This August 6 marks the second anniversary of the unprecedented constitutional and administrative changes that took place in the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir in the wake of abrogation of Articles 370 & 35A of the Constitution of India. It additionally resulted in the demotion of the constitutional status of J&K from a state to a Union Territory, with Ladakh being identified as a separate Union Territory. The important and obvious question on everyone’s mind is: did this change Kashmir and its people for better or for worse?
To begin with, most national and international experts on Kashmir predicted yet another cycle of unending death, violence, stone pelting, strike, bloodshed and protests, which could potentially engulf Kashmir valley for months, as it happened after the killing of Burhan Wani in 2016. Further, it was expected that Kashmiris would henceforth boycott and disassociate from any political or administrative activity in Kashmir valley that is powered by the Constitution and Parliament of India.
But surprisingly none of these things happened. No sky fell in last two years. So, did Kashmiris happily accept and embrace abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution of India?
Answer to such a complex and layered question cannot be in black or white. But one can delineate general societal trends that have emerged in the last two years in the Kashmir valley and let people interpret it in their own way.
One of the significant changes in the Kashmir valley since the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution of India has been an emergence of a sense of empowerment among politically, economically and socially marginalized castes and communities of Kashmir valley, which may explain to some extent why the people of Kashmir valley did not behave in a manner that was in tune with Kashmir’s violent past.
It is important to understand that a tiny elite comprising upper caste Kashmiri Muslims from rich Kashmiri Pandit Brahmin families who have converted, Syed and Malla Kashmiri Muslims, Srinagar city-based rich Kashmiri Hindu Pandits and the landlords among Kashmiri Sikhs have traditionally enjoyed disproportionate political and economic clout in Kashmir valley.
Neither Kashmir’s middle castes nor Kashmir’s lower castes have ever ruled J&K state, since Independence. Forget about Dalit Kashmiri Muslims like Wattals, even intermediary Kashmiri Muslim castes like Lones, Wanis, Khandeys can’t dare to think that any one of them could ever be a Chief Minister of J&K. But since August 5, 2019, a wave of political assertion is sweeping Kashmir valley, where many poor, young and old, men and women from intermediary castes and communities have felt politically empowered due to administration’s encouragement to marginalized caste groups within Kashmir valley—including Kashmir’s Dalit and OBC Muslims, Pahari Muslims as well as Gujjars and Bakarwals—to take part in the changing political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir. As a result, far from boycotting the District Development Council (DDC) elections, Kashmiri people participated in huge numbers in these elections which for the first time elected political representatives at the district level.
One of the main reasons for the success of DDC elections was that it allowed many candidates from non-elite upper castes in Kashmir to take part in an election of this scale. A large number of candidates were from intermediary or Pasmanda Muslim castes, who otherwise would not have even imagined taking part in such an election before 2019.
This new caste awakening has further been enhanced by Kashmiri Muslims taking far greater interest in the political, social and cultural events of mainland India. Since 2019, Kashmiri Muslims, who would otherwise remain detached and uninterested in the political happenings in mainland India, are taking active interest in social and political developments of mainland India and are even participating in them, be it anti-CAA protests in Delhi or amplifying requests for oxygen cylinders and medicines for COVID patients across India.
This newfound interest in politics of mainland India has also contributed in political articulation of Kashmiri people’s opinions regarding their own political reality in Kashmir valley. People of Kashmir have now started questioning why only few upper caste Kashmiri Muslim convert families and Syeds and Mallas have garnered not just all the top political positions in Kashmir valley all these decades, but also dominate administration and business within Kashmir valley.
Since 2019, people of Kashmir have started accepting the political reality for good and that explains their long delayed psychological integration with the mainland India. Kashmiri Muslims are now the face of journalism, medicine, law, cinema, TV industry in all major cities of India, a process that only accelerated in the last two years. The caste assertion was not present earlier when few upper caste Kashmiri Muslims ran mainstream, separatist and militant activities, pushing intermediary and lower Kashmiri Muslim castes to secondary and tertiary political and economic roles.
After 2019, this has changed not just in Kashmir valley but also in the Jammu region, where Dalit Hindus, Pahari Muslims and Gujjar and Bakarwal communities have also started asserting themselves, which was reflected in Jammu’s DDC elections. In these elections too, Jammu’s marginalized Hindu and Muslim Dogra communities challenged upper caste Hindu- and Muslim-dominated political class comprising Hindu Brahmins and Baniyas, Hindu Rajputs and Thakurs as well as Rajput Muslims.
The greatest change post 2019 has come in the way Jammu region and Kashmir valley’s marginalized castes and communities have been able to assert their political might, which they had found difficult to do earlier because of the dominance of upper caste Hindu and Muslim elite. Unlike old Kashmir, the new Kashmir will no longer let only a few privileged caste groups and clans enjoy political power. The democratization of the political aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir will remain one of the biggest success stories of post-2019 Kashmir.
Javed Beigh is a young political leader and State Secretary of People’s Democratic Front. He fought DDC elections from Beerwah Constituency of Central Kashmir’s Budgam district. He is also a distinguished writer and renowned public speaker. He can be reached @javedbeigh on all social media platforms. His email id is [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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