Kashmir has been a Muslim majority region since many
centuries now. Islam was spread in Kashmir by peaceful Preachings of Sufis and
Rishism. In the words of eminent historian Prem Nath Bazaz “Politics had dehumanized the kashmiris, Islam
made them men again. Just as the Muslim rule was established in Kashmir without
much bloodshed, so was Islam spread throughout the length and breadth of the
valley by Peaceful preaching and lucid persuasions of Mir Sayyid Ali and
hundreds of the Sayyid missionaries who came from Hamadan and other parts of
Persia”.
Thus the Islam in Kashmir has its own indigenous
character. The majority of Muslims deeply revere and love their faith, at times
quite fanatically. There had been attempts to reconvert Muslims of Kashmir to
some other faith, as they had been Hindus and Buddhists at various times, even
by Maharaja Gulab Singh, the founder of the present State of Jammu & Kashmir
and Dogra dynasty, who tried to reconvert the inhabitants of valley to Hinduism,
but the Brahmans abhorred him from any such practice. The Christian
Missionaries used to visit and work in Kashmir where they established various
educational institutions and hospitals during the Dogra rule. The name of Dr
Knowles, C.E Tyndale Biscoe, author of Kashmir
in Sunlight and Shade, Miss Muriel P. Mallinson and many others are worth
mentioning, for their contribution towards educational upliftment and
humanitarian welfare for the inhabitants of Kashmir. Even if they were
missionaries, but they didn’t indulge in proselytizing activity on a mass scale
or either the Kashmiris weren’t willing to convert to some other religion? This
question needs to be answered by historians!
The recent debate on religious conversion and the
controversy following it has brought many ugly facts to the fore, with a clear
tinge of Fascism lurking around the corner. A video was circulated on a social
networking website, depicting a Bishop baptizing ten youth, who renounced Islam
to accept Christianity as their new faith. This video prompted a hue and cry,
and the Bishop C.M Khanna was summoned by the Head Mufti of Kashmir, Mufti
Bashir Uddin to his Sharia court,
which has no enforcing agency or authority, but C.M Khanna alongwith some other
priests did present themselves before the court. They accepted that the youth
had converted at their hands. It has also been alleged that hundreds of youth
have renounced Islam and converted to Christianity at the hands of C.M Khanna
and other Christian missionaries. It has even come to the fore that the youth
were lured with money for conversion(See Kashmir Monitor, 23rd
November, 2011). It has also been alleged that Christian missionaries have
intervened in the 2005 quake devastated areas of Uri and Tangdar, in the name
of carrying out relief and rebuilding activities in the area, but behind the
veil of humanitarian aid they are facilitating and carrying out conversions in
these areas.
Genesis
of the Problem
The armed insurgency which initiated during the
early 1990s brought in its wake, numerous miseries and misfortunes for the
people of Kashmir. The innocent, blind and spontaneous killings devastated
hundreds of families and the number of suffering groups have reached to
millions. The Political economy of the conflict is yet to be studied academically,
but what is manifest and can be witnessed with one’s own eyes is the bizarre
fact that a section of the society has been driven into the dark dungeons of abject
poverty, while the other section has become immensely rich, at the cost of the
poor. These Neo-Rich include many separatist leaders also, who never get tired
from professing Aazadi to the masses,
making them cannon fodder in their utopian zeal for Aazadi. At the same time these ‘leaders’ never relent in filling
their coffers with ill gotten money. When the victims of conflict reach out to
them for compensation, they are shown the door. Thus they are left utterly
disgusted by those whom they considered as their ‘saviors’. “For a hungry
stomach, bread is God” goes a Sanskrit saying.
