Journal of Kashmir Studies

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THE JOURNAL OF KASHMIR STUDIES
VOLUME VI 2012 NO.1

Editor

G.M. Khawaja
(alias) Meem Hai Zaffar
Editorial Advisory Board Prof. Noor Ahmad Baba Prof. Ashok Aima Prof. Gulshan Majeed Prof. Nisar Ali Prof. Fida Mohammad Hasnain Editorial Staff Samir Ahmad and Shabir Ahmad

UNESCO MADANJEET SINGH INSTITUTE OF KASHMIR STUDIES University of Kashmir, Srinagar

The publishers are not responsible for the views expressed by the authors of the research paper appearing in this volume of the Journal. All rights are reserved, no part of the contents of the Journal may be reproduced by photo print, micro film or any other means without the written permission from the publisher.

Price: Rs. 350.00

Publisher: UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute of Kashmir Studies, University of Kashmir Hazratbal, Srinagar-190006 ISSN: 0975-6612

©2011, UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute of Kashmir Studies, Printed at: Quaf Printers # 9419436635 Designed By: Mir Shabir

CONTENTS
EDITORIAL

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism Some Observations in the Context of Peace, Sustainability and the Religious Other
Muhammad Suheyl Umar

1-48

Imagery of Withdrawal, Violence and Destruction in the Kálīkrama
Aleksandra Wenta

49-64

Northeast and Kashmir: Problems in a Comparative Perspective
Noor Ahmad Baba

65-79

Lal-Ded: The Mystic Poet of Kashmir
M.H. Zaffar

80-86 87-105

Contextualizing Musharraf’s Four-Point Formula Samir Ahmad The Fourth Buddhist Council The World’s Best Kept Secret
Mohammad Ajmal Shah

107-115

The 2010 Assertion in Kashmir and The Indian Democracy
Bilal Ahmad Ganai

116-126

Book Review Children at Work Depriving Future Generations of Intellectual Capital
Nazir Ahmad Gilkar

128-134

EDITORIAL

Kashmir has a tradition of speculative Philosophy that goes back to Buddhist times. As a matter of fact Kashmiri Scholars have contributed substantially, not only towards the development of metaphysical trends in Buddhism but also to the development of Indian logic. It is worth mentioning here, that Naya Manjri of Jaint Bhat is considered one of the classical texts of Indian logic. Buddhist metaphysics and logic has heavily informed Kashmir Saivism, which is practiced by Sections of Kashmiri population as a spiritual discipline, even today. Although the texts belonging to these traditions are called Buddhist or Saivite, but most of these are not at all religious texts, no religious practices are prescribed in these texts. Kashmiri Scholars mostly practiced what we may call descriptive metaphysics. Their aim was to unravel and articulate the universal experience of man; so the goal was to indicate and if possible to describe the universal truth. And these scholars attempt to achieve their purpose by describing the psychological experiences that are universal in nature. It is this universality of experience that makes these texts speak to us even today, and impress us by their freshness, truth and relevance. Thus the texts produced by the spiritual masters of Kashmir posses universal appeal, but the hurdle to appreciate this appeal is the language and the style of these texts. All the texts produced during the Buddhist and Saivite period in Kashmir, are in Sanskrit language, and our script for writing this language used to be ‘Sharda’. Unfortunately in the present day Kashmir, we do not have many scholars, who know either Sanskrit or even the Sharda script. So this tradition of knowledge has been almost inaccessible to us for quite some time now. Later on the Muslim scholars and Sufis also continued this tradition of speculative Philosophy, by composing many treatises on the human condition. These texts are a valuable addition to the already existing tradition. Most of these treaties are in Persian, the knowledge of which is fast decreasing. It is very unfortunate that the traditional

speculative and logical approach towards the comprehension of the human situation is disappearing from our society. In the present volume there are three articles that remind us of this great speculative and logical tradition of Kashmir. One article is by a Pakistani scholar and Sufi Mr. Suheyl Umar. The article is entitled Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism some Observations in the Context of Peace, Sustainability and the Religious Other and the second one is by a Polish scholar of Kashmiri Saivism, Ms. Alexander Wenta. The article is entitled Imagery of Withdrawal, Violence and Destruction in the KālĪkrama. The third article is by M. H. Zaffar. The article is entitled Lal-Ded: The Mystic: Poet of Kashmir. There are some valuable empirical studies also, for which our contributors have worked very hard and tried their best to provide a value neutral analysis of the issues of contemporary relevance. We hope our readers will critically evaluate this effort on our part and guide us with their valuable comments. I am thankful to Mr. Samir Ahmad Research Scholar, in the Institute of Kashmir Studies for checking the proof of the articles included in the Journal.

Editor

1

BETWEEN SECULAR PLURALISM AND RELIGIOUS EXCLUSIVISM SOME OBSERVATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF PEACE, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE RELIGIOUS OTHER
Mr. Muhammad Suheyl Umar


The present day world is a strange mixture of the vestiges and outposts of secular late/high modernity, postmodern mindset and “beyond the postmodern” frontier thinking with its divergent trends of engaging with the Sacred, its ideas about the human condition and dealing with the question of Reality. Cultures and their worldviews are ruled by their mandarins, the intellectuals, and they, as well as their institutions that shape the minds that ruled the modern world – and continue to hold sway in the postmodern (and beyond the postmodern) milieu– are unreservedly secular. One, therefore, often encounters the argument, and at times it turns into an objection, that a misleading picture is being presented by bringing in religion and spirituality as a stake holder in discussions on “building democratic structures”, contours of “a South Asian sensibility”, as well as the questions of “human functioning and social responsibility” and “new relationship between humans, nature and production to sustain life”; the themes that are being addressed in our discussions. Both within and without the Islamic faith, many would make such an observation and the secular mindset is, obviously, averse to it. But if the ground realities are taken into consideration, these alert us to another situation. We live for the first time in history in an age of multiculturalism and it is utterly important and central that we think in plural terms about



Director, Iqbal Academy Lahore, Pakistan

Journal of Kashmir Studies

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faith. The most towering problem facing people in the 19 th century was nationalism and in the 20th century it had been ideology as, for most of the century, the nations were located on the opposite sides of the ideological divide and the cold war conflict. But now when the war is gone and the ideological conflict is over, the greatest problem that faces the 21st century is the ethnic conflict and because those conflicts are powered, in part, by multiple faiths clashing with one another it is important that we turn over attention to that danger and do our best to annihilate whatever problems in our human collectivities that we face now or that may come down the road. I would offer a few observations in relation to the ground realities of the situation. Since everyone comes to the discussion with one’s own specific tool kit and training I would exclude all practical considerations and try to say something philosophically or theologically as, like the medieval Muslims, Christians and traditional Hindus, I too consider philosophy to be the long arm of theology and see religious arguments at work behind attitudes and actions and societal behaviours that apparently seem to have nothing in common with religion, even in mundane matters like the way Muslim, Hindu and Christian males treat their females! Moreover I do not agree with the way mostly common responses are made to the misplaced religious arguments and bad logic used by the present day extremist Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Most often the response is made by dissociating oneself from the monstrosities by saying that this is not true Islam or this is not true Hinduism or Christianity. But that amounts to side stepping the question and turning a blind eye to the fact that the groups in question from among all the faith communities are putting forward religious arguments to validate their actions and the conceptual framework and basic assumptions through which these operate are claimed to be supported by their basic religious texts. In this case one cannot absolve oneself of one’s responsibility by simply disowning the group or groups in question. One must place the sin at the doorsteps of a definite group, school of thought or mode of interpretation in one’s community and try to hold a mirror to their thinking.1 Until quite recently, most of the writers tended to keep religion out of their scenarios of the future. Today, projections of a simply secular future seem less persuasive. The shift in perception could have diverse reasons but one might argue that this perception is just catching up with the reality obscured by the expansion of Communism earlier in the

3

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

twentieth century and by the influence, especially in the media and education, of a largely secularized Western-educated elite throughout that period. Probably between 4 and 5 billion of the world’s more than 6 billion people are directly involved with a religion today, and this picture seems unlikely to change a great deal during the rest of the twenty-first century. So during the lifetimes of all of us now alive we would do well to reckon seriously with religions as shapers of our world, for worse or for better especially when there is no widespread confidence that ‘the secular project’ can adequately resource any society in areas such as personal and family life, ethics and politics, health and environment, civic and international responsibilities. Karen Armstrong was right when she remarked that, “in the middle of the 20th century it was generally taken for granted that secularism was the coming ideology and that never again would religion play a major role in public life. Well, we certainly got that wrong.”2 This does not mean that we have a purely religious world to deal with; rather it is simultaneously both religious and secular in complex ways. There are important issues between the religions; but there are also further, overlapping issues between each of the religions and the various secular understandings and forces. Here it would be wise to take account of the ways such relationships have been handled in the recent past, by referring to the three major “settlements” made in this regard, namely, the British, the French and the American. Referring to these “settlements” I would allow Dr. David Ford of Cambridge Divinity School to make the point. “In one of the sessions of the Clinton Global Initiative in the section on ‘Religious and Ethnic Conflict’ [there was] a panel with an Englishman, a Frenchman and an American. As they spoke about religion and politics the Frenchman resisted any suggestion that religions should be taken seriously as religions within the political sphere: problems were traced mainly to economic causes, and he was confident that if poverty were dealt with effectively the unrest in French cities would disappear. The American (who was also a Muslim) insisted that the religions needed to contribute to public discourse but that the American separation of Church and state was a healthy thing. The Englishman, John Battle MP (the Prime Minister Tony Blair’s special adviser on the religions), told stories of his own involvement with religious communities in his Leeds constituency, and evoked a complex settlement in which religious bodies were seen as stakeholders in society with whom the government and other public bodies were in constant communication and negotiation and whose identities could be affirmed by such means as state-supported

Journal of Kashmir Studies

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faith schools. It was as if each was representing his own nation’s settlement, developed over centuries. Making judgments on such complex achievements, each worked out in special circumstances, is dangerous, but I will risk it in summary form.”3 I think that in the current world situation the French secularist solution is the least satisfactory4 for its practical exclusion of religions from the public sphere (including state schools and universities) is in effect the establishment of a state ideology that is not neutral in relation to religion but is suspicious, critical and often hostile. It envisages a secular public sphere. It is not well suited to a world that is religious and secular at the same time. The American separation of church and state is far more benign with regard to the religions, and in fact religion plays a major role in American politics. But there has been a tendency to try to use the separation to create a neutral public space, where it is illegitimate to draw explicitly on religious sources. This ‘lowest common denominator’ public square5 is increasingly being criticized, even by secular thinkers such as Jeffrey Stout 6 of Princeton University, who see it as an impoverishment of public life. Both religious and secular traditions should be able to contribute in their distinctive ways to public debate rather than reducing all discourse to a secularized lowest common denominator. That at its best is what happens in Britain also. Its particular history has kept religion involved in its public life, sometimes controversially usually resisting pressures from those quarters who have more sympathy with secularist, often atheist, ideologies and would favour a French-style settlement. Britain also comes out rather poorly from comparative studies of the relative alienation of the religious and ethnic minorities from the rest of society. In global terms, Britain has the conditions for pioneering work in shaping a religious and secular society that draws on the resources within each of the traditions for peaceful living and working together. They have an extraordinary range of religious communities in a society that has also experienced intense secularization. The British settlement works within what one might call a minimal secular and religious framework that enables mutual public space. This has been shaped over many centuries and is constantly open to renegotiation. The framework is minimal in that it refuses to impose either a particular religious solution or a particular secular solution and so lives by ongoing negotiation rather than by appeal to a fixed

5

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

constitution or principles. It therefore helps to create a mutual public space with possibilities for shared discussion, dialogue, education, deliberation, and collaboration– in contrast to the French tendency towards strictly secular public space and the American tendency towards neutral public space. But for all practical purposes this constant, ongoing negotiation leaves the British settlement little better than the others, oscillating between secular pluralism and religious exclusivism. The point that I am driving at by alluding to the just mentioned “settlements” is that there is no widespread confidence that ‘the secular project’ can adequately resource any society in areas such as personal and family life, ethics and politics, health and environment, civic and international responsibilities. So where is wisdom to be found that we need in the South Asian context for the shaping of our society in the twenty-first century? South Asian situation is rather different. Speaking of Pakistan we can see that it draws on the Islamic tradition as its reservoir of wisdom and religious bodies are seen as the major stakeholders in its society but the “settlement” it has reached or is trying to reach is in no way free of the struggle between secular pluralism and religious exclusivism. A flippant remark is often heard in this regard but it has, perhaps, a ring of truth when it is said that Pakistan already has more of religion than it can handle! If the French, the Americans and the British, respectively, have a secular, neutral and mutual public space, Pakistan seems to have moved toward a public space that is invaded by religion. Not only that, it is constantly being renegotiated with all sorts of hostilities. There was a time, not long ago, when the “ultras” were few, forming only a tiny wart on the face of the worldwide attempt to revivify Islam. Sadly, we can no longer enjoy the luxury of ignoring them. The extreme has broadened, and the middle ground, giving way, is everywhere dislocated and confused. And this enfeeblement of the middle ground, of the moderation enjoined by the Prophetic example, is in turn accelerated by the opprobrium which the extremists bring not simply upon themselves, but upon committed Muslims everywhere. Islamic spirituality, which exercised the most pervasive influence over the social, cultural and intellectual life of the Islamic community throughout the centuries and had traditionally been a stronghold against worldliness and literalism, has also seen the corrosive effect of extremism. We shall return to the question later but before that let me state the upshot of the issue. And the upshot is this.

Journal of Kashmir Studies

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It is the theological position that you take on the question of the religious and cultural other that determines everything else that follows, attitudes, behaviour, dealings, agendas, relationships etc. Moreover, it is not only an inter-faith issue; it has far reaching implications for intrafaith dialogue and relations and would in the end back fire on one’s own community as we have seen in Pakistan in the case of Islam and, if I go by the data shared by my Christian and Hindu friends, also undermined the internal coherence of the Pakistani Christian community and the Hindu sensibility. A person who does not maintain a deep seated respect for that “divinely ordained diversity” and has no place or tolerance for the religious and cultural Other in his or her perspective would, naturally, be expected to react in a similar manner when it comes to the dissident voices, difference of interpretation or diversity of opinions in one’s own community. The challenge is big; how to tread a third way between secular pluralism and religious exclusivism and how to articulate an appropriate theological/conceptual approach to the Other; to do so without undermining the integrity of our own religious self-definition; and to do so in a manner that strengthens and complements all existing attempts to establish openness, tolerance, mutual respect and fruitful dialogue between believers in a world of religious plurality. According to my lights, it is the perspective nurtured by Islamic spirituality that enables us to uphold the normativity of Islam without detriment to our universalism; and it is only true universalism that can generate “a transcendently ordained tolerance” which carries with it some divinely revealed sanction. A tolerance that is not the outcome of a sentimental desire for peaceful relations between the members of different religions, or perspectives within one given religion, but one which is deeply rooted in a recognition of, and respect for, the holiness that lies at the core of all faith and wisdom traditions, all revealed religions. According to our lights, a universalism that does not include particularism is itself particularist and exclusivist – it excludes exclusivism. A Universalist perspective based on Sufi hermeneutics provides a third way between secular pluralism and religious exclusivism. It is, however, sadly the case, and it applies to most of our dialogue forums, that so many of those engaged in dialogue on behalf of Muslims, Hindus and Christians are not seen as representatives of mainstream Hindu, Muslim and Christian opinion. Those who are in dialogue are, in

7

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

a sense, those who do not need to be, as they already possess a respectful attitude to the religious other; and those who stay away from dialogue, out of suspicion or ignorance, are those who most need to open up to, and respect, the other. The main drawback of the many well-intentioned efforts to present a Qur’anic ‘approach’ to, or ‘perspective’ on, religious dialogue is that they fail to connect sufficiently with those who most need to be convinced of the argument, those for whom the normativity of Islam, Hinduism or Christianity is threatened or undermined by the kind of pluralism or universalism propounded. Each of the three Abrahamic traditions and the non-Semitic civilizations have their own, distinct yet related, ways of giving priority to God, honouring God, blessing or hallowing the name of God, respecting the mystery of God’s active, holy presence among us. These texts are most liberating when they are read for the sake of God and God’s purposes, even though we differ on just how God is to be identified. This is immensely important for public life. Each of these wisdom traditions or faiths identifies idolatry as the most radical distortion and corruption of human life. To give ultimate status, honour and priority to whatever is not God– whether a race, a nation, a leader, an ideal, a gender, an ideology, a science, an economic system or even the whole of creation– harnesses immense religious energies often to devastating effect. The most insidious forms of idolatry are explicitly religious, distorted ways of identifying God or trying to harness God to one’s own cause. The only reliable way of countering such idolatries is continually to seek the God beyond our constructions, to be open to correction, challenge and critique, and to sustain those practices of prayer, common life, study and debate that allow the truth to be recognized. What could be healthier for each of these wisdom traditions than to contribute to this by the shared study of scriptures? What could be healthier for our public life than for citizens within these faiths to be able to share their wisdom and together to work out ways of faithful, non-idolatrous service of the common good? Iqbal, the sage and poet-philosopher, sang in his magnum opus, the Javid Nama (Pilgrimage of Eternity): 7 ‫کافر و مومن ہمہ خلق خداست‬ ‫باخبر شو از مقام آدمی‬ ‫می شود بر کافر و مومن شفیق‬ ‫حرف بد برلب آوردن خطا است‬ ‫آدمی‬ ‫احترام‬ ‫آدمیت‬ ‫بندۂ عشق از خدا گیرد طریق‬

Journal of Kashmir Studies

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Soiling one’s tongue with ill-speech is a sin The disbeliever and the believer are alike creatures of God. Humanity, human respect for human reality: Be conscious of the station of humanity. … The slave of love who takes his path from God Becomes a loving friend of both disbeliever and believer.8 What prevents us from becoming a loving friend of both disbeliever and believer has its roots in the presiding paradigm or worldview that our age has come to espouse and that warrants a quick overview of the march of our intellectual history with reference to the question of the Religious Other. The attitude manifested itself in a different mode after the advent of Modernity when the Western cultural imagination turned away after its encounter with the stunning variety of cultural worlds that appeared for the first time in the Age of Discovery. This inward turn sparked the appearance of all sorts of imaginary realities and was responsible for the withdrawal of the Western thinkers of Enlightenment from the whirling world of cultural values into an utterly imaginary world of ‘objective’ forms of knowledge. 9 It was specifically a Modern phenomenon as, during the Middle Ages, despite the outwards conflicts and even protracted wars, intellectual exchange had continued at a deeper and more meaningful level. Since the 18th century, many of the secularists, rationalistic, and especially agnostic and atheistic philosophers of Europe have taken recourse to the argument that if religion were to be true, why are there then Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and other religions with different messages? According to them, the multiplicity of religions is therefore proof that all religions must be false. “The multiplicity of sacred forms has been used as an excuse to reject all sacred forms.” This line of reasoning is accepted by Karl Marx, and is one of his arguments for the rejection of religion. The fallacy of this argument lies in that these people identified the expression of the Sacred within a particular religious universe with the Absolute itself, and since there have been other expressions of the Absolute in other religious universes, they were led to the denial of the Absolute itself, and to the claim that everything is relative and, therefore, there is no Sacred as such. The truth of the matter, on the contrary, is that the very multiplicity of sacred forms in different religions, far from negating the sacredness of

9

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

things, only confirms the richness of the Source of all that is sacred, the infinite creativity of the Divine Origin of all sacred forms. In this context the remarks of the twentieth century metaphysician Frithjof Schuon immediately come to mind. Faced with the fact that there are diverse religions which apparently exclude each other most of the people tend to think that one religion is right and that all the others are false; others conclude that all are false. “It is as if,” Schuon remarked, “faced with the discovery of other solar systems, some maintained that there is only one sun, ours, while others, seeing that our sun is not unique, denied that it is a sun, and concluded that there is no sun….”10 The Asian sensibility goes for a third possibility– that all religions are right, not in their dogmatic exclusivism, but their unanimous inner meaning, which coincides with pure metaphysics, signifying “the totality of the primordial and universal truths– and therefore of the metaphysical axioms– whose formulation does not belong to any particular system. ” Likewise one could speak of the religio perennis, “designating by this term the essence of every religion, that is, the essence of every form of worship, every form of prayer and every system of morality just as the Sophia perennis is the essence of all dogmas and all expressions of wisdom. ” With regard to religio perennis, the Shaykh al-Akbar Ibn ‘Arabi writes:
All the revealed religions [sharāʾiʿ] are lights. Among these religions, the revealed religion of Muhammad is like the light of the sun among the lights of the stars. When the sun appears, the lights of the stars are hidden, and their lights are included in the light of the sun. Their being hidden is like the abrogation of the other revealed religions that takes place through Muhammad’s revealed religion. Nevertheless, they do in fact exist, just as the existence of the light of the stars is actualized. This explains why we have been required in our all-inclusive religion to have faith in the truth of all the messengers and all the revealed religions. They are not rendered null [bāṭil] by abrogation– that is the opinion of the ignorant.11

This whole doctrine can be clearly illustrated further by reflecting on by the following example: the sun is unique in our solar system, but it is not so in space; we can see other suns, since they are situated in space like ours, but we do not see them as suns. The uniqueness of our sun is belied by the multiplicity of the fixed stars, without thereby ceasing to be valid within the system which is ours under Providence; the niceties is then manifested in the part, not in the totality, although this part is an image of the totality and represents it for us; it then ‘is’, by the divine

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Will, the totality, but only for us, and only in so far as our mind, whose scope is likewise willed by God, does not go beyond forms; but even in this case, the part ‘is’ totality so far as its spiritual efficacy is concerned.12 However, while propounding a belief in a universal Truth, we do not want to commit the error of drawing the conclusion that one can ignore or strip away the outward differences in the religions, so as to focus solely on their inner similarities. We reject this notion and instead demonstrate that the outward distinctness in the forms is necessary and providential. “[T]he divergence between religions is due not only to the incomprehension of men, it is also in the Revelations, thus in the Divine Will, and that is why there is a difference between exoterism and esoterism; the diverse dogmas contradict each other, not only in the minds of theologians, but also – and a priori– in the Sacred Scriptures; yet God, in giving these Scriptures, gives at the same time the keys for understanding their underlying unity. If all men were metaphysicians and contemplatives, a single Revelation might suffice; but since that is not the way things are, the Absolute must reveal Itself in different ways, and the metaphysical viewpoints from which these Revelations derive– according to different causal explanations and different spiritual temperaments– cannot but contradict one another on the plane of forms, somewhat like geometrical figures contradict each other so long as one has not grasped their spatial and symbolic homogeneity. ”13 Every religion is a manifestation of the One Supreme Reality. Most of us have, however, heard it said more than once over the years: “How is it possible to believe in religion since the different religions contradict each other?” The motive behind such remarks can never be profound, but it may vary between a would-be self-justification for not practicing religion and the desire to be thought intelligent or up to date. 14 Every religion is completely dependent upon the Divine Word, which may manifest Itself either as Book or Man. In Christianity the Word is Christ, and the New Testament is not Revelation but an inspired sacred history of the life and teaching of the Word made Flesh, whereas Judaism and Islam are based on the Word made Book. The basis of Judaism is the Pentateuch the first five books of the Old Testament which were revealed to Moses, together with the Psalms which were revealed to David, and the basis of Islam is the Qur’an which was revealed to Muhammad. In the ancient religions, of which Hinduism appears to be the sole fully surviving example, there was room for both these Divine

11

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

Manifestations: the Vedas are the Word made Book, and the Avatāras of Vishnu are the Word made Flesh. It must however be clearly understood that in the religions which are based on the Word made Book, the Messenger to whom the Book is revealed is thereby to be ranked at the highest degree of sanctity, which means that some of his utterances are bound to proceed from the level of the Divine Word, even if the structure of the religion does not allow him to be worshipped. It is therefore possible for every Divine Messenger to make a statement which amounts to the same as the words of Christ, “None cometh to the Father but through me”; and there is in Islam a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad to the effect that there can be no meeting with God which is not pre-ceded by a meeting with himself. 15 We are thus enabled to speak symbolically of the Word as a precious stone of many facets. This brings us back to the claims to absoluteness and universality that seem to be the foundation of the extended analogy of the “suns and stars” that we had alluded to earlier and this allows us to make the following observation. One of the recent publications16 on the issue of the religious other displays a sub-title; Towards a Muslim Theology of Other Religions in a Post-Prophetic Age which is evocative as it underscores the importance of another basic insight that informs the perspective we are considering here. We are conscious of the fact that a religion’s claim to unique efficacy must be allowed the status of half-truth because there is, in fact, in the vast majority of cases, no alternative choice. “In the past it would have been as pointless for a religion to dwell on the validity and efficacy of other religions as it would be for an announcement to be made from an all-capacious lifeboat to those struggling in the waters about it that five miles away there was an equally good lifeboat. ”17 According to their lights, in the “Post-Prophetic Age” the conditions are different. “For those who come face to face with the founder of a new religion, the lack of alternative choice becomes as it were absolute in virtue of the correspondingly absolute greatness of the Divine Messenger himself. It is moreover at its outset, that is, during its brief moment of ‘absoluteness’, that the claims of a religion are for the most part formulated. But with the passage of time there is inevitably a certain levelling out between the new and the less new, the more so in that the less new may have special claims on certain people. ” This is not the place to address the implications– conceptual, theological, as well as practical and legal– of this “levelling out” but we felt that the point needed registration here for its importance.

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If we look at the two major houses of faith that share the mutual public space in Pakistan, that is, Islam and Christianity, and try to find the fault line that hampers the path of Peaceful Coexistence with reference to the two communities it could be described, in theological terms, as follows. In the case of Islam it is Misplaced Absolutes18 and Supersessionism and in the case of Christianity it is a monopolizing claim on the Divine Mercy through the notion of the One and Only, Unique Saviour. Both lead to religious exclusivism. Islamic Supersessionism, taking its point of departure in an apparently “benign Inclusivism” ends up in exclusivism by interpreting the inclusivist verses of the Qur’an in an exclusivist manner. The monopolizing claim of Christianity arrives at the same end as it classes Hinduism/Buddhism as “paganism”, Judaism as a superseded religion and Islam as a pseudo religion. For thousands of years already, humanity has been divided into several fundamentally different branches, which constitute so many complete humanities, more or less closed in on themselves; the existence of spiritual receptacles so different and so original demands differentiated refractions of the one Truth. The exclusivist claim thus seems contrary to the nature of things. The following observation, again from Frithjof Schuon, remarkably sums up the point: 19
...the ethnic diversity of humanity and the geographical extent of the earth suffice to make highly unlikely the axiom of one unique religion for all men, and on the contrary highly likely– to say the least– the need for a plurality of religions; in other words, the idea of a single religion does not escape contradiction if one takes account of its claims to absoluteness and universality on the one hand, and the psychological and physical impossibility of their realisation on the other.

If God had sent only one religion to a world of widely differing affinities and aptitudes, it would not have been a fair test for all. He has therefore sent different religions, especially suited to the needs and characteristics of the different sectors of humanity. In this regard the same author has observed:
.....that God could have allowed a religion that was merely the invention of a man to conquer a part of humanity and to maintain itself for more than a thousand years in a quarter of the inhabited world, thus betraying the love, faith, and hope of a multitude of sincere and fervent souls― this is contrary to the Laws of the Divine Mercy, or in other words, to those of Universal Possibility ....If Christ had been the

13

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

only manifestation of the Word, supposing such a uniqueness of manifestation to be possible, the effect of His birth would have been the instantaneous reduction of the universe to ashes. 20

This is a problem of a particularly specific nature in the west, especially in America where there is a large presence of Christians21 that hold that there in only one true faith and only they have it but, mutatis mutandis, the same thing is true of other faith traditions, especially of those parts of their exoteric aspect that has been moulded and influence by modernity. That makes it difficult as we work for harmony among the world’s faiths. I would like to work my point by focusing on the Islamic perspective here. In the Islamic perspective, the “divinely ordained diversity” lies in the following verse, which many consider among the last Revelations received by the Prophet and belongs to the period which marks the close of his mission. As such it coincides with a cyclic moment of extreme significance– the last ‘opportunity’22 for a direct message to be sent from Heaven to earth during what remains of this cycle of time. Many of the last Qur’anic revelations are concerned with completing and perfecting the new religion. But this verse is a final and lasting message for mankind as a whole. The Qur’an expressly addresses the adherents of all the different orthodoxies on earth; and no message could be more relevant to the age in which we live and, in particular, to the mental predicament of man in these later days.
For each of you We have appointed a law and a way. And if God23 had willed He would have made you one people. But (He hath willed it otherwise) that He may put you to the test in what He has given you. 24 So vie with one another in good works. Unto God will ye be brought back, and He will inform you about that wherein ye differed.25

But while considering the limitations of Muslim exoterism, it must be remembered that from its stronghold of finality as the last religion of this cycle of time, Islam, unlike Judaism and Christianity, can afford to be generous to other religions. Moreover its position in the cycle confers on it something of the function of a summer-up, which obliges it to mention with justice what has preceded it, or at the least to leave an open door for what it does not specifically mention.
Verily We have sent messengers before thee26 About some of them have We told thee, and about some have We not told thee.27

We may quote also:

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Verily the Faithful28 and the Jews and the Sabians29 and the Christians whoso believeth in God and the Last Day and doeth deeds of piety– no fear shall come upon them neither shall they grieve.30

There is a place for other religions within the Islamic civilization, and Muslims are obliged to protect the temples, synagogues and churches and other religious sanctuaries. It has to be admitted, however, that the authorities of Islam have been no less ready than their counterparts in other religions to fall a prey to religious exclusivism. Muslims have been encouraged to believe, and the majority have been only too eager to believe, that Islam has superseded all other religions and that it is therefore the sole valid religion on earth. But however absolute the claims of Muslim theologians and jurisprudents may be, they are shown in fact to be relative by the tolerance which Islam makes obligatory towards the religious Other. The intrinsic nature of the Muslim polity is derived from the Prophet’s embodiment of the Qur’anic revelation. His acts of statesmanship should not be seen in isolation as a series of historical events, but as a series of symbolic acts which, more powerfully than words, uphold the inviolability of the religious rights of the Other and the necessity of exercising a generous tolerance in regard to the Other. The seminal and most graphic expression of this sacred vision inspiring the kind of tolerance witnessed throughout Muslim history is given to us in the following well-attested episode in the life of the Prophet. In the ninth year after the Hijra (631), a prominent Christian delegation from Najrān, an important centre of Christianity in the Yemen, came to engage the Prophet in theological debate in Medina. The main point of contention was the nature of Christ: was he one of the messengers of God or the unique Son of God? What is important for our purposes is not the disagreements voiced, nor the means by which the debate was resolved, but the fact that when these Christians requested to leave the city to perform their liturgy, the Prophet invited them to accomplish their rites in his own mosque. The Christians in question performed the Byzantine Christian rites.31 This means that they were enacting some form of the rites which incorporated the fully-developed Trinitarian theology of the Orthodox councils, emphasising the definitive creed of the divine “sonship” of Christ– doctrines explicitly criticised in the Qur’an. Nonetheless, the Prophet allowed the Christians to accomplish their rites in his own mosque. Disagreement on the plane of dogma is one thing, tolerance– indeed encouragement– of the enactment of that dogma is another.

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Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

One should also mention in this context the tolerance that is inscribed into the first Muslim constitution, that of Medina. In this historic document a pluralistic polity is configured. The right to freedom of worship was assumed, given the unprejudiced recognition of all three religious groups who were party to the agreement: Muslims, Jews and polytheists– the latter indeed comprising the majority at the time the constitution was drawn up. Each group enjoyed unfettered religious and legal autonomy, and the Jews, it should be noted, were not required at this stage to pay any kind of poll-tax. The Muslims were indeed recognised as forming a distinct group within the polity, but this did not compromise the principle of mutual defence which was at the root of the agreement: Each must help the other against anyone who attacks the people of this document. They must seek mutual advice and consultation, and loyalty is a protection against treachery.’ 32 Let us also take an example from the Indian subcontinent where Islam met the Hindu and Buddhist wisdom traditions– the oldest among the revealed religions according to our lights– for the first time. Throughout Islamic history, Hindus and Buddhists– together with Zoroastrians, not to mention other religious groups–were regarded by Muslims not as pagans, polytheists, or atheists, but as followers of an authentic religion, and thus to be granted official dhimmī status, that is, they were to be granted official protection by the state authorities: any violation of their religious, social or legal rights was subject to the ‘censure’ ( dhimma) of the Muslim authorities, who were charged with the protection of these rights. It is instructive to glance at the roots of this Muslim appraisal of the religio-juridical status of Hinduism and Buddhism. One of the earliest and most decisive encounters between Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism on the Indian soil took place during the short but successful campaign of the young Umayyad general, Muha mmad b. Qāsim in Sind, launched in 711. During the conquest of this predominantly Buddhist province, he received petitions from the indigenous Buddhists and Hindus in the important city of Brahmanabad regarding the restoration of their temples and the upholding of their religious rights generally. He consulted his superior, the governor of Kufa, Hajjāj b. Yūsuf, who in turn consulted his religious scholars. The result of these deliberations was the formulation of an official position which was to set a decisive precedent of religious tolerance for the ensuing centuries of Muslim rule in India. Hajjāj wrote to Muhammad b. Qāsim a letter which was translated into

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what became known as the ‘Brahmanabad settlement’: 33
The request of the chiefs of Brahmanabad about the building of Budh and other temples, and toleration in religious matters, is just and reasonable. I do not see what further rights we can have over them beyond the usual tax. They have paid homage to us and have undertaken to pay the fixed tribute [jizya] to the Caliph. Because they have become dhimmīs we have no right whatsoever to interfere in their lives and property. Do permit them to follow their own religion. No one should prevent them.

The Arab historian, Al-Balādhurī, quotes Muhammad b. Qāsim’s famous statement made at Alor, 34 a city besieged for a week, and then taken without force, according to strict terms: there was to be no bloodshed, and the local faith would not be opposed. Muhammad b. Qāsim was reported to have said: 35
The temples [lit. al-Budd, but referring to the temples of the Buddhists and the Hindus, as well as the Jains] shall be treated by us as if they were the churches of the Christians, the synagogues of the Jews, and the fire temples of the Magians.36

Although subsequent Muslim rulers varied in their degree of fidelity to this precedent establishing the principle of religious tolerance in India,37 the point being made here is more theological than political. What is to be stressed is that Hindus and Buddhists were, in principle, to be granted the same religious and legal recognition as fellow monotheists, the Jews and the Christians, or the ‘People of the Book’. The implication of this act of recognition is clear: the religion these Hindus and Buddhists followed was not analogous to the pagan polytheistic religions, whose adherents were not granted such privileges. Rather, as a community akin to the ‘People of the Book’, they were regarded, implicitly if not explicitly, as recipients of an authentic divine revelation. It may be argued, however, that granting Hindus and Buddhists legal recognition was in fact more political than theological; that the instinctive response of Hajjāj and his general stemmed more from hard headed pragmatism than subtle theological reflection. While such pragmatism no doubt played a role in this historic decision, the point to be made is this: that the scholars of Islam did not (and still do not) regard this ‘pragmatic’ policy as violating or compromising any fundamental theological principle of Islam. Pragmatism and principle went hand in hand. The implication of granting Hindus and Buddhists legal

17

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

recognition, political protection and religious tolerance is that the spiritual path and moral code of the Hindu and Buddhist faith derive from an authentic revelation of God. If this be disputed by Muslims, then the historical practice of granting Hindus and Buddhists dhimmī status will be seen to be nothing more than ‘Realpolitik’, at best, or a betrayal of certain theological principles, at worst: one would be guilty of according religious legitimacy to a false religion. We would argue, on the contrary, that the Hindus and Buddhists were recognized – in an as it were existential, intuitive, largely unarticulated manner – by Muslims as followers of an authentic faith, even if this faith appeared to contradict Islam in certain major respects; that the early Muslims in their encounters with Hinduism and Buddhism observed sufficient ‘family resemblances’ between Hinduism and Buddhism and the ‘People of the Book’ for them to feel justified in extending to Hindus and Buddhists the same legal and religious rights granted to the ‘People of the Book’; that the ‘pragmatic’ decision of the politicians and generals was actually in harmony with the Islamic revelation, despite the reservations, refutations or denunciations stemming from popular Muslim prejudice, and despite the paucity of scholarly works by Muslims making doctrinally explicit what was implied in the granting of dhimmī status to Hindus and Buddhists. It would be useful to explore further the implications of this early Muslim response to Hinduism and Buddhism, and to provide a more explicit theological– or spiritual– justification for this response, which formed the basis of the official policy of tolerance of Hinduism and Buddhism by Muslims world-wide. But that is a subject of a separate study that we cannot compress here. The conclusion is, however, selfevident. If Hindus and Buddhists are recognized as akin to the ‘People of the Book’, then they are implicitly to be included in the spectrum of ‘saved’ communities, as expressed in the following verse, one of the most universal verses of the Qur’ān: Truly those who believe and those who are Jews, and the Christians and the Sabeans– whoever believes in God and the Last Day and performs virtuous acts– for such, their reward is with their Lord, no fear or suffering will befall them (2:62; repeated almost verbatim at 5:69). To sum, the record of tolerance in Muslim history must surely be seen as the fruit of the prophetic paradigm, which in turn derives from and is a commentary upon, the vision revealed by the Qur’an, to which we should now turn. Notwithstanding the many verses critical of earlier

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religious traditions, the fundamental message of the Qur’an as regards all previous revelations is one of inclusion not exclusion, protection and not destruction. Arguably the most important verse, as mentioned earlier, in this regard is:
We have revealed unto you the Scripture with the Truth, to confirm and protect the Scripture which came before it ... For each of you We have appointed a law and a way. And if God had willed He would have made you one people. But (He hath willed it otherwise) that He may put you to the test in what He has given you. So vie with one another in good works. Unto God will ye be brought back, and He will inform you about that wherein ye differed (5:48).

This verse, supplemented by a multitude of other proof texts (given in the endnotes), establishes four crucial principles that enshrine the Qur’anic Vision which both fashion and substantiate an open-minded approach to all religions and their adherents and inculcates the attitude that if God is the ultimate source of the different rites of the religions, no one set of rites can be legitimately excluded from the purview of authentic religion:    the Qur’an confirms and protects all divine revelations; 38 the very plurality of these revelations is the result of a divine will for diversity on the plane of human communities; 39 this diversity of revelations and plurality of communities is intended to stimulate a healthy ‘competition’ or mutual enrichment in the domain of ‘good works’;40 difference of opinion are inevitable consequences of the very plurality of meanings embodied in diverse revelations; these differences are to be tolerated on the human plane, and will be finally resolved in the Hereafter.41



Dr. Martin Lings has elucidated the issue with great perspicacity and insightfulness in his masterly study “With all Thy Mind”, 42 but I would refer here to Arvind Sharma who has closely followed the four crucial principles mentioned above in his “Can Muslims Talk to Hindus?” 43 After working his thesis through the enunciated categories, Sharma concluded as follows:
I would now like to discuss a third option provided by Verse 13 of Sūrah 49, (…“Oh mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and we have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one

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Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

another. Lo! The noblest of you in the sight of Allah, is the best conduct Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware. 44

This verse seems to offer the clearest mandate for the Muslim to talk to the Hindu. A Medina verse, is addressed specifically to humanity, not just Muslims and in this verse the diversity not just of peoples but of sexes is clearly alluded to. Note that no revelations have been sent in terms of the division of humanity by sex, but rather to the peoples. Not only is diversity of the peoples alluded to, there are no qualifications attached to it, such as that they be Jews or Christians or Sabaens. Moreover, the purpose of this diversity is also identified. It is to provide an occasion for the people to know each other – or to put in the modern idiom– engage in dialogue, so that it might bring out the best in them. Hence Muslims and Hindus can talk to each other not (only) because revelation is universal but because diversity is universal–a pervasive feature of the human condition. In other words, the diversity being celebrated here is “radical,” in its etymological sense of pertaining to the roots, and as providing a root metaphor of the human condition. I would therefore propose that it is possible for the Muslims to talk to the Hindus, without this possibility having to be mediated through the category of ahl al-kitāb; which is to say that Muslims can talk directly to the Hindus just because they constitute two different communities and that this difference is meant to enable them to come to know each other. The Qur’an provides what we might call an anthropological basis here, as distinguished from a revelatory basis, for the Muslims to talk to the Hindus.45 The conclusion is that for the survival of humanity it is necessary for man to respect his fellow-men; in the same way it is necessary for him to learn to respect religions other than his own. It is only through the adoption of this moral and spiritual approach that, borrowing Iqbal’s phrase, “man may rise to a fresh vision of his future.” And this brings us to the opening point of our discourse, “Be conscious of the station of humanity” which is intimately related to the question of the “Other”– religious, cultural, political– which, in turn, subsumes the issue of “tolerance” that we wish to address now not only in the context of “a South Asian sensibility” but with reference to Western-dominated global reality since the problems of social integration that we face today are not confined to our local situations any more but impact all persons who around the world live out different degrees of accommodation with the local and global reality. This calls for a few remarks about the situation

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of the modern world, the “global reality” that engulfs us, shapes our worlds and determines our predicament. In this late stage of secular modernity and its hangover in postmodernism, melancholy has become a collective mood. Melancholy used to afflict individuals who felt rejected and exiled from the significance of the cosmos. By our day it has turned into a cultural malady deriving from a world that has been drained of all meaning and which had come to cast doubt on all traditional sources– theological, metaphysical, and historical. The dominant mood of our time is “ a desperate search for a pattern.” The search is desperate because it seemed futile to look for a pattern in reality. In terms of its mindset or worldview the modern world is living in what has been called the Age of Anxiety, and if one tries to look beyond symptoms to find the prime cause one comes to realize that there is something wrong with the presiding paradigm or worldview that our age had come to espouse. Something has gone wrong with the world and the Time is again out of joint? East and West both seem to face a predicament! As Iqbal has observed: ‫من از ہالل و چلیپا دگر نیندیشم‬ ‫کہ فتنۂ دگری در ضمیر ایّام است‬ I am no longer concerned about the crescent and the cross, For the womb of time carries an ordeal of a different kind. 46 The crisis that the world found itself in as it swung on the hinge of the 20th century was located in something deeper than particular ways of organizing political systems and economies. In different ways, the East and the West were going through a single common crisis whose cause was the spiritual condition of the modern world. 47 That condition was characterized by loss– the loss of religious certainties and of transcendence with its larger horizons. The nature of that loss is strange but ultimately quite logical. When, with the inauguration of the scientific worldview, human beings started considering themselves the bearers of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, meaning began to ebb and the stature of humanity to diminish. The world lost its human dimension, and we began to lose control of it. In the words of F. Schuon: 48
The world is miserable because men live beneath themselves; the error of modern man is that he wants to reform the world without having either the will or the power to reform man, and this flagrant contradiction, this attempt to make a better world on the basis of a

21

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

worsened humanity, can only end in the very abolition of what is human, and consequently in the abolition of happiness too. Reforming man means binding him again to Heaven, re-establishing the broken link; it means tearing him away from the reign of the passions, from the cult of matter, quantity and cunning, and reintegrating him into the world of the spirit and serenity, we would even say: into the world of sufficient reason.

If anything characterizes the modern era, it is a loss of faith in transcendence, in God as an objective reality. It is the age of eclipse of transcendence. No socio-cultural environment in the pre-Modern times had turned its back on Transcendence in the systematic way that characterized Modernity. The eclipse of transcendence impacts our way of looking at the world, in the formation of a world view, in a farreaching manner. According to our perspective, Transcendence means that there is another reality that is more real, more powerful, and better than this mundane order. The eclipse of transcendence impacted our way of looking at the world, that is, forming a worldview? It is an issue of the greatest magnitude. Whatever transpires in other domains of life – politics, living standards, environmental conditions, interpersonal relationships, the arts– is ultimately dependent on our presiding world view. Modern Westerners, forsaking clear thinking, allowed themselves to become so obsessed with life’s material underpinnings that they had written science a blank cheque; a blank cheque for science’s claims concerning what constituted Reality, knowledge and justified belief. This is the cause of our spiritual crisis. It joined other crises as we entered the new century– the environmental crisis, the population explosion, the widening gulf between the rich and the poor, and the list goes on. But that is the subject for another day. 49 Suffice to say here that the enlightenment project and modernity’s worldview had brought in the human thought, the damage that it had done to the academia, and the contemporary discourse created by it is marked by incredulity. The incredulity takes many forms and the discourse grew increasingly shrill. Minimally, it contented itself with pointing out that “we have no maps and don’t know how to make them.” Hardliners added, “and never again we will have a consensual worldview.” In short, our contemporary discourse is filled with voices critiquing the truncated worldview of the Enlightenment, but from that reasonable beginning it plunges on to argue unreasonably that world-views (or grand narratives) are misguided in principle. Wouldn’t we be better off if we extricate ourselves from the worldview we had unwittingly slipped into and replace it with a more

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generous and accurate one that shows us deeply connected to the final nature of things?50 A world ends when its metaphor dies, and modernity’s metaphor– endless progress through science-powered technology– is dead. It is only cultural lag– the backward pull of the outgrown good– that keeps us running on it. In this regard it is useful to investigate how the West engaged with the idea and practice of tolerance as it had manifested in other religions and cultures and how does it relate to the historical trajectory through which it became established in the West. Tolerance– Religious and Secular Tolerance is a multi-faceted concept comprising moral, psychological, social, legal, political and religious dimensions. The dimension of tolerance addressed by this essay is specifically religious tolerance, such as this principle finds expression within the Islamic tradition, and how it came to be enshrined in the Western thought after the Enlightenment. Further to that we would try to look at the shared legacy of the idea that suffered a diverse destiny in the West. Religious tolerance can be defined in terms of a positive spiritual predisposition towards the religious Other, a predisposition fashioned by a vision of the divinely-willed diversity of religious communities. If the diversity of religions is seen to be an expression of the will of God,51 then the inevitable differences between the religions will be not only tolerated but also celebrated: tolerated on the outward, legal and formal plane, celebrated on the inward, cultural and spiritual plane. As is the case with secular tolerance, here also one will encounter a positive and open-minded attitude, one capable of stimulating policies and laws of a tolerant nature towards the religious Other, but the root of this attitude derives from a principle going beyond the secular domain: the tolerant attitude emerges as the consequence of a kaleidoscopic vision of unfolding divine revelations, a vision which elicits profound respect for the religions of the Other, rather than reluctantly, begrudgingly or condescendingly granting mere toleration. And this brings us back to the “anthropological basis” of Dr. Arvind Sharma referred earlier. The rest of our paper closely follows the argument presented by him in response to the apparently intelligible demand voiced by the late Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn that the Muslims– and that holds, mutatis mutandis, for other faiths encountering modernity– must pass through an Enlightenment. He wrote that “Christianity and Judaism have gone through the laundromat of humanism and enlightenment, but that is not the case with Islam.” 52

23

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

Tolerance born of a divinely ordained imperative cannot but engender respect for the religious Other. But the converse does not hold: one can be tolerant in a secular sense outwardly and legally, without this being accompanied by sincere respect for the religion of the Other. Moreover, the purely secular approach to tolerance carries with it the risk of falling into a corrosive relativism of the ‘anything goes’ variety. It can lead to the normativity and particularity of one’s own faith being diluted, if not sacrificed, for the sake of an abstracted and artificial social construct.53 The Islamic tradition, in principle as well as in practice, provides compelling answers to many questions pertaining to the relationship between religious tolerance and the practice of one’s own faith. The lessons drawn from the Islamic tradition reveal that tolerance of the Other is in fact integral to the practice of Islam– it is not some optional extra, some cultural luxury, and still less, something one needs to import from some other tradition. This being said, one needs to take note of an irony: the essential sources of the Islamic faith reveal a sacred vision of diversity and difference, plurality and indeed of universality, which is unparalleled among world scriptures; the practice of contemporary Muslim states, however, not to mention many vociferous extra-state groups and actors, falls lamentably short of the current standards of tolerance set by the secular West. In consequence, it is hardly surprising that many argue that what the Muslim world needs in order to become more tolerant is to learn to become more modern and secular, and less traditional and ‘visionary’. This kind of argument, however, ignoring and belittling the vast treasury of ethical and spiritual resources within the Islamic tradition, will succeed only in making Muslims more, rather than less, intolerant, by provoking defensive backlashes. A more fruitful approach would be to encourage an honest acknowledgement by Muslims that, as regards the practice of religious tolerance, the secular West has indeed set high standards, albeit at the price of a corrosive relativism, a price which is becoming increasingly apparent to many with the passage of time. Instead of being seen as contrary to the Islamic vision, however, such tolerant codes of conduct can be seen as formal expressions of the universal principle of tolerance inhering in the vision of Islam itself. In this sacred vision the plurality of paths to the One is viewed as a reflection of the infinitude of the One; tolerance of diversity and difference on the human plane thus flows as a moral consequence of this divinely willed plurality, becoming thereby

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not just a social ethic, but also an expression of the wisdom of the One, being ordained first ‘from above’, and then here below. Tolerance within the framework of a divinely ordained schema expresses both an obligation and a right: a moral obligation to permit people of different faiths to manifest their own specific ways of embodying and radiating these universal values, and the spiritual right to benefit from the specific manifestations of these universal values oneself. This accords with the very purpose of diversity as envisioned by the Qur’an that the “anthropological basis” of Dr. Arvind Sharma invoked:
O mankind, We have created you male and female, and We have made you into tribes and nations in order that you might come to know one another. Truly, in the sight of God, the most honoured amongst you is the most pious amongst you’ (Qur’an, 49:13).

Tolerant Islam or the Liberal West, Which came first? Before directly addressing the principle and practice of tolerance in Islam, let us ask ourselves the question as to what is the provenance of the secular concept of tolerance in the West, for this provides some important– and ironic– lessons in this domain. In 1689 John Locke, one of the founding fathers of modern liberal thought, wrote a famous text, ‘A Letter Concerning Toleration’. This letter is widely viewed as instrumental in the process by which the ethical value of religious tolerance was transformed into a universal ethical imperative, as far as individual conscience is concerned, and into a legal obligation, incumbent upon the upholders of political authority, as far as the state is concerned. It is evident from this letter that Locke was deeply struck by the contrast between tolerant ‘barbarians’– the Muslim Ottomans– and violently intolerant Christians. The contrast was compounded by the fact that Muslims exercised more tolerance towards non-Muslims than Christians did to each other, let alone non-Christians. In his letter, Locke ruefully reflected on the absurdity that Calvinists and Armenians were free to practice their faith if they lived in the Muslim Ottoman Empire, but not in Christian Europe: would the Turks not silently stand by and laugh to see with what inhuman cruelty Christians thus rage against Christians? Locke passionately proclaimed the need for ‘universal tolerance’, whatever one’s religious beliefs, and, indeed, in the prevailing Christian climate, despite one’s beliefs. Following on logically from this secular principle of tolerance was the right for non-Christians to live unmolested in the state of England, and be accorded full civil and political rights:

25

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

‘…neither pagan nor Mahometan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion ’. This strict separation between religion and politics, church and state, so often viewed only as part of the evolutionary trajectory of western secularization must also be seen in the light of the historical interface between mutually intolerant Christian states and denominations, on the one hand, and a vibrantly tolerant Muslim polity, on the other. The current unquestioned right of freedom of religious belief and worship in the Western world is thus not simply a corollary of secular thought; it is a principle inspired, at least in part, by the influence of Islam. 54 ‘Tolerance’, according to (Reverend) Dr Susan Ritchie, ‘was a matter of Ottoman policy and bureaucratic structure, and an expression of the Ottoman interpretation of Islam, which was in most instances stunningly liberal and cosmopolitan.’55 It is thus hardly surprising that Norman Daniel should allow himself to make the simple– and, for many, startling– claim: ‘The notion of toleration in Christendom was borrowed from Muslim practice’ (emphasis added). 56 Ottoman tolerance of the Jews provides an illuminating contrast with the anti-Semitism of Christendom, which resulted in the regular pogroms and ‘ethnic cleansing’ by which the medieval Christian world was stained. 57 At the very same time as the Christian West was indulging in periodic anti-Jewish pogroms, the Jews were experiencing what some Jewish historians themselves have termed a kind of ‘golden age’ under Muslim rule.58 As has been abundantly attested by historical records, the Jews enjoyed not just freedom from oppression, but also an extraordinary revival of cultural, religious, theological and mystical creativity. 59 Same holds good for the Christians under Muslim rule in Spain. 60 Even so fierce a critic of contemporary Islam as Bernard Lewis cannot but confirm the facts of history as regards the true character of MuslimJewish relations until recent times. In his book, The Jews of Islam, he writes that even though there was a certain level of discrimination against Jews and Christians under Muslim rule, ‘Persecution, that is to say, violent and active repression, was rare and atypical. Jews and Christians under Muslim rule were not normally called upon to suffer martyrdom for their faith. They were not often obliged to make the choice, which confronted Muslims and Jews in re-conquered Spain, between exile, apostasy and death. They were not subject to any major territorial or occupational restrictions, such as were the common lot of Jews in pre-modern Europe.’61 This pattern of tolerance characterised the nature of Muslim rule vis-à-vis Jews and Christians until modern times,

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with very minor exceptions. As the Jewish scholar Mark Cohen notes: “The Talmud was burned in Paris, not in Cairo or Baghdad … Staunch Muslim opposition to polytheism convinced Jewish thinkers like Maimonides of Islam’s unimpeachable monotheism. This ess entially ‘tolerant’ view of Islam echoed Islam’s own respect for the Jewish ‘people of the Book’.”62 In our times, the secular principle of separation between church and state derives much of its legitimacy from the religious tolerance which fidelity to these principles fosters and protects. As stated earlier, this cannot be disputed on empirical grounds. However, what must be recognised and resisted is the temptation to universalise the particular historical trajectory by which tolerance became established in the West, and apply (or impose – as observed in the representative trend manifesting in the Mr. Fortuyn’s observation) this trajectory normatively to the Muslim world. Political analysts are fond of pointing to examples of religious intolerance in the contemporary Muslim world and attribute this absence of tolerance to the ‘backwardness’ of Islam, and in particular to the insistence by Muslims that religion must dominate and fashion the whole of life, that restoring God to the public and the private sphere is non-negotiable and essential. This refusal to separate ‘mosque’ from ‘state’, such analysts conclude, is one of the main reasons why the Muslim world lags behind the West as regards both the principle and practice of religious tolerance. This type of analysis is not only simplistic and erroneous; it also obscures an irony at once historical and theological. The principle of religious tolerance has historically been one of the hallmarks of Muslim society, right up to its decline in the pre-modern period– a decline accelerated by the assault of western imperialism, mimetic industrialism, and corrosive consumerism, all of which diminished radically the spiritual ‘sap’ of the Islamic tradition, and thereby the ethics of tolerance and compassion. In contrast, the intolerance which characterised Christendom for much of its history only began to be ‘deconstructed’ in this same period, with the advent of western secularism. In other words, the rise of religious tolerance in the West appears to be correlated to the diminution of the influence of Christian values in public life in the modern period; conversely, in the Muslim world, it is the decline of the influence of Islamic values that has engendered that peculiar inferiority complex of which religious intolerance is a major symptom. Through the emasculation of this spiritual heritage, all sorts of imported ideological

27

Between Secular Pluralism and Religious Exclusivism

counterfeits– from apologetic liberal Islam to militant radical Islamism– have been manufactured in an effort to fill the vacuum, most of them appearing as the desperate but impotent reflexes of a decaying religious form. In such a situation, what is required is a return to the spirit of the tradition, not another form of mimesis; it is therefore highly ironic that Muslims are being called upon to follow the path of secularisation in order to become more tolerant. Rather, Muslims ought to be invited to become aware of the tolerance which truly characterises the spirit –and the history–of the Islamic tradition; to use this tradition as the yard-stick by which to critically gauge contemporary Muslim conduct and attitudes; to strive to revive and revalorise the principles of tolerance, diversity and pluralism which are enshrined at the very heart of this tradition; and to realise that tolerance is ‘neither of the East nor of the West’: no religion or culture can claim a monopoly on this universal human ethic. For Muslims, then, being tolerant of the religious Other does not require imitating any philosophical teachings on tolerance the Western thought has to offer, but rather returning to the moral and spiritual roots of their own tradition, while benefiting from and acknowledging the positive aspects of practical tolerance enacted by western nations in the realms of public law, human rights and political governance. 63 Shared Legacy: Diverse Destinies The last remarks bring us to consider the question that we evoked with reference to the remarks of Pim Fortuyn. 64 Mr. Fortuyn’s views have generated many debates in the Islamic communities in the West and even reverberate in the Islamic world where the question has gained space in the prevalent discourse. There are arguments in defence and responses that challenge the argument but the insistent question of Mr Fortuyn remains with us. Do we have to pass through his laundromat to be made internally white, as it were, to have an authentic and honoured place of belonging at the table of the modern reality? Islam has a great history of universalism, that is to say, that Islam does not limit itself to the uplift of any given section of humanity, but rather announces a desire to transform the entire human family. 65 Among all the religions of the pre-Enlightenment world, only Buddhism rivalled Islam in massively encompassing a range of cultures. However Islam, unambiguously, was the foundation for a still wider range and variety of cultural worlds. 66 Has this triumphant demonstration of Islam’s universalism come to an end? Perhaps the greatest single issue exercising the world today is the

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engagement of Islamic monotheism with the new capitalist global reality a challenge that even Islam, with its proven ability to square circles, cannot manage? The current agreement between zealots on both sides – Islamic and unbelieving– that Islam and Western modernity can have no conversation, and cannot inhabit each other, seems difficult given traditional Islamic assurances about the universal potential of revelation. The increasing numbers of individuals who identify themselves as entirely Western, and entirely Muslim, demonstrate that the arguments against the continued ability of Islam to be inclusively universal are simply false. Yet the question, the big new Eastern Question, will not go away quite easily. Palpably, there are millions of Muslims who are at ease somewhere within the spectrum of the diverse possibilities of Westernness. We need, however, a theory to match this practice. Is the accommodation real? What is the theological or fiqh status of this claim to an overlap? Can Islam really square this biggest of all historical circles, or must it now fail, and retreat into impoverished and hostile marginality, as history passes it by? Fortuyn, a highly-educated and liberal Islamophobe, was convinced that Islam cannot square the circle. He would say that the past genius of Islam in adapting itself to cultures from Senegal to Sumatra cannot be extended into our era, because the rules of that game no longer apply. Success today demands membership of a global reality, which means signing up to the terms of its philosophy. 67 How should Islam answer this charge? The answer is, of course, that ‘Islam’ can’t. The religion’s strength stems in large degree from its internal diversity. Different readings of the scriptures attract different species of humanity. There will be no unified Islamic voice answering Fortuyn’s interrogation. The more useful question is: who should answer the charge? What sort of Muslim is best equipped to speak for us, and to defeat his logic? Fortuyn’s error was to impose a Christian squint on Islam. As a practising Catholic, he imported assumptions about the nature of religious authority that ignore the multi-centred reality of Islam. On doctrine, we try to be united - but he is not interested in our doctrine. On fiqh, we are substantially diverse. Even in the medieval period, one of the great moral and methodological triumphs of the Muslim mind was the confidence that a variety of madhhabs could conflict formally, but could all be acceptable to God.68 Fortuyn and others who share his views work with the assumption that Islam is an ideology69 and given the

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nature of the Islam-West encounter the emergence of ‘ideological Islam’ was, particularly in the mid-twentieth century, entirely predictable. Everything at that time was ideology. Spirituality seemed to have ended, and postmodernism was not yet a twinkle in a Parisian eye. In fact, the British historian John Gray goes so far as to describe the process which Washington describes as the ‘war on terror’ as an internal Western argument which has nothing to do with traditional Islam. As he puts it: “The ideologues of political Islam are western voices, no less than Marx or Hayek. The struggle with radical Islam is yet another western family quarrel.”70 Nonetheless, the irony remains. We are represented by the unrepresentative, and the West sees in us a mirror image of its less attractive potentialities. Western Muslim theologians as well as many Muslim theologians living in the West – René Guénon, S. H. Nasr, Tim Winter, Tage Lindbom, Roger Garaudy to name just a few –frequently point out that the movements which seek to represent Islam globally, or in Western/Eastern minority situations, are typically movements which arose as reactions against Western political hegemony that themselves internalised substantial aspects of Western political method. In Europe, Muslim community leaders who are called upon to justify Islam in the face of recent terrorist activities are ironically often individuals who subscribe to ideologised forms of Islam which adopt dimensions of Western modernity in order to secure an anti-Western profile. It is no surprise that such leaders arouse the suspicion of the likes of Pim Fortuyn, or, indeed, a remarkably wide spectrum of commentators across the political spectrum. Islam’s universalism, however, is not well-represented by the advocates of movement Islam. Islamic universalism is represented by the great bulk of ordinary mosque-going Muslims who around the world live out different degrees of accommodation with the local and global reality. One could argue, against Fortuyn, that Muslim communities are far more open to the West than vice-versa, and know far more about it. There is no equivalent desire in the West to learn from and integrate into other cultures.71 Islam, we will therefore insist, is more flexible than the West. Where they are intelligently applied, our laws and customs, mediated through the due instruments of ijtihad, have been reshaped substantially by encounter with the Western juggernaut, through faculties such as the concern for public interest, or urf– customary legislation. Western law and society, by contrast, have not admitted significant emendation at the hands of another culture for many centuries. From our perspective, then, it can seem that it is the West, not the Islamic world, which stands in

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need of reform in a more pluralistic direction. It claims to be open, while we are closed, but in reality, on the ground, seems closed, while we have been open. There is force to this defense but does it help us answer the insistent question of Mr. Fortuyn? Historians would probably argue that since history cannot repeat itself, the demand that Islam experience an Enlightenment is strange, and that if the task be attempted, it cannot remotely guarantee an outcome analogous to that experienced by Europe. If honest and erudite enough, they may also recognize that the Enlightenment possibilities in Europe were themselves the consequence of a Renaissance humanism which was triggered not by an internal European or Christian logic, but by the encounter with Islamic thought.72 The implication being that without Islam, the medieval world might have endured forever. However Westerners, unlike the Moors of Cordova, proved less able to tolerate diversity or fecundation by the Other, and their own Renaissance and Enlightenment only added to the European’s absolute sense of superiority over other cultures, a prejudice that was augmented further by an escalating positivism that finally dethroned God. Garaudy thus concludes that only by radically challenging its own version of Enlightenment and accepting a Muslim version, rooted in what he calls the Third Heritage (the first two being the Classics and the Bible), will the West save itself from its “deadly hegemonic adventure”, and “its suicidal model of growth and civilization.”73 Nonetheless, it is clear that the Christian and Jewish Enlightenments of the eighteenth century did not move Europe in a religious, still less an Islamic direction. Instead, they moved outside the Moorish paradigm to produce disenchantment, a desacralising of the world which opened the gates for two enormous transformations in human experience. One of these has been the subjugation of nature to the will (or more usually the lower desires) of man. The consequences for the environment, and even for the sustainable habitability of our planet, are looking increasingly disturbing. There is certainly oddness about the Western desire to convert the Third World to a high-consumption market economy, when it is certain that if the world were to reach American levels of fossil-fuel consumption, global warming would soon render the planet entirely uninhabitable. The second dangerous consequence of ‘Enlightenment’, as Muslims see it, is the replacement of religious autocracy and sacred kingship with either a totalitarian political order, or with a democratic liberal arrangement that has no fail-safe resistance to moving in a totalitarian

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direction.74 The West is loath to refer to this possibility in its makeup and believes that Srebrenica or Mr. Fortuyn, are aberrations, not a recurrent possibility. Muslims, however, surely have the right to express deep unease about the demand to submit to an Enlightenment project that seems to have produced so much darkness as well as light.75 Another aspect of the question needs attention here. Western intellectuals now speak of post-modernism as an end of Enlightenment reason. Hence the new Muslim question becomes: why jump into the laundromat if European thinkers have themselves turned it off? Is the Third World to be brought to heel by importing only Europe’s yesterdays?76 Iqbal represents a very different tradition which insists that Islam is only itself when it recognizes that authenticity arises from recognizing the versatility of classical Islam, rather than taking any single reading of the scriptures as uniquely true. Ijtihad, after all, is scarcely a modern invention! An age of decadence, whether or not framed by Enlightenment, is an age of extremes, and the twentieth century was precisely that. Islam has been westernized enough, it sometimes appears, to have joined that logic. We are either neutralized by a supposedly benign Islamic liberalism that in practice allows nothing distinctively Islamic to leave the home or the mosque– an Enlightenment-style privatization of religion that abandons the world to the morality of the market leaders and the demagogues. Or we fall back into the sensual embrace of extremism, justifying our refusal to deal with the real world by dismissing it as absolute evil, as kufr, unworthy of serious attention, which will disappear if we curse it enough. 77 Revelation, as always, requires the middle way. Extremism, in any case, never succeeds even on its own terms. It usually repels more people from religion than it holds within it. Attempts to reject all of global modernity simply cannot succeed, and have not succeeded anywhere. To borrow the words of Tim Winter, “A more sane policy, albeit a more courageous, complex and nuanced one, has to be the introduction of Islam as a prophetic, dissenting witness within the reality of the modern world.”78 In the final analysis if there is one unredeemable part of the Enlightenment tradition it is the fact that it allowed its critique of illumination, wisdom and the Divine turn into an outright rejection because of the reification of the critique. The flip-side of this reified critique is the fact that the Enlightenment affirmation of individualism, universalism and materialism became a set of reified/dogmatic assertions

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based on completely abstract concepts rather than a living (and lifegiving) ethos. It is obviously the case that the Enlightenment and postEnlightenment analysis of illumination, wisdom and the Divine laid bare deeply problematic aspects of traditional culture that were not known before. But instead of endeavouring to redress these problematic aspects of traditional culture as a “philosophic healer” using the resources already present in the afflicted paradigm, Enlightenment thought played the role of a colonizing imperialist on a mission to civilize the savages by means of socio-cultural engineering. In short the only unredeemable aspect of the Enlightenment is that its stance towards non-Enlightenment paradigms is one of critique-condemn-replace. It should not be hard to see where we naturally fit. The gaping hole in the Enlightenment pointed out by the postmodern theologians and by more skeptical but still anxious minds, was the Enlightenment’s inability to form a stable and persuasive ground for virtue and hence for what it has called ‘citizenship’.79 But why are we bound to keep our word? Why need we respect the moral law? Religion seems to answer this far more convincingly than any secular ethic. 80 Religion offers a solution to this fatal weakness. Applied with wisdom, it provides a fully adequate reason for virtue and an ability to produce cultural and political leaders who embody it themselves. Of course, it is all too often applied improperly, and there is something of the Promethean arrogance and hubris of the philosophes in the radical insistence that the human subject be enthroned in authority over scriptural interpretation, without a due prelude of initiation, love, and self-naughting. Yet the failure of the Enlightenment paradigm, as invoked by the secular elites in the Muslim world, to deliver moral and efficient government and cultural guidance, indicates that the solution must be religious. Religious aberrations do not discredit the principle they aberrantly affirm. What manner of Islam may most safely undertake this task? It is no accident that the overwhelming majority of Western Muslim thinkers have been drawn into the religion by the appeal of Sufism. To us, the ideological redefinitions of Islam are hardly more impressive than they are to the many European xenophobes who take them as normative. We need a form of religion that elegantly and persuasively squares the circle, rather than insisting on a conflictual model that is unlikely to damage the West as much as Islam. A purely non-spiritual reading of Islam, lacking the vertical dimension, tends to produce only liberals or zealots; and both

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have proved irrelevant to our needs. Are we to conclude that modern Islam, so often sympathetic to the Enlightenment’s claims, and in its Islamist version one of their most powerful instantiations, has been deeply mistaken? The totalitarian forms of Enlightenment reason which recurred throughout the twentieth century have discredited it in the eyes of many; and are now less dangerous only because postmodernism seems to have abolished so many of the Enlightenment’s key beliefs. 81 If the ideal of freedom is now based less on ideas of inalienable natural rights than on the notion that all truth is relative, then perhaps mainstream Islamist thinking will need to unhitch itself more explicitly from the broadly Western paradigms which it accepted for most of the twentieth century. Yet the relation Islam/Enlightenment seems predicated on simplistic definitions of both. Islamism may be an Enlightenment project, but conservative Sufism (for instance) is probably not. Conversely, even without adopting a postmodern perspective we are not so willing today to assume a necessary antithesis between tradition and reason. 82 The way forward, probably, is to recognize that Islam genuinely converges with Enlightenment concerns on some issues; while on other matters, notably the Enlightenment’s individualism and its increasingly Promethean confidence in humanity’s autonomous capacities, it is likely to demur radically. What matters about Islam is that it did not produce the modern world. If modernity ends in a technologically-induced holocaust, then survivors will probably hail the religion’s wisdom in not authoring something similar.83 If, however, it survives, and continues to produce a global monoculture where the past is forgotten, and where international laws and customs are increasingly restrictive of cultural difference, then Islam is likely to remain the world’s great heresy. The Ishmaelite alternative is rejected. But what if Ishmael actually wishes to be rejected, since the one who is doing the rejecting has ended up creating a world without God? Grounded in our stubbornly immobile liturgy and doctrine, we Ishmaelites should serve the invaluable, though deeply resented, function of a culture which would like to be an Other, even if that is no longer quite possible! In the end I would like to quote Schuon’s timely remark again that “if human societies degenerate on the one hand with the passage of time they accumulate on the other hand experience in virtue of old age, however intermingled with error their experience may be.” It is true that

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the world was already in extreme old age two thousand years ago, but that old age lay hidden under the youth of Christianity and then, subsequently, also under the youth of Islam. Nonetheless, its unseen presence below the surface has now precipitated those two latest religions towards itself, that is, in the direction of old age and “as such we have a choice between two attributes offered us by old age, namely senility and wisdom. Despite the fact that the vast majority of our contemporaries have chosen the former of these – whence the present state of the world– it is nonetheless possible and even inevitable that some will choose wisdom, a wisdom that is calm and objective, free from the passionate prejudices which have previously been too dominant in human souls with regard to religions other than their own.” 84 We will close this paper with words from the Qur’an, words which might be called the Islamic equivalent of the Christian Credo, a definite statement, on the authority of the Word-made-Book, of the faith of the Prophet and of those who may be considered as the most spiritual of his Companions. They believe, all of them, in God and His Angels and His Books and His Messengers. And they say: “We make no distinction between any of His Messengers (Qur’an, 2, 285). Notes and References:
1 For the Islamic house of faith, my own wisdom tradition, I have done that separately in one of my short study. See, Muhammad Suheyl Umar, In the Wake of 11th September, Perspectives on Settled Convictions– Changes and Challenges, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore, 2005. Karen Armstrong, Lecture “The Role of Religion in the New Millennium”, Singapore, 18 June 2007. David F. Ford, “God and Our Public Life: A Scriptural Wisdom”, The Ebor Lectures, 2006-07, York St John University. Though it, like the others, is understandable in historical terms –working out the epochal, often bloody confrontation between the French Revolution and Roman Catholicism. Expressed, for example, in banning official recognition of any particular religious symbols, holidays or practices and refusing to let state schools teach religious education or state universities teach theology as well as religious studies. Jeffrey Stout, Democracy and Tradition, Princeton University Press, Princeton 2004. Muhammad Iqbal, Javid Namah, in Kulliyat-i-Iqbal, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore, 1994, p. 673. For a translation see A. Q. Niaz, Iqbal’s Javid Namah, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore, 1984, p. 329. Javīd Nāma in Kulliyāt i Iqbal, (Persian), Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore, 1994, p. 67276. Those interested in learning more about some of the criticisms we have in mind might

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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10

11

12 13

begin by looking at the books cited by Lawrence E. Sullivan in his masterly study, Icanchus Drum: An Orientation to Meaning in South American Religions (New York: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 884-85. What he says in the passage leading up to the suggested reading applies also to Western perceptions of Islam: “One of the great disservice s to our understanding of South American religions [read: Islam] has been the perception of tribal peoples [read: Muslims) as slavishly dedicated to an unchanging order revealed in the images of myth and handed down unquestioned and unmodified from one generation to the next. This attitude accompanies the evaluation of ‘myth’ as a banal and inane narrative. Tribal peoples (representing ‘archaic’ modes of thought) childishly cling to their myths, infantile fantasies, whereas mature contemporaries jettison myths with the passage of ‘historical time’ and the entrance’ into ‘modernity. ‘It would be fascinating to study these and other justifications proffered for avoiding a serious encounter with the reality of myth [read: Islamic thought) and symbolic acts.... This is, however, not the place to carry out a history of the ‘modern’ ideas of myth and religion. It is enough to suggest that the Western cultural imagination turned away when it encountered the stunning variety of cultural worlds that appeared for the first time in the Age of Discovery. Doubtless this inward turn sparked the appearance of all sorts of imaginary realities. The Enlightenment, the withdrawal of Western thinkers from the whirling world of cultural values into an utterly imaginary world of ‘objective’ forms of knowledge, and its intellectual follow-up coined new symbolic currency. These terms brought new meanings and new self-definition to Western culture: ‘consciousness/unconsciousness,’ ‘primitive/civilized,’ ‘ethics/mores,’ ‘law/custom,’ ‘critical or reflective thought/ action.” Frithjof Schuon, “De l’ Alliance”, Etudes Traditionnelles, Paris, June, 1940. The analogy of the sun and the stars is encountered in the works of the greatest authorities of the Islamic tradition also, for example, Shaykh Ibn ʿArabī and Rūmī. Keeping in view the fact that the Qurʾān never criticizes the prophetic messages as such, though it often condemns misunderstandings or distortions by those who follow the prophets, one notes that Shaykh Ibn ‘Arabī sometimes c riticizes specific distortions or misunderstandings in the Qurʾānic vein, but he does not draw the conclusion that many Muslims have drawn– that the coming of Islam abrogated (naskh) previous revealed religions. Rather, he says, Islam is like the sun and other religions like the stars. Just as the stars remain when the sun rises, so also the other religions remain valid when Islam appears. One can add a point that perhaps Ibn ʿArabī would also accept: What appears as a sun from one point of view may be seen as a star from another point of view. Ibn ʿArabī, Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, (Vol. III, p. 153, line 12), Dār, Sādir, Beirut, n.d. In this context one often comes across the claims of excellence. To maintain the particular excellence of the Qur’ān and the superiority of Muhammad over all other prophets is not to deny the universal validity of revelation nor the necessity of revelation’s appearing in particularized expressions. Frithjof Schuon, “Diversity of Revelation”, in M. S. Umar, (Ed.) The Religious Other– Towards a Muslim Theology of Other Religions in a Post-Prophetic Age, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore, 2009, pp. Frithjof Schuon, “Letter”, in Light on the Ancient Worlds, World Wisdom Books, Bloomington, Indiana, 2004.

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14 There could be other motives such as the mistaken supposition that the Darwinian theory of evolution has been scientifically proved to be true, whereas it has in fact no scientific basis at all. See Martin, Lings, The Eleventh Hour, Ch. 3, Suhail Academy, Lahore, 2005; Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions, Ch. 1, Suhail Academy, Lahore, 2007. 15 Moreover St. Thomas Aquinas says in his Summa Theologia that the fact of a Divine Person having manifested Itself in one human nature does not prevent It from doing so in another human nature. It is true that the words of Christ are altogether central to Christianity, whereas the equivalent saying of the Prophet Muhammad cannot be said to have the same place in Islam. We did not however quote them to distinguish this from that, but on the contrary to identify each with the other. Both are expressions of the truth that there is no way to God except through His Word. There is therefore no question here of contradiction between two religions. 16 M. S. Umar, (Ed.) The Religious Other– Towards a Muslim Theology of Other Religions in a Post-Prophetic Age, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore, 2009. 17 See Martin Lings, “With all Thy Mind”, in the anthology. 18 See In the Wake of 11th September, op. cit., p. 10. 19 “Not to mention the antinomy between such claims and the necessarily relative character of all religious mythology; only pure metaphysic and pure prayer are absolute and therefore universal. As for ‘mythology’, it is– apart from its intrinsic content of truth and efficacy– indispensable for enabling metaphysical and essential truth to ‘gain a footing’ in such and such a human collectivity.” Frithjof Schuon, “Diversity of Revelation”, in M. S. Umar, (Ed.) The Religious Other– Towards a Muslim Theology of Other Religions in a Post-Prophetic Age, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore, 2009, pp. 20 Ibid., p. 20. 21 The usual proof text/argument on the Christian side is that “no one commeth to the Father except through me” or same variation of the same theme as we mentioned earlier. 21 It was argued that “No one commeth to the Father save though the Son.” What does the word Son mean? If it is the Jesus of Nazareth, so that Jesus in gone. So there is no way that people will get to God through that reference. Is it the risen Christ? Or is it the Christ who is referred to in the first 4 verses in the Gospel of John as the Word or in Greek the “Logos”? In the beginning it was the Word, it was with God the Word was God. Through him all things were made and in some translations, without him nothing was made. If nothing in this whole world and history was made without the Word which was God, in God, that means that Buddha was created by God, Muhammad was created by God. If God made these prophets, these enlightened souls, it is up to me to honour the followers of those originators of the religions made by God. If your religion is the only true religion then God bless you. But I hope you will follow the teachings of your master who tells us to love not just our friends but our enemies. Loving people require that we not bad mouth them. So every religion asks you to live up to that command. It is, however, inconceivable, as Frithjof Schuon has said, that in speaking of the future, Christ should have passed over in silence ‘the one unique and incomparable apparition’ which was to take place between his two comings; and there can be no doubt, if the following passage from the Gospel of St John be considered objectively, that it refers to the Prophet who is referred to, and who was, in fact,

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22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

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shortly to be born. The words of Christ are as follows: I have more to tell you, but ye cannot bear it now. But when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will tell you all things. He shall not speak of himself but what he shall hear that shall he speak and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me.(16: 12-14.) God doth what He will. But it is clearly in the interests of man that a Divine intervention which founds a new religion should be overwhelmingly recognizable as such. The accompanying guarantees must be too tremendous, and too distinctive, to leave room for doubts in any but the most perverse, which means that certain kinds of things must be kept in reserve as the special prerogative of such a period. The Qur’an refers to this ‘economy’ when it affirms that questions which are put to God during the period of Revelation will be answered (V, 101), the implication being that after the Revelation has been completed, questions will no longer be answered so directly. It is as if a door between Heaven and earth were kept open during the mission of a Divine Messenger, to be closed at all other times. The change from first to third person with regard to the Divinity is frequent in the Qur’an. If He had sent only one religion to a world of widely differing affinities and aptitudes, it would not have been a fair test for all. He has therefore sent different religions, specially suited to the needs and characteristics of the different sectors of humanity. V, 48. Muhammad. Qur’an, XL, 78. Muslims. There is no general consensus of opinion as to what religion is referred to, and certain Muslim rulers, in India and elsewhere, have made the name in question a loophole for tolerance towards their non-Muslim, non-Christian and non Jewish subjects. V, 69. Ibn Ishaq, gives the standard account of this remarkable event. A. Guillaume (Tr.) The Life of Muhammad– A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah (Oxford, 1968), pp. 270277. F. E. Peters, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton, 1990), vol.1, p. 217. Chachnamah Retold–An Account of the Arab Conquest of Sindh , Gobind Khushalani (New Delhi: Promilla, 2006), p.156 Arabised as ‘al-Rūr’. Abū al-Hasan al-Balādhurī, Futūh al-buldān (Beirut: Maktaba al-Hilāl, 1988), p.422-423. Ibid., p.424. See for further discussion, History of Muslim Civilization in India and Pakistan, S.M. Ikram (Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1989). It is thus not surprising to read, in the same historian’s work, that when Muhammad b. Qāsim died, ‘The people of India wept at the death of Muhammad, and made an image of him at Kīraj’. One cannot overlook such acts as the destruction of the monastery at Valabhi by the Abbsasid army in 782. But, to quote the Buddhist scholar, Dr Alexander Berzin, ‘The destruction at Valabhi … was an exception to the general religious trends and official policies of the early Abbasid period. There are two plausible explanations for it. It was either the work of a militant fanatic general acting on his own, or a mistaken operation

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ordered because of the Arabs’ confusing the local “white -clad” Jains with supporters of Abu Muslim and then not differentiating the Buddhists from the Jains. It was not part of a jihad specifically against Buddhism.’ See his ‘The Historical Interaction between the Buddhist and Islamic Cultures before the Mongol Empire’ in his ‘The Berzin Archives–the Buddhist Archives of Dr Alexander Berzin’(http://www. berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/historical interaction/pt2/history cultures_10.html). The other acts of unprincipled violence by rogue Muslim generals, such as the destruction of the temple of Nalanda by Bakhtiyar Khalji in 1193, are to be seen, likewise, as contrary to ‘the general religious trends and official policies’ of Muslim states acting in accordance with Islamic precepts. Such acts are thus to be seen as military-political exceptions which prove the religious rule: the religious rights of Hindus and Buddhists, as dhimmīs, were sacrosanct. 1193 destruction of Nalanda by Bakhtiyar Khalji 38 ‘there is no compulsion in religion’ (2:256); ‘Permission [to fight] is given to those who are being fought, for they have been wronged … Had God not driven back some by means of others, then indeed monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques– wherein the name of God is oft-invoked–would assuredly have been destroyed (22: 39-40). 39 The plurality of revelations, like the diversity of human communities, is divinelywilled, and not the result of some human contingency. Universal revelation and human diversity alike are expressions of divine wisdom. They are also signs intimating the infinitude of the divine nature itself: ‘And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the differences of your languages and colours. Indeed, herein are signs for those who know (30:22).’ Just as God is both absolutely one yet immeasurably infinite, so the human race is one in its essence, yet infinitely variegated in its forms. The fitra, or primordial nature, is the inalienable substance of each human being and this essence of human identity takes priority over all external forms of identity such as race and nation, culture or even religion: ‘So set your purpose firmly for the faith as an original monotheist, [in accordance with] the fitra of God, by which He created mankind. There can be no altering the creation of God. That is the right religion, but most people know it not’ (30:30). The diversity of religious rites is also derived directly from God, affirmed by the following verse: ‘Unto each community We have given sacred rites (mansakan) which they are to perform; so let them not dispute with you about the matter, but summon them unto your Lord (22:67). For every community there is a Messenger (10:47). And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his people, so that he might make [Our message] clear to them (14:4). Truly We inspire you, as We inspired Noah, and the prophets after him, as We inspired Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and as We bestowed unto David the Psalms; and Messengers We have mentioned to you before, and Messengers We have not mentioned to you (4:163-164). (emphasis added) And We sent no Messenger before you but We inspired him [saying]: There is no God save Me, so worship Me (21:25). Naught is said unto you [Muhammad] but what was said unto the Messengers before you (41:43). 40 The ultimate goal in such a competition between religious believers is salvation. The performance of ‘good works’ (khayrat) is intended not only to establish moral conduct on earth but also to grant access to that grace by which one attains salvation in the Hereafter. One of the key sources of religious intolerance is the exclusivist notion that one’s religion, alone, grants access to salvation, all others being false religions leading nowhere. This exclusivism is summed up in the Roman Catholic formula extra ecclesiam

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nulla salus: no salvation outside of the Church. This kind of exclusivism has no place in the Qur’anic worldview, as is clearly demonstrated by such verses as the following: ‘Truly those who believe, and the Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabeans–whoever believes in God and the Last Day and performs virtuous deeds–surely their reward is with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon them, neither shall they grieve (2: 62; repeated almost verbatim at 5:69). The only criteria for salvation according to this verse are belief in the Absolute, and in accountability to that Absolute, conjoined to virtue in consequence of these beliefs. Given this clear expression of the universality of salvation, any lapse into the kind of religious chauvinism which feeds intolerance is impermissible. This is made clear in the following verses, which explicitly mention forms of religious exclusivism which the Muslims had encountered among various communities of the ‘People of the Book’: ‘And they say: “None enters Paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian”. These a re their vain desires. Say: “Bring your proof if you are truthful”. Nay, but whosoever submits his purpose to God, and he is virtuous, his reward is with his Lord. No fear shall come upon them, neither shall they grieve (2:111-112). In other words, the Muslim is not allowed to play the game of religious polemics. Instead of responding in kind to any sort of chauvinistic claims or ‘vain desires’ aimed at monopolising Paradise, the Muslim is instructed to raise the dialogue to a higher level, and to call for reasoned debate: ‘bring your proof’. The Qur’anic position is to affirm the universal salvific criteria of piety, accessible to all human beings, whatever be their religious affiliation. This position is further affirmed in the following verses: ‘It will not be in accordance with your desires, nor with the desires of the People of the Book. He who does wrong will have its recompense ... And whoso performs good works, whether male or female, and is a believer, such will enter Paradise, and will not be wronged the dint of a date-stone. (4:123-124) One can read this verse as implying that insofar as the Muslim ‘desires’ that salvation be restricted to Muslims in the specific, communal sense, he falls into exactly the same kind of exclusivism of which the Christians and Jews stand accused. It should be noted that the very same word is used both for the ‘desires’ of the Jews and the Christians, and the ‘desires’ of the Muslims, amaniyy (s. umniyya). The logic of these verses clearly indicates that one form of religious prejudice is not to be confronted with another form of the same error, but with an objective, unprejudiced recognition of the inexorable and universal law of divine justice, a law which excludes both religious nationalism and its natural concomitant, intolerance. 41 Given the fact that ‘there is no compulsion in religion’ (2:256), it follows that differences of opinion must be tolerated and not suppressed. This theme is not unconnected with the principle of divine mercy: just as God’s mercy is descri bed as encompassing all things (7:156), so divine guidance through revelation encompasses all human communities. The Prophet is described as a ‘mercy to the whole of creation’ (21:107), and his character is described as merciful and kind in the Qur’an (9:128); in the traditional sources the trait which is most often used to define the essence of his personality is hilm, a forbearance compounded of wisdom and gentleness. The tolerance accorded to the Other by the Prophet is thus an expression not only of knowledge of the universality of revelation, but also of the mercy, love and compassion from which this universal divine will to guide and save all peoples itself springs. Seen thus, the spirit of Islamic tolerance goes infinitely beyond a merely formal toleration of the Other; it is the outward ethical form assumed by one’s conformity to the very nature of the divine, which encompasses all things ‘in mercy and knowledge’ (40:7). It is also a mode of emulation of the prophetic nature: ‘Say [O Muhammad]: If you love God, follow me; God will love you’ (3:31). To follow the Prophet means, among other things, to be gentle and lenient to

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all, in accordance with the hilm which defined his character: ‘It was a mercy from God that you are gently disposed to them; had you been fierce and hard-hearted, they would have fled from you’ (3:159). In regard to the disbelievers, then, the Muslim is enjoined to let them go their way unmolested, to let them believe in their own ‘religion’: ‘Say: O you who disbelieve, I worship not that which you worship, nor do you worship that which I worship. And I shall not worship that which you worship, nor will you worship that which I worship. For you your religion, for me, mine (109:1-6)’. Returning to the duty to deliver the message and no more, there are a number of verses to note; for example: ‘If they submit, they are rightly guided, but if they turn away, you have no duty other than conveying the message ... (3:20)’ ‘If they are averse, We have not sent you as a guardian over them: your duty is but to convey the message (42:48).’ Martin Lings, “With all Thy Mind”, in M. S. Umar, (Ed.) The Religious Other– Towards a Muslim Theology of Other Religions in a Post-Prophetic Age, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore, 2009, pp. ; Also see Martin Lings, “Why ‘With all Thy Mind’”, Ch. III, A Return to the Spirit, Fons Vitae, 2005, p. 29. Arvind Sharma, “Can Muslims Talk to Hindus?” in Sharma has used the translation of Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (New York: The New American Library, 1972), p. 369. “That “ethic and cultural diversity are part of God’s plan, as the Qur’an confirms (49:13)” was a fact accepted [sic. Even] by Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), see Tamara Sonn, A Brief History of Islam (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), p. 127. The verse however is cited here in the context of internal diversity within Islam. I am... kind. By “the crescent and the cross” is meant the historic confrontation between Islam and Christianity that took the form of the Crusades in the Middle Ages. Iqbal is saying that, unlike many other Muslims, who remain mentally imprisoned in the past, allowing their thought and action to be determined by certain crucial events of former times, he is more concerned about the momentous developments taking place in the present age. Iqbal does not specify what he means by “an ordeal of a different kind” (fitnah-i dīgarī)—whether he means a particular major development, like communism, or whether he uses the singular “ordeal” in a generic sense to refer to several major and decisive developments taking place on the world stage. The main point of the verse, in any case, is that the issues of the present and the future have greater claim on one’s attention than issues belonging to a past that may have no more than historical or academic importance. In the second hemistich, “the womb of time” is a translation of damīr-i ayyām, which literally means “in the insides of time.” See M. Mir, (ed.), Iqbāl-Nāmah, Vol. 5, No. 3-4, Summer and Fall, 2005, p. 3-6.

47 ‫فکر فرنگ پیش مجاز آورد سجود‬ ‫بینای کور و مست تماشای رنگ و بوست‬ ‫مشرق خراب و مغرب از آن بیشتر خراب‬ ‫عالم تمام مردہ و بی ذوق جستجوست‬ Zubūr i ‘Ajam, in Kulliyāt i Iqbāl, (Persian), Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Lahore, 1994, p. 376. 48 F. Schuon, Understanding Islam, reprinted, Suhail Academy, Lahore, 2004, pp. 26. 49 That science had changed our world beyond recognition went without saying, but it was the way that it had changed our worldview that concerns us here. More

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importantly, the two worldviews are contending for the mind of the future. The scientific worldview is a wasteland for the human spirit. It cannot provide us the where withal for a meaningful life. How much, then, is at stake? That is the fundamental question. The overarching question relates to the view of Reality; of the WORLDVIEWS: THE BIG PICTURE. It is of great consequence to ask as to WHO WAS RIGHT ABOUT REALITY: TRADITIONALISTS, MODERNISTS, OR THE POSTMODERNS? The problem, according to our lights, is that somewhere, during the course of its historical development, western thought took a sharp turn in a different direction. It branched off as a tangent from the collective heritage of all humanity and claimed the autonomy of reason. It chose to follow reason alone, unguided by revelation and cut off from its transcendent root. Political and social realms quickly followed suit. Autonomous statecraft and excessive individualism in the social order were the elements that shaped a dominant paradigm that did not prove successful. There are five places where these contradict each other.  According to the traditional, religious view spirit is fundamental and matter derivative. The scientific worldview turns this picture on its head.  In the religious worldview human beings are the less who have derived from the more. Science reverses this etiology, positioning humanity as the more that has derived from the less; devoid of intelligence at its start, evolving and advancing to the elevated stature that we human beings now enjoy.  The traditional worldview points toward a happy ending; the scientific worldview does not. As for the scientific worldview, there is no way that a happy ending can be worked into it. Death is the grim reaper of individual lives, and whether things as a whole will end in a freeze or a fry, with a bang or a whimper is anybody’s guess.  This fourth contrast between the competing worldviews concerns meaning. Having been intentionally created by omnipotent Perfection– or flowing from it “like a fountain ever on,”– the traditional world is meaningful throughout. In the scientific worldview, meaning is minimal if not absent. “Our modern understanding of evolution implies that ultimate meaning in life is nonexistent.” Science acknowledges that “the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless.”  In the traditional world people feel at home. Nothing like this sense of belonging can be derived from the scientific worldview which is the dawning of “the age of homelessness.” An age comes to a close when people discover they can no longer understand themselves by the theory their age professes. For a while its denizens will continue to think that they believe it, but they feel otherwise and cannot understand their feelings. This has now happened to our world. Current worldview is not scientific but scientistic. It continue to honour science for what it tells us about nature or the natural order/natural world, but as that is not all that exists, science cannot provide us with a worldview– not a valid one. The most it can show us is half of the world, the half where normative and intrinsic values, existential and ultimate meanings, teleologies, qualities, immaterial realities, and beings that are superior to us do not appear. This important point is not generally recognized, so I shall spell it out. The death-knell to modernity, which had science as its source and hope, was sounded with the realization

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that despite its power in limited regions, six things slip through its controlled experiments in the way sea slips through the nets of fishermen: 1. Values. Science can deal with descriptive and instrumental values, but not with intrinsic and normative ones. 2. Meanings. Science can work with cognitive meanings, but not with existential meanings (Is X meaningful?), or ultimate ones (What is the meaning of life?). 3. Purposes. Science can handle teleonomy– purposiveness in organisms– but not teleology, final causes. 4. Qualities. Quantities science is good at, but not qualities. 5. The invisible and the immaterial. It can work with invisibles that are rigorously entailed by matter’s behaviour (the movements of iron filings that require magnetic fields to account for them, e.g.) but not with others. 6. Our superiors, if such exist. This limitation does not prove that beings greater than ourselves exist, but it does leave the question open, for “absence of e vidence is not evidence of absence”. 50 Already at the opening of the last century, when Postmodernism had not yet emerged on the scene, Yeats was warning that things were falling apart, that the centre didn’t hold. Gertrude Stein followed him by noting that “in the twentieth century nothing is in agreement with anything else,” and Ezra Pound saw man as “hurling himself at indomitable chaos”– the most durable line from the play Green Pastures has been, “Everything that’s tied down is coming loose.” T. S. Eliot found “The Wasteland” and “The Hollow Men” as appropriate metaphors for the outward and the inward aspects of our predicament. It is not surprising, therefore, that when in her last interview Rebecca West was asked to name the dominant mood of our time, she replied, “A desperate search for a pattern.” The search is desperate because it seems futile to look for a pattern when reality has become, in Roland Barth’s vivid image, kaleidoscopic. With every tick of the clock the pieces of experience come down in new array. The views about the prevailing human predicament converge. Fresh “infusions” are needed. The opinions about the nature and origin of these fresh “infusions” that could rectify or change it for the better are, however, divergent. Some of our cotemporaries try to find an alternative from within the dominant paradigm. Others suggest the possibility of a search for these fresh “infusions” in a different direction: different cultures, other civilizations, religious doctrines, sapiential traditions. 51 The fundamental message of the Qur’an as regards all previous revelations is one of inclusion not exclusion, protection and not destruction. Arguably the most important verse in this regard is: ‘We have revealed unto you the Scripture with the Truth, to confirm and protect the Scripture which came before it ... For each We have appointed a Law and a Way. Had God willed, He could have made you one community. But that He might try you by that which He has given you [He has made you as you are]. So vie with one another in good works. Unto God you will all return, and He will inform you of that wherein you differed’ (5:48). 52 Fortuyn’s religious views are detailed in his book Against the Islamisation of our Culture, published in 1997 (cited in Angus Roxburgh, Preachers of Hate: The Rise of the Far Right , London, 2002, 163) to celebrate Israel’s fiftieth birthday. He believed that Islam, unlike his own strongly-affirmed Christianity, is a ‘backward culture’, with an inadequate view of God and an inbuilt hostility to European culture. He called for

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massive curbs on Muslim immigration, and for greater stress on Holland’s Christian heritage. A prominent homosexual activist, Fortuyn also condemned Islam’s opposition to same-sex marriage. Cited in Angus Roxburgh, Preachers of Hate: The Rise of the Far Right, London, 2002, 163. The Prophet was asked: ‘which religion is most loved by God?’ His answer can be seen as a succinct commentary on the above verse. Instead of referring to such and such a religion, he highlights the key character trait which should be infused into the soul by all religions, or by religion as such; whichever religion is most successful in producing this trait becomes ‘the most beloved’ religion to God: “The primordial, generously tolerant faith” (al-hanafiyya al-samha). This strongly authenticated saying highlights the centrality of tolerance to the religious endeavour as such; it also implies, as does verse 49:13, the absolute equality of all believers, the sole permissible hierarchy within humanity being that based on intrinsic piety, not on such extrinsic factors as gender or affiliation to tribe or nation, race or religion. Given this view of equality on the human plane, and the Islamic belief in universal and cyclical revelation– no community being deprived of authentic divine revelation and guidance– intolerance of the Other is reprehensible both morally and spiritually. The spectacle of Muslim Ottoman tolerance was something to which Christendom was used: ‘Better the turban of the Sultan than the mitre of the Pope’, was a well-worn saying among Eastern Orthodox Christians, acutely aware of the fact that their rights were more secure under the Ottomans than under their Catholic co-religionists. Ottoman conquest was followed almost without exception by Islamic tolerance of the conquered peoples. She argues convincingly that this Ottoman tolerance decisively influenced the process leading to the famous Edict of Torda in 1568, issued by King John Sigismund of Transylvania (which was under Ottoman suzerainty), an edict hailed by western historians as expressing ‘the first European policy of expansive religious toleration.’ Susan Ritchie, ‘The Islamic Ottoman Influence on the Development of Religious Toleration in Reformation Transylvania’, in Seasons—Semi-annual Journal of Zaytuna Institute, vol.2, no.1, pp.62, 59. Norman Daniel, Islam, Europe and Empire (Edinburgh, 1966), p.12. Many Jews fleeing from persecution in central Europe would have received letters like the following, written by Rabbi Isaac Tzarfati, who reached the Ottomans just before their capture of Constantinople in 1453, replying to those Jews of central Europe who were calling out for help: ‘Listen, my brethren, to the counsel I will give you. I too was born in Germany and studied Torah with the German rabbis. I was driven out of my native country and came to the Turkish land, which is blessed by God and filled with all good things. Here I found rest and happiness … Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We are not oppressed with heavy taxes, and our commerce is free and unhindered … every one of us lives in peace and freedom. Here the Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow hat as a badge of shame, as is the case in Germany, where even wealth and great fortune are a curse for the Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians … Arise, my brethren, gird up your loins, collect your forces, and come to us. Here you will be free of your enemies, here you will find rest …’ Quoted in S. A. Schleifer, ‘Jews and Muslims—A Hidden History’, in The Spirit of Palestine (Barcelona, 1994), p. 8. As Erwin Rosenthal writes, ‘The Talmudic age apart, there is perhaps no more

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formative and positive time in our long and chequered history than that under the empire of Islam.’ One particularly rich episode in this ‘golden age’ was experienced by the Jews of Muslim Spain. Such great Jewish luminaries as Maimonides and Ibn Gabirol wrote their philosophical works in Arabic, and were fully ‘at home’ in Mus lim Spain. With the expulsion, murder or forced conversion of all Muslims and Jews following the reconquista of Spain–brought to completion with the fall of Granada in 1492 –it was to the Ottomans that the exiled Jews turned for refuge and protection. They were welcomed in Muslim lands throughout north Africa, joining the settled and prosperous Jewish communities already there. We have the following interesting contemporary testimony to the practice of Muslim tolerance, from within the Christian community itself. In the middle of the 10th century embassies were exchanged between the court of Otto I of Germany and court of Cordoba. One such delegation was led by John of Gorze in 953 who met the resident bishop of Cordoba, who explained to him, how the Chri stians survived: “We have been driven to this by our sins, to be subjected to the rule of the pagans. We are forbidden by the Apostle’s words to resist the civil power. Only one cause of solace is left to us, that in the depths of such a great calamity, they do not forbid us to practise our own faith … For the time being, then, we keep the following counsel: that provided no harm is done to our religion, we obey them in all else, and do their commands in all that does not affect our faith. Richard Fletcher, The Cross and the Crescent—Christianity and Islam from Muhammad to the Reformation (New York/London, 2004), p. 48. Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton, 1984), p. 8. Mark Cohen, ‘Islam and the Jews: Myth, Counter-Myth, History’, in Jerusalem Quarterly, no.38, 1986, p.135. Islam teaches that tolerance, far from being the preserve of this or that religion, is a universal ethical imperative which must be infused into the moral fibre of each human being. This imperative acquires additional urgency given the fact that human society is characterised by a divinely-willed diversity of religions and cultures. Without tolerance, diversity is jeopardised; without diversity, the God-given nature of humanity is violated. If the diversity of religions and cultures is an expression of the wisdom of divine revelation, then tolerance of the differences which will always accompany that diversity becomes not just an ethical obligation to our fellow-creatures, but also a mode of respecting and reflecting the wisdom of the Creator. That wisdom is inextricably bound up with mercy, for God encompasses all things ‘ in mercy and knowledge’ (40:7). From the point of view of the sacred vision of Islam, tolerance is not just a noble human ethic, it is also, and above all, an invitation to participate in the compassionate wisdom of the Creator. A quick survey of the region would be in order here. In Norway, the 1997 election saw the sudden appearance of the anti-immigrant Progress Party of Carl Hagen, which now holds twenty-five out of a hundred and sixty-five parliamentary seats. Similar to Hagen’s group is the Swiss People’s Party, which commands 22.5% of the popular vote in Switzerland, and has been widely compared to the Freedom Party of Jorg Haider, which in 1999 joined the Austrian coalition government. In Denmark, the rapidly-growing ultranationalist DPP has become the third most popular party, benefiting from widespread popular dislike of Muslims. Its folksy housewife-leader Pia Kiaersgaard opposes entry into the Eurozone, rails against

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‘welfare cheats’, and is famous for her outbursts against Islam. ‘I think the Muslims are a problem,’ she stated in a recent interview. ‘It’s a problem in a Christian country to have too many Muslims.’ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/ europe/2000/far_right/] In Britain, the same tendency has to some extent been paralleled in the recent growth of the British National Party. A cassette recording issued by the party, entitled ‘Islam: A Threat to Us All: A Joint Statement by the British National Party, Sikhs and Hindus’, describes itself as ‘a common effort to expose and resist the innate aggression of the imperialistic ideology of Islam’. As with its Continental allies, the BNP is gaining popularity by abandoning racist language, and by attempting to forge alliances with non-Muslim Asians and Blacks. The result has been documents such as the October 2001 ‘Anti-Islam Supplement’ of the BNP newsletter Identity, which ended with an appeal to ‘Join Our Crusade’. The chairman of the BNP, Nick Griffin, wades in with discussions of ‘The Islamic Monster’ and the ‘New Crusade for the Survival of the West’. [http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles.html]. In July 2001, Griffin and his skinheads polled 16% of the votes in Oldham West: the highest postwar vote for any extremist party in the UK. Nonetheless, British fascism remains less popular than most of its European counterparts. An issue to consider, no doubt, as Muslim communities ponder their response to growing British participation in schemes for European integration, and the long-term possibility of a federal European state. To offer a final, more drastic example of how such attitudes are no longer marginal, but have penetrated the mainstream and contribute to the shaping of policy, often with disastrous results. On the outbreak of the Bosnian war, the German magazine Der Spiegel told its readers that ‘Soon Europe could have a fanatical theocratic state on its doorstep.’ [Cited in Andrea Lueg, ‘The Perception of Islam in Western Debate’, in Jochen Hippler and Andrea Lueg (eds), The Next Threat: Western Perceptions of Islam, London: Pluto Press, 1995, p.9.] (The logic no doubt appealed to the thirty-eight percent of Germans polled in [Brandenburg]who recently expressed support for a far-right party’s policy on ‘foreigners’. [The Independent, 5 October 1999.]). The influential American commentator R.D. Kaplan, much admired by Bill Clinton, thought that ‘[a] cultural curtain is descending in Bosnia to replace the [Berlin] wall, a curtain separating the Christian and Islamic worlds.’ [Cited by Lueg, op. cit., p.11] Again, those who travelled through that ‘curtain’ can do no more than record that the opposite appeared to be the case. Far from reducing to essences, in this case, a pacific, pluralistic Christianity confronting a totalitarian and belligerent Islam, the Bosnian war, despite its complexities, usually presented a pacific, defensive Muslim community struggling for a multiethnic vision of society against a Christian aggressor committed to preserving the supposed ethnic hygiene of local Christendom. In Bosnia the stereotypes were so precisely reversed that it is remarkable that they could have survived at all. Here the Christians were the ‘Oriental barbarians’, while the Muslims represented the ‘European ideal’ of parliamentary democracy and conviviality. Neither can we explain away the challenge to stereotypes by asserting that religion was a minor ingredient in the very secularized landscape of post-Titoist Yugoslavia. The Bosnian President was a mosque-going Muslim who had been imprisoned for his beliefs under the Communists. The Muslim religious hierarchy had

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been consistent in its support for a multiethnic, integrated Bosnian state. Ranged against them were all the forces of the local Christian Right, as the Greek Orthodox synod conferred its highest honour, the Order of St Denis of Xante, on Serb radical leader Radovan Karadzic. Ignoring the unanimous verdict of human rights agencies, the Greek Synod apparently had no qualms about hailing him as ‘one of the most prominent sons of our Lord Jesus Christ, working for peace.’ [Michael Sells, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, p. 85.] This is, if you like, its Ishmaelite uniqueness: the religions that spring from Isaac ( a.s.), are, in our understanding, an extension of Hebrew and Occidental particularity, while Islam is universal. Islam’s civilizational eminence stemmed from a spectacular plenitude. In particular, we may identify distinctive high civilizations among Muslim Africans, Arabs, Turks (including Central Asians), Persians (including, as an immensely fertile extension, Muslim India), and the population of the Malay archipelago, radiating from the complex court cultures of Java. The alternative is poverty, failure, and - just possibly - the B52s. In fact, we could propose as the key distinction between a great religion and a sect the ability of the former to accommodate and respect substantial diversity. Fortuyn, and other European politicians, seek to build a new Iron Curtain between Islam and Christendom, on the assumption that Islam is an ideology functionally akin to communism, or to the traditional churches of Europe. The great tragedy is that some of our brethren would agree with him. There are many Muslims who are happy to describe Islam as an ideology. One suspects that they have not troubled to look the term up, and locate its totalitarian and positivistic undercurrents. It is impossible to deny that certain formulations of Islam in the twentieth century resembled European ideologies, with their obsession with the latest certainties of science, their regimented cellular structure, their utopianism, and their implicit but primary self-definition as advocates of communalism rather than of metaphysical responsibility. The Independent July 28, 2002. There are, of course, significant oversimplications in this analysis. There are some individuals in the new movements who do have a substantial grounding in Islamic studies. And the juxtaposition of ‘political’ and ‘Islam’ will always be redundant, given that the Islamic, Ishmaelite message is inherently liberative, and hence militantly opposed to oppression. On the ground, the West is keener to export than to import, to shape, rather than be shaped. As such, its universalism can seem imperial and hierarchical, driven by corporations and strategic imperatives that owe nothing whatsoever to non-Western cultures, and acknowledge their existence only where they might turn out to be obstacles. Likewise, Westerners, when they settle outside their cultural area, almost never assimilate to the culture which newly surrounds them. Particularly the Islamized version of Aristotle which, via Ibn Rushd, took fourteenthcentury Italy by storm. The stress on the individual, the reluctance to establish clerical hierarchies which hold sway over earthly kingdoms, the generalized dislike of superstition, the slowness to persecute for the sake of credal difference: all these may well be European transformations that were eased, or even enabled, by the transfusion

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of a certain kind of Muslim wisdom from Spain.It has been made with particular elegance by Roger Garaudy, for whom its highest expression unfolded in medieval Cordova, a city which witnessed a combination of revealed and rational wisdom so sophisticated that it was a ‘first Renaissance’. Saint-Simon and others had claimed that the Middle Ages ended once Arab science was transmitted to the West. The case for classical Islam as an enlightenment that succeeded in retaining the sovereignty of God thus seems a credible one. It has been made with particular elegance by Roger Garaudy, for whom its highest expression unfolded in medieval Cordova, a city which witnessed a combination of revealed and rational wisdom so sophisticated that it was a ‘first Renaissance’. Saint-Simon and others had claimed that the Middle Ages ended once Arab science was transmitted to the West. Also see Luce Lopez-Baralt, The Sufi Trobar Clus, IAP, Lahore, 2000. For the humanities, George Makdisi traces European humanism to Islamic antecedents72 saying that “‘the evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of the reception of both movements, scholasticism and humanism, from classical Islam by the Christian Latin West.” Roger Garaudy, Promesses de l’ Islam (Paris: Seuil, 1981), 19. Take, for instance, the American Jewish philosopher Peter Ochs, for whom the Enlightenment did away with Jewish faith in God, while the Holocaust did away with Jewish faith in humanity. As he writes: “They lost faith in a utopian humanism that promised: ‘Give up your superstitions! Abandon the ethnic and religious traditions that separate us one from the other! Subject all aspects of life to rational scrutiny and the disciplines of science! This is how we will be saved.’ It didn’t work. Not that science and rationalit y are unworthy; what failed was the effort to abstract these from their setting in the ethics and wisdoms of received tradition.” (Peter Ochs, ‘The God of Jews and Christians’, in Tikva Frymer-Kensky et al., Christianity in Jewish Terms (Boulder and Oxford, 2000), 54.) Another voice from deep in the American Jewish intellectual tradition that many in the Muslim world assume provides the staunchest advocates of the Enlightenment. This time it is Irving Greenberg: “ The humanistic revolt for the ‘liberation’ of humankind from centuries of dependence upon God and nature has been shown to sustain a capacity for demonic evil. Twentieth-century European civilization, in part the product of the Enlightenment and liberal culture, was a Frankenstein that authored the German monster’s being. […] Moreover, the Holocaust and the failure to confront it make a repetition more likely - a limit was broken, a control or awe is gone - and the murder procedure is now better laid out and understood. (Irving Greenberg, ‘Judaism, Christianity and Partnership after the Twentieth Century’, in Frymer-Kensky, op. cit., 26.) Iqbal, identifying himself with the character Zinda-Rud in his Javid Nama (Pilgrimage of Eternity), declaims, to consummate the final moment of his own version of the Mi‘raj: Inqilab-i Rus u Alman dide am: ‘I have seen the revolutions of Russia and of Germany!’ Iqbal, Javid-Nama, translated from the Persian with introduction and notes, by Arthur J. Arberry (London, 1966), 140. This in a great, final crying-out to God. The implications of the collapse of Enlightenment reason for theology have been sketched out by George Lindbeck in his The Nature of Doctrine: religion and theology in a postliberal age (London, 1984). Traditional Islam, as is scripturally evident, cannot sanction either policy. Extremism, however, has been probably the more damaging of the two. Al-Bukhari and Muslim both narrate from A‘isha, (r.a.), the hadith that runs: ‘Allah loves kindness is all matters.’ Imam Muslim also narrates from Ibn Mas‘ud, (r.a.), that the Prophet

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(salla’Llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam) said: ‘Extremists shall perish’ (halaka ’l-mutanatti‘ūn). Commenting on this, Imam al-Nawawi defines extremists as ‘fanatical zealots’ (almuta‘ammiqūn al-ghālūn), who are simply ‘too intense’ (al-mushaddidūn). “Faith in the future: Islam after the Enlightenment”, First Annual Altaf Gauhar Memorial Lecture, Islamabad, 23 December 2002. David Hume expressed the problem as follows: If the reason be asked of that obedience which we are bound to pay to government, I readily answer: Because society could not otherwise subsist; and this answer is clear and intelligible to all mankind. Your answer is, Because we should keep our word. But besides that, nobody, till trained in a philosophical system, can either comprehend or relish this answer; besides this, say, you find yourself embarrassed when it is asked, Why we are bound to keep our word? Nor can you give any answer but what would immediately, without any circuit, have accounted for our obligation to allegiance. David Hume, Essays (Oxford, 1963), 469. In spite of all stereotypes, the degree of violence in the Muslim world remains far less than that of Western lands governed by the hope of a persuasive secular social contract. [17] Perhaps this is inevitable: the Enlightenment was, after all, nothing but the end of the Delphic principle that to know the world we must know and refine and uplift ourselves. Before Descartes, Locke and Hume, all the world had taken spirituality to be the precondition of philosophical knowing. Without love, selfdiscipline, and care for others, that is to say, without a transformation of the human subject, there could be no knowledge at all. The Enlightenment, however, as Descartes foresaw, would propose that the mind is already self-sufficient and that moral and spiritual growth are not preconditions for intellectual eminence, so that they might function to shape the nature of its influence upon society. Not only is the precondition of the transformation of the subject repudiated, but the classical idea, shared by the religions and the Greeks, that access to truth itself brings about a personal transformation, is dethroned just as insistently. [This has been discussed with particular clarity by Michel Foucault, L’Hermeneutique du sujet: Cours au College de France (1981-2) (Paris, 2001), pp.16-17] Relationality is disposable, and the laundromat turns out to be a centrifuge. Vaclav Havel could write that ‘the totalitarian systems warn of something far more serious than Western rationalism is willing to admit. They are […] a grotesquely magnified image of its own deep tendencies, an extremist offshoot of its own development’ (William Ophuls, Requiem for Modern Politics: the tragedy of the Enlightenment and the challenge of the new millennium [Boulder and Oxford: Westview, 1997], 258); this seems somewhat outdated. Hans-Georg Gadamer, tr. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall, Truth and Method (second edition, London: Sheed and Ward, 1989), 281. Is this what Melville, whose days in Turkey had made him an admirer of Islam, meant when he made Ishmael the only survivor of the Pequod? Martin Lings, A Return to the Spirit, Fons Vitae, 2005, p. 28.

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IMAGERY OF WITHDRAWAL, VIOLENCE AND
DESTRUCTION IN THE KĀLĪKRAMA
Aleksandra Wenta


Imaging the construction of the power-reality in the Kashmiri Śaiva Tradition In the Kashmiri Śaiva Tradition, imagination is generally held to be the power of the cognitive mind that gives rise to the self-referential awareness configured exactly as the process of reflecting on the transcendent-cum-immanent nature of consciousness. To assume, in conformity with the Kashmiri Śaivaites, that imagination is congruent with ‘becoming aware’, is to portend the profoundly transformative shift from the mere possibility to concrete actualization of the supreme knowledge (śuddhavidyā). Qualitative features of imagination rest upon the theory of absolute non-dualism (paramādvaita) conceiving the entire universe as a manifestation of the supreme consciousness. In effect, transparent and all-pervading consciousness is vindicated by the unity and continuity of its self-contained embrace that ties the knot of intrinsic relatedness between immanence and transcendence. This assumption dramatically alters character of imagination transforming it into a valid tool of self-awareness aspiring for the ultimate realization. Furthermore, the theory of absolute non-dualism (paramādvaita), entrenched in the curious unity of its non-dual substance underlying the whole phenomena, annihilates the imposition of distinction between mind and matter in conformity with supposition that confers equal status of existential authenticity to both. Though admitting an irremediable ontological equanimity to an imaginary flower and to a common flower (that can be


A polish Sāivite scholar presently working on a research project at Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, HP

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touched and smelled), it attempts at showing that all apparently opposed phenomena truly belong to the manifestation of the supreme consciousness1 that pervades (vyāpti) the entire universe. Apart from the vast range of philosophical issues thematized within this conceptual framework, the role of imagination forming the mental objects is particularly highlighted in the domain of religious ritual where it is employed in the techniques of contemplation (sattarka, bhāvanā, avadhāna). As such, imagination is a powerful tool particularly attentive to the construction of the sacred reality embodied in the powers one wants to obtain and control. Visualization of the deities and divine beings whose appearances are typified by in-built regulations of the particular tradition to which they belong, entails empowerment of the practitioner that can be used for acquirement of the magical powers (siddhi) or for the sake of purely spiritual merits (mokśa). In the Kālīkrama, regarded as one of the most esoteric schools of the Kashmiri Śaiva Tradition permeating religious landscape of the early medieval Kashmir, imaginative contemplation involves concentration on the Goddess Kālī the main deity of this tradition. Kālīkrama system is one of the earliest traditions of Kashmir Śaivism elaborated in the first half of the ninth century in Uççiyāna (Kashmir). Said to have been instructed supernaturally by the Goddess Kālī herself to Śivānanda alias Jñānanetra who was considered to be the first preceptor of the system. The term ‘krama’, literally ‘sequence’ refers to the mystical cult of the Goddess Kālī and her emanations. In the canonical declamation, Kālī is the image of the omnipotent death and destruction. Therefore, imagery of destruction employed in the contemplative absorptions is directed to construction of the power-reality giving possibility for the mystical realization of the Goddess Kālī. The theme of annihilation specifically belongs to the ‘mood’ (bhāva) of Kālī, insofar as she embodies the cosmic power of withdrawal (saṁhārakrama). Established within this destructive mode of expression, Kālī and her attendants inhabiting the sacred domain of the ritual are visualized by the practitioner in their respective facades of terrifying and violent features. Kālī brings forth the world of phenomenal existence to manifestation by means of her creative imagination (kalpāna) which is congruent with generation of time (kalate). Her creative imagination (kalpāna) embodies dynamics of consciousness entrenched in the mode of withdrawal (saṁhārakrama) that unfolds/retracts within the three-fold structure of emission, maintenance and dissolution. In this way, each act of perception is issued forth with intention of its subsequent dissolution.2 The same goes on

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with time which is brought forth in order to be devoured by the Goddess Kālī the embodiment of the principle of time. Ritualistic aspect of the Kālīkrama puts emphasis on the notion of liberation, that can be achieved through assimilation with the Goddess Kālī herself, by replicating her creative imagination (kalpāna) embodied in the sequence of the cognitive process of an adept following the same three-fold sequence: 1) emission of the sense-perception in the field of consciousness (srshti), 2) maintenance of the sense-perception for a certain duration of time (sthiti), and afterwards, 3) dissolution ( saṁhāra) to the undifferentiated potentiality ( anākhya). The creative imagination (kalpāna) undertaken by the Goddess Kālī is generated by the intensification of the state of withdrawal of this three-fold configuration: emission, maintenance and dissolution. The theme of destruction presupposed in imaginative consciousness of the Krama yogi reflects this simple determination of the withdrawal-based creative imagination of the Goddess Kālī. Imaging is implicated by the stages of absorptions or withdrawals complemented by mystic immersion evolved from the sensory experience. Defining imagination sattarka, bhāvanā, avadhāna Imagination as a contemplative practice directed towards mystical realization of the Goddess Kālī assumes a central place in the Kālīkrama. In a structural sense, imagination is intended for a certain conditioning of the ordinary consciousness that involves intuitive reasoning, visualization and attentive awareness. Perhaps more striking, in all these components of imagination, the intellect ( buddhi) plays a vital role. The intellect (dhï) which is compared to the effulgent brilliance ( tejas) is an instrument by means of which dissolution and final repose of the activities of mind (citta vishrāma) takes place.3 The intellect is conceived as an instrument of knowledge endowed with mental stability (dhairya, sthairya) that has ascended above the empirical, differentiated level of consideration, and thus comprises a mystical cognition that ‘all is one’. Mental stability, so comprehended, reaches significantly farther, or we might rather say, to the final destination, for, it terminates with the ultimate realization of Kālī’s nature. The Kramasadbhāva, one of the root texts of the Kālīkrama avers: ‘Lay hold of this strength, the essence of mental firmness (dhairyasadbhāva), which is named Kālïka, stainless (niraṅjana)’4. This setting appears less paradoxical, if we bear in mind that tradition of the Kālīkrama is considered to be the representative of the

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spiritual means (upāya), known as the method of power ( śāktopāya). The salient feature of this upāya is its cognitive character based only on the cognitive energy (jȧñnashakti) that utilizes the mental process ( citti) employed in functioning of the inner mental organs ( antaìkāraṅa) intellect (buddhi), egoity (ahaṁkāra) and mind (manas). However, in the perspective of the Kashmiri Śaiva Tradition, to which Kālīkrama belongs, the cognitive process is founded not only on this strong mental basis, but also on its religious utilization in service of liberation. As a matter of fact, mind is not so much an agent of cold logical deliberation, but rather the primordial cause for t he ‘sacred intellectualization’ granting profound mystical insight into the true nature of things. a) Sattarka and bhāvanā Intuitive reasoning (sattarka) and mental imagination (bhāvanā) are considered to be mystical practices following the mode of intellectual reflection or ‘sacred intellectualization’ determining a set of rapturous absorptions. They indicate foremost ‘an imagination conceived as an efficient and creative power which tends to identify itself with the imagined object’5 but have also a strong concomitance with the concepts of ‘spiritual efficiency, infused contemplation, intense creative imagination, evocation of imagination, conviction and obscure impulse’. 6 The 10-11th century Kashmiri Abhinavagupta, the most revered theologian of the Kashmiri Śaiva Tradition considers sattarka as the highest limp of yoga taking into account its great soteriological efficiency. 7 Intuitive reasoning (sattarka) and mental imagination (bhāvanā) are generated by the intensification of the process of withdrawal which takes place three-fold as emission, persistence and destruction. This method implies a kind of repeated reflection, employed in visualization of the various forms of Kālī engaged in destruction, marking the entryway to the purification of thought-constructs (vikalpa-saṁskāra). However, here visualization should not be understood as the contemplation on the concrete object of thought towards which the practitioner turns his attention, but rather as a sudden immersion in retroactive dynamism of one’s own consciousness that consigns the sequence ( krama) of emission, persistence and dissolution of the sense-perceptions into the purifying fire of the non-sequential (akrama) withdrawal. This purification of thought-constructs (vikalpa-saṁskāra) includes both process (krama) and its absence (akrama) and gives rise to the awakening of Pure Knowledge (śuddhavidyā) by means of which the

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non-dual nature of reality becomes clearly apparent. In this way, expansion of consciousness that occurs along with intense projection of the different forms of Kālī is paradoxically sustained by the process of withdrawal (vilāpanakrama) which is a reverse condition of the process of creation (udayakrama). This intensification of destructive tendency is the mode which renders things their true being. The aim of the practices of imaginative deliberation is to acquire a firm conviction (niścaya). In virtue of a firm conviction, an affirmation of one’s own nature nondifferent from the ultimate principle is ascertained. ‘I am all this’ is the purest thought-construct, therefore, an adept who recognizes his own true nature in the entire phenomena becomes a universal agent of mental representations and attains a state of the Goddess Kālī. b) Avadhāna The attentive awareness (avadhāna) is yet another term used in the KAlīkrama scriptures for description of imaginative contemplation. The Mahānayaprākaśa of Trivandrum describes avadhāna in the following words: ‘By constant attention (avadhāna) to one’s own reflective awareness (vimarsha) (from Kālāgni to śiva), the existence of all universe is suddenly (sāhasa) dissolved away (viciyat) into one’s own nature. Thus, by constant attention to the abiding state (sthiti) which is one’s own essential nature, by laying hold (grāha) of all attachment (Āgraha), liberation in this life manifests. That attention is practiced by attending to the innate nature of the subject who experiences the objects of sense (viśaya) by the firmness (sthairya) which is the undetermined thought-construct (avikalpavikalpa). The best of yogis should abide firmly fixed (in the practice) of supreme attention which roots out all obscuring coverings by making firm his own nature (svarêpadārdhya)’.8 The practice of constant attention (avadhāna) engages mindfulness the reflective awareness (vimarśa) as a means supporting a sudden (sāhasa) dissolution of the thirty-six cosmic principles (from Kālāgni to śiva) into one’s own true nature.9 Moreover, this attentiveness is supported by firmness (sthairya) that successfully seizes generation of desires generally presupposed in an impending determination of mental constructs. Evident application of this constant attention entrenched in firmness brings cessation to the differentiated mental formations. An adept who attends to the sphere of phenomenal existences unsullied by

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the sense of attachment, becomes liberated in life. In the same manner as practices described in the previous paragraphs, avadhāna is also the means of purification taking place through dissolution of the impure thought-constructs. Visualizations of the terrifying forms of Kālī import this kind of reflective awareness that helps to eradicate vestiges of thought-constructs. Considering avadhāna as a unique practice, one issue should be stressed, namely firmness (sthairya). As a method for remaining alert, firmness is a necessary condition responsible for deepening of the reflective awareness. Firmness strengthens mind due to which its usual tendency to fickleness is overcome. It supports sustained concentration directed towards dissociation of accidental stirrings of the mental processes. Finally, it grants the access to undetermined consciousness and bestows liberation from one’s own individuality. Death as a theme of praxis - imagery of withdrawal, violence and destruction In the spiritual context, imagination is a field of nullification of differentiated thought-constructs that belong to the ordinary level of awareness. In fact, the visions of furious Kālīs are invoked to activate this process insofar as an adept inserts himself in this imagery of destruction and confers on it a status of spiritual legacy. A practitioner who plunges into this meditative visions identifies himself with objects of his contemplation with the powers representing cosmic dissolution. Therefore, imagery of withdrawal, violence and destruction acts as the symbols of transcendence that wrest from the ‘body’ of Kālī. This network of images is the mode of possession (Āvesha) mounted on merging into the body of Kālī that leads an adept to a state of divine union (samāvesha) and to the total realization of his identity with the ultimate principle of the Goddess Kālī. a) The Cremation Ground The Kālīkrama has developed on the basis of very sophisticated, esoteric teachings related to the powerful deities of frightful facades the residents of the cremation ground appointed to their destructive activity. The image of the cremation ground assumes an unquestionable importance in the Kālīkrama on account of lineage ancestry, locating residence of several gurus in the most sacred cremation ground in UÇÇiyāna, called Kāravīra, These gurus were the Skull-Bearers (Kāpālikas) famous for their most abhorrent practices. Exegetically, the Krama’s revealed scriptures claim to have position of the supreme

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authority in elaboration of the secret esoteric teachings, because they were written in the actual place of the Kāravīra cremation ground. The Kāravīra cremation ground, regarded as the material location of the Goddess Kālī, is ruled by a symbolic system of codes, set into powerfully potent mythological and ritualistic realm. The great cemetery (māhaśmaśāna) is equated with the condition of supreme undifferentiation (akula) in which the world of phenomenal existence reaches its final repose.10 The transference to the mythological realm of the cremation ground aims at establishing the spatial location abiding within the frames of imagination that would have a desirable dissolving impact upon ordinary consciousness. It is a prelude to the experience of disintegration of the exclusive ego11, when, after successfully completed phase of dissolution (symbolized by the cremation ground), one can begin to forge the new enlightened consciousness. By the act of meditative interiorization, the one who becomes absorbed into contemplation on the fire of his own consciousness, enters the cremation ground of his own body, terrible with the funeral pyres wherein all latent traces of the past actions (karman) are burnt to ashes. In a particular way, the cremation ground relates to the heart the seat of consciousness, for it is the spot where differentiated nature of mental constructs is permanently devoured by the fire of great destruction.12 b) The Fire of Time (kālāgni) Kālī is commonly identified with the image of fire devouring time (kāla). This image is important if we bear in mind that fire exists exclusively by means of its fuel and after the fuel is finished, it is destined for the final disappearance. The Fire of Time (kālāgni) is twelve-fold insofar as it stands for diversification of the universal time divided into twelve months of the year. In this sense, the Fire of Time constitutes the basis of human existence because it binds people to death by aging process. However, an adept can be released from the bonds of time when he employs the practice of contemplation on the devouring Fire of Time that leads to cosmicization of the individual body. The macrocosmic dissolution is projected into the microcosm of human corporeality. In this way, the principle of time itself, along with its destructive ‘becoming’, functions as an instrument of liberation. The practice of dissolution embodied in the Fire of Time ( kālāgni) burning ‘fortress of the body’ is given in the Vijṅānabhairava:

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‘One should meditate on one’s own fortress (the body) as if it were consumed by the Fire of Time, rising from the foot. At the end of this meditation the peaceful state will appear.’13 According to the Tantrāloka, on the macrocosmic level, the Fire of Time (kālāgni) is the agency of dissolution awakening at the end of each cosmic eon that rises up to the underworld and spreads out its flames throughout the universe. After dissolution is completed, the beginning of a new cosmic cycle takes place. The cosmic dissolution follows the mode of return that engulfs the universe from the lowest plane of the nivrtti kalā to the highest plane of the shāntatïtkalā.14 The lowest phase of manifestation called ‘cessation’ (nivrtti) corresponds to the Fire of Time (kālāgni), the highest phase called ‘beyond tranquility’ ( shāntatïta) that gives rise to the experience of peacefulness, is the state of Śiva. On the microcosmic level of yogic body, the Fire of Time is a tool of pervasion (vyāpti) when a spiritual adept, as a part of ritual procedure, places (nyāsa) the letters of the alphabet on the limps of his body, beginning with the left toe (kālāgni) and ending with the top of the head (Shāntatïta). The Fire of Time (kālāgni) instigating devouring conflagration stands, therefore, for microcosmic equivalent of cosmic dissolution that ultimately leads spiritual adept to the experience of peaceful state. This process is connoted with esoteric teachings of the Kālīkrama.15 Kshemarāja in the commentary on the verse six of the Sivasutras leaves us in no doubt about this connection when he says thus: ‘when union by awareness of this wheel of energies ( shakticakra)16 which has been made manifest is established according to the appropriate manner as described in the secret scriptures then occurs the disappearance of the universe from Kālāgni up to the ultimate Sāntātïta kalā, that is to say, though external existence may continue in the form of the body and other external objects, it is reduced to sameness with the fire of the highest consciousness’. 17 Invoked in this powerful meditation, the Fire of Time ( Kālāgni) that burns the ‘fortress of the body’ purports to articulate retroactive model of consciousness, that in an act of reversal (pratyavrttikrama), sustains the process of cosmic dissolution letting oneself to be disengaged from the bonds of temporality. 18 In faithful attunement with this imaginary process, the annihilation of the sense of distinctiveness is accomplished. More is meant still by this what dissipates the endless pursuit of the sensory awareness. This meditative practice, at its apogee, offers fiery assimilation with the highest consciousness the Goddess Kālī.

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c)

Violent Baking (hashthapāka) and Total Devouring (Alaṁgrāsa)

As we have mentioned before, the unique treasure of the Kālïkrama tradition lies in the specific concept of the supreme consciousness conceived as the series of withdrawals conditioned by the degrees of intensity. The greater is the intensity of destruction, the better is the chance of reaching the desirable threshold free of impending determination of thought-constructs. In the Kālïkrama, dissolution (saṁhāra) is not a final phase, though, even when thought-constructs have retracted (saṁhāra) from the field of consciousness, their impressions still exist in a latent state and silent they are about to surface again. Therefore, dissolution (saṁhāra) requires another destruction. This intensification of the destructive tendency emphasized by the sequence of the destruction of destruction ( saṁhārasaṁhārakrama) is brought about by the processes of violent baking ( hashthapāka) and total devouring (alaṁgrāsa). The vehement power of absorption congruent with the process of forceful baking ( hashthapāka) is the witness of fast maturation of the latent traces of thought-constructs (saṁskāra) when ‘raw’ potentiality becomes ‘cooked’ by the process of violent heating. Alaṁgrāsa is not so much a separate process, but rather a personality of the hashthapāka which draws the latent traces of thought-constructs to the final extermination. The adjectives ‘violent’ ( hashtha) and ‘total’ confront us with imagery of uncontrolled dynamics of the digestive track instigated by the vehement power of complete absorption. Indeed, the theme of destruction is closely associated with act of eating. The beginnings of this conceptual association can be traced back to the Upanisads. In the kālïkrama, the act of eating, digesting and assimilating implies a unique ‘digestive awareness’ that entails perpetual assimilation of the latent residual traces (saṁskāra) entrenched in the clutches of transmigration (saṁsāra) intended for their complete annihilation. In the microcosm of the yogic body, ‘baking’ takes place in the stomach where the gastric fire (jashthāgni) that digests food is located. It is known as Bhairava’s fire by means of which ‘yogis can realize the unity of consciousness by virtue of which duality is assimilated into consciousness rapidly and with great force ( hashtha)’.19 Apart from individual level symbolized by yogic stomach, this process has also a macrocosmic dimension represented by the Great Wheel of Bhairava. This incisively radical nature is meant to exterminate the latent traces of the entire universal objectivity. In the pictorial representation, the Great Wheel of Bhairava takes a form of the whirlpool of fire, its rapid rotation enclosed within the circles of fire consumes the faint residual traces to

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the point of their final extermination. Akin to the meditative vision, the objective universe dissolves into the whirlpool of fiery conflagration and then into consciousness prepared for it. As the merger of all being, it ultimately reveals the true form of voidness, free from all objects20. d) The Emaciated Goddess and Theme of the Unsatisfied Hunger In the tradition of the Kālīkrama, the adjectives ‘emaciated, thin’ (śuskā, krśā) are used commonly in description of the Goddess Kālī. Surely, they endow Kālī with qualitative features pronouncing her close association with the entire symbolic-semiotic theme of digestion. In reference to its patent connotations, ‘devouring’ is the sole cosmic activity of Kālī fixed upon the process of incorporation to the point of final absorption. The act of eating yields an immense amount of power and moreover, it stresses the very dynamics of the digestive track that seizes/takes hold of food or, in other words, possesses the objective content of the world. The subject of possession (Āveśa) is assuredly the key-term that grants a direct entrance to the understanding of the spiritual ‘phenomenology’ of the Kashmiri Śaiva Tradition, just to mention Abhinavagupta, who defines the spiritual practices ( upāyas) in terms of the modes of possession (āveśa).21 The concept of possession contingently exemplified in illustrations of demonical frenzy has an exemplary status in the Kalīkrama and it is inseparable from the display of the all-devouring ambiance attending to the Goddess Kalī. The scriptural testimony of the Kalïkrama portrays the Goddess suska (Emaciated One) having thin face and body exposing only bones, and thus, devoid of flesh or blood. Her breasts are dried up and her stomach is skinny. 22 Draped in a skin of death as her coat, and decorated with men’s blood, she is enshrined in the temple of the Fire of Time. The lips of the goddess are enormous, spread out as a formidable sun that resembles the devouring chasm, blazing with the bundles of fire and greedy to swallow the entire universe. Due to her permanent hunger that cannot be satisfied even by devouring of Brahmā and other gods, she is called the Great Thin One (Mahākrśā).23 The permanent appetite actualized in the feast directed towards swallowing of the universe is elucidated in the perspective of her ‘bodily’ thinness. This apparent contradiction is again used for enunciation of the withdrawal-founded metaphysics of the Kālīkrama that validates retroactive model of consciousness. Therefore, contrary to the consumption that naturally leads to the engrossment of the material body, the goddess’s swallowing makes her skeletally thin. In the Kālīkrama, realization, ‘creation’ goes

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in a backward direction insofar as it unfolds as retraction from/to the abyssal sphere of the transcendental emptiness which constitutes the essential nature of the Goddess Kālī. e) The Constructed Bodies Of Power (mudrā) Mudrā is considered to be the corporeal ‘sign’ or ‘stamp’ denoting particular state of consciousness associated with practices that involve body postures, hand gestures and mental techniques. Abhinavagupta, in his definition of ‘mudrā’ avers: it is this that bestows ‘ra’ happiness or joy ‘mud’. Mudrā is a tool by means of which an adept attains the supreme consciousness. Captured in a mirror-reflection symbolism, mudrā stands for reflection (pratibimba) of the original source (bimba).24 In this sense, mudrā is related to the transformation of the individual consciousness that becomes representation of the absolute. In the Kālīkrama, mudrā reveals the structure and the character of the Goddess Kālī, in a sense in which individual body of the Krama yogi becomes a stamp of the transcendent source identified with Kālī. The deity is the source of power one wishes to obtain, therefor e construction of one’s own body in the image of a deity he/she worships leads directly to the empowerment of his/her psycho-mental being. Taking into consideration mudrās prescribed in the Kālīkrama scriptures, we easily perceive reference to the construction of the body of power reflecting a specific nature of Kālī. The Skeleton Posture (Karaṅkinī mudrā) refers to the scarcity of the objective ‘flesh’. This posture is called the skeleton because it is the state of tranquility, peacefulness and retraction from any objective dependence. The Skeleton Posture involves practice of being supportless. This leads to this what lies ‘beyond’, to the sky of consciousness. 25 The Vijṅānabhairava gives several examples of the Karaṅkinī mudrā. 26 One of them recommends the following practice: Sitting on a soft seat one should hold one’s hands and feet without support. By maintaining this position the individual mind will reach a state of supreme fullness of consciousness. 27 The Wrath Posture (Krodhinī mudrā) relates to the supreme vitality of mantric power. As the embodiment of anger this mudrā provokes vehement consumption of the twenty-four principles starting from earth (prthvi) and ending with nature (prakrti) constituting the sphere of limited perception. 28 On the evolutionary ladder, the earth is the last of the gross elements (mahābhūta), while nature (prakrti) constitutes the initial root of objectivity. Prakrti is the threshold from which the expansion of objectivity takes place, it differentiates itself into three

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principles of mental operation (buddhi, manas, ahaṁkāra). Ahaṁkāra evolutes further into fifteen principles of sensible experience (five organs of perception jṅānendriyas, five organs of action karmendriyas, and five objects of perceptions - tanmātras). The principles of materiality consisted of the five gross elements ( mahābhūta) including ether, wind, fire, water and earth are evolutes of the tanmātras. In this way, we have twenty-four conditioned principles. The Wrath Posture conducts great force of destruction which aims at resolving an insupportable tension generated by the limited scope of perceptual awareness, confined to the twenty-four conditioned principles. The Licking Posture (Lelihānī mudrā) is portrayed as ‘the mouth of devouring consciousness’ who destroys by mere licking. 29 It corresponds to the field of activity engrossed in the process of violent baking (hashthapāka) and total devouring (alaṁgrāsa); it operates as the activity of the destruction of destruction ( saṁhārasaṁhārakrama). The protruding tongue, extremely voracious and free of restraint is intent on destroying the most subtle energies the latent traces of the seeds of karma generated from the subtle body30 of puryashtaka31. Aforementioned Constructed Bodies of Power (mudrās) represent different degrees of absorptions. The Skeleton Posture ( Karaṅkinī mudrā) relates to the grossest level, insofar as it entails withdrawal from the objective support. The Wrath Posture ( Krodhinī mudrā) assists withdrawal from confinements of the cognitive process reduced to the sensory experience. The Licking Posture ( Lelihānī mudrā) operates on the level of the subtle body where it carries out dilution of the seeds of karma (saṁskāra) existing in a latent form. Liberating Imagination In the Kālīkrama, the imaginary life breaks through an impending determination of the mental representations by subduing awareness to the experience of annihilation. Relying on spiritual authenticity of these images and by employing them for the purpose of purification, the Krama yogi realizes voidness of his own intrinsic nature to be identical with the Goddess Kālī, and, thereafter, achieves liberation.

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Notes and References
Mahārthmaṅjari of Maheshvarānanda with the Auto-commentary ‘Parimala’, stanza 32. Mahānayaprakāśa of Arṅasiṅha 219. Kālïkulapaṅcaśatikā (Devïpaṅcashatikā) 4.6-4.8., KP (DP) 7.46. Kramasadbhāva 2.2. Silburn L., Paramārthasāra, p. 46 quoted after Murphy P., Triadic Mysticism, p. 48. Silburn L., Paramārthasāra, p. 46 quoted after Murphy P., Triadic Mysticism, p. 48. TÈ IV.15-16. MP (T) 7.25., MP (T) 7.29-31., MP (T) 7.34. trans. M. Dyczkowski (unpublished) This kind of infused meditation will be discussed at length in later part of this study. Śrīkalikāstotra of Śivānanda/Jñānanetra 19. Rawson P., The Art of Tantra, p. 112. Mahānayaprakāśa of Arṅasiṁha 16-17. Vijṅānabhairava stanza 52, in: Vijṅāna Bhairava. The Practice of Centering Awareness, Indica 2002, p. 56. The cosmic manifestation follows five-fold pattern represented by five phases of manifestation (kalās). The lowest is: 1) nivrtti- kalā governed by Kālāgnirudra. It consists of the principle of earth (prthvï tattva) and has 16 planes of existence (bhuvana). The second is: 2) pratishthā kalā governed by Amaresha. It consists of 23 principles from water (jālā tattva) to nature (prakrti tattva) and has 56 planes of existence (bhuvana). The third is: 3) vidyā kalā governed by Bhïma. It consists of 7 principles from purusa tattva to māyā tattva and has 28 planes of existence (bhuvana). The fourth is: 4) Shāntè kalā governed by Vāmā. It consists of 3 principles: Śuddhavïdyā, Îshvara, Sadā„ iva and has 18 planes of existence (bhuvana). The last is: 5) Shāntātïta kalā governed by Nivrtti. It consists of one principle Śiva who is said to be of the nature of Śakti and has no plane of existence (bhuvana). The total number of bhuvanas is 118. Mahārthamañjarï, stanza 27. The close connection between the Fire of Time (kālāgni) and the esoteric teachings of the Kālīkrama is asserted in the passage of the KālÏkramapañcāshikā, the text attributed to Niskriyānanda which consists of fifty verses. The whole text of the KālÏkramapaṅcā„ikā, which is a part of the Uttaragharāmnāya, found in chapter seven of the Ciñciṅïmatasārasamuccaya, is dedicated to the doctrine of the Twelve Kālïs, the essence of the Kālïkrama, called the Sun of Kula - Bhānavï Kula. There we are told that the density of withdrawal activated by the Fire of Time (kālāgni) runs parallel to the arousal of the solar energy of the Twelve Kālïs due to which the power of the fettered soul (pashu) increases. The text says: ‘Once the Fire of Time has been made dense, the supreme radiant energy dissolves away. The light of consciousness, the supreme secret, has arisen as the

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

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16

17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Sun of Kula (the Twelve KālÏs). It has Twelve Rays and, endowed with good power, it shines like many suns. It is the life of the living being and it illumines the living being which is of that same nature. In this same way, the power of the fettered soul increases. Ciñciṅïmatasèrasamuccaya 7.208-209. trans. M. Dyczkowski. Khemarāja in his commentary on the first verse of the Spandakārika explains that the collective wheel of the shaktis (Śakticakra) denotes the aggregate of the Twelve KālÏs engaged in cosmic play of mystical exertion ( udyoga=srshti), manifestation (avābhāsa=sthiti), relishing (carvaṅa=sañhāra), and return to the inexplicable (anākhya), existing as their source (prabhāva). in: Spandanirṅaya commentary on the Spandakārikā verse 1.1, op.cit. in: Jaideva Singh, Spandakārikās ³ The Divine Creative Pulsation, p. 5. Śiva-Sutras commentary on stanza 6, in: Śiva-Sutras. The Yoga of Supreme Identity, trans. Jaideva Singh, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 2000, pp. 33-34. The extensive explanation of this process in connection with the yogic retraction and the cosmic cycles of the universal time is given in David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body, pp.232-233. Mahānayaprakāśa of Śitikaṅshtha 8.3 TÈ V 27-37. TÈ I 167. Devīpañcaśatikā 2.71-2.80. Kulakaulinīmata 15.370cd.-374ab. TÈ 32.3. Cidgaganacandrikā 117. Vijñānabhairava 78 - 82, quoted in the MM, stanza 37. Vijñānabhairava 78. Mahānayaprakāśa of Śitikanta 7.2. Cidgagancandrikā 121. Mahānayaprakāśa of Arṅasimha 96-98. puryastaka (lit. the city of eight) is the subtle body (sūksmaśarīra) consisting of five sense-perceptions (tanmātras), mind (manas), intellect (buddhi), egoity (ahaṅkāra)

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Bibliography
Cidgaganacandrikā by Kālidāsa, ed. Swami Trivikrama Tirtha, Arthur Avalon Tantrik Text Series (John Woodroffe), Calcutta, 1937. Ciñcinïmatasārasamuccaya. The manuscripts of the Ciñcinïmatasārasamuccaya. All are paper MSs deposited in the National Archives, Kathmandu (NA) photographed by the Nepal German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP). MS K: NA MS no. 1-767 (Śaivatantra) 412, NGMPP reel no. B157/19, no. of folios: 38, size in cms: 26 x 11, Script: Newārï. Final scribal colophon: (Nepal) samvat 854 caitrakrsṅa 12 siddha. MS Kh: NA MS no.: 1-245 (Tantra) 411; NGMPP reel no. A 1177/7; No. of folios: 36; Size in cms: 22.6 x 5.6; Script (remarks): DN; Folios 1-21 24-26 30-41. MS G: NA MS no.: 1-145 (Śaivatantra) 411; NGMPP reel no. B121/9; No. of folios: 36; Size in cms: 23 x 6; Script: Nevārï (Missing folios: 22 23 27 28 29). This manuscript has been photographed twice. So NGMPP reel no. B 121/9 is the same as NGMPP reel no. B 123/8. Final scribal colophon simply reads: samvat 1754. MS Gh: NA MS no.: 1-199 (Śaivatantra) 410; NGMPP reel no. B123/5; No. of folios: 69 Size in cms: 22 1/2 x 7; script: Devanāgarï. Kālïkulapañcashatakā (Devïpañcashatikā) MS no. 5-358 (bauddhatantra), NGMPP: reel no. B 30/26. No. of folios: 88; size: 20.5x5cm; Material: palm-leaf; Script: NevarÏ. Complete. Kulakaulinïmata, [in:] Manthānabhairavatantra, National Archives, Kathmandu. Kramasadbhāva, MS National Archives, Kathmandu. Manuscript number: 1-76 Śaivatantra 144; Reel number: A 209/23; Number of leaves:15; Size in cms: 30 x 10, Script Nw., Material: Paper. Mahānayaprakāsha of Arṅasiṁha, MS National Archives, Kathmandu. NAK MS no. 5-5183 (called Kālikākulapacashatakam) Śaivatantra 157, NGMPP: A 150/6, Number of leaves: 35 (of which folios 26-33), Size in cms: 32 1/2 x12 1/2, Material: Paper, Script: Devanāgarï. Mahānayaprakāsha of Śitikaṅshtha with commentary, ed. Mukund Ram Śastri, Kashmir Śaivism Texts Studies 1918. Mahānayaprakā„a. Anon. Ed. K. Śambasiva Śastri, Trivandrum Sanskrit Series 130. Mahārthmañjarï of Maheshvarānanda with the Auto- commentary ‘Parimala’ (MM). Edited by Pt. Vrajavallabha Dviveda, Yogatantra-GranthamĀlĀ Vol.5, Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi, 1992. Murphy, E. Paul, 1999. Triadic Mysticism. The Mystical Theology of the saivism of Kashmir, Delhi. siva-sutras. The Yoga of Supreme Identity, trans. Singh Jaideva, Delhi 2000.

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srïkālïkastotra of sivānandanātha [in:] Hymnes aux Kālï. La roue des energies divines, Diffusion de Boccard, Paris 1995. Spandakārikās. The Divine Creative Pulsation. The Kārikas and the Spandanirṅaya, trans. Jaideva Singh, Delhi 2001. TantrĀloka of Abhinavagupta with viveka by Jayaratha, ed. M.R. sastri, M.S. Kaul, Kashmir Saivism Texts Studies, 1918-1938. Vijñānabhairava. The Practice of Centring Awareness commentary by Swami Lashmanajoo, Indica Books, Varanasi 2002. White, David Gordon, 1996. The Alchemical Body, University of Chicago Press.

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NORTHEAST AND KASHMIR: Problems in A Comparative Perspective**
Prof. Noor Ahmad Baba Though no two situations can be exactly same, there are a number of similar factors that go into making of the problems in Kashmir and in the Northeast. Some of these can be located in the colonial legacy and the manner in which the partition was executed in 1947. This and stiffened borders pushed both the places to a position of seclusion, disconnecting these from their immediate surroundings. Indian federalism with all its successes failed to accommodate peripheral regions where greater ethno regional diversity and geographical disadvantages required to be addressed by special federal arrangement with greater quantum of autonomy. But in India such arrangement were not seen favourably even in relation to Kashmir which was granted special status under the Art.370. From the very beginning stronger assimilationist forces have worked to erode it thereby complicating the problem. Disaffection in both the places resulted in the violent protests. However, whatever the objective causes of violence may be its consequences are always socially disastrous. There is similar experience of suffering both in Kashmir and the Northeast. Discontent, rooted in objective factors, needs to be addressed and cannot be undone by mere application of coercion. Contemporary developments are allowing options for undermining some of these historically inherited disadvantages, in the form of a more viable federal arrangement, option of softening borders and strengthening regional and inter-regional cooperation for empowering people. There is need to ensure the adherence to rule of law, ensuring honest democratic practices and demilitarization for promoting human security in its different dimensions.


Located in a trouble spot like Kashmir, probably gives the advantage of empathetically looking at the problems in the Northeast. Though no two situations can be exactly same, there are a number of similarities and common factors that go into making of the problems in the two places.
**

This is improved version of a paper presented at a seminar on Northeast: Troubled borders at Gauhati University in 2008. Head Department of Political Science, University of Kashmir



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As in the case of Kashmir, the problems in the Northeast can be traced to a number of factors in its history. There is a colonial factor because of which borders got erected somewhat arbitrarily with little regard to the composition of people and their historical placement in terms of cultural connectivity, communication and economic linkages. Because of this factor “most of the post colonial states inherited units and borders that had been drawn arbitrarily and had little relationship with the sociocultural make-up of the people and their history”. 1 The situation became all the more challenging in societies that were of plural character. In such plural societies, nation building became all the more problematical. In the context of India, the un-desirable brunt of this fact was largely borne by people in areas like Kashmir and the Northeast. The two regions were separated from their immediate surroundings. Thus these got deprived of their geographical, economic, social, cultural centrality that these regions had enjoyed historically within their own neighborhoods and were pushed to a position of ‘secluded periphery’. 2 The problem in the Northeast is rooted in what became East India Company’s predicament with Burma. It started with its concern for securing Bengal from the westward expansion of the Burmese empire that resulted in conflict between the two. The conflict culminated in the Burmese defeat and imposition of a treaty to draw Indo-Burma boundary whereby the Northeastern region got divided, leading to the dislocation and arbitrary division of various tribal communities (of Assamese and of Sino-Tibetan and Tibeto-Burmese stock) in the region between what subsequently became the two administrative domains of the British Empire. Thus Assam and other parts of present day Northeast that had remained independent of the Mughal Empire became part of the rapidly expanding British Raj.3 After the British withdrawal the impact of these developments survived as their permanent legacy in the region. Even at the time of the partition borders between the two emerging states of India and Pakistan were drawn with little regard for economic and cultural linkages at vulnerable places. Both Kashmir and the Northeast were deprived of their economic lifelines. This is true of Northeast because it for its existence and survival become dependent solely on a narrow, lengthy and vulnerable 16 km wide corridor (the so called “chicken neck”) connecting the region with mainland India. The Chittagong hills that connected the region to the sea port went to East Pakistan now Bangladesh. It is reported that when the two countries gained independence, the hill people hoisted the Indian flag in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) on 15 August, “as they had b een assured that CHT

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with a 93 percent non-Muslim population, would be included in India. It was only on 17 August, two days after independence, was it announced that Chittagong Hill Tracts had been included in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), together with East Bengal.”4 This deprived the Northeast of whatever hopes it had of having link to a seaport. Even this fact alone was sufficient to push such regions to tremendous social and economic disadvantages. This seclusion occurred despite the region having geographical contiguity with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and China. It shares about 98 percent borders with these states and only two percent with the mainland India. There is a similarity with Kashmir. It needs to be noted that historically Kashmir has been at the crossroads of civilizational, social and economic currents through different directions and passages. That is why it has had very close trade and cultural relations with places in China, Tibet, a number of cities in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, not to speak of close connections with North and more particularly North Western Indian sub-continent.5 Of various passages, the Jhelum Valley (JV) Road via Muzaffarabad-Rawalpindi has been the most important link that connected the valley of Kashmir with the rest of world for trade, people to people contact and exchange of cultural and social influences. 6 The 1947 political developments, resulting in the division of Indian subcontinent and de facto division of Jammu and Kashmir and the placement of its two parts under the actual control of two different and hostile states, the resultant hardening of borders and blocking of the traditional road links pushed the valley to a number of social, psychological, political and economic disadvantages. In addition to emotional and psychological implications of the division on the people, Kashmir was also thus pushed to a status of secluded periphery,. From a position of being connected through a number of passages, it became practically dependent on a fair weather road that is less dependable and lengthier to connect people to the centers of trade and for other types of interaction.7 In the case of Kashmir main connecting lines and all weather road links went on the Pakistani side and it became solely dependent on the fair weather road link that connected it to Indian main land. The fact to be noted is that about 82 % Jammu & Kashmir (as on August 14/15, 1947) borders are with China, Pakistan and Afghanistan and only about 18 percent of this touch the Indian main land. Much of this narrow stripe touches with mountainous Himalayan barriers in the Himachal with no possible motor-able link to Kashmir. Out of this connecting stripe, in terms of topography, only about its two per cent,

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touching Punjab at Akhnoor, has been worthy of developing a road or rail connectivity to Jammu part of the state. This point referred to Chicken Neck surrounded by Pakistan has remained a vulnerable point of defense for India.8 The national highway, 1A, which links the Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India passes through this stripe. Connecting the valley of Kashmir through Jammu has also remained and is likely to continue to be a problem. With all the improvement this highway between Jammu and Srinagar continues creating lot of inconveniences for people of Kashmir particularly during winter months and the rainy season. The 1998 threat of its blockade in Jammu has exposed its other risks for the Valley. Compared to JV Road it is less secure and also lengthier to carry goods to centers of trade. Even though it is not generally realized, this fact has socially and economically marginalized the people of the Kashmir Valley. Because of this fact people of Kashmir have always remained nostalgic about the JV Road via Muzaffarabad. That is why its reopening has figured as an important CBM on Kashmir in different official and non-official meetings between India and Pakistan. It is in this context opening of bus service on the route on April 2003 made a sense.9 It was expected to gradually lead to conversion of this road to a full-fledged trade route giving Kashmir traders an additional option. But not much has been achieved on this account so far. One of the dimensions of Kashmir issue has been the division of Jammu and Kashmir into the two. In 1947-48 Jammu and Kashmir got divided between what is known as Indian and Pakistani controlled Kashmir. This has divided families resulting into a lot of human problems. After 1962 Chinese aggression the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir is practically divided into three parts. Out of the total of 222,236 sq. km of what used to be Jammu and Kashmir till 1947, Pakistan holds 78,114 sq. km i.e. about 35 percent of the territory. China with 42,735 sq. km holds about 20 percent of the territory. Not many people know that what is shown as Indian Territory in maps is not what India actually holds. India controls only 101,383 sq. km i.e. only about 45 percent of the total territory indicated on the Indian maps. These developments not only did separate different parts of the state from the surrounding countries but different regions within the state and even on each side of the Line of Control (LoC) were cut off from one another. 10 This has caused one of the greatest disadvantages that Kashmir has suffered because of its post 1947 political placement. This disadvantage has also been shared by its surrounding regions like Kargil, Leh and

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Punch-Rajouri which continue to suffer communication disadvantage. The partition and the de facto division of the state pushed it, regions within the state and even regions within each side of the Line of Control (LoC) to a kind of isolation. For example Punch city prior to 1947 was on about five to six hours run from the Srinagar via Rawalakot and Uri. But because of the erection of the LoC road travel distance between Punch and Srinagar has become practically a minimum of two day run. The post colonial Indian state made little effort, or may be could do little, to address some of these distortions created by the erection of borders at locations that undermined community life of people at vulnerable places and mistrust that must have been generated by the British policy of divide and rule. Some of the western critics have noted that “while South Asian governments denounce colonialism and its entire works, they have formed an intense emotional attachment to one of the most important legacies of colonialism, namely, their own territorial definitions.” 11 In their definition of their nationalism these, many a times artificially evolved borders, gained a very high degree of sanctification. It was so that even a free discourse on their feasibility and legitimacy became a criminal offence and was strictly banned. 12 This also undermined the sense of uniqueness that the people in these two places enjoyed. Instead, the Indian state after gaining independence, in accordance with the logic of the times, further stiffened and sanctified these borders making adjustment at rationalizing or softening some of these even more difficult. It is only in recent years discourse on softening borders or making these irrelevant and opening cross border links for transportation and people to people contact became acceptable at least at the level of official discourse. Part of the problem is also rooted in the context in which India gained independence that conditioned the mindset of its leadership in the crucial task of the state/nation building. Somehow constitution provided for a sort of federal framework for Indian state. However, all did not go well with the Indian Union as there was strong unitary bias in-built in the constitution for which it was characterized as a quasi-federal state only. 13 This did not go well with the social diversity in India. So there has been demand for greater powers to the states.14 This has had relative success in structuring Indian state within its mainland where the degree of geoethnic diversity is relatively less. However, the constitution makers exhibited extraordinary degree of caution in dealing with greater diversity and in applying federalism as a dynamic framework to

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accommodate plurality of different order. It exhibited unwillingness to provide for special measures for accommodating the special situations and the sense of uniqueness and the autonomy urges of people in Kashmir within the Indian Union. This prejudice also operated against similar urges in places like in the Northeast. It was in 1826 that British defeated Burma and imposed a treaty to draw Indo-Burma boundary whereby they arbitrarily divided the Naga areas, which had historically enjoyed certain degree of independence and autonomy. It is reported that the subsequent British entry into the Naga areas was strongly resisted by the Naga people. Therefore, as usual to their colonial practice; the British used the policy of using different tribes and ethnic communities against each other in order to stay in the region.15 It was thus that distortions in distribution of the ethnic communities in the region and the mistrust among them got cropped up. In response to resistance the British right from 1919 started, even though incrementally, conceding distinct position for Naga areas. By 1929 it recognized self rule for the Nagas. In 1935 constitutional arrangement the British had also recognized the distinct position of the Naga areas and placed them as excluded areas while dividing their empire as British India and British Burma.16 Formalization of this division and its stiffening in 1947 as said earlier was bound to add to the disadvantages of the region. In the backdrop of this situation Government of India needed to make a special effort to accommodate the people’s concerns in the region on special terms and with special provisions in the constitution. In fact on the eve of independence a ‘nine point agreement’ was reached between the Naga National Council and British India Government whereby among other things the Naga interest in land, forests, culture and education in the Naga areas were to be secured. Part of the commitment was that after the interim period of ten years under the guardianship of the Indian State, the Naga National Council might through negotiations with the government of India decide to continue with the existing arrangement or alternately if necessary work out a new agreement to determine the future dispensation of the area 17. This is similar to the commitment that Indian government had made in case of Kashmir. While declaring its authority on Naga areas on the day of independence Government of India on May 9, 1948 through the then governor of Assam Sir Akbar Hyderi reaffirmed the commitment to the Nine-Point Agreement, and assured that it will form Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. However, the Constituent Assembly ignored the commitments completely. Government of India subsequently de

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recognized the agreement. Instead of unilaterally rejecting the agreement the prudent way would have been to take the local leadership into confidence and work out a compromise with it whereby Indian State should have been willing to concede a special position for the region18. But the mindset at that time did not allow it to be done. Impression must have been that all such issues can get addressed automatically with the consolidation of the state power. In somewhat similar context it was after a lot of resistance that the Constituent Assembly conceded to grant special position to Jammu and Kashmir but only to be undone in the earliest opportunity. The experiences have suggested that disregarding the commitments has deeply added to the sense of betrayal of Kashmiri and Naga people.19 Indian federalism may have worked well in general terms in relation to areas that were socio-culturally in greater proximity with core constituents of Indian nationalism. But, Indian state has had problem in relation to the relatively peripheral regions where ethno regional diversity is further reinforced by a distinctive religious identity as in the Northeast, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. In all these areas the conflict has taken violent form on demands ranging from greater autonomy to separatism and independence. Because of their reinforced identity consciousness, the general framework of the federation was not sufficient to accommodate the demands of the diversity, with regard to these states. With regard to them, a more viable federal arrangement with greater quantum of autonomy could be used as a conflict resolution mechanism. The arrangement that was worked for Kashmir was not radical in any manner. Its provisions were not different from the normal federal provisions of the United States’ Constitution applicable to all the states that constitute it. Here is a comparative statement of the position that the State enjoyed up to 1953 before the dismissal of Sheikh Abdullah with the position that the Constitution of the Unites States of America grants to its federating units (States).

The Journal of Kashmir Studies No. Jammu & Kashmir (1952-53) under Art. 370 1 Union jurisdiction with regard to Jammu and Kashmir was restricted to areas corresponding to Defense, External Affairs and Communication. 2 3 4 The State had residual powers State was in the process of framing its own constitution Provision of state subject was retained in addition to National citizenship Head of the state (J&K) indirectly elected by state the legislature but required the endorsement by the union president. Semi-independent state Judiciary with appellate jurisdiction with the supreme court. Separate civil administration States in the Unites States

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Federal government’s jurisdiction restricted to areas connected to Foreign Affairs, War & Peace, Currency and Communication. All the states are left with residual powers Every state has its own constitution. Every citizen has double Citizenship. National citizenship and the citizenship of the respective state Head of every state locally & directly elected by the people in every state independent of the Federal Govt. Independent judiciary for each state with provisions for appeal only in limited special cases Every state has separate Administrative Structure independent of Federal Bureaucracy.

5

6

7

Based on the comparative reading of the Indian and the US Constitutions.20 While as in the context of the Indian Union J&K was the only state to enjoy such a position, in the United States all fifty states enjoyed the similar position. Here the autonomy was visualized more as a problem and less as an arrangement of addressing the problems of nation building. It is for this reason that from the very inception all the so-called 'nationalist' (ultra nationalist) forces grouped together to undo it. As a contrast in the Unites States constituent states enjoyed this position for more than two hundred years without any conscious attempt being made to undermine their position. Federal government there has gained greater power as it emerged most powerful country of the world, however, without legally undermining the position of the states. In India there has never been a consensus on using autonomy provision as a strategy of Nation Building. It was viewed as a potential source of the problem. It was for this reason that when because of special circumstances a special status under Art. 370 was worked-out to regulate

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the relationship of Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India, it was seen as aberration and a potential threat to the unity of the country. 21 That is why it has not been only the Sang Pariwar that wanted the scrapping of Art. 370 but even the Congress from the early days of the adoption of this provision within the constitution looked to it as compulsion of circumstances to be undone in the earliest opportunity.22 That is why severest erosion of this article took place by joint connivance of congress government at the centre and its stooge governments in the State.23 Because of this thinking, from the very beginning, various forces became active within and outside the state against the autonomy. As a result of these pressures for the erosion of the autonomy, shortly after the adoption of the constitution in 1950, the cordiality between the governments headed by Shiekh Abdullah (whose endorsement of accession was crucial for India) and Pandit Nehru, was being replaced by anger, open hostility, bitterness and frustration vis-à-vis each other. The political events of 1953, that led to the dismissal of Sheikh Abdullah, the most potent advocate of the state's autonomy, started casting their shadow on this special position. This facilitated the process of greater merger (in legal terms) of the state within the Indian Union, beginning with the Presidential Order of 1954. This further undermined the legitimacy of the Indian State vis-a-vis the people of Kashmir.24 This is why, in spite of greater legal integration, State authority remained fragile and dependent on coercive agencies. Democracy became its major victim. In order to ensure the hand picked people in the power, rigging of the elections in the state became an accepted practice and almost a matter of national consensus particularly with reference to the valley. State authority rested on the continued repression leaving very little of elementary civil and political rights to its people. This became an important contributing factor in the present situation in Kashmir. 25 Similar attitude of suspicion has been exhibited towards the similar commitment made in the Northeast and Punjab. Indian government’s casual attitude on fulfilling commitments made through various accords in Kashmir, Punjab and the Northeast stems from this kind of mind set. Various commitments and accords with various leaders in the Northeast and Kashmir for some sort of internal empowerment were never honored fully. 26 It is time that the Indian state concedes normal and genuine aspirations of various ethnic communities for greater share of power and autonomy.

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As mentioned, it was with great difficulty that the government of India conceded to grant special position to Jammu and Kashmir within the constitution as adopted in 1950. It was because of the international dimension of the issue that the leadership in Delhi was constrained to handle Kashmir situation with extra care. It could not afford to alienate the local leadership completely at the critical time. But subsequently even the commitment to the special status was not kept and on the earliest opportunity (i.e. as early as 1952) the process of its undoing and erosion was initiated. This was seen as a breach of trust in Kashmir. Since there was no such external compulsion, Indian government did little to accommodate local urges in the North East even in the nominal way. The understandings with the Naga leadership for being granted special position was never honored.27 Even the acceptance of the minimum genuine political urges of people in the Northeast for political units took much longer. The reorganization of Assam and border region, North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA), took place in stages. Four new predominantly tribal states emerged beginning with Nagaland in 1963. It was followed by the formation of Meghalya and Arunachal Pradesh in 1972, and Mizoram in 1987. But that did not address the problems in the region. Instead of seriously finding out solutions to the problem the Indian state took recourse to the use of high degree coercion. The logical consequence of the policy has been a high degree of militarization, eruption of violence, undermining of human and democratic rights of the people and the application of special repressive laws. All this has undermined social, economic and the ecological assets in the two regions. 28 Any serious attempt at resolving disputes in the interest of promoting peace in the two regions should begin with developing a realistic appreciation of all the important dimensions of these disputes. We must begin with an admission that all major conflicts are generally rooted in certain objective historical situations. Every conflict passes through different phases and may have divergent manifestations, but its underlying causes continue to be broadly the same. With the passage of time, such a conflict becomes an integral part of the collective subconscious of the society in which it emerges. This is how the problems have persisted both in the Northeast and Kashmir. Therefore, in spite of the occasional-changing manifestation, the conflicts in the two places have survived. Its underlying causes and the core concerns have not only but will also continue to be the same till they are meaningfully addressed and resolved. We must note that the present problem in the

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two places is not basically the problem of militancy. In fact, the militancy has been the outcome of the objective problems. The source of all protests is some sort of serious dissatisfaction with the existing political arrangement. It takes violent form only when normal and peaceful channels of the expression of dissent get blocked and constrain the disgruntled to revolt in a violent form. However, whatever its causes may be, its consequences are mostly undesirable and harmful to society. This is what happened both in Kashmir and the Northeast.29 In the Northeast violence came into politics from the early years of independence. It started with the Naga discontent in 1950s. Gradually this spread to other areas in the Northeast. Comparatively violence came to Kashmir much later in late 1980's. But we need to note that violence is always rooted in some objective factors. However, whatever the causes of the violence its consequences are always disastrous. It leads to a vicious circle of death and destruction, physical and psychological strangulation of common person. Women and children suffer more. Extortion, rape, enforced disappearances; death, destruction and violation of human rights become a common practice. This has been the story both in Kashmir and the Northeast. Security agencies in the both places are armed with similar kinds of repressive powers. On the basis of our experience in Kashmir, the eruption of militancy and violence results in the activation and large-scale mobilization of security agencies (military and paramilitary forces), with enormous and arbitrary powers granted under provisions like, Public Safety Act, Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Disturbed Areas Act, and various other such acts applied nationally from time to time (like TADA, and POTA) exposes common people to a number of vulnerabilities and risks. The problem is accentuated by the fact that most of the security personnel operating in such situations are from different ethno cultural stock and therefore have little sensitivity and empathy to local population and their concerns. This makes the situation much more complex and very often terribly dangerous.30 The situation became worse as with the greater pressure from security forces, politico-ideologically less committed cadres and criminal elements within militants changed their side to become what came to be known as pro-government renegades. Operationally these renegades have had to function in subordination to security imperatives of the state. Most often these elements cause greatest suffering to common people. Similar situation operates in the Northeast. In short, the cycle of violence has brought a lot of miseries to

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common people in both the places. The estimate of the people who lost their lives in the turmoil in Kashmir ranges between 40,000 (official estimate) to over 100,000 (unofficial estimate). This is in addition to the tremendous economic, social, psychological and material loss that the people had to suffer in the process. There is probably no family left in Kashmir, which has not adversely been affected by the situation. Naturally in this situation of anarchy, insecurity, universal fear and uncertainty, there is no section of society in Kashmir that has remained unaffected. This is even true about the security forces operating there. There have been credible reports of their suffering from depression and other psychological disorders resulting in growing number of suicides and killings of colleagues. These are similar stories in the Northeast as well. The reports of custodial killings, civilian disappearances, sufferings of women and children, are some of the common experiences in the two regions. 31 Another similarity between the two places has been a high degree of plurality in the two regions that contributed to making the problem in the two places much more complex to be addressed to. Indian constitution also did not attend sufficiently to social diversity present within India. At the time of independence of India, assimilationist ideologies were relatively stronger. However, today in the post modernist context, multiculturalism has offered new ways of dealing with issues of diversity and plurality. It was with some resistance that some minority rights were conceded and Indian state did have secular features. What is needed in the context of plurality as in the Northeast is to develop frameworks for reconciling social diversity and allowing each one to live in peace, security and tolerance with regard to the rest. In the context of Kashmir, experiment with Hill Development Council in Leh and Kargil has had reasonable success. This could be emulated in addressing regionally based minority discontent within some of the North-eastern states. Today the atmosphere for the viable federal arrangement has become more conducive. Diversity has to be taken as natural and given and cannot be undone by artificial means. There is need to develop imaginative arrangements for accommodating them within. Today we also have a concept of undoing, undermining and softening borders. This, if applied in the context of Kashmir and the Northeast, will be restoring some social and economic empowerment to the people in the two regions. Strengthening regional and inter-regional cooperation will address many aspects of the problems in the two places. Today instead of

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erecting we are in for softening and undermining borders. The strengthening of the SAARC framework for cooperation and networking with ASEAN, Myanmar and China can help to address many aspects of the problems in Kashmir and in the Northeast. There is need to develop imaginative arrangements for addressing the issues. Fortunately the Government of India’s look east policy is going to help in restoring to Northeast some amount of connectivity. Under this policy the Government of India is planning to build a 160-km road link with Myanmar and developing a port in that country that will facilitate easier passage of goods to and from states like Nagaland and Mizoram. It also entails the promotion of the region’s development. Look East Policy in the context of the Northeastern regional development is a welcome development.32 PM’s unfolding of July 2008; “Northeastern Region Vision 2020” document is also aimed at addressing some of the concerns and issues in the Northeast. In the context of Kashmir starting SrinagarMuzaffarabad Bus service also was to begin with a small step in the right direction. The starting of bus on April 7, 2005 and opening of five border points in itself is a small thing as it involved only small number of passenger exchange in a month under its present schedule. Nevertheless, this was important because only some years back even this small development would have been impossible to imagine happening. One also hopes that in the context of changing character of Indo-Pak relations, the process is taken further and the J V Road becomes functional for frequent travel of people, removing the psychological barriers between two divided parts. It also needs to be combined with free flow of goods across the two sides of Kashmir and beyond to larger markets. It is this development that is going to have tremendous positive impact on the economy of the people as this route, for its relative advantages of security, distance and smoothness, is going to have considerable economic advantage for the transportation of goods and services to the outside world. 33 Therefore, urgent steps need to be taken for early opening of this road regular trade and people to people movement across the LoC.34 In the end, it needs to reemphasized, that discontent rooted in objective factors cannot be undone by mere application of coercion but by finding ways and means of addressing these and by meeting the legitimate aspirations of the people. Contemporary developments are allowing options for undermining some of these historically inherited disadvantages. There is dire need for strengthening the Human Rights Regime, restoring the Rule of Law and withdrawing the extraordinary

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powers vested with security agencies. Demilitarization must be pursued for promoting human and environmental security. People need to be empowered and given a sense of security by guaranteeing special provisions for their empowerment. These, in my opinion, are some of the concerns that are common to Kashmir and the Northeast. Notes and References
Mohammad Ayoob, The Third World Security and Predicament (London: Lynne Rienner Publishers. 1995), pp. 34-37 2 Noor Ahmad Baba, “Peace Process and Imperative of Resolving Kashmir Problem” in Amitabh Mattoo, Kapil Kak, Happymon Jacob, eds. India & Pakistan: Pathways Ahead, (New Delhi, Knowledge World, 2007). 3 Kingsley M de Silva, “Conflict Resolution in South Asia” in Luc Van de Goor, Kumar Puresinghe, Paul Sciarone, eds, Between Development and Destruction, (Hague, Netherlands Institute of International Affairs,1996), pp. 309. 4 Janeneke Arens and Kirti Nishan Chakma, “Bangladesh: Indigenous Struggle in Chittagong Hill Tracts” in Monique Mekenkamp, Paul Van Tongeren, and Hans Van de Veen, eds. Searching Peace for Central and South Asia. Colorado, (London, Lynne Rienner publishers, 2002), pp 304-305 See also Kristoffel Lieten, Multiple “Conflict in Northeast India” in ibid pp 407-409. 5 See Mushtaq A. Kaw, “Dynamics of Silk Route and Kashmir” Greater Kashmir, (Srinagar), August 8, 2008. and also Wariko K , Central Asia and Kashmir (New Delhi, 1989) 6 Robert C. Mayfield, “A Geographical Study of Kashmir Issue” Geographical Review, April, 1955. p 7 Baba, n. 2. 8 "Chicken Neck" in the Akhnoor region, which is surrounded on three sides by Pakistani territory The Guardian (London) May, 27, 2002 9 Noor Ahmad Baba, “Kashmir Bus: Small but a Step in the Right Direction,” Peace & Conflict, (New Delhi, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies) February, 2005. 10 Based on figures given in Kashmir Study Group Report, (New York, KSG, 2005), p. 6. 11 Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama, Vol. I. (New Delhi, Kalyani Publishers, 1982), p.186 12 For example section 2 of the Indian Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1961 states that “whoever by words either written or spoken, or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise, question the territorial integrity or frontiers of India in a manner which is, or is likely to be, prejudicial to the interests or safety or security of India will be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with the fine or the both” quoted in ibid. p. 186. 13 K.C. Wheare, 1971, Federal Government, 4th edn, (London; Oxford University press). p. 28. 1

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14 Ashok. Behuria, “Demands for Autonomy; Internal Weaknesses of a Multiethnic, Multicultural, and Multinational State”. In Monique Mekenkamp, Paul Van Tongeren, and Hans Van de Veen, eds. Searching Peace for Central and South Asia. Colorado, Lynne Rienner publishers Inc, 2002 pp . 326-356. 15 Alemchiba, M. Ao, A Brief Historical Account of Nagaland, (Kohima, Naga Institute of Culture, 1970), p.166. 16 Ibid p-132 17 Bendangangshi, Glimpses of Naga History, (Mokockchung: Naga Patriots from Soyim, 1993), pp. 61-62 18 Ibid. & “Nine-Point Agreement and its Transgression” Naga Resistance And Peace Process (Other Media 2001.), pp 10-13 19 Noor Ahmad Baba, “Kashmir Special Status and Political Dynamics of CentreState Relations”. in Hari OM, RD Sharma, Rekha Chowdhary, Jagmohan Singh, and Ashutosh Kumar, (Edts) Politics of Autonomy in Jammu and Kashmir, (Jammu; Vinod publishers,1999), 20 Art 370 of Indian Constitution and Robert S Babcock, “State Government in the United States” in Stephen K. Bailey, ed. American Government and Politics. (Washington D.C. 1973.) pp. 203-207. 21 Behuria, n. 14, pp. 354-355 22 L. K. Advani, “When the Congress party opposed Article 370” Indian Express, New Delhi, Feb. 17, 1992 23 Baba n. 19 and on the nature of elections see PS Verma, Jammu and Kashmir at Political Crossroads, (New Delhi, Vikas, 1994) Chapter, I. 24 Baba, Ibid 25 Election rigging is considered as an important contributing factor to post 1988 crises in Kashmir. Sten Widmalm, Kashmir in Comparative Perspective (London, Routledge, 2002) and Baba, Noor Ahmad., “Origin and Dimensions of Crises in Kashmir”. in Shri Prakash and Ghulam Mohd. Shah. Towards Understanding the Kashmir Crises; Delhi, Gyan Publishing House, 2002. 26 Naga n. 18. pp 10-18 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid and Human Rights Watch, Patterns of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir, (HRW, New York, Sept, 2006) 29 Ibid 30 Verghese Koithara, Crafting Peace in Kashmir, (New Delhi, Sage, 2004), p 71. 31 Ibid. also See also Amnesty Reports issued on the two places from time to time. 32 'Northeastern Region Vision 2020' see also PTI Report, July, 1, 2008. 33 Baba, n. 9. 34 Noor Ahmad Baba, Reconnecting Kashmir: Need for Reopening Traditional Routes, Epilogue, (Jammu) September, 2008.

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LAL-DED: The Mystic Poet of Kashmir
Prof. M.H. Zaffar
*

Lal-Ded is a rebel saint, a mystic and a poet of the 14 th century Kashmir. Her poetry forms the foundation not only of contemporary Kashmiri literature but also of Kashmiri culture as a whole. In the ancient and the medieval period Kashmir produced great thinkers and spiritual practitioners. But all their works are in Sanskrit. After the advent of Islam in Kashmir around the 11th century, A. D. Kashmiris gradually lost their hold on the language (Sanskrit) due to various political, social, religious, and linguistic reasons; and whatever intellectual heritage their predecessors had bequeathed became inaccessible to them. With the passage of time a deficit emerged between pre-Islamic Kashmir and Islamic Kashmir. Lal-Ded is the most significant historical bridge that connects the two shores of this gulf very effectively. She was the product of the spiritual creed that had been evolving in Kashmir for centuries and her immediate predecessors were saints and scholars like Vasugupta Rishi, Acharaya Somanand, Acharaya Utpal Dev and Acharaya Abhinavagupta. Her immediate successor and a great saint and scholar in his own right, Nund Rishi the founder of Muslim Rishi order in Kashmir has this to say about Lal-Ded1:
It was Lalla of Padmanpur, Who drank in long draught, nectar Divine. She was the Divine Manifestation for us, May thou Lord bestow a similar boon upon me.

Her poetry was not written down during her life time. It was because of her power to impact her listeners that people heard her and formed her sayings or VᾱKs into chants and mantras which continue to be sung even
*

Professor (Research) UNESCO Madanjeet Singh, Institute of Kashmir Studies, University of Kashmir

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today. She revolted against all the oppressive structures that stifle and kill the human spirit and critically interrogated practices of inequality and injustice that were current during the times. Lala’s poetry is not only a continuation of the tradition; it is also simultaneously a break or rebellion against the tradition. Her rebellion was unprecedented. She challenged the validity of all the socio-political and religious structures, and was deadly against maintaining the status quo, thus she was perceived as a threat to the established social order. To neutralise the impact of this rebellion, the elite of the times, the custodians of the tradition declared her to be mad and insane, it is because of these circumstances that we don’t find her mention in any of the historical accounts written in Sanskrit during and after her times. Lal-ded rebelled against the educated elite of Sanskrit academia who were the custodians of knowledge and tradition. She articulated the spiritual path and message she had inherited; in Kashmiri language which was the language of the man in the street. By doing so, she made it available to all the people irrespective of caste, creed, colour, sex, religion or region. It was no more a preserve of the Sanskrit academy. This act on the part of Lala-ded - to make Kashmiri language the vehicle for spreading her message of universal brotherhood through her outpourings- was probably a part of the Divine Mission which she had to fulfil and in recognition of which the great saint NundaRishi calls her, ‘the Divine Manifestation for us.’ This act remains the greatest revolutionary act in the cultural history of Kashmir and makes her the undisputed founder not only of the contemporary Kashmiri literature but also of the contemporary Kashmiri culture. Lal-Ded also rejected wholly the ritualistic aspect of the śaivistic spiritual discipline. This rejection is articulated and expressed with great force in her poetry. She denigrates the ceremonial pieties, and to her most of these rituals are devoid of any spiritual merit and only an uncultivated person will engage in such barren and fruitless activities .She herself had no possessions, not even a shelter but in her ‘homeless wisdom’ articulated in a language that provides no lulling abodes of thought she tried to dismantle the deeply ingrained hereditary patterns of thought and action. She had her own revolutionary views regarding the rituals like, idol worship, animal sacrifice, fasting, visiting sacred places and reading sacred books. In the light of her own intense spiritual experiences, she re-evaluates these rituals and comments:2

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The idol is but stone The Temple is but stone, From top to bottom, all is but stone Whom will you worship, O stubborn Pandit? It covers your shame, Saves you from cold, Its food and drink, mere water and grass Who counselled you, O Brahmin, To slaughter a living sheep as a sacrifice Unto a lifeless stone? O fool, right action does not lie In fasting and other ceremonial rites O fool right action does not lie In providing for bodily comfort and ease In contemplation of the self alone is right action and right council for you The pilgrim sanyasin goes from shrine to shrine, Seeking to meet Him Who abides within herself. Knowing the truth, O soul, be not misled; It is distance that makes the turf look green Some leave their home, some the hermitage But the restless mind knows no rest. Then watch your breath day and night, And stay where you are I have worn out my plate and tongue reading the holy books, But I have not learnt the practices that would please my lord. I have worn thin fingers and thumb telling my rosary beads, But I have not been able to dispel duality from my mind. The thoughtless read the holy books As parrots in their cages recite “Ram, Ram” Their reading is like churning water, Fruitless effort, ridiculous conceit.

By opposing vehemently the ritualistic aspect of Trikmat, Lalla revolted against the powerful clergy of the times who had transformed these rituals into a means of exploitation and a tool for perpetuating their hereditary hegemony. She also revolted against the objectification of women in Saiva rituals. She totally rejects the secondary dependent status allotted to women in these rituals and emerges and dominates the scene as a subject. On the one hand, Lala gave a new lease of life to Kashmiri Śaivistic spiritual tradition but on the other hand, she demystified

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Śaivism by articulating its tenets in the language of the common people and deconstructed its ideology of being a Rahasya Sampradaya (a secret sect) by making all the Upayas (means of realization) available to all those interested in the realization of their true identity, thus making it a viable and effective tool not only for individual emancipation but also for social unification. There is an inbuilt dynamic reciprocal relationship between the two, and each reinforces the other. This is the reason for total acceptance of Lal-Ded by almost all Kashmiris. With the passage of time there was a schism in the Saivistic Trikamat. On the one hand, we have the branch that maintains the rituals, although not much of the traditional rituals detailed by Abhinava Gupta have survived the ravages of the time. On the other hand, we have the ritual free Trikamat of Lal-Ded which is a syncretic tradition that assimilates not only the essence of Buddhist spirituality but also reaches out to the SufiMystic tradition of Islam. In Buddhist tradition being a Bodhi-sattva implies being full of compassion conjoined with insight into reality, realising emptiness (shunaya) or the essence of all things. In this light we may consider the verse by Lalla:3
Realization is rare indeed, Seek not afar, it is near, by you First slay desire, then still the mind, giving up vain imaginings Then meditate on self within and lo! The void merges in the void

Or this one:
Let go the sacred tantra rites Only the mantra sound remains And when the mantra sound departs Only the chitta is left behind Then lo! The chitta itself is gone And there is nothing left behind The void merges in the void

In the true Buddhist spirit Lalla-Ded advocates the middle path as the path of liberation and we may consider the following Vᾱk in this regard:4
By pandering to your appetites and desires, You get nowhere By penance and fasting, You get conceit Be moderate in food and drink

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You will be moderate Your path will surely be illuminated*

So far as reaching out to the Sufi tradition is concerned consider this verse:5
Shiva is everywhere---know him as the sun. Know not the Hindu different to the Muslim Know yourself if wise, as a ray of that sun That alone is the way to Saheb.

Writing about Lalla’s poetry Prof. Neeja Mattoo, a contemporary scholar comments on this vᾱk: 6 Apart from the obvious idea of breaking down religious barriers by invoking the image of the sun shining upon everyone without distinction, notice how seamlessly Lal-Ded hangs the Islamist valance of saheb to the apparent shaivite reference to Shiva. The verse enacts in its own syncretic idiom, the religious, mystic and linguistic synthesis it advocates. Here are some of her verses that give us some idea of the path LalDed traversed:7
In life I sought neither wealth nor power, Nor ran after the pleasures of sense, Moderate in food and drink, I lived a controlled life; Patiently bore my lot, my pain and poverty, And loved my god. O fool, right action does not lie In observing fasts and ceremonial rites O fool, right action does not lie

*

Compare this with the record of the Buddha’s first sermon at the Dear Park Varanasi which states: “Then the blessed one addressed the group of five religious mendicants: “Mendicants, there are two extremes which should not be practised by any person who has left society to find salvation. What are these extremes? On the one hand there is a realm of desire and pursuit of pleasure which is in accord with desire – it is a base pursuit, boorish, profane, crude and without profit. On the other hand, there is a pursuit of self-mortification which is sheer misery, as well as crude and without profit. Mendicants, Passing through these two extremes and avoiding them both is the middle way, object of the tathagata’s perfect awakening, opening the eyes and mind, leading to peace, to omniscience, to complete awakening, and to nirvana”

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In providing for bodily comfort and ease In contemplation of the self alone Is right action and right counsel for you My guru gave me but one precept “From without withdraw your gaze within And fix it on the Inmost self." Taking to heart this one precept, Naked I began to dance.

These Vᾱks give us an idea of the spiritual discipline that Lal practiced and prescribed for us. Now let us see the fruit of this spiritual labour:8
Whatever work I did became worship of the lord Whatever word I uttered became Mantra. What this body of mine experienced became. The sadhana! Of saiva tantra. Illumining my path to paramsiva I traversed the vastness of the void alone, Leaving behind me reason and sense, Than came upon the secret of the self; And, all of a sudden, unexpectedly, In mud the lotus bloomed for me. Like a tenuous web Siva spreads Himself, Penetrating all frames of all things, If while alive, you cannot see Him, How can you see Him after death? Think deep and sift the true Self from the self.

The last two Vᾱks are a bold statement that absolute reality can and is to be realized in this very life. Notice the interrogative emphasis in the two lines:
If while alive you cannot see Him, How can you see Him after death? And relate it to the last line of the earlier Vᾱk which reads: In mud the lotus bloomed for me.

Through spiritual effort one has to realize the blooming of the flower upon the dirty ground covered with litter, mud and dirt i.e. something valueless (representing human body). One has to begin with

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brute matter, the lower prakrti, the manifested universe in order to realize the higher self within (the flower) and thence to immerse in the lake of immortality (lay Ka’rmas amritsars) that is absorption in the Divine (to quote her oft repeated phrase) void merging in the void (shunyas shunyaya millith gav). No doubt Lal-ded belongs to the spiritual tradition of Kashmir which is in turn informed by Buddhism, Saivism and Islam but she cannot be identified with any particular colour or segment of this multifaced tradition. She transcends all particularities and her message is absolutely universal. No doubt its form that is its linguistic expression is particular, as it is expressed in Kashmiri Language, but its Kernel, that is its essence transcends all particularities. It is the identification and realization of a spiritual path, shorn of all rituals, for one’s selfrecognition, that implies the recognition of the Lord. Notes and References:
1

B. N. Paromoo: Nund Rishi Unity in Diversity, J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, Srinagar 1984, pp. 105-106. Jayalal Kaul: Lal Ded Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1973, pp.103-110. Ibid., p. 118. Ibid., p. 99. Ibid., p. 107. Afresh Look at Some Kashmiri Women Poets, Paper presented by Prof. Neerja Mattoo at an International seminar at Institute of Kashmir studies held in October 2006. Op. cit., n. 2, pp. 97- 98. Ibid., p. 134.

2 3 4 5 6

7 8

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CONTEXTUALIZING MUSHARRAF’S FOUR-POINT FORMULA
Samir Ahmad


Since their independence from the British colonial rule in 1947, both India and Pakistan have remained caught in a relationship of confrontation and hostility towards each other. The Kashmir issue is viewed as a manifestation of this mutual mistrust between the two countries. Both countries have claims over the state of Jammu and Kashmir and defend their positions based on their own versions of the developments which took place at the time of the partition of the subcontinent. Over the past more than six decades several attempts have been made to address the problem and ameliorate the relations between the two countries. In this regard a number of proposals have been put forward by international organizations such as United Nations Organization (UNO), and several other think tanks, political parties across the border and political pundits. Besides, there have been bilateral approaches from India and Pakistan in different forums and as well as through high official meetings on several occasions in the past. These proposals range from the partition of the state on geographical and ethnic lines to a ‘soft border’ and self-rule arrangements. However, most of these have been rejected by one or the other party involved in the dispute. None of these attempts have led to any settlement of the dispute so far. Kashmir issue in the United Nations Attempts at resolving the issue were made from the very beginning, when the problem emerged. As stated earlier; it began with the bilateral meeting between then Governor General of India Lord Louis


Ph.D Research Student, UNESCO Madanjeet Singh, Institute of Kashmir Studies, University of Kashmir

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Mountbatten and Governor Generals of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah, followed by a number of bilateral meetings and agreements from time to time. At another level the United Nations also tried to work out a solution for the problem after the issue was referred to it for an intervention into the matter by the Indian government through its United Nations emissary P.P Pillia, on 1 January 1948, by invoking article 35 of the United Nations Charter. Under the article India lodged a complaint against Pakistan’s military support to the tribesmen invading the territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The letter sent to then President of the United Nations Security Council dated 1 January 1948, by the government of India requested the Security Council to call upon Pakistan to stop providing military aid to the tribal invaders. Otherwise, the government of India in its self defence may be compelled to take direct military measures against Pakistan. The Pakistani government instead of answering these allegations charged India with the breach of international agreements such as, division of the military stores, and cash balance, which both nations had signed at the time of the partition. Further, responding to India’s complaint about Pakistan’s involvement in the tribal invasion on Kashmir, Pakistan denied playing any such role. However, they accepted that some Pakistani nationals including few independent tribal groups had minimal part in the invasion but added that Pakistan was ready to discourage such activities and curb such elements by whatever means it could.1 Pakistan requested United Nations Security Council to take necessary measures to stop India from such actions and put pressure on India to implement the agreements it had signed with the government of Pakistan in connection with the partition of the subcontinent. In this context the government of Pakistan gave a detailed account of all the significant developments which took place before and after the partition to the UNSC. In the discussions held by the UNSC, Pakistan claimed that the accession to India by Maharaja Hari Singh is not valid as Maharaja himself did not carry any popular support in the state. In fact, there were protests against his rule long before he signed the Instrument of Accession in 1947. This is evident from the protests and demonstrations in the early 1930’s. Therefore, the validity of this accession is questionable. Moreover, Sir M. Zafrulla Khan, who was representing Pakistan’s case in the Security Council, said that the accession which Maharaja Hari Singh signed with the government of India runs parallel to the accession between Maharaja of Junagadh and government of Pakistan, which India had unilaterally set aside. In both these cases the

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ruler belonged to a different religious community from his subjects —the state of Junagadh with a Muslim ruler ruling over the Hindu subjects and in the Jammu and Kashmir state, it was a Hindu ruler ruling over the Muslim subjects.2 After hearing the representatives from the both the countries the United Nations Security Council held several debates and discussion on the issue of Kashmir’s political future and in the process various resolutions were passed and committees were formed to look in to the matter. In this direction the first resolution was passed on 21 April 1948, by nine votes against none, with the Soviet Union and Ukraine abstaining from voting. The resolutions asked the government of India and Pakistan to stop the fighting and create favourable conditions so that the people of the state were able to express their wishes to decide the political future of their state without any coercion and threat to their lives, through plebiscite. It was recommended in the resolution that the Pakistan government should secure the withdrawal of the tribal groups and other Pakistani nationals who were operating in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. On the other hand India was told to reduce the number of its military forces to the minimum strength required for the maintenance of the law and order in the state. The recommendation further proposed the nomination of a plebiscite administrator with adequate powers to ensure a free and fair plebiscite in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. However, it is important to mention here that under Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter, the Security Council can make recommendations only. There is no provision for enforcing its decisions upon the concerned parties. Parties to the dispute are not bound to act on the recommendations. United Nations Security Council (UNSC) could only try to persuade India and Pakistan to follow the recommendations it made under such resolution. The United Nations commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) a three member committee, formed under 21 April 1948 UN resolution on Kashmir and later expanded to five member commission; Argentina nominated by Pakistan, Czechoslovakia nominated by India, Columbia and Belgium selected by Security Council while United States named by Council’s President. The commission paid a visit on July 7, 1948 in the region with a purpose to investigate the charges of India and Pakistan against each other and to get a firsthand account of all the developments taking place in the region. In the mean time affairs in the Kashmir moved towards all-out war between India and Pakistan. During its first visit the

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commission held several meetings. They met the prime minister of Pakistan Liaqat Ali khan and prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru. Besides, they held several other meetings and discussions with senior political figures and diplomats from both the countries including the meetings with some military officials to hear their description of the military operations. After analyzing the situation in the region and meeting several political leaders and other senior government officials of both the countries, the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) framed a resolution on 13 August 1948. The resolution called for an immediate cease-fire along the border, the appointment of a military observer to monitor the cease-fire, the withdrawal of the tribesmen and Pakistani troops and also that the evacuated territory be administered by the local authorities under the surveillance of the commission.3 Under the resolution, the Government of India was asked to reduce its military presence till such time when the final solution to the dispute was reached. Most importantly, both the nations of India and Pakistan were asked to reaffirm their agreement that the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir will determine the final political destination of their state through the free and fair plebiscite under the resolution. 4 On January 5 1949, the commission after correspondence with the governments of the two dominions adopted a resolution supplementing the 13 August 1948 United Nations resolution. The resolution called for an accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite. The plebiscite was to be held when the commission was convinced that the cease-fire and the truce arrangements set forth in Parts I and II of the Commission's resolution of 13 August 1948 have been carried out and arrangements for the plebiscite have been completed fairly. A Plebiscite Administrator who shall be a personality of high international standing and commanding general confidence was to be appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations and he would be equipped with the powers necessary for organizing and conducting the plebiscite and for ensuring the freedom and impartiality of the plebiscite in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Governments of India and Pakistan and all authorities within the State of Jammu and Kashmir were supposed to collaborate with the Plebiscite Administrator in putting this provision into effect and would make sure that there is no threat, coercion or intimidation, bribing or other undue influences on the participation of the

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voters during the plebiscite.5 McNaughton Proposals -1949 In December, 1949 the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) made a fresh approach to resolve the Kashmir through its representative AGL McNaughton to negotiate directly between the two nations. General AGL McNaughton from Canada, who was then the president of the United Nations Security Council, was entrusted with the job of negotiating through direct conversation with both the parties, India and Pakistan, in order to find a permanent solution to the Kashmir dispute. He was also accompanied by Muguel A. Marin, Elmore Jackson of the UN secretariat and military expert called Jacob L Dever. General AGL McNaughton recommended some steps that both the countries were to follow in order to reach a solution. These recommendations were: First and foremost there should be the withdrawal of military forces from the state of the Jammu and Kashmir to the level where the remaining forces would not cause any fear or threat at any point of time to the people or to either side of the ceasefire line. The Northern areas of Gilgit and Baltistan should be considered part of the disputed territory along with the Kashmir valley, Punch and Jammu regions. However, these territories should be administered by the existing local authorities under the supervision of the United Nations. Finally, as per the terms of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) resolution passed on 5 January 1949, plebiscite would be held under the United Nations monitoring body.6 The proposal put forward by General AGL McNaughton was received with a feasible degree of interest by Pakistan but rejected by India on the grounds that tribal invasion with a fair support and aid from the Pakistani army has violated the accession of Maharaja Hari Sing with the Union of India. 7 Therefore, all the forces including the tribal forces, supported by Pakistan, must leave the territory of Kashmir unconditionally before any step for conducting a plebiscite could be taken. The mediation by the General AGL McNaughton yielded no result and the issue again came before the United Nations Security Council. However, it led to the appointment of Sir Owen Dixon, a distinguished Australian Jurist on April 12, 1950. Owen Dixon - 1950 Sir Owen Dixon arrived on the subcontinent on 27 May, 1950 as he was appointed by the members of the UN secretariat. During his strenuous visit to both the nations and to the state of Jammu and

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Kashmir, he held several discussions and meetings with the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaqat Ali Khan and other government functionaries in both countries. He was also successful in conducting a meeting between Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaqat Ali Khan on 20-24 July 1950 in New Delhi to discuss the various possibilities for the resolution of the disputed territory of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. After spending three months in the region Sir Owen Dixon presented his report before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 15 September 1950. The report submitted by him is considered one of the most fascinating examples of literary elegance and wit to emerge from the sorry story of Kashmir. 8 Sir Dixon in his report tried to explore a fresh approach for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, which came to be known as ‘regional plebiscite. It was a plan according to which some areas which were certain to vote for the accession to Pakistan and some for the accession to India, they should be allotted accordingly and plebiscite should be confined only to uncertain areas, which appeared to be the Kashmir valley and some adjacent areas. However, Sir Dixon also met the same fate his predecessor AGL McNaughton had been through: India and Pakistan could not come to an agreement on the Dixon proposals. The recommendations were rejected by India and Pakistan showed very little interest in implementing them. Therefore, the most critical dispute between the two dominions seemed without any foreseeable end. While leaving the sub-continent on 23 August 1950 Sir Owen Dixon said that “there was nothing further that I could do now”.9 Though, with a very thoughtful approach towards the resolution of the issue, Sir Owen Dixon left in despair and hopelessness. Graham Proposals - 1951 Despite the failure of its previous attempts to resolve the Kashmir problem by passing numerous resolutions and sending its various envoys to the region to mediate between the two new countries, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) continued its efforts and endeavours to bring a permanent settlement between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir dispute. On 30 March 1951 United Nations Security Council appointed Dr. Frank P. Graham, former United States Senator for North Carolina, as United Nations representative in succession to Sir Owen Dixon to mediate between Indian and Pakistan to get them to agree on holding a plebiscite in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Frank Graham worked from 1951-53 to secure a long lasting solution of the Kashmir

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issue. He visited the Indian sub-continent and in the light of the Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s activities, who had become the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on March 15, 1948, tried to explore the possibilities for demilitarization of the disputed territory and implementation of the United Nations’ Resolution in order to reach a permanent settlement of the Kashmir issue. During his three years term Graham submitted at least five reports10 to the United Nation Security Council in order bring an end to the confrontations on the Kashmir problem. However, none of his recommendations were accepted by the parties to the dispute. While rejecting the proposal put forward by the Frank Graham, India reiterated its previous demand that until Pakistan does not withdraw its forces from the territory of Jammu and Kashmir completely and disband the local militia, there is no possibility of holding any plebiscite regarding the political future of the state. On the other hand, Pakistan had its mistrust over the fairness of any plebiscite which is not adequately supervised by any third neutral party. Further, Pakistan rejected the recommendations on the grounds that Pakistan was supposed to withdraw all its forces from the State while as India was allowed to retain some of its troops to maintain order, which could potentially lead to coercion or intimidation of the voters by Indian forces to influence the outcome of the proposed plebiscite.11 Following Graham’s failure, there was not much that the UN did for the next few years. On 23 January 1957, the Jammu and Kashmir constituent assembly led by Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad ratified the Instrument of Accession signed by the Maharaja Hari Singh with the Union of India in October 1947. In response to this, the government of Pakistan raised the issue in the UNSC as a result the United Nations Security council (UNSC) passed a resolution that restated the earlier U.N resolutions on issue and called for a final settlement of the dispute "in accordance with the will of the people expressed through a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations."12 Although Pakistan kept raising the Kashmir issue in the United Nations in the early 1960s, United Nation’s involvement in Kashmir was considerably reduced. In 1962 the Kashmir Question was again debated in the U.N Security Council. However, the United Nations Security Council failed to pass a resolution on Kashmir in view of a Soviet veto,

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which discouraged the United Nations Security Council from pursuing the Kashmir question afterwards. 13 This was followed by a number of attempts at Tashkent and Simla in the form of agreements with a purpose to resolve the Kashmir problem, however, without any practical effect on it. In the post 1990, a number of factors both local and at the international impacted the relations between the two countries and the regional context within which these relations operated. It began with the end of cold war and emergence of the unipolar global order. In 1998 the two countries tested their nuclear arsenal and emerged as de facto nuclear powers. Subsequently, the developments of 9/11 have had tremendous impact on how violent political movements were to be judged and dealt with at global level. This created a context in which continued tension and cross-border violence considerably undermined the relations between the two states. However, it was within this context that many people within the two nations and from outside started highlighting the value of resolving conflicts and building peace for the greater good of the region in general and for the people in two countries in particular. A number of positive initiatives were taken at different levels. These included the initiatives at “Track Two” level encouraging the resumption of official level talks. Also, within the same context different attempts were made in finding an acceptable solution to Kashmir issue. In this context one of the important and latest proposals came from the former Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan’s Departure from the United Nations Resolutions There have been many ups and downs in the efforts of India and Pakistan to resolve Kashmir problem over the last sixty years. Initiatives to settle the Kashmir issue ranged from a direct military war to bilateral dialogues and discussions at various levels through different peaceful channels. However, most of these attempts have been foiled due to the conventional position held by both the countries vis-à-vis the Kashmir issue that became a major hurdle in changing mind sets between the two contending states. However, from the mid 90’s a number of developments as earlier hinted, made the two countries to become flexible which resulted in the initiations of a number of dialogues and discussions between them. Lahore declaration, signed between the Prime Minister of India Atal Behari Vajpayee and Prime Minister of Pakistan

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Nawaz Sharif in February 1999 was in recognition of this fact and the nuclear capabilities acquired by both India and Pakistan had added to their responsibility for avoiding a conflict between the two countries. In this direction a major development took place when President Pervez Musharraf said that Pakistan is ready to set aside its sixty year stand that the Kashmir dispute should be resolved through Plebiscite under United Nations resolutions. In an interview on India’s private channel NDTV in December 2006, then President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf spoke of a four-point formula for the permanent settlement of the Kashmir problem lingering between the two countries since the partition of the sub-continent in 1947. Pakistan’s departure from the resolutions adopted on Kashmir by the United Nations Security Council took place long time back, when Simla Agreement was signed between Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on 3rd July 1972, in Simla. According to the Agreement, all the disputes including the dispute of Kashmir were to be settled bilaterally, without any third party intervention such as UNO. In a way Simla Agreement was the first sidelining of the UNSC resolutions vis-à-vis the Kashmir problem. The war was the result of Pakistan’s effort to retain its control on its eastern part, now Bangladesh, but now it had to pay a price in Kashmir. 14 However, one should not overlook the changes in geopolitics that the world has witnessed since the last decade of the twentieth century. Few of these major changes needs to be briefly analyze here vis-à-vis their impact on world and South Asia particularly. First, after the end of the cold war and the bipolar world, a new world order has evolved and new geopolitical equations have developed. In the post-cold war global scenario the earlier policy of supporting allies, whether they are right or wrong, could no longer work as it could considerably erode the US’s legitimacy to intervene in world affairs to promote its interests and ideas. Further, now that world is not sharply divided into two camps, the US could not afford to alienate countries that were likely to become important powers and its allies in future. In this context, India’s potential both in terms of geopolitics and in terms of its market could not be underplayed. 15 Similarly, among other major powers including China, the perception on Kashmir has been shifting. This was witnessed during the Kargila war, when China, Pakistan’s close ally, preferred to remain neutral instead of extending its support as she did in the past on several occasions.

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The factors that are to be ken into consideration on this account are; the impact of globalization with easy and rapid worldwide trans-border movements, the information technology revolution and the rapid flow of ideas as well as goods16. It started creating imperatives for greater cooperation and strategic partnership at global and regional levels to maximize political, economic, and military gains. The concept of soft border, free flow of trade and information, economic interdependence are the terms being used in international relations. This prompted both the countries to engage in an intense process of negotiations and dialogue to promote a stable environment of peace and security rather than continuation of acrimony and antagonism against each other. In May 1998, both India as well as Pakistan conducted a series of nuclear tests. The nuclear weapons revived international interest in South Asia. The hostile atmosphere between the two newly nuclearized powers was witnessed by the international community with serious concern. Kashmir was seen as a nuclear flashpoint between the two countries. The effect was most noticeable in the reaction of the international community to the Kargil war in 1999. Pronouncements were made that the international community now viewed military conflict between nuclear armed India and Pakistan as unacceptable and would move against the initiator of the irresponsible military action. 17 Also a realization dawned among the saner elements and other government functionaries within the two countries, that the continuation of the problem could be disastrous for the region. Lahore declaration, signed between the Prime Minister of India Atal Behari Vajpayee and Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif in February 1999 was in recognition of this fact, that the nuclear capabilities acquired by both India and Pakistan had added to their responsibility for avoiding a conflict between the two countries. 18 In early 1999, there was a joint incursion by Pakistani troops and the Kashmiri militants, who crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and occupied the strategic mountain peaks in Mushkoh Valley, Dras, Kargil, and Batalik sectors of Ladakh. 19 The main intension of the military operation in the sector was to “block the Dras-Kargil highway, cut off Leh from Srinagar, trap the Indian forces on the Siachin glacier, raise the militant’s banner of revolt in the Kashmir Valley and take the issue of Kashmir back to the forefront of the international agenda.”20 However, Pakistan failed to comprehend that the international environment would not support its action and consequently did not anticipate or plan for the unanimous international opprobrium and isolation. The G-8 countries

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held Pakistan responsible for the military confrontation in Kashmir and described the Pakistani military action to change the status quo as “irresponsible.”21 They called upon Islamabad to withdraw its forces north of the Line of Control. The European Union (EU) publicly called for “immediate withdrawal of the infiltrators.22 The United States also depicted Pakistan as the “instigator”23 and insisted that the status quo be unconditionally and unambiguously restored. Under mounting international pressure for withdrawal, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made a dash to Washington on July 4, 1999 and signed a joint statement with President Clinton, which called for the restoration of the “sanctity” of the Line of Control in accordance with the Simla Agreement. The Kargil War uncovered the inherent limitations of Pakistan’s strategy to engage in a sub-conventional war against India in the nuclear environment. This also constrained Pakistan to initiate the process of dialogue and reconciliation with India, to resolve the Kashmir problem. This was associated with great degree of recognition from Pakistan that war scares were neither good for its image as a nuclear power state nor for its economic development and progress in the current international environment. One of the principal lessons of the Kargil crises for the state of Pakistan was that it understood it paid heavily for its adventurism in Kargil and that the international community will not support the use of overt force in future to alter the status quo. Following the devastating attack on the world trade center on 11 th September 2001, there was a change in America’s attitude towards Pakistan. Washington added to its list of designated terrorist organizations two Pakistan based terrorist groups—Lashkar-i-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, both operating in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, thus sending a strong message to Islamabad about its growing dissatisfaction with Pakistan's Kashmir policy. During this period, a number of events occurred that favoured New Delhi; for instance, the UN Resolution 1373 (2001) adopted by the Security Council at its meeting on September 28, 2001, clearly ignored the distinction between the freedom movement and terrorism, whereas the US dubbed all resistance movements for the right to self-determination as terrorist campaigns. The change in the international environment followed by the attack on the Indian parliament on 13th December 2001, India took the advantage of the US’s strategic shift by saying that the attack was part of the same global militancy to which America and the West were opposed,

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and even linked the attackers to those of 9/11. The Incident invited worldwide condemnation and sympathy. This encouraged New Delhi to put intense military pressure on Pakistan. There was a very strong diplomatic pressure on Islamabad to stop providing shelter to such armed groups who are active in violent activities in the Indian part of Kashmir. Following his June 2002 visit to Islamabad, the Deputy Secretary of State, USA, Richard Armitage, managed to extract a pledge from President Musharraf of a “permanent end” to Islamabad’s support to terrorist activities in Kashmir. 24 In response to this Pervez Musharraf banned several militant organizations operating in Kashmir and banned several militant groups. He also tried to curb cross-border infiltration
following a military stand-off with India by restructuring the ISI which had been responsible for the court war in Kashmir.25

Pakistan ranks 144 out of 170 nations in the physical quality of life index. Below, even the nations like Bangladesh. The huge defense budget of the nation has been very high economic toll on the nation as it has been described by ‘The Human Development centre Islamabad in their report (Human Development Report) released in 1997, that Pakistan spent seven percent (7%) of its Gross Domestic product (GDP) on defence or nearly twenty seven percent (27%) of the total central government expenditure. This is higher than in any other South Asian country. The per capita defence expenditure of Pakistan amounted to $26, and it’s the nation with the eighth largest army in the world. The total defence expenditure of Pakistan is four times more than its expenditure on health and education. 26 Between 1997 and 2001, Pakistan’s GDP dropped from US$ 75.3 to US$ 71.5 billion and by 2001 government debt was 82 percent of its GDP. In the meantime the law and order situation in many parts of the country, especially in the Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP) and Baluchistan, has become the major stumbling block in the path of the many development works in the country. Therefore, the stake holders in the country thought that instead of remaining fixed in the hostile attitudes towards the neighboring countries especially India, economic reconstruction and human development should be given preference. Further, there is a need to trim down the country’s over-commitment to military expenditure on its borders and to devote more resources to its economic growth and internal security. Thus, for Pakistan's own internal stability based on these internal reasons, a stable and peaceful relationship with its neighbouring countries especially with India is essential.

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Since its inception in United Nations, a number of resolutions were adopted under Chapter VI of the United Nations charter with regard to and in quest of the permanent solution of the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. However, because of the non-binding nature of these resolutions both the countries refused to abide by them and after more than sixty years the idea of plebiscite has become obsolete. Even United Nations former Secretary General Mr. Kofi Anan, during his visit to India in March 2001, remarked that Kashmir should be resolved bilaterally by India and Pakistan as it is a bilateral issue in which the UN resolutions had become redundant. In this regard some of the Pakistani analysts observed that General Pervez Musharraf's suggestion of setting aside the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir is a pragmatic and realistic approach. Some of the analysts in Pakistan are of the view that there is no reason Pakistan stick to UN resolutions when UN itself has abdicated the same. The resolutions of the UN Security Council on Kashmir could remain valid until they are either implemented or the Security Council at the joint request of India and Pakistan repeals or replaces them. 27 The Islamabad government has realized now the futility of these resolutions passed on the issue and therefore, more focus is on other alternatives. Lastly, there is a feeling in Islamabad that it can benefit a lot from India by entering into a cooperative relationship in economic sphere. Prof. Indra Nath Mukherji, an expert on the South Asia politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Delhi, observes that due to existence of the ‘information gap’ and lower priority attached by the businessmen of the both countries, even pragmatic business organizations find it hard to expand their bilateral trade and investment relations. Both the countries have intra-industry trade in several products at the bilateral level. 28 Firms involved in industries may benefit from joint ventures among them by identifying profitable avenues from intra-industry trade in several products such as Information Technology, Engineering and Agriculture and from several other similar areas. In the context of these developments a bold shift was seen in Pervez Musharraf’s policy towards Kashmir. However, despite, t he strong opposition from the various political parties including the heads of the main opposition parties who categorically rejected the formula on the grounds that it amounts to the abandoning of Pakistan’s principled position on Kashmir, former President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf reiterated and stressed upon the his four-point formula he put

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forward. On a number of occasions in the past as well, he had signalled a shift in his approach towards the resolution of the Kashmir issue vis-àvis India. During the Agra summit in July 14-16, 2001 he suggested a four–step resolution process whose first and most important step was rejection of any solution that either country found unacceptable, the other three being the initiation of dialogue, acceptance of Kashmir as the core issue and exploring the remaining options. 29 On 25 October 2004 President Pervez Musharraf talked about the five regions of the state of Jammu and Kashmir—two in Pakistan administered Kashmir and three in Indian administered Kashmir and suggested the identification of the regions and changing the status quo in these regions without redrawing the border. During his speech in November 2004, Pervez Musharraf pursued a non-traditional approach on Kashmir problem by sidelining the United Nations resolutions which called for a plebiscite in the state to reach a final solution of the dispute. While in a meeting with the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on April 2005, both the leaders described the peace process between India and Pakistan as “irreversible” and both agreed to an important point that since Line of Control (LoC) as an international border is not acceptable to Pakistan and any redrawing of the current Line of Control (LoC) is not acceptable to India, therefore the only solution left is to make the Line of Control irrelevant. 30 Besides, some additional Cross-LoC/border routes, such as Poonch-Rawlakot, Amritsar-Lahore, and Khokrapur-Munnabao links will also be opened within a year. 31 This had happened immediately after the crucial breakthrough after sixty years of India-Pakistan relations in the form of opening of Srinagar-Muzafarabad bus service, connecting the divided parts of Kashmir in April 2005. While speaking at a conference organized by the Washington based think-tank, Pugwash, in March, 2006, President Pervez Musharraf reiterated his call for the demilitarization and said that “his country’s proposal for demilitarization and self-governance offered a practical solution to the Kashmir dispute. An ultimate solution to the problem on these lines would make Line of Control (LoC) irrelevant. And such a solution would not require redrawing of borders. The demilitarization would be a great confidence-building measure and provide relief to Kashmir. This will also help to discourage militancy.” 32 On March 24, 2006, the Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, responded positively to the move by President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf, and said that while "borders cannot be

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redrawn" both countries "can work toward making them irrelevant" towards making them "just lines on a map." 33 He went on to suggest that a "joint mechanism" be set up to advance cooperation and development between the two parts of Jammu and Kashmir. 34 President Pervez Musharraf in his memoir In the Line of Fire described his four-point proposal over the issue of Kashmir as ‘purely personal’ which needed to be sold to the public by all involved parties for acceptance’. He summarized his four-point proposal as follows: 35 1. First, the identification of the geographical regions of Jammu and Kashmir territory, including Pakistan administered Kashmir. At present Indian part of Kashmir is divided into three division; Jammu, Kashmir valley, and Ladakh. While the Pakistan administered Kashmir consists of two regions: Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) and Azad Kashmir. Second, demilitarization of the identified region or regions and restraining all the militant activities to bring down the level of violence which has been there for years and has relentlessly affected the lives of the people in the region. This can be done in an incremental approach. Military could be garrisoned in at least the residential areas. This element, Presidents Pervez Musharraf said, will serve as a great confidence building measure and provide relief to the Kashmiris and will discourage militancy in the region. Third, introducing self-governance or self-rule in the identified region or regions. Letting the people of Kashmir govern themselves and having the satisfaction of running their own affairs without having any international interference. However, he ruled out complete independence. Fourth, and most important one, is to have a joint management mechanism with a membership of India, Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir State overseeing self-governance and dealing with residual subjects common to all identified region or regions and those subjects which are beyond the scope of self-governance. Under this joint management mechanism, both India as well as Pakistan will retain sovereignty over their respective parts of Kashmir, and will look at the residual elements of foreign affairs, currency, communication and defence. The four-point formula based on the four core components;

2.

3.

4.

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identification of the regions, demilitarization, self-governance, and joint management mechanism has been described as a unilateral concession to India by Pakistan vis-à-vis the Kashmir problem. General Pervez Musharraf is the first leader in the history of Pakistan who was ready to move away from the demand for the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions as a means to resolve the Kashmir problem between the two nations. It demonstrates that the President Pervez Musharraf was ready to be flexible and was open to compromises regarding the Kashmir issue. As he himself admits, he believes that there are different options to solve the dispute and that a solution is possible but only if there is a movement beyond the current status quo.36 The formula will allow India to keep its hold on what is already within its jurisdiction. On the other hand, Pakistan will also be able to legitimize its control over the Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas of Gilgit and Baltistan. The Line of Control (LoC) will be converted into an international border with transit points for the people-to-people exchanges, free trade and other developmental opportunities. Kashmiris would be given special rights to move and trade freely on both sides of the Line of Control. Each of the former princely state’s distinct regions would receive a greater amount of autonomy. The functions reserved under this provision will not be subject to any limitation by any other government. People of the state will determine the basic institutional structure of their governing body and will have the right to govern their internal affairs without any third party intervention. The fourth and final component is the joint management mechanism. It is a new idea and requires a high degree of cooperation and confidence between the two countries. Under this, he suggested that foreign affairs, currency, communication and defence will be the joint responsibility of India, Pakistan with some kind of representation of Kashmiris. Under this “Joint Control Mechanism” there will not be no serious need of any serious readjustment in the territorial status quo in the region. Both the countries will retain sovereignty over their respective parts of the Kashmir territory. The proposal raises a number of queries and questions and may also not meet the demands of a certain sections of the people desiring independence or the pre-1947 status. Yet, the idea has been a bold initiative based on an unconventional and creative approach to address the sufferings of the region and the people of the sub-continent due to the longest running territorial disputes between two nuclear-armed

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neighbouring countries in South Asia. The four-point formula exhibits considerable degree of flexibility and openness to dialogue by Pakistan in order to reach a greater level of understanding between the two governments. He himself admits that, there are different options to solve the dispute and that a solution is possible but if there is a movement beyond the current status quo. Most importantly, both sides have to recognize that there is a new situation and look for new solutions rather than regard present development as a continuation of the events going back to1947. There is new reality in the sub-continent, a new reality in Jammu and Kashmir and new international environment. All these demand for fresh thinking and new approach to address the Kashmir problem. Pervez Musharraf’s Four Point Formula is the indication of Pakistan’s radical departure from its long-established position on Kashmir. References and Notes:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Alastair lamb, Birth of a Tragedy Kashmir 1947, Hertingfordbury: Roxford Books, 1994, pp. 78-79. Tarakh Nath Das, “The Kashmir Issue and the United Nations”, Political Science Quarterly, Vol 65, no. 2 June, 1950, pp 264-282. See, Josef Korbel, Danger in Kashmir, Princeton: Princeton University, 1954. pp. 118-121. Ibid. pp. 121-27. Ibid. p. 132. Lamb, n.1, p. 167. Sten Widmalm, Democracy and Violent Separatism in India: Kashmir in a Comparative Perspective, Sweden: Upsala University, 1997, p. 167. Rober Worsing, India, Pakistan and the Kashmir Dispute: On Regional Conflict and its Resolution, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994, p. 171. Ibid., p. 173. On the following dates, 15 October, 18 December 1951; 22 April and 19 September 1952; and March 27 1953. Lamb, n. 1, p. 173. Ibid., p. 181. Hemen Ray, How Moscow Sees Kashmir, Bombay: Jacob Publishing House, 1958, p. 53. Verghese Koithra, Crafting Peace in Kashmir: Through a Realist Lens, New Delhi: Sage, 2004, p. 40. Veena Ravi Kumar, “Mediation on Kashmir” in Kanti Bajpai, Afsir Karim and

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16 17 18

19 20 21

22 23

24

25 26

27 28

29 30 31 32 33

Amitabh Mattoo (eds.) Kargil and After: Challenges For Indian Policy, New Delhi: Har-Anand Publication, 2001, p. 398. Dipankar Banerjee (ed.), South Asian Security, Sri Lanka: Regional Center for Strategic Studies, 2002, p. xi. Alex Ninian, “Contemporary Review Kashmir”, http/www.usip.org/library/pa.html Noor Ahmad Baba, “Peace Process and Imperatives of Resolving the Kashmir Problem, in Amitabh Matto, Kapil Kak and Happymon Jacob (eds.) India and Pakistan: Pathways Ahead, New Delhi: KW Publishers, 2007, p. 211. General V.P. Malik, Kargil from Surprise to Victory, New Delhi: Harper Collins, 2006, p. 64. Ibid., p. 339. Amit Gupta, “A Post-Kargil Foreign Policy” in Kanti Bajpai, Afsir Karim and Amitabh Matto (eds.) Kargil and After: Challenges for Indian Policy, New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications, 2001, p. 289. Ibid. Pramit Pal Chaudhury, “A Post-Kargil Foreign Policy” in Kanti Bajpai, Afsir Karim and Amitabh Matto (eds.) Kargil and After: Challenges for Indian Policy, New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications, 2001, p. 327. Robert Wirsing, "Great-Power Foreign Policies in South Asia," in Devin T. Hagerty (ed.) South Asia in World Politics, Boulder, Co: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005, p. 144. Zahid Hussain, Kashmir: The Long Road to Peace,” November 2004. www.newslince.com.pk. Amitabh Mattoo, “Introduction”, in Amitabh Mattoo, Kapil Kak, Happymon Jacob (eds.) India and Pakistan. Pathways Ahead, New Delhi: Knowledge World, 2007, p. 11. Dawn, Lahore, 8 January 2004. Inder Mukherji, , “India-Pakistan Trade And Investment Relations: Status And Potential”, Paper presented at the Seminar on “Contemporary Pakistan In The Changing Global Paradigm” Held under the auspices of The Special Area Studies Programme of Pakistani Studies, South Asia Studies Division, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi from 24th-25th November, 2008. Syed Rifaat Hussain, “Pakistan's Changing Outlook on Kashmir”, South Asian Survey, 14th February 2007. Amit Baruah, "India-Pakistan Peace Process 'Irreversible,' The Hindu, April 19, 2005. Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, www.mea.gov.in. Moonis Ahmar, “Kashmir and the Process of Conflict Resolution”, http://spaces.brad.ac.uk:8080/download/attachments/748/Brief16finalised. G. Parthasarathy and Radha Kumar (eds.) Frameworks for a Kashmir Settlement, New Delhi: Delhi Policy Group, 2006, p. 2.

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34 Ibid., p.2. 35 Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir, New York: Simon Schuster, 2006, p. 303. 36 Ibid., p. 307.

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THE FOURTH BUDDHIST COUNCIL The World’s Best Kept Secret
Mohammad Ajmal Shah


INTRODUCTION There is a lot of controversy about the date of the introduction of Buddhism in Kashmir. One theory is that it was introduced fifty years after the death of Buddha, while according to the others it was introduced by Ashoka after his Buddhist council (Khosla 1972: 13). It is commonly believed that Buddhism came to Kashmir during the reign of Ashoka. But Kalhana’s Rajtarangani has mentioned Surrendra as propagator of Buddhism before Ashoka who built two Viharas in Kashmir (Stein 1961, I: 93-94). After Surrendra, Ashoka brought 5,000 Buddhist monks and settled them in Kashmir and adjacent territories. He built several mathas and viharas and gifted the valley to the Sangha. Ashoka’s introduction of Buddhism naturally changed the entire social fabric in Kashmir. The scholars and pandits pursued the Buddhist studies and took an active part in propagation of Buddhism. It is said Ashoka built a number of Viharas, Chaitiyas and Stupas besides he is credited of building a new capital city in Kashmir called “Shrinagri”. “The conclusion of the deliberations of the Buddhist council held at Patliputra under the Presidentship of Muggaliputta Tissa, Majjhantika was sent to Kashmir and Gandhara at the head of an evangelical mission. Hieun Tsang and Ou-Kong has mentioned, that an arrival of 5,000 monks who were settled in Kashmir by Ashoka and his gift of the valley


Research Scholar, Department of Archaeology, Deccan College, Pune

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to the Sangha for turning it into a centre of study and propagation of Buddhist religious texts” (Bamzai 1994:82-83). After the fall of the Mauryan Empire, north-western India came under the subjugation of Indo-Greeks, was followed by the Kushanas, a sub-division of the Yueh-chi nomads, who hailed from Central Asia. Kashmir, which was included in their domain, witnessed a great resurgence of Buddhism during this time. The revival of Buddhism began in the reign of Kanishka, the greatest of the Kushan rulers. It was in his time The Fourth Buddhist Council was held in Kashmir. This paper will mainly deal with the venue of The Fourth Buddhist Council selected by Kanishka and the historical background behind it. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The existence of conflicting and contradictory schools of thought among the followers of Buddhism confused the great Kushan king Kanishka. He explained his difficulty to Parasva, his religious preceptor. The venerable teacher explained to him how the different interpretations have arisen on account of a growth of number of sects after the death of the Buddha. The King therefore decided to call an assembly of the leading monks, with a view to reconciling their views and restoring Buddhism to its former glory. The primary objective of the conference was to settle various controversies and disputes that had arisen in the principles and practices of Buddhism. The entire Buddhist literature was reviewed. The council which sat for six months made strenuous efforts to bring into order the scattered sayings, theories and dictums of various doctors of the law. The texts of the Tripitika were collected and the council, “composed 100,000 stanzas of Upadesh-Sastras explanatory of the story of the Vinaya; and 100,000 stanzas of Abhidharma Vibhasa Sastra, explanatory of the Abhidharma. For this exposition of Tripitika all the learning from remote antiquity was thoroughly examined; the general sense and the terse language was again and again made clear and distinct and learning was widely diffused for the safe guiding of the disciples”(Bamzai 1994: 95). Kanishka, thereupon, got the text of the treatises engraved on sheets made of red copper, which after having been sealed in stone boxes were stored in a Stupa to be guarded by the Yakshas (Beal 1906, I: 156). Various scholars have advanced contradictory views about the exact site of the Stupa housing the stone boxes. Some have identified it with

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kanzalwan or Kuentilun, the hilly slopes from Harwan to Gupkar in Srinagar and some are of the opinion that the village Kond in Kulgam is the actual site. It has also been claimed that kanelwan near Bijbihara is the possible site. Some are of the opinion that the site may be at Ushkar. The area around Yechegam, Yechhkot and Raithan has also been claimed to be the exact site. Parihaspura and Buddhabal has also been mentioned in this connection as the possible site. Excavations done at Harwan, Ushkar and Ahan have revealed existence of Buddhist relics but no traces of these copper plates have been found and this problem still engages attention of scholars throughout the world (Hassnain 1973: 22). There are contradictory opinions about the Fourth Buddhist Council. Some scholars believe that it was held in Kashmir and others believe that it was held in Jallandhar in Punjab (Taranath 1970: 93). There is also dispute on the number of people (monks) who attended the council. Some scholars believe that there were only 500 monks who were selected on the basis of merit and their understanding of the doctrines of Buddhism. Some are of the opinion that Council consisted of 500 Arhats, 500 Bodhisattvas and 500 panditas. Whatever be the case and number, there is a general consensus among most of the scholars that the Council was held in Kashmir. The location of the site is still a debatable issue. While Hiuen Tsang has stated that the Council was held in Kashmir, he has not given the exact location, but on the other hand Taranath has mentioned ‘Kundalavana-Vihara’ as the place were this great Council was held (Taranath 1970: 92). Many archaeologists of the world have been searching the place but of no avail. SELECTION OF THE SITE Many scholars agree with the view that the council met at the Kundalvan Monastery near the capital of Kashmir (Khosla 1972, fn. 26: 44). Kanishka wanted to conduct the council somewhere in Gandhara but the place was objected on account of its ‘heat and dampness’. Then he suggested Rajgriha where a similar council has been held previously. But this was also rejected. Finally it was decided to hold the Council in Kashmir where it was pointed out, “the land is guarded on every side by mountains, the yakshas defend its frontiers, the soil is rich and productive, and it is well provided with food” (Beal 1906, I: 153). Paramarth says, Kashmir had mountains on all sides and was like a fortified town. It had one well guarded gate and was an ideal site for a religious assembly.

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The pleasant climate and beautiful scenery of Kashmir are said to have been praised by Gautam Buddha himself. In the Samy-uktavastu, the Buddha is represented as saying that Kashmir is the best land for meditation and leading a religious life. In his introduction to the Rajtarangani, Kalhana says of the valley that, the things which are rare in heaven are common here; Kailasa is the best place in the Three Worlds, Himalaya the best part of Kailasa and Kashmir the best place in Himalaya (Stein 1961, I: 42-43). About the scholars of Kashmir, who took part in the council, Hieun Tsang remarks; “this country from remote times was distinguished for learning, and these priests were all of high religious merit and conspicuous virtue, as well as of marked talent and power of clear exposition of doctrine; and though the other priests (i.e. of other nations) were in their own was distinguished, yet they could not be compared with these-so different were they from the ordinary class” (Beal 1973: 71). These statements are much valuable and testify the fact, that Kashmir and its people were held in reverence from ancient times. It has been accepted by almost all scholars that the Council was held in Kundalvan or Kanzalwan in Kashmir. The view held among others by Dr. Radhakrishnan- that the council was held at Jalandhara or Jullundur is disproved by Hieun Tsang’s description. It is obvious that Julandhar in Punjab would not have been selected when Gandhara was rejected on account of its “heat and dampness”. The Chinese pilgrim has left little scope for doubt in the matter. According to Paramarth, it was held under the presidency of Katyayaniputra, who with the help of five hundred Arhats and five hundred Bodhisattvas arranged the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma texts into eight sections and drew up a commentary on the same (Ganhar and Ganhar 1956: 34). But HieunTsang remarks, Katyayana composed the Fo-chi-lun (Abhidharmajnana-prasanthashastra) in Tamasavanavihara near Jullundur three hundred years after the Buddha’s nirvana (Beal 1906, I: 174-175). This statement of Hieun Tsang creates confusion regarding the venue of the Fourth Buddhist council. In this case we have to search for either the site namely Jullundar or Tamasavanavihara in Kashmir which may settle the controversy among the scholars. In this connection an attempt has been made to identify two sites, one adjacent to another, which can furnish a mine of information, if explored and excavated systematically. One is Kanzalwan and another is

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Jallindora both in the Gurez valley in Bandipora district. It would be appropriate to draw an outline of the Gurez valley in historical perspective, which makes it possible site for the Fourth Buddhist Council. Gurez is historically important as it falls along a section of the ancient Silk Route that connected the Kashmir valley with China and Central Asia. The ruins of the ancient shardi or Sharda University are preserved along the Kishanganga River that flows through Gurez (now in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir). Inhabitants of Gurez are of Dard descentan Indo-Aryan race believed to have originally migrated to Ladakh from Central Asia. They speak Shina, an Indo-Aryan language. The Shina language has been one of the main languages of a sizeable section of the people along the old silk route touching Gilgit, Hunza and Nagari across the line of control and parts of Central Asia Before embracing Islam; they were the followers of Buddhism and Hinduism.

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This is the region called Dardadesa, where Buddhism has reached before Ashoka, when King Surrendra built a Vihara known as Narendrabhavana in the town of Soraka, in the Darada country (Stein 1961, I: 93). The early years of Kushana rule has obtained a strong hold in Darda country. Fa-hien entered India in 399 A.D. from the northwestern routes of Dardadessa. Che-mong, the Chinese pilgrim also came to Kashmir via Dardistan (Hassnain 1973: 32). Gilgit was the chief centre of Buddhist learning during the period. Buddhist Manuscripts were discovered at Gilgit. This was perhaps the first find of original works on Buddhism in India and some of the works were known only by their Tibetan or Chinese translations. According to Taranath, Kanishka went to Kashmir to listen to the teachings of its former ruler Simha, who had renounced the throne and become a monk (Taranath 1970: 91). It was after that on the advice of Parasva he decided to hold the Council. But Kalhana’s Rajtarangani mentions no ruler of the name of Simha or Sudarshana as he is stated to have styled himself after ordination. But here Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts throws light on a hitherto unknown line of rulers in Dardistan, some times before the sixth century A.D. The rulers mentioned are Deva, Lalleya and Bhima of the Sahi dynasty (Hassnain 1973: 31). Bhima could be the version of simha- the possible connotation of Kashmiri Sarda. Buddhist Stupas have been located in Gilgit, Yasin and areas around it. This fact has been ascertained by Sir Aurel Stein also, whose labors in this field are remarkable and comprehensive. Another reason for suggesting this region as the venue of the Fourth Buddhist Council is that of Yakshas as the guardians of the records of the Fourth Buddhist Council. This tribe has its home in Dardistan, later on they migrated to other parts of Kashmir. Yakshas are described as the earliest settlers in Kashmir. There were three tribes the Nagas, the Pisachas and the Yakshas. They came from Nagar, Hunza and other areas of Dardistan. Another reason which may be mentioned is the extension of the Kanishka’s empire. It extended from Bihar in the east to the borders of Iran in the West. It also included the provinces of Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan. Kanishka’s extensive empire was rich and prosperous, Kashmir which was at the heart of it naturally shared in the prosperity; more particularly because the valley was a favorite resort of the Kushan rulers,

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who detested the heat of Indian plains. Kanzalwan in Gurez valley geographically was the best site for the Council, as from there Buddhism came into contact with other parts of the world like China, Yarkand, Khasgar and Khotan. Another thing which should be kept in mind is the beginning of urbanization in the Gangetic plains- generally assigned to the Buddhist era in the sixth century B.C, which reached its climax around the Christian era under the Kushana rule. Kashmir also witnessed the great developments in building activities under Kushana Kings especially Hushka, Jushka and Kanishka. The continued existence of the three places, Kanishkapura, Hushkapura and Jushkapura, which are described as foundations of these kings and which still survive to the present day, is likely to have assisted in preserving a recollection of their founders (Stein 1961, I: 74). No doubt archaeologists have identified many cities but many have been left unidentified like Jayasvamipura mentioned in Rajtarangani by Kalhana which Aurel Stein was himself unable to trace. These gaps if filled will surely lead the archaeologists towards the right direction. The need is to search for the new archaeological treasures especially in Dardistan (Gurez valley) along the Kishanganga River. CONCLUSION Kashmir archaeological research from last 100 years has lead to the discovery of many sites of great importance. No doubt archaeologists have been able to excavate number of Buddhist sites also but engraved copper plates of the Fourth Buddhist Council remains still a mystery. Hardly any attention has been paid towards Gurez valley which is the extreme northern part of Kashmir valley and is having great archaeological potential. The recent archaeological survey in the neighboring valleys of Gurez, across the LoC, have uncovered hundreds of inscriptions in Kharoshti, Brahmi, and Tibetan that provides insights into the origins of Kashmiri people and the early history of Buddhism which took a definite shape in Kashmir and gave the world the whole new interpretation of the religion called Buddhism. Dardistan has contributed a lot in spreading the religion outside India. There are many important archaeological sites in Gurez valley. The ancient capital of Dards, Dawar is located in the Gurez valley and was functioning as a watch tower of which mention has been made by Sir Aurel Stein himself. Other archaeological sites of importance in the Gurez valley include Kanzalwan, where the last

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council of Buddhism is believed to have been held and further down stream the ruins of ancient Shardi or Sharda University (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir), which has been a great pilgrimage centre of the Hindus in ancient times. Sir Walter Lawrence in his book, points out that, “Hardly a year passes without rumors of fabulous treasure being discovered in Kashmir” (Lawrence 1895: 162). But there is no debate over the vast archaeological treasure hidden in the valley. The need is to take extensive systematic explorations and excavations which will definitely reveal the hidden treasures of the Fourth Buddhist Council. Whenever these treasures will be unearthed, Kashmir will be recognized once again as the great seat of learning and will become a great pilgrimage centre for Buddhists throughout the World. Notes and References
Bakshi, S. R and S. K. Sharma 1995. Encyclopedia of Kashmir-V-1, New Delhi: Anmol Publications. Bamzi, P. N. K. 1994. Culture and Political History of Kashmir. (Reprint) V-1, Srinagar: Gulshan Books. Beal, S. 1906. Buddhist Records of the Western World, Translations from the Chinese of Hieun Tsiang (A.D.629) V- I & II, London: Trubner and Co. Ltd. Beal, S. 1973. The Life of Hieun-Tsiang, (Reprint), Delhi: Academica Asiatica. Chattopadhyay, B. 1967. Age of Kushanas- A Numismatic Study, Calcutta: Punthi Pushtak. Dutt, Nalinaksha 1985. Buddhism in Kashmir, Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers. Ganhar, J. N and P. N. Ganhar 1956. Buddhism in Kashmir and Ladakh, New Delhi: Tribune press. Hassnain, F.M. 1973. Buddhist Kashmir, New Delhi: Light & Life Publishers. Hassnain, F.M. 1998. History of Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and Kishtawar, V-1, New Delhi: Rima Publishing House. Hassnain, F.M. 2007. Heritage of Kashmir (Reprint) Srinagar: Gulshan Books. Khosla, S. 1972. History of Buddhism in Kashmir, New Delhi: Sagar publications. Kumar, Baldev 1973. The Early Kushanas, New Delhi: Sterling publishers (P) Ltd. Lawrence, W.R. 1895. The Valley of Kashmir, London: Oxford University Press. Mani, B.R. 1987. The Kushan Civilization, (Studies in Urban Development and Material Culture), Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corporation. Pandita, S. N. 2004. Aurel Stein in Kashmir, New Delhi: Om Publications, Paharganj. Prasad, Kameshwar 1984. Cities, Crafts and Commerce under the Kushanas, Delhi:

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Agam Kala Parakshan. Puri, B.N. 1965. India under the Kushanas, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Puri, B.N. 1987. Buddhism in Central Asia, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Shali, S. L. 1993. Kashmir: History and Archaeology through the Ages, New Delhi: Indus Publishing Company. Stein, M.A. 2005. Memoir- the Ancient Geography of Kashmir (Reprint) Srinagar: Ali Mohammad &Sons. Stein, M.A. 1961. Kalhanas Rajtarangani, Translation (Reprint) V-1 & 2, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Taranath 1970. History of Buddhism in India (Ed. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya) Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study.

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THE 2010 ASSERTION IN KASHMIR AND THE INDIAN DEMOCRACY
Bilal Ahmad Ganai


Introduction The death toll in the 2010 unrest in Jammu and Kashmir crossed the figure of 100. The killings of the more than 100 people, a large number of whom were in their teens, talks very badly about the seriousness of the Jammu and Kashmir problem. Furthermore, the way the Indian armed forces and the state police handled it further aggravated the Jammu and Kashmir problem. My research paper will analyze the historical aspects of the problem and will try to contextualize the recent 2010 unrest in the democratic discourse of conflict resolution in India. It is pertinent to mention here that Indian political leadership has always maintained that they are ready to solve the Kashmir problem but they maintain that it has to be always within the parameters of the democracy and the Indian constitution. But as we will see even this minimum, on which this whole paper is based, has not been done not to talk of the other options. The 2010 Mess Unfortunately, the unrest which came to engulf the state in 2010 was still framed as a law and order problem. The genuine aspirations of the people were relegated to the back ground. The Jammu and Kashmir issue has a multifaceted character. There can be no enduring resolution of the Kashmir conflict without addressing the political demands of the Kashmiri people. All instruments of violence (ranging from guerrilla warfare to the threat to use nuclear weapons) have failed to resolve Kashmir imbroglio.1 The offer of Manmohan Singh which promised anything


Research scholar, Department of Political Science, Kashmir University

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within the parameters of the Indian constitution was preceded by “anything within the Ambit of Humanity” by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and “Sky is the Limit” for self-rule of Kashmiris by Narasimha Rao. All this “Parameter”, “Humanity” and “Sky” came to nothing. All these phrases brought nothing to the people of the valley except the time for the Indian government to carry on hoodwinking the Indian masses as well as that of International community on the Jammu and Kashmir issue. The Indian political leadership has been playing the game of saving and defending its stand on Jammu and Kashmir in retail at the cost of killing the civilians of the Jammu and Kashmir state in whole sale. Kashmiris be they Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs have suffered to the nth degree. The mess and the massacre of 2010 unrest in Jammu and Kashmir may best be described, what Thomas Hobbes calls poor, nasty, and brutish. The situation in the valley became very tense with both the separatist leaders of the valley and the Central government of India trapped in a chick and egg puzzle. Both the sides blamed each other for not taking the initiative to bring an end to the squalor that the common masses of the unfortunate state went through. The visits of all – party – delegations both to and from the state of Jammu and Kashmir bore nothing. In fact, New Delhi has all the feedback on Kashmir, even as it wishes to feign ignorance and asks in bewilderment, what is it that people really want. It will be naïve to jump to a conclusion that India is unable to understand the intricacies of Kashmir problem. India government with the help of its institutional memory and state structures knows Kashmir well, more than the natives of Kashmir. With no letup in the situation the killing spree against the common masses went on, providing fodder to the most hungry and air conditioned media houses of India. With all sorts of meta-narratives and modern technologies at their disposal, the anchors of the TV-news channels failed to keep pace with the race of killings in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that has been going on since the partition days in general and during the unfortunate months of 2010 in particular. Certainly the political myopia of the mainstream political parties, be they at the Centre or in the State, has cost them dear. Furthermore, disowning the Kashmiri protestors as miscreants and belittling their space by the political establishment of India and the Indian media has done a great disservice to the cause of peace and normalcy in the Jammu

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and Kashmir. Grievances are to be redressed not to be allowed to become catalysts for further infuriation. The way the protestors were dealt with helped in further infuriating the already infuriated people. It gave rise to the vicious circle of death and destruction. The whole valley turned into an island of death and destruction amidst the vast continent of relative peace and prosperity. The whole valley came to be frozen with all the indicators of the modern human life taking a crash landing. The young brigade of the valley took a paradigm shift. 2 The bullets and pellets which penetrated the bosoms of their fellows before their eyes have given them some solid reasons to come out of the cable culture of India, which earlier used to run through their veins. They have started reciprocating and have started disowning the political culture of the Indian democracy. The statements of the different political leaders during the unrest, both at the Union level and at the state level, just poisoned the environment with so much political distrust that it seems there was no way out. Mr. P. Chidambaram’s statement, who represents the home ministry of the so-called great Indian political leadership, sounded arrogant and short-sighted. He seemed to justify the killings of the innocent souls by his false accusations of the presence of militants in the protest. Though he represents the Home Ministry of India, but Kashmiris never felt at home with the way he spoke about the unrest. There goes the son of the Shaer-e-Kashmir, Dr. Farooq Abdullah. During the dance of death in the valley he made it a point to recollect all the provocative and poisonous words for describing the situation in the valley so as to add fuel to the fire. A local Congress leader, Mrs. Vakhlou, in an interview with one of the reputed announcers of the Radio Kashmir described the stone pelting in Kashmir during those days of bloodshed as an entertainment for the youth of Kashmir. She even laughed at the same; citing lack of entertainment-facilities has led the Kashmiri youth to indulge in stone pelting. She suggested that district wise cricket tournaments should be organized to rectify the faults.3 The Historical Deficit During this unrest and (even after that), three options were being discussed by the people both inside and outside the state with regard to the solution of the Kashmir imbroglio. These were azadi, revision of alignment and autonomy.

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The Indian establishment believes that Azadi is not a viable option. They rule it out lock, stock and barrel. Alignment with Pakistan, they believe, will be most disastrous option for the whole South Asia. The third option of autonomy that is restoring the pre-1953 status is the only tenable solution as per their version of the story. Granting autonomy to J&K has always been a subject of intense debate in India. But history bears testimony to the fact that Indian leadership has always shied away to discuss its nitty-gritty with the political leadership of Jammu and Kashmir. Indian leadership has never been serious about it. The accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the dominion of India signed by Maharaja Hari Singh was subject to two main conditions. 4 First, Kashmir will be given “the right of self determination” after the restoration of normalcy. Second, the Government of India will exercise limited control over the state confined only to defense, communication and foreign affairs. This limited control over the State was extended by article 306A of the Indian constitution. The Delhi Agreement of 1952 ratified Kashmir’s autonomy and enshrined Article 306A as 370 of the Indian constitution. The radical right-wing elements launched a massive campaign against this ‘Special Status’ under the banner of Praja Parishad. They demanded that the State of Jammu and Kashmir should be assimilated (as against accommodated) to the Union of India or Jammu should be detached from the rest of the State and granted a Union Territory status. Their politics of communalism gave rise to a vicious circle of political squalor.5 This agitation provoked Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah to challenge the validity of the accession. This resulted in his dismissal and arrest. Sheikh Abdullah’s dismissal is the biggest blot on the democratic escutcheon of the Indian state. Indian political leadership, who swears in name of democracy and the tolerant ethos of its culture, displayed its fascist innards on August 9 in 1953 when Sheikh Abdullah as the duly elected Prime Minister of the State was deposed through a coup managed by New Delhi and arrested through a local police officer. By removing Abdullah from the Premiership, the Indian Government both abused the terms of the Delhi Agreement and undermined the democratic process in Jammu and Kashmir. Regardless of the fairness or otherwise of the 1951 election results (which at the time New Delhi had been keen to accept), Abdullah was the democratically elected Prime Minister of the state. As such, he could only be removed by popular elections or, failing that, a vote of no-confidence in the State Assembly. The Indian Government

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had no legal authority to plot and execute this removal. New Delhi’s actions set a precedent for future Indian administrations. The future Indian administrations, later, felt little hesitation in interfering with the democratic process in Jammu and Kashmir. That day symbolizes, for the common people of J&K, New Delhi's perfidy, plain and simple. What happened after that is well known. New Delhi imposed on the state one puppet regime after another through rigged elections. Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammad more or less served as a political stooge to the central leadership of India to forward the latter’s inexpedient and undemocratic designs on J&K. It was during Bakhshi’s regime, that the Presidential Order of 1954 empowered the Indian Government to act on all matters in the Union List and not just defense, foreign affairs and communication. This was the beginning of the end of autonomy for the State. After the 1953 episode, the first point Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad attempted to establish was that Abdullah’s goal of Independence was to have been achieved with the assistance of a foreign power. Such conditions, he concocted, might result in Kashmir being turned into another Korea. It amounted to little more than a confession that India had delivered the goods and, in the practical interests of Kashmir, should continue to be allowed to do so. But the 2010 mess and massacre shows that this has not worked. And that is why we are here to discuss it and that is why we have organized this lecture and in fact all the lectures and all the seminars that come to discuss Kashmir from Bangalore to Boston, from New Delhi to New York. Similarly, the constitutional amendment of 1958 brought the state under the control of the Central administration, including extension of Articles 356 and 357 of the Indian Constitution in 1964-65 during G.M.Sadiq’s tenure. Article 249 was also made applicable to the state. The designations of Head of the State (Sadr-i-Riyasat) and Prime Minister were also changed to Governor and Chief Minister like in any Indian State. Furthermore, the Governor is to be appointed by the Centre rather than be a nominee of the elected Kashmir legislature. Thus, the inherent right of autonomy was snatched away from the state in a systematic but in an undemocratic way, by the mid-1960s and even the Indira-Abdullah Accord of 1975 could not restore it. It is pertinent to mention here that the Indira-Abdullah Accord of 1975 had the following as one of its provisions:

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With a view to assuring freedom to the State of Jammu and Kashmir to have its own legislation on matters like welfare measures, cultural matters, social security, personal law and procedural laws, in a manner suited to the special conditions in the State, it is agreed that the State Government can review the laws made by Parliament or extended to the State after 1953 on any matter relatable to the Concurrent List and may decide which of them, in its opinion, needs amendment or repeal. Thereafter, appropriate steps may be taken under Article 254 of the Constitution of India. The grant of President's assent to such legislation would be sympathetically considered. The same approach would be adopted in regard to laws to be made by Parliament in future under the Proviso to clause 2 of the Article. The State Government shall be consulted regarding the application of any such law to the State and the views of the State Government shall receive the fullest consideration. The above-mentioned provision had encapsulated the recognition of the fact that political wrongs had been done and the same need to be rectified in the best possible way. But again showing its inability to come up to the mark of sincerity, the Delhi government and the remotecontrolled state political leadership fizzled out to implement the same. Again an opportunity was lost to nip the evil of political uncertainty, of death and of destruction in the bud. The evil of distrust and of political uncertainty was nurtured and the same came to overwhelm the valley in 2008 i.e., the Amarnath land row and the same continues up to now in the form of the indiscriminate killings of the civilians. Again in 1984, the unwarranted and extra-constitutional dismissal of Farooq Abdullah became another nail in the coffin of the Indian democratic claims in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Indira Ghandhi, the then PM of India faced an important impediment in her efforts to remove Farooq Abdullah from office through dubious means. The then governor who also happened to be her cousin Mr. Braj Kumar Nehru firmly rebuffed the dismissing of the CM Farooq Abdullah on rather tenuous grounds. Realizing that the governor Braj Kumar Nehru would not be any more tractable in the future, Indira Ghandhi removed him from the governorship of Jammu and Kashmir. In his place, on April 26, 1984, she appointed Jagmohan Malhotra as governor. With the connivance of G.M.Shah and a faction of National Conference Members of the Legislative Assembly who were loyal to him, Jogmohan arranged for the dismissal of Farooq Abdullah’s regime. 6 After the legislators loyal to Shah professed that they no longer support

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Farooq Abdullah, the National Conference lacked a majority in the state assembly. Within hours, on july 2, 1984, Jagmohan swore in G.M.Shah as the new Chief Minister. The eruption of the militancy in the state of Jammu and Kashmir is an offshoot of the undemocratic and the inexpedient policies of the Indian political leadership towards the state. Both the principles of democracy as well as that of political expediency were relegated to the background. Groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami even decided (in the early 1970s) to contest elections so that, as elected representatives, they could forcefully articulate their demands. 7 Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the hard-line separatist leader, himself was elected to the state assembly as a candidate from the Muttahida Muslim Mahaz (“The Muslim United Front”), most recently in 1987. That election proved to be a turning point in the history of the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination. The Muslim United Front (MUF) was poised to win the elections by a considerable majority but this election was sabotaged by the Government of India, which feared that it Muslim United Front would refuse to toe its line if it came to power. A point made by numerous observers – that the widespread rigging of this election in Jammu and Kashmir (as well as all previous ones) and the indiscriminate arrests and brutal treatment of Muslim United Front workers and candidates clearly suggested to the Kashmiris that peaceful methods of democracy to articulate their grievances would never work due to Indian intransigence.8 Once again India’s slogans of democracy were exposed as a complete farce. It was now clear to the people of Kashmir that India would never allow a truly democraticallyelected government to come to power in the state, for, such a government, reflecting the genuine aspirations of the majority of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, would advocate the state’s separate identity from India. It was then and faced with no other option, that, in 1989, some Kashmiri youth decided that the time had come to take to the militant path to seek to force India to agree to live up to its promise of allowing the people of Jammu and Kashmir to determine their own political future. This resulted in the birth of Fidayeen Squads, who understood only one language of killing or being killed. The insurgency in J & K, which has extracted an enormous price from the people of the state, was fuelled and reinforced by the systemic erosion of democratic and human rights. Thus the militancy in the state of Jammu and Kashmir can be explicated to this background of historical

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distrust that has bedeviled the relationship between the state of Jammu and Kashmir and that of India. After the eruption of militancy in 1989, the Indian Government promised autonomy once again. The objective behind this offer was to check the secessionist trend in Kashmir and create a favorable situation for the pro-accession parties and hold the elections. Though the situation was not favorable, yet dates for the parliamentary elections were fixed in 1996. The major regional and pro-accession party of the state, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, threatened to boycott these elections as its president Farooq Abdullah insisted that the quantum of autonomy should be decided before the polls. However the Central government remained adamant that the question of autonomy would be decided with the elected representatives of the State. 9 Farooq Abdullah, after winning the assembly elections, in 1996 concentrated on his first priority of defining, deciding and negotiating a package of autonomy for the state and, within this package of autonomy, the quantum of regional autonomy for the three regions of the state. It was with this intention that the government of J & K passed the Autonomy Resolution in 2001; but this resolution was turned down by the Bharatiya Janata Party led NDA government at the Centre. This again showed to us the futility of the promises and accords reached between the Indian Central government and the Jammu and Kashmir state government. The necessity of a third party to enforce the agreements between these two unequal partners has been felt by many conscientious people in the valley. Certainly, the judicial system, as shown by the historical facts, has fizzled out in keeping the faith of the people of the state as the defender of the rule of law. This negative and the undemocratic attitude of the Central government towards the restoration of autonomy to the state strengthened the belief of Kashmiris that any sort of political solution is a distant dream especially by entering into agreements or dialogues with the Indian government. It also made the National Conference, which had been an ally in the NDA government at the Centre to pay a high price in the 2002 Assembly elections. In these elections the electorate of the state voted the National Conference out of power, and a Congress-PDP coalition government was formed in the state. Now if the Government of India goes back on its promise of autonomy, whom the people of the state are going to trust? The

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relationship has to be based on trust. Even these half-baked constitutional reforms did not find it safe under the aegis of the Indian central government. It is pertinent to mention here that it was on August 9 in 1942 when the Indian National Congress after experimenting halfbaked constitutional reforms launched the historic "Quit India" movement asking the British Empire to quit lock, stock and barrel leaving the people of India free to decide their own future. The buck doesn’t stop here. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in May 2006 announced the setting up of five working groups to resolve the issues confronting Jammu and Kashmir. The groups were supposed to deal with improving the Centre's relations with the State, furthering the relations across the Line of Control (LoC), giving a boost to the State's economic development, rehabilitating the destitute families of militants and reviewing the cases of detainees and ensuring good governance. Though it was a good beginning by the UPA-I government. But all this came to nothing as the recommendations of these working groups were consigned to dustbins. And Indian government’s dustbins with regard to Kashmir are very big. It all turned out to be a big joke played by the central government on the common people of the state. This again shows us the inefficacy of the democratic structure of the Indian government in Jammu and Kashmir. Indian government has turned schizophrenic in its policies towards the Kashmir imbroglio. The sincere implementation of the recommendations of these working groups would have started a new political era in the state. A paralyzing atmosphere of fear and paranoia; a suffering populace whose voice is stifled by the excessive militarization and weaponisation is what the state of Jammu and Kashmir stands for. The militarized culture has sapped the state of all its resources-natural as well as human resources. The forests of the valley have suffered in many ways, both direct and indirect, because of the excessive ammunition that these forests are fed with, the Siachen Glacier is reported to have been polluted and poisoned, and a vast area of land has come to be under army bunkers with so many disadvantages of the externalities of their existence. The people of J&K have been mourning the loss of lives, erosion of democratic institutions and aspirations, deliberate marginalization of their political space, all of which have occurred over the past two decades with an unparalleled intensity. The destruction of the sociocultural fabric of the valley is eminent. Kashmiri language which had earlier gained a respectable place in the educational institutions of the

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state later came to be relegated to the background. It was removed from the educational scene and the status quo is yet to be reestablished. The world-renowned political psychologist Ashis Nandy correctly observes, “Everyone [in Kashmir] is bereaved and everyone is a mourner. The casualties include not merely the official and unofficial dead and the incapacitated, but also those who have disappeared without a trace…There is in Kashmir a miasma of depression that touches everyone except the ubiquitous tourist determined to consume Kashmir's unearthly beauty.”10 Torture machines have certainly accomplished the task of creating indelible scars, fears, panic, which will not fade with the passage of time. This conscious policy of the Indian State to erode autonomy, populist measures, and democratic institutions in Indian administered J & K has further alienated the people of the State from the Indian Union. The systemic erosion of political opposition in J & K has delegitimized the voice of dissent and radicalized antagonism toward state-sponsored institutions and organizations. During the ongoing insurgency, the Indian military has been granted a carte blanche without an iota of accountability in the form of Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The act (AFSPA) has bred all sorts of insecurities in the state. In Kashmir, unlike in Punjab, whole homes have been blown up by the security forces in crowded areas merely to nab a militant or two. Section 4(2) gives a carte blanche, based on a subjective opinion, to “destroy” any “shelter” from which inter alia armed attacks are “likely to be made” or “any structure” used as a hideout by “absconders wanted for any offence”. Thus, we can say that the political device of autonomy within the parameters of the Indian constitution has been undermined and thereby made redundant in solving the Kashmir issue. This constitutional device has tested faulty because of the intransigence of the Indian inexpedient political apparatus. My paper has proved the inefficacy of this constitutional device that Indian government has been banking on since 1947 to do away with the Kashmir conflict.

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Notes and References
Raṇabīr Samāddār. The Politics of Autonomy: Indian Experiences. Sage Publications. 2005. 2 Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal. Fuelling the Rage In Kashmir. July 10, 2010. Economic and Political Weekly. 3 Radio Kashmir Srinagar. Programme Ekk Mulaqat at 9:30pm. 10 August, 2010. 4 Teng, Mohan Krishen & Bhatt, Ram Krishen Kaul, Kashmir Constitutional History and Documents. Light & Life Publishers, New Delhi. 5 M. J. Akbar. Kashmir, Behind the Vale. Roli , Pulishers, 2002. 6 Sumit Ganguly. The Origins of War in South Asia: the Indo-Pakistani Conflicts since 1947. West view Press, 1994. 7 Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Kashmir: Nava-e Hurriyat, Mizan Publications, Srinagar, 1995. The book, written in Urdu, was originally published in Pakistan by the Islamabad-based Institute of Policy Studies, an affiliate of the Jamaat-e Islami of Pakistan. 8 Ibid. 9 Yoginder Sikand. Jihad, Islam and Kashmir: Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s Political Project. Economic and Political Weekly. October 2, 2010 10 Quoted in Nyla Ali Khan article Kashmir Held to Ransom. http://www.slideshare.net/nylaalikhan/article-kashmir-held-to-ransom. 1

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Book Review Children at Work Depriving Future Generations of Intellectual capital
Prof. Nazir Ahmad Gilkar 

In Review Child Labour in Jammu and Kashmir by Dr Fayaz Ahmad Nika, M/S Meezan publishers, Srinagar; 280 pages, Rs. 595 Year of Publication 2010 The problem of child labour has been the focus of proper attention in India since 1980’s as a sequel to a fatal accident that took place in the industrial town of SIVAKASI, popularly known as ‘Mini Japan’ in Tamil Nadu. The constitution of J&K puts an obligation on the State of Jammu and Kashmir to provide all children their right to happy childhood, health care and equal opportunities in education. But, despite that it is a harsh reality that children constitute a sizeable portion of the work force in the state. The presence of child labour is observed in every segment of economic activity in Kashmir. The children at work are deprived of opportunity to pursue education in schools. They stand debarred from enjoying even a



Principal, SP College, Srinagar

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Children at Work Depriving Future Generations of Intellectual Capital

minimum amount of recreation. They are forced to put in hard labour in hazardous jobs at a tender age. The society and future generations are also deprived of intellectual capital. However, despite strict regulations to stop child labour, around 2.4 lakh such workers are in J& K. Unfortunately, not a single study has been carried out by the state Government to ascertain the exact number of child labours in the valley (Nika; 2010). The book “Child Labour in Jammu and Kashmir” under review written by Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Nika has taken up an exhaustive study of this problem. The author is a college Professor and has obtained his Ph D from Kashmir University. He regularly presents his research findings on the subject at national seminars and conferences in and outside the State. And, his research papers find a due place in various professional journals published country-wide. The look under review primarily is the outcome of his doctoral thesis. The forewords contributed by two eminent personalities.  The first foreword by Justice KG Bal Krishnan Hon’ble Chief Justice of India is an acknowledgement of the merit of the book and Scholarship of a Kashmiri author on the subject by a constitutional luminary of international standing. This is highly lauded and applauded. The contents read, “It is e very ones interest to invest in welfare of children…. an emprically grounded study as the present one…. could prove to be of immense value to policy makers as well as Judges and lawyers”. The second foreword by Jenab Abdul Gani Malik, Hon’ble Minister for Higher Education, Labour and Employment, Jammu and Kashmir Government also speaks volumes about the content, essence and utility of the book. The Foreword reads, “By studying this thesis, one is forced to think about those who are future of the nation, but are being deprived of the basic facilities like nutrition, health care and education. The thesis can help me and my department to work with more zeal for the eradication of the menace of child labour from our society”.



Both these revelations by two important personalities are highly encouraging and praise worthy. In addition, the apex court of the country

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and Jammu and Kashmir Ministry of labour have been impressed by the in-depth analysis, elaborate discussion, real findings and workable recommendations put forth in the book under review. The author has felt the pulse rightly by presenting the manuscript to solicit valued and honored opinions on the subject-matter the book deals with, to add its value and offer a road map to weed out this menace from the society. This gesture also reflects the intellectual courage on the part of the author to make his research findings public and expose his research work to constructive criticism for further improvement in successive editions. The specific objective pursued in this volume is narrated by the author in his preface which reads, “to study the magnitude extent and causes of child labour in valley of Kashmir where children (locals and non-locals) are working in the hilltops and hard to reach areas in life threatening cottage level handicraft units besides restaurants, automobiles, trash collection, brick making and so on”. The author inter alia expresses his sincere gratitude to the educational institutions of higher learning and advanced research centers in the country for their academic support he received while compiling this work. A detailed content analysis and list of diagrams, charts and graphs follow a brief content account. The review of relevant literature in consonance with the title of the book gathered from the available fund of knowledge in the form of survey reports, research theses, books, journals, periodicals and visiting websites in the context of global, national and local scenario since 1975 onwards till 2005 spans almost three decades is a Herculian task and an evidence itself of the hard work the author has invested in this study. The comprehensive study and rigorous analysis of literature thus gathered enabled the researcher to attain successfully twin purposes:   To develop as clear and unambiguous conceptual and contextual foundation for the investigation and To identify relevant gaps in the existing research on this problem conducted already with a view to avoid any repetitious. It is based on painstaking efforts and above all the academic and research orientation that the author constructed appropriate research problem for analysis, formulated study objectives and

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Children at Work Depriving Future Generations of Intellectual Capital

hypotheses and conceived relevant research methodology by creating adequate space for conceptual, exploratory and empirical investigation and analysis. The two operative chapters viz: (1) child labour in Kashmir (Magnitude and extent of Government Intervention), and (2) SocioEconomic-Ethical Dimensions (Data Analysis and Discussion) constitute the core cluster of the book. The author has conducted a detailed field work and one–to-one interactions with the working children and their parents as a sequel to which he identified multi-dimensional; social, economic educational, psychological factors at least 20 in number responsible for this menace. Each factor identified has been put to contextual and statistical analysis for verification as a vide canvas in respect of its pros and cons with due support of references to the context. The book accordingly delves deep in;  Analysing legal frame work on labour legislations enacted within the provisions for prohibitions and in certain cases for regulation of child labour. Probing into total disagreement to the principles of ethics based on theoretical construct followed by empirical evidence to assess the real situation in violation of ethical norms.



The divergent views advanced by the propounders of children at work are deep rooted in various myths associated with this problem. The author has employed adequate academic input in exploring the validity of such arguments during his empirical investigation. An objective analysis and elaborate discussion there upon in the spirit of a debate has been attempted and all those unfounded assumptions stand negated. This exercise differentiates the book under review from the existing inventory on the subject. A few misconceptions advanced for perpetuating the menace of child labour critically deliberated upon in the book are quoted thus:   that child labour is an off shoot of poverty which is a law of nature; that children are inquisitive and can learn the skill better;

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   

that employers oblige poor families by employing their children; that nimble finger argument advanced by some people; that child labour is better alternative to child begging; that end justify means.

The book under review has advanced a variety of superb counter arguments to cut the aforementioned arguments. As for instance following extract referred to ipso facto suffices how brilliantly the author puts forth his argument to verify a particular assumption. It reads, “Child labour and child begging are undesirable practices due to their social stigma and a misdirection to human resource development. The adverse effects of both are almost similar. Efforts are on to keep the society away from both. However, it would not be wise to substitute one wrong for another. If the rights of children are to be protected then they have to be saved from ill effects of both….” The book also documents short case studies based on interactions with child workforce which constitute a very important segment of the core cluster. These case studies are developed, framed and drafted so well meticulously and lively as if the reader is in direct confabulations with the children at their work spots. This speaks volumes about the scholarship and exhibits the real beauty of the book. The aforesaid ruthless stories present sufferings and the author in this context claims, “that veil from certain ugly realities to which the children are subjected to, has been pierced”. These case studies can provide a relevant study material for a Programme on child labour. The book at the end proposes varied recommendations based on fact findings in the context of J&K state and have for reaching policy implications to eradicate this evil from the society. These workable measures are explained in all niceties to ensure their implementation. This can be a classical example of a good connect between operational experience and strategic to eliminate this menace. The book is appended with research instruments like questionnaires and interview schedules to facilitate future research. A detailed bibliography and subject index also form part of the book.

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Children at Work Depriving Future Generations of Intellectual Capital

The book has a natural flow, consistency and continuity in presenting varied ideas as the subject with due appreciation for aesthetic taste of readers. And this is an interesting read for all engaged in managing labour, entrepreneurs, Government functionaries, legal experts, social workers, academics, students, civil society organizations and so forth. The book has been published in 2010 by M/S Meezan publishers, Srinagar; hard bound, ISB numbered, priced at Rs. 595 spread over xv+280 pages. The coloured Jacket offers glimpses of tender hands engaged in world of work. In a snap shot children voice their concern by carrying placards in their hands invite attention of society towards their rights. The present review offers certain suggestions:  that the author while attempting the second edition may revisit and redesign the entire structure of the book to give it a new look. The present volume sans list of tasks, Glossary of important terms on child workers given at the end may be repositioned to form a part of start-up enabling readers to be fully conversant with the terminology to study the matter in its right perspective. that the first two chapters (introduction and review of literature) may be merged and re-arranged in a proper content sequence. Similarly, acknowledgment may form a part of the preface. Further, commentary testing of hypothesis based on x2 and inferences drawn accordingly in respect of certain phenomena, like: i. Education status of children and parents, and ii. Job satisfaction and gender difference need to be highlighted in the relevant analytical tasks (Table 4.6 and Table 4.7). A book has a different flavour contrary to a research thesis.  that the text and reference books brought out by the local publishers is highly encouraging and well appreciated. However, they are required to work a bit more with enthusiasm in order to stay in book publishing business in a neck bending competitive



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environment when the opportunities are available to the authors only at the distance of a click of the mouse. The shrinking space for research in higher education institutions is a matter of serious concern especially in the era of assessment and accreditation. The need of the hour is to re-energize research activities in the colleges to perform in line with the national policy.

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INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS Paper must be in English and should follow the instructions given below: Manuscripts: All material must be original, not published or submitted for publication elsewhere. A summary of not more than 200 words outlining scope of the work should also be included. Manuscripts should be typed in MS Word, Times New Roman, fonts 12 size with 1.5 space. The author’s name, academic rank, institutional affiliation, e-mail and postal address, telephone number and acknowledgements should appear on a separate page. Spelling: Follow British, not American spellings. Thus, use “humour,” not “humor,” and “programme,” not “program.” Also, use “modernise,” “stabilise” or “modernisation,” “stabilisation,” etc. Quotations: Quotations must be placed in double quotation marks, reserving single quotation marks for a quote within a quote. Long quotes (i.e., four lines or more) should be indented, without quote marks, to set them apart from the text. Abbreviations: All abbreviations must be given in full at their first use in the text; for example Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Abbreviations should include a final stop in words shortened by omitting the end (such as p., ed., vol.) but not in contractions (words such as Mr, Dr, edn, eds) or between capitals, e.g., USA, SAARC, UN. Avoid using “i.e.” in the text but use them in the notes if you wish. Highlighting words: use Italics for titles of books, newspapers, journals and magazines as well as for foreign words not in common usage. Numbers: Numbers from one to nine should be spelt out, 10 and above should remain in figures, hence, “seven” not “7” and “17” not “seventeen”. However, figures should be used for exact measurements (such as “5 per cent,” “5 km” and “5-year-old child”). Use “thousand” and “million,” not “crore” and “lakh.” Use fuller forms for inclusive numbers in the case of dates and page numbers (such as “1971-72” and pp. “260-65”). In the text, use “per cent,” in tables, the symbol “%.” Figures and Tables: Figures and Tables should be presented on separate

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sheets of paper and collected at the end of the paper while mentioning the location in the paper. Figures and Tables must be numbered in separate sequences, i.e., “Fig. 1” and “Table 1” and the titles should be short and crisp. Copyright permission for reproducing Figures or Tables that have been cited from other works must be obtained. Notes and References: Notes and References should be amalgamated and signaled serially in the text of the article by superscript 1, 2, 3, etc. The preference will be for endnotes and not footnotes. Referencing Style: References should be typed in the form of the following examples on first appearance: a) Books: Michael Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge (London: Routledge, 1989), p.26. b) Articles in Journals: Samina Yasmeen, “Pakistan’s Kashmir Policy: Voices of Moderation?” Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2003, pp. 187-202. In case of two journals having a similar title, the place of publication must be mentioned, e.g., International Affairs (London) and International Affairs (Moscow) c) Articles in Edited Volumes: Tom Nairn, “The Curse of Reality: Limits of Modernisation Theory,” in John A. Hall (ed.), The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp.107-34. d) Articles in Newsmagazines: P.S. Suryanarayana, “Asian Security from US Angle,” Frontline, 19 June - 2 July 2004, pp. 58-59. f) g) Articles from Newspapers: M.K. Bhadrakumar, “New Regionalism in Central Asia,” The Hindu, 14 July 2004. References to Websites: United Nations Development Programme, “Arab Human Development Report 2003,” http://www.unddp.org/rbas/ahdr/english2003.html. (Date of access). Reports and Documents: Canberra Commission, Report on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 1996). Available on the Internet at http://www.dfat. gov.au/ cc/cchome.html (Date of access). Conferences Papers: Michael Williams, “The Discursive Power of Community: Consideration on the European ‘Security Community,” Draft Paper presented at the conference on Power, Security and Community: IR Theory and the Politics of EU Enlargement, Copenhagen, 9-12 October 1997.

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