When whole of the subcontinent was in flames, Gandhi saw a ray of hope in Kashmir. For a long time this ray of hope remained on a signboard of Government Womens College, Maulana Azad Road. The board along with the ray was smashed and removed by agitating students of the same college and SP College who were protesting against proposed renaming of the college as Kamla Nehru Women’s College in 1973. Although the ray of hope did seize to exist on the signboard of Womens College, it reilluminated in 2007 in almost every college of the valley through the efforts of Kashmir Chief Minister, Gh Nabi Azad. Gh Nabi Azad received the title of Gh Gandhi Azad from Syed Ali Shah Geelani on this account thus becoming a new edition to the company of politicians using Gandhi name as a trademark. Gh Nabi Azad deserved this title long back not on account of his admiration and association of Gandhi but because of his proximity to Sanjay Gandhi who happened to be antithesis of Gandhi. Gh Nabi Azad owes whole of his political career to this association along with Ambika Sonia and Jagdesh Titler. It is debatable whether Ghandi should be admired for emancipation of India because it was not his non-violence that drove Britishers out of India rather it was Hitlers violence which rendered English incapable of holding India and other colonies. Instead of Gandhi it is Hitler who needs to be revered and accredited for freedom of India and all those countries which achieved independence out of decolonization that was triggered by the Second World War. Gandhi too didn’t subscribe to non-violence out of any conviction. He professed non violence simply because he saw certain merits in non violence to the advantage of his Hindu community as well as his Banya caste. On coming from South Africa and participating in Khilafat Movement, he realized that if Indian freedom movement takes a violent course, it will be the martial races of India, Muslims, Sikhs and Rajputs which will dominate it. Thus leaving Bhramans and Bannias on back foot. Those who dominate a freedom struggle are the ones who dominate a free country. Gandhi saw in non violence a nice way of marginalizing martial races which had hitherto been dominating Indian polity for ages. He thus converted a disadvantage of docile Hindus into an advantage. His other concern was to evade a bloody revolution of the type that was experienced by Russia. This revolution led to annihilation of Bourgeois classes and overturned whole of the power structure over there. He propounded the non violence in order to save the capitalist class of India from becoming victim of a violent communist revolution. Non violence was not the only weapon in his armory but he also sponsored the red herrings for proletariat (working classes) in the form of Bodhan and Gaudhan movements of Vinobabhave for blocking path of bloody communist revolution in India. His passive resistance was thus directed against the very classes for whom he pretended to work. His love for capitalism can be visualized from the fact that he died in a mansion of Birlas, one of the greatest business houses of India. The western universities have developed interest in Gandhi not on account of his pretensions about non violence but Gandhi as a strategist who transformed disadvantages into advantages for social engineering. Thank God, Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar sensed his ploy of naming schedule castes as Harijans, otherwise Gandhi was determined to relegate this community to the status of Devdasi of modern India.
Gandhi needs to be admired because he could see a ray of hope for his own rehabilitation in Kashmir in a situation when he stands banished from whole of India. Gandhi was killed by a Rashtriya Soimsewak Sangh (RSS) man. RSS was banned after his death. RSS and its political offshoot Bhartiya Janata Party are dominating Gujarat. People of Gujarat have abandoned Gandhi in favor of his killers, thus Gandhi stands wiped out from his own home state. Violence has over taken non violence in Gujarat that too through a democratic process. People have voted for Narender Modhi, despite his reign of terror and tyranny against Muslims and Christians. Gandhi’s congress was defeated and ideology of violence voted to power. Next pillar of Gandhian ideology was Swadeshi. This jargon has been devastated by New Delhi. New Delhi nowadays is run by Manmohan Singh, ambassador and architect of Videshism (liberalization). It is the result of his policies that right from tooth-pricks upto sophisticated technology; India has become a lucrative market for multinationals. Gandhi stands banished from New Delhi as well. Being a visionary, he might have anticipated this scenario and visualized place of his ultimate refuge in Kashmir. But Gandhi’s soul may be in trauma on seeing that, he is being exported to Kashmir because he is no more relevant and needed in violence infested Gujarat and liberalized India. It is common with elites to give that apparel as a donation to others what becomes irrelevant for domestic use. Apart from providing refuge to haunted soul of Gandhi, purpose of promoting him in Kashmir is to camouflage the reign of terror and tyranny that has been let loose upon helpless Kashmiris by his adherents. This too is not something new. The messiah of non violence Gautam Buddha was used to shield nuclear program of India. When India exploded its first nuclear device, the jargon used for communicating it to the world was “Buddha smiled”. Buddha again smiled when India exploded its new nuclear devices in 1998. If Buddha can smile on explosion of most violent forms of weapons, why can’t Gandhi camouflage the most violent campaign of terror launched against innocent Kashmiris.
So far as utility of this campaign in Kashmir is concerned it is destined to prove counter productive. Its prime weakness is its inherent fallacy and ulterior objectives. Every concept is assessed on the basis of its impact. Gandhi’s non violence didn’t make subcontinent non violent. It is simply because it was not an ideology for him or his followers but a strategy to overtake his adversaries. It was climax of popularity of Gandhi that saw unprecedented violence in India. Millions were killed and crores rendered homeless as soon as the adherents of non violence took over reins of power in India on August 15, 1947. It was this violence that consumed Gandhi as well. Why it happened? Non violence even at that time was used as a camouflage for violent campaign of ethnic cleansing that was perpetrated in whole of Punjab. The Gandhi who had declared that India will be divided on his dead body, patronized demand of Congress for partition of Punjab and Bengal. He blessed the troops which landed in Kashmir for expanding this campaign of violence to this part of the subcontinent that had remained immune to it from August to October, 1947. Kashmiris are also familiar with the fact that Gandhi ascended to the leadership of India on the mobilization achieved through Khilafat Movement but abandoned the same movement as soon as his purpose was served. When asked to nominate some one to accompany a Khalafat deputation he refused saying that “it would be out of place for any Hindu to do so”. This compelled Maulana Abdul Bari of Farangi Mahal (Lucknow) to say that “those who pretended to be our friends at one time and made cats paw of Muslims are now keen to get rid of them.” My only grudge against the campaigners of Gandhism in Kashmir is that they are selective in projection of Gandhi’s views on Kashmir. Along with the quotes relating to Kashmir being only ray of hope, Gandhi also predicted that “Kashmir is predominantly Mussalmaan. It is bound one day to become a Mussalmaan state” (Kashmir in Crucible, Prem Nath Bazaz 176). The way Gandhi’s prediction relating to Kashmir as his place of refuge has proved true same way his prediction relating to Kashmir becoming a Muslim state is destined to become a reality. Isn’t projection of half truth an insult to Gandhi? One also wonders why our local Gandhis remain aloof from whole of this discourse on Gandhigardi.
Gandhi needs to be admired because he could see a ray of hope for his own rehabilitation in Kashmir in a situation when he stands banished from whole of India. Gandhi was killed by a Rashtriya Soimsewak Sangh (RSS) man. RSS was banned after his death. RSS and its political offshoot Bhartiya Janata Party are dominating Gujarat. People of Gujarat have abandoned Gandhi in favor of his killers, thus Gandhi stands wiped out from his own home state. Violence has over taken non violence in Gujarat that too through a democratic process. People have voted for Narender Modhi, despite his reign of terror and tyranny against Muslims and Christians. Gandhi’s congress was defeated and ideology of violence voted to power. Next pillar of Gandhian ideology was Swadeshi. This jargon has been devastated by New Delhi. New Delhi nowadays is run by Manmohan Singh, ambassador and architect of Videshism (liberalization). It is the result of his policies that right from tooth-pricks upto sophisticated technology; India has become a lucrative market for multinationals. Gandhi stands banished from New Delhi as well. Being a visionary, he might have anticipated this scenario and visualized place of his ultimate refuge in Kashmir. But Gandhi’s soul may be in trauma on seeing that, he is being exported to Kashmir because he is no more relevant and needed in violence infested Gujarat and liberalized India. It is common with elites to give that apparel as a donation to others what becomes irrelevant for domestic use. Apart from providing refuge to haunted soul of Gandhi, purpose of promoting him in Kashmir is to camouflage the reign of terror and tyranny that has been let loose upon helpless Kashmiris by his adherents. This too is not something new. The messiah of non violence Gautam Buddha was used to shield nuclear program of India. When India exploded its first nuclear device, the jargon used for communicating it to the world was “Buddha smiled”. Buddha again smiled when India exploded its new nuclear devices in 1998. If Buddha can smile on explosion of most violent forms of weapons, why can’t Gandhi camouflage the most violent campaign of terror launched against innocent Kashmiris.
So far as utility of this campaign in Kashmir is concerned it is destined to prove counter productive. Its prime weakness is its inherent fallacy and ulterior objectives. Every concept is assessed on the basis of its impact. Gandhi’s non violence didn’t make subcontinent non violent. It is simply because it was not an ideology for him or his followers but a strategy to overtake his adversaries. It was climax of popularity of Gandhi that saw unprecedented violence in India. Millions were killed and crores rendered homeless as soon as the adherents of non violence took over reins of power in India on August 15, 1947. It was this violence that consumed Gandhi as well. Why it happened? Non violence even at that time was used as a camouflage for violent campaign of ethnic cleansing that was perpetrated in whole of Punjab. The Gandhi who had declared that India will be divided on his dead body, patronized demand of Congress for partition of Punjab and Bengal. He blessed the troops which landed in Kashmir for expanding this campaign of violence to this part of the subcontinent that had remained immune to it from August to October, 1947. Kashmiris are also familiar with the fact that Gandhi ascended to the leadership of India on the mobilization achieved through Khilafat Movement but abandoned the same movement as soon as his purpose was served. When asked to nominate some one to accompany a Khalafat deputation he refused saying that “it would be out of place for any Hindu to do so”. This compelled Maulana Abdul Bari of Farangi Mahal (Lucknow) to say that “those who pretended to be our friends at one time and made cats paw of Muslims are now keen to get rid of them.” My only grudge against the campaigners of Gandhism in Kashmir is that they are selective in projection of Gandhi’s views on Kashmir. Along with the quotes relating to Kashmir being only ray of hope, Gandhi also predicted that “Kashmir is predominantly Mussalmaan. It is bound one day to become a Mussalmaan state” (Kashmir in Crucible, Prem Nath Bazaz 176). The way Gandhi’s prediction relating to Kashmir as his place of refuge has proved true same way his prediction relating to Kashmir becoming a Muslim state is destined to become a reality. Isn’t projection of half truth an insult to Gandhi? One also wonders why our local Gandhis remain aloof from whole of this discourse on Gandhigardi.
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