloodbath, plundering beyond all limits. They carried out wholesale massacre of Kashmiris, killing everyone who fell into their hands. One of the Dogra rulers, Ranjit Singh, never visited Kashmir, but solicited women and taxes from the valley.

The Dogra rule, arguably, was the darkest period in the history of Kashmir. Such was the degree of oppression that Kashmiris were skinned alive for speaking against the Maharaja. The incident that took place outside the Srinagar Central jail on the fateful day of July 13, 1931 was nothing new for Kashmiris but it provided the much-needed impetus to the anti Dogra sentiments in the valley.

However, most of the freedom fighters who fought for the complete freedom of Kashmir from the tyrannical, oppressive and autocratic rule of the Dogras have remained by and large unsung in the pages of history. Courtesy: The Successful regimes of Kashmir Politics and the so called political interest of their spin doctors.

It's a travesty of justice that we do not have a single building, road, hospital or any other public infrastructure named after any of our freedom fighters who laid down their lives only that we could breathe in the ambience of freedom, peace and tranquility; where we would not be forced to pay tax to live on our own soil. Instead of commemorating them, we have roads, colleges, public parks named after the Dogra rulers who had been cruel and savage.In their rule, Kashmiris simmered in the smoldering fire. in return, that is what our state has given to the martyrs! It is, nonetheless,'never less than mortifying and humiliating both the denizens of the state and for the state itself.

In 1983, the then chief minister Farooq Abdullah inaugurated a bridge at Rambagh named after one of the freedom fighters, Mohammad Sultan Khan alias Sula Galdar. Unfortunately, during the heydays of the armed struggle, a rocket hit the stone plaque on the bridge and completely destroyed it. The administration did not deem it necessary to replace the stone plaque.Instead, the hole, caused by the blast, was plugged in with cement.

If every nation would 'honour' its freedom fighters the way our governments do, sincerely,the world would no longer produce the likes of Mandelas, Gandhis, Khomeinis, etc. Every year on July 13, we remember our martyrs, but are we really doing justice to their memory and role? Do we respect and honour their neverlasting sentiments and resilience towards saving our motherland.