SAVING
JAMMU AND KASHMIR
The
cultural environmental, linguistic, and intellectual destruction of Jammu &
Kashmir should be a vital concern to all of us. We should be consumed with love
and respect for all that is Jammu and Kashmir. Why is that all of us don`t feel
alarmed at the fact that Burushashki (language of Hanzakuts) is disappearing,
or Shina (language of Gilgit and Chilasis) is disappearing, or that the music
and poetic traditions are slowly fading away. Or that antiquities of Ladakh are
being looted. If nothing is done to stop all of this we will go the way of
other nations which have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Our
struggle is not about territory. It is about our entire national existence. If
we have lost our culture and identity then what good is our struggle? We must
make every effort to ensure that Jammu and Kashmir does not become a graveyard
for our culture and identity. The only traces of which remaining underground
for scientists to discover centuries for now. Our struggle must incorporate a
conscious and deliberate effort to promote and strengthen our cultural,
linguistic, historical, and psychological ties to Jammu & Kashmir. We must
revive our patriotism.
One
subject which is rarely commented upon is the destruction of the environment of
Jammu & Kashmir. Jammu & Kashmir for centuries has been famous for its
heavenly beauty and natural splendor. Was it not the words of a Persian poet
who called out about Kashmir?”Agar firadous ber roye Zaminast. Hamin Asto Hamin
Asto, Hamin Asto.” If there is paradise on the surface of earth, it is
this! It is this! We should as member of
the nation of Jammu and Kashmir, honour and respect even the dirt of our land.
The mountains, streams, valley margs, glaciers should all be viewed as our national
treasures. And we should strive to protect our environment as if it was our own
lives we were protecting. We should believe the saying that we “Inherit the
earth from our children.”
Just
like our culture and national identity, our environment has become the target
of outside aggression by India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan have
perpetually cleared our forests, officers of both countries have used their
authority to cut forests and pocket the money.perhaps the most notorious was
Brigadier Asghar Ali of Pakistan who cleared whole forests in Pakistan occupied
Kashmir. The result has been devastating to our Himalayan paradise.
Furthermore, both armies have hunted and killed endangered special of snow
Leopard, Hangul Deer, and Musk Deer. In addition, both sides have continually
tapped in the natural mineral resources of Jammu & Kashmir in a very
destructive manner blasting whole mountain sides. This is all indicative of the
fact that these two occupied are treating Jammu & Kashmir as a colony taking
out resources but putting nothing back in accept for hardship and woe.
But
this nothing new to Kashmiris. What is most alarming is that those people who
took up arms have doen the very same. They have used the gun to extort people
for self aggrandizement. They have forcibly cut down dorests and killed our
wildlife. In 1994 a raid on a group of traders in Srinagar hauled more $ 1 million worth of furs and garments made
from 1366 of the worlds most endangered wild cats. Tigers, snow and clouded
leopards and Bengal tigers. The Dal Lake has
become a septic tank because of encroachment and polluting by people.
People did not follow the laws and started building illegally. Hizbul
Mujahedeen in Kulgam alone had been cutting forests and threatening locals if
they resisted. These people backed by Pakistan gained power through gun and
they started looting our environment in the same way Pakistan and India have
been doing for 50 years the stories and details of the sad occurrences are
enough to break one`s heart. They are all indicative of the loss of national
honour and the self respect that has disappeared with the coming of gun
culture.
My
request to my nation is that we should love Jammu and Kashmir. Alongside our
political struggle, we must re educate and re organizes our people to love and
respect their identity and restore their tie to the land of Jammu &
Kashmir. We must realize that Jammu & Kashmir is our land we should treat
it as such. We must not act as foreigners in our own homeland! For God`s sake
lets plant trees and clean our waterways so that flowers and forests may fill
Jammu and Kashmir rather than graveyards and wastelands. Let`s write poems and
books using our beautiful languages.
We
must save Jammu and Kashmir in every sense culturally, intellectually, morally,
politically and environmentally. This
should be our battle cry as sons and daughters of the soil.
M.Hashim Qureshi
May
13 1998
This article is published in my book "Kashmir: The unveiling of
truth", 1998
