1586 not 1947
In 1586 NOT 1947 Kashmir Became part of Mughal India. A Date we can ALL be Proud of
Critical Readers of Subcontinental and Global South history know that the British colonial Divide and Rule strategy grievously harmed aam janta interests everywhere in Africa and Asia.
On our own subcontinent, Muslims and Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, Sikhs and Jains, adivasis and other indigenous peoples, had lived with a reasonable measure of peaceful co-existence and prosperity for several millennia.
The British imperial project changed all that. The British played Divide and Rule in EVERY region of the subcontinent,. The Instrument of Accession is just one more British divisive invention (like Lord Curzon's disastrous Partition of Bengal in 1905) to fabricate an artificial disconnect between Kashmir and the rest of India.
Jinnah fell for Britain's Divide and Rule strategy. Jinnah managed to do what even the British failed to do -- Jinnah separated Muslims from Muslims -- just as Geelani is trying to do now.
Pakistan is the tragic product of such painful and unnecessary division -- and the results can be read every day in the newspapers, seen online and on TV. Pakistan for 60+ years has fallen victim to US neo-imperial strategy, after the geopolitical power vacuum created by the departure of the Brits. As contemporary events have shown, Pakistan has jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
If Kashmiris follow the Valley Warlord and his criminal calendar of enforced unrest, loss of education and employment, Kashmir will predictably see the same conclusion as Pakistan.
In 1586, the greatest of the Mughals, India's foremost secularist Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, the pioneer of open-court philosophical and strategic discourse, sent Hindu generals to overthrow an upstart Turki ruler of Kashmir. Akbar annexed Kashmir and made Kashmir part of Mughal India.
Q. Do Kashmiris want to fall victim to the Divide and Rule legacy of the British?
Q. Do Kashmiris want to embrace our shared history under Akbar the Great?
1586 not 1947.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York (CUNY)
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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Rising Kashmir copyrighted article
JK India’s integral part: Congress
Agencies
New Delhi: Congress Friday said Kashmir is an integral part of India and that the question of merger of the state with India was decided on October 26, 1947.
''The question of the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with India was decided on October 26, 1947 when late Maharaja Hari Singh
had announced accession of the entire state with the country, including parts of the state under the illegal occupation by Pakistan,'' Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari told reporters here, apparently in reference to the speech by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
He, however, did not make any comment on Omar.
''From the time of the first Prime Minister late Jawaharlal Nehru to the present Manmohan Singh, the Congress has believed that Kashmir is an integral part of India,'' Tiwari said.
In reply to a question, he said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had improved.
''It is the duty of all national parties and parties in the state to make responsible statements about Jammu and Kashmir to help improve the situation,'' he added.
