How many “Hindus” would it take to change the demography of Kashmir?
Amidst all the violence and “protests” around the issue of transfer of 40 hectares of land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), I noticed two questions that appear to have gone unanswered.
The first question…and this is really the elephant in the room, is, “How many “Hindus” would it take to change the demography of Kashmir?
It is important to consider this question as this is what seems to upset most Kashmiris. To wit:
…President of Action Committee Against Land Transfer (ACALT) and former Kashmir Bar Association President, Mian Abdul Qayoom…termed the (SASB) decision as a conspiracy to change the demography of occupied Kashmir [ link ]
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairperson of the hard-line Hurriyat faction, has been quoted as saying, “Transfer of forestland to SASB is a conspiracy to change the demography of the Valley. We will not allow this ploy to succeed,”
Let us look at some numbers.
According to 2001 Census of India, Â the population of Jammu and Kashmir was just over 10m of which 6.8m (66.97%) were Muslims; Hindus were just over 3m (29.63%) – note that the % Muslim population has increased since the last census in 1981 and the proportion of Hindus has decreased (at least partly due to migration);Â According to the 1981 census, Muslims accounted for 64.19% and Hindus were at 32.24%.
However, this distribution hides the skewed demographics in the “Valley”. In Kashmir (Valley), the proportion of Muslims is generally accepted to be~ 95% (e.g. see here), possibly more.
The 1981 census put the Pandits’ number (in the Valley) at a little over 124,000 in a total population of 3.1 million (It should be noted that between 1941 and 1981, the Pandit population declined from 15% to just under 5% while the Muslim population grew from 83% to 95%. The Hindu population in the Valley today is certainly lower than the 1981 number while the Muslim population has grown. According to this report, “…of the estimated 200,000 Hindus, known as Pandits, who lived in the Kashmir Valley…only some 10,000 remain.”
Against this backdrop, is it not a joke to talk about the land allotment to SASB being an attempt to change the “demographics” of Kashmir – and to reduce Muslims to a minority?
Or am I missing something?
To change the demographics of the Valley, the entire Hindu population in Kashmir will have to move to the Valley and then some…even then, they may be short of a few lakhs, in numbers…
Why does not anyone expose the specious argument?
***
The second question is who exactly are the environmental critics or “local environmentalists” who are opposing the transfer on ecological grounds?
E.g. “Critics say building “permanent” structures at base camps of the pilgrimage will ruin the fragile ecology of the mountainous region…” and “…Local environmentalists protested against the decision and local politicians joined them in opposing the issue…”
I did not find a single “expert” being named in any of the tens of news-reports…
It needs to be mentioned that the one department in the government that you would expect to have raised objections on environmental grounds – the Forest Department – has actually approved the proposal.
Specifically, “the matter was examined in the forest department at various levels and was finally submitted to the minister by the Principal Secretary of the Forest Department recommending that the proposal be approved.”[link ]
Am I the only one here with the feeling something is not quite right?
Related Posts:
Specious Arguments and False Propoganda
More on Muslim Population Growth in India
Some startling stats from the eastern front
P.S. As many of you would know, Kashmir’s association with Hinduism goes back through the ages…The name itself is said to be derived from Kashyapa, one of the seven Saptarishis…and Kashmir is home to some of the holiest shrines in Hinduism…Amarnath, of course but also Kheer Bhawani, Shankaracharya Mandir, Hari Parbat etc…
Eminent Kashmiris (from the ancient past) are said to include Abhinavagupta, Kalhana and Charaka (and possibly Kalidasa). More here.
Also recommended:Â Amarnath exposes Kashmir Faultlines (from Offtsumped)
Read this book to know about the atrocities committed on Hindus in India especially Kashmir
Title: Lies, Lies and More Lies. The Campaign to Defame Hindu Nationalism
ISBN: 978-0-595-43549-4
ISBN (10): 0595435491
LCCN: 2007904121
Publisher: iUniverse
Publication date: June 26, 2007.
Author: Vivek
Tags: Hindutva; Communalism
Links
http://www.amazon.com/Lies-More-Campaign-Defame-Nationalism/dp/0595435491/
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780595435494&itm=4
(Book Available on amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com)
Distributed by: Ingrams, Baker and Taylor, YBL library Services and Alibris
Review
A passionate and thoughtful call for perspective on hot-button Indian social issues., January 4, 2008
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) –
Lies, Lies and More Lies: The Campaign To Defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism is a sharp retort to unsavory portrayals of Hindu Nationalism (Hindutva), including accusations that equate the philosophy with pogroms and ethnic cleansing. Though author Vivek admits that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should not be excused of the killings that have happened under its watch, notably in the Gujarat riots, he decries the tendency (especially among intellectuals) to unilaterally condemn the entire BJP and all of Hindu Nationalism, or even equate both with fascism. Worse, too much misinformation has spread concerning Hindu Nationalism and the BJP. Lies, Lies and More Lies spells out the reasoning behind Hindu Nationalism precepts: injustice exists under the current legal system that largely leaves temples of Christianity and Islam to themselves but taxes and restricts Hindu temples; religious conversion needs to be banned because there is no way to distinguish between voluntary and forced conversion; and more. Too little attention is being paid to the threat of Islamofascism, argues author Vivek; demographic birth and immigration trends that are gradually increasing the percentage of Muslims in India and a Muslim community that is too slow to condemn the pogroms it perpetrates fuel an immediate national crisis. Above all, India’s salvation lies in preserving its new legacy of democracy and equality. “Without proper guidance, there is a real danger of Hindutva degenerating into a rampage of revenge. Hindutva is not to be equated with communal riots that kill innocent humans. Hindutva cannot be an ideology that relegates another individual to second-class status. It should be a force that makes all Indians conform to the pluralistic, secular tradition of our land that respects one and all.” A passionate and thoughtful call for perspective on hot-button Indian social issues.
Synopsis
The last decade has seen the publication of a plethora of books like Christophe Jaffrelot’s, The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India, Thomas Hansen’s The Saffron Wave and more recently Martha Nussbaum’s The Clash Within that have been highly critical of the Hindu Nationalist Movement in India. This genre of books has been a one-sided, prejudged narration that has failed look at the movement from the Hindu perspective or even accord Hindu Nationalism a fair and scholarly treatment. At times these books have highlighted dubious incidents to put forth their point of view or held up radical fringe elements as representative of Hindu Nationalism. This campaign unfortunately has been sustained by a section of the Indian Diaspora in the United States and it is especially important that the broad American academia and public be made aware of the reality. Lies, Lies and More Lies presents the other side of the story in a balanced manner with tangible proof backed by sound references that puts to paid many of the false innuendoes against Hindu Nationalism that have been bandied around for years; in fact it is inadvertently a point by point counter to many charges found in Nussbaum’s The Clash Within.
This article is worth a read: Pilgrims deserve better>, June 27, 2008 by Rajiv Sikri
*** Excerpts (emphasis mine) ***
…The specious grounds for the the Peoples Democratic Party’s objections are that the implementation of the decision of the state government would change the “eco-cultural character” of the state. What is the nature of this eco-cultural character of Jammu and Kashmir that is so fragile that it cannot survive the transfer of a small tract of land? Does the Kashmir valley have only a “Muslim” character?
What happened to the much-touted Kashmiriyat? Or is that a politically correct platitude that has become an inconvenience to be ignored now that most of the Kashmiri Pandits have been hounded out of their homes in the Valley to Jammu, Delhi and elsewhere in India? Kashmiri politicians owe it to the rest of India to clarify their position on this issue.
To my mind, whether or not the land in question should be transferred to the SASB is only a technical question, not the heart of the issue.
The more important thing is whether the state government feels that it has an obligation to improve the facilities that would make the pilgrimage of thousands of Hindu devotees more secure and more comfortable. For centuries pilgrims have been making the arduous trip to Amarnath cave without the benefit of any facilitation by the state. They relied on the local people for food, accommodation and other facilities. They lived in tents. But a caring State in independent India can and should do more.
It would be instructive to see what the Government of India does for Haj pilgrims visiting Mecca and Medina. The government is, in the words of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, “committed to ensure that the best possible arrangements are put in place for the comfort and well-being of Indian pilgrims to facilitate their sacred pilgrimage.” The “welfare and well-being of Haj pilgrims,” he says, “is always a matter of utmost concern to the government.”
In keeping with these public policy statements, the Government of India makes elaborate arrangements for the welfare of Haj pilgrims and strives to improve the facilities provided to them every year. That is how it should be. The Government of India, and the ministry of external affairs in particular, deserves credit for providing perhaps the best arrangements that any government makes for their Haj pilgrims.
And what exactly does the Government of India do? For starters, it provides an airfare subsidy to about 100,000 pilgrims selected by the Haj Committee of India who go for Haj annually. Pilgrims pay only Rs 12,000 for their air travel. This figure has remained unchanged for at least a decade or more.
According to official figures, this subsidy was Rs 280 crores in 2006, or about Rs 28,000 per pilgrim. Today, with rising fuel prices, this figure would have gone up to Rs 350-400 crores. Although there is a 2006 Allahabad high court judgment ruling against this subsidy, it continues to be given because the government got the Supreme Court to pass a stay order.
Add to this the losses suffered by Air India, and the inconvenience to passengers because its planes are diverted to carry Haj pilgrims. For the convenience of pilgrims, charter flights are operated directly from 16 airports in India to Saudi Arabia. Returning pilgrims can transport 10 litres of holy Zam Zam water with them free of cost. At Delhi airport there is a separate Haj terminal. To improve the comfort of pilgrims, Air India has been advised to use wide-body jets in future for their Haj flights.
Great attention and care to Haj matters is given at the highest levels of government. The United Progressive Alliance government has successfully lobbied with the Saudi government to increase the quota for pilgrims from India, as a result of which the annual quota has increased by 38,000 over the last four years. It will go up by a further 3,000 or so this year because of the exertions of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his visit to Saudi Arabia in April this year.
There is a separate Haj cell in the ministry of external affairs. The Haj Committee of India has its own premises in Mumbai. Similarly the State Haj Committees have their own premises in various other Indian cities. These facilities have been built on land provided by the state governments.
Very high priority is given to Haj matters in the mandate given by the government to both the Indian ambassador in Riyadh and the Indian consul general in Jeddah. Every government in Delhi has ensured that only Muslims are appointed to these posts, a practical decision intended to facilitate their travel to Mecca and Medina, where non-Muslims are not allowed. There is also a separate consul for Haj matters in the Indian consulate general in Jeddah.
Accommodation in Mecca and Medina is decided keeping in mind the need to provide maximum convenience and comfort to the pilgrims. Typically, all accommodation has lifts, telephones, running water, electricity and telephone at the minimum. There is total computerisation of pilgrim location and movement. During Haj, a large contingent of seasonal local staff, supervisors, data entry operators, as well as drivers and messengers (whose job is to round up and bring home safely elderly pilgrims who may have got lost) is appointed by the consulate general of India, Jeddah, during the Haj period.
For Haj 2007, a contingent of 115 doctors (including 63 specialists with post-graduate degrees) and 141 nurses and other para-medical staff, 3 coordinators, 46 assistant Haj officers, 165 Haj assistants and 186 Khadimul Hujjaj were sent from India on short-term deputation to Saudi Arabia. Special attention is given to medical facilities for the pilgrims.
Some of the facilities provided by the government are: arrangements for polio, meningitis and influenza vaccinations for pilgrims before departure; a 75-bed hospital and 12 branch offices-cum-dispensaries in Mecca; a 15-bed hospital and 6 branch offices-cum-dispensaries in Medina; three medical teams at Jeddah airport to provide medical care round the clock to Haj pilgrims; 17 ambulances in Mecca and Medina; supply of medicines, medical supplies and critical medical equipment from India. All this adds up to the total money spent by the government to facilitate a hassle-free Haj pilgrimage each year for tens of thousands of Muslims from India.
Perhaps our self-righteous and petty Kashmiri politicians in India’s only Muslim-majority state should reflect over these facts and tell us whether they think it is at least their moral if not political obligation to be more caring and sensitive to Hindu pilgrims visiting Amarnath. If we can do so much for Indians going on a pilgrimage abroad, should we not be able to do as much if not better for pilgrims at home?
For a start, should not the Jammu and Kashmir government at least try to match the facilities given to pilgrims to Vaishno Devi shrine, which is located in the same state? And is it too much to expect our politicians and other “secular” leaders to be a bit more courageous and vocal in trying to knock some sense into the heads of shortsighted and irresponsible Kashmiri politicians?
As those in power, both in Delhi and Srinagar, ponder over this matter, the litmus test has to be whether the decision finally taken adds to the comfort and convenience of the pilgrims.
Indian citizens and taxpayers deserve honest answers to the questions posed above.
Dear Sir,
The bias of the western world against India is well known. it is our feeling of inadequacy that has led us to this position.
The greatest contributor to he destuction to our confidence and our feeling of inadequacy has been has been Gandh.
Let me assure you that I have the greatest regard for him as a human being, but his system of pleasing everybody else except the Hindus at all costs to maintain his feeling of being impartial has been the biggest let down.
The perspective of India of every westerner has been only through the eyes of the persons who have eugolised Gandi and only Gandhi as if there has been no other freedom fighter in India.
This idea of Gandhi, has been encouraged by the authors who have been living on the diet of Chrisian education and communist philosophy to the detriment of other freedom fighters who have been maligned for many of their activities, including Godse!!
Why do I bring in Godse as a freedom fighter. Well he had his own thoughts as an Indian under the British domination, and he was also a patriot in every sense. He shot Gandhi, not because he was against Gandhi, but Gandhi’s phlosophy for the Muslims and against the Hindus.
Well was Gandhi against the Hindu’s? Oh no sir he was not, but his followere colored his thoughts when they took the message to the Public. Gandhi was for the welfare of all Indians, but his followers were not for it, for all of them were Christian educated and Anti Hindu, fundamentally.
The reason for this elaborate background is to stultify this western thought that the BJP and Sangh Parivar are for Hindu’s alone and not for others.
The western world has to remove its colored glasses to view the right thought process that should exist in India. Now I change track!!
Bharat is for all. Saffron, White or Green. That is what the BJP and Sangh Parivar outfits want. No seperate rule for anybody. If it is within the borders of Bharat, then it is for all Bharatiya’s. No body is special to Bharat Mata. All her children are one to her.
The misrepresention of Gandhi’s ideals that he WANTED A SEPERATE SET OF RULES FOR ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE SHOULD BE ERASED FROM THE MINDS OF THE WORLD.
Only then will they understand that the BJP and Sangh parivar are not anti any group but for one law for everybody.
It is totally absent as one can understand from what is happening in Kashmir in relation to the Haj.
The BJP does not want the cancellation of the HAJ concessions, but they want the same rule to apply for the others who are in Majority in India.
Before the authors of books and articles write about Gujarat and BJP and Sangh Parivar, let them know the true concept of what they work for and stand for.
The western world of its authors should understand the true spirit of what is happening in Bharat and dump all that has been written and presented to them. Let them throw out their old ideas about Gandhi and look from a new perspective and then they will understand their fault and the false probaganda of the colored thinkers.
Regards,
vck
We should unite to form one identity that is Hindu and only one religion that is Nation.
If castes are not removed, India will be destroyed.
I am reproducing below two comments from greatbong’s recent post on Amarnath…I found them interesting and thought-provoking.
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Comment by “Aye from an Indian Muslim”
I was refered here by a friend.
I don’t agree with everything written in this post, but I feel the need to speak up on behalf of Indian Muslims. Things like this don’t get reported in the mainstream media:
http://www.anindianmuslim.com/2008/07/muslims-favouring-hindu-stand-on.html
Protests like these are where the true spirit of this nation lies. Quite frankly, I see nothing wrong with giving away land to the shrine board. I also don’t see any sense in the nation paying for Hajj. From where I stand, I am a reasonable Muslim. I don’t harbor hatred towards any community, I serve this country and its people more than most people of my generation and I pray that I can continue to do so until I die. I am undoubtedly Muslim and I am fiercely Indian – I carry both these identities proudly on my sleeve and I don’t see any contradiction between the two. I fight my jihad (with a small ‘j’) in the battle-field of ideas, where I advocate for the right of every woman to lead a life free from violence and for every person in this country to have access to health care. I have a vision for India and am sometimes unrealistically optimistic about whether it can be achieved.
However, when Rishi Khujur talks of the VHP tearing down all the Hajj houses in the country, it sends a shiver down my spine and a spear through my heart. I remember Bombay in ‘92, I remember Gujarat in ‘02. I remember the times when I was so violently reminded that I will never be considered Indian enough, because of my religion. I come from enough privilege to be able to pack my bags and head west-ward, the way many, many of my peers (both Hindu and Muslim) have done. Yet, I stay back. I stay back because this is where my destiny lies. But as the number of “anonymous cowards”, “Kannans” and “Vibhashs” (and several other commentators on this thread) in this country increases, I fear that I will be forced to leave.
I have never been able to understand how a powerful majority in any country can feel like it is being ‘wronged’. The ‘fear of small numbers’ is certainly more a reality in India than anywhere else in the world
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Comment by “Kannan” (to “Aye from an Indian Muslim”):
Thanks for template for my answer.
From where I stand, I am an average Hindu. I don’t harbor hatred towards any community, I serve this country and its people more than most people of my generation and I pray that I can continue to do so until I die. I am undoubtedly Indian and and I am also Hindu – I carry both these identities proudly in my heart and I don’t see any contradiction between the two. I fight only in a dharmayudh (dharam is not equal or equivalent to religion). I have a vision for India and am sometimes unrealistically optimistic about whether it can be achieved.
However, when Kashmiris talk of the a demography change there, it sends a shiver down my spine and a spear through my heart. I remember Punja 1947, Bengal 1947 and Kashmir 1989 tll date, . I remember the times when I was so violently reminded that I as a Hindu will never be able to live peacefully with my Muslim Countrymen whenever they are in a majority, just because of my religion. I come from enough privilege to be able to pack my bags and head west-ward, the way many, many of my peers (both Hindu and Muslim) have done. Yet, I stay back. I stay back because this is where my destiny lies. But as the number of “Yasin Maliks, “PDPs” and Jinnah, Suhawardy’s in this country increases, I fear that I will be forced to leave. But I will never do that. That is a promise. I will fight for justice and fairness at all costs. I will not let hisotry repeat itslef.
I have never been able to understand how a minotry in any country always feel like it is being ‘wronged’, but on turning a majority never thinks of the minority at all. The ‘feeling of victimhood’ is certainly more a reality in India than anywhere else in the world.
We should send Indian Christians instead.
After spending some time with Islamists, they might stop accusing us of “oppressing” them.