It was the 6th anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 on Tuesday, and it was another day as usual in the Union Territory of J&K. The people there have more or less reconciled to this reality, which is good because the entire political construct around ‘autonomy’ kept the area in a contrived situation that did not allow it to psychologically merge with the rest of India. It did not give the people any greater freedom, instead imposed on them a split identity, difficult to sustain. The perpetual possibility of transforming into some other entity in the context of Pakistan had an obvious impact on the people’s psychology – hence the tendency of J&K’s political parties to project ideologies close or distant to the western neighbour. Even those that were pro-Indian behaved as though they were doing the country a favour.
This is now irrevocably in the past. The question now is when statehood will be restored, which will be a token of the new integrated reality. This is what Pakistan, and its proxies, desperately wish to prevent. Once the Kashmiris’ psychological dilemma ends, the story will be over. It may be noted that the Pahalgam incident was designed to revive differences on sectarian lines but failed miserably. The violence that took place in the area for decades only hurt the local economy, depriving residents of the many opportunities that a thriving tourism industry would have brought. The new generation has realised that a prosperous reality is better than suffering for the sake of an imagined Valhalla.
Ongoing events in Pakistan also show how hollow is the alternative that has been on offer all these years. Its most popular leader is in jail. The province of Baluchistan is up in arms against the dominant Punjabi military elite that is intent on marketing the region’s real and imagined resources to all and sundry – including China and now the US. The atrocities being inflicted on the Baloch people are a repetition of what happened in Bangladesh. In fact, had it not been for the bogey of a ‘Hindu’ India, Jinnah’s land would have broken apart years ago.
The people of J&K have learned the right lessons from such developments. It is not surprising that, despite the existence of radical groups that have led the disturbances in the past, the state’s voters chose to elect a moderate like Omar Abdullah to power. His actions since then show that a mature approach to future challenges is the path he wishes to take. That is the progress J&K has seen since Article 370’s abrogation.
