The yatra to the cave temple, situated at an altitude of 3,888 m in the Himalayas, housing a mysterious ice-linga, has a history of many a centuries[1].
The route is open only four moths in a year and the peak time is June to August. Prior registration is required with the authorities, keeping in view the hardships the route demands [2]. Still, about 400,000 pilgrims go on the 45-day yatra for the darshan of Bholenath, paying entirely for the pilgrimage from their own pockets [3], unlike the government subsidized Haj yatra [4].
Background:
The climatic conditions are quite hostile and there was a growing demand that the J&K state government should take more initiative to provide facilities to the pilgrims. In 2002, J&K assembly okayed the constitution of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
The governor of J&K is the de-facto chairman of the Board.
Some land near Baltal in the valley was being used for temparory arrangements of the pilgrims every year. It would take a few weeks, prior to the commencement of the yatra, to set up the facilities (shelter, arrangements for food, water and toilets etc) and equal duration to dessemble the temparoty structures after the yatra. Thus, in effect, the land was being occupied for about 4 months every year, and the cost of assembling-dessembling the "temparory" structures was being incurred.
The SASB then asked the government why not to have some permanant arrangements for the pilgrims? And after a series of dialogs and discussions (usual sarkari way of doing things), the state government of the Congress-PDP alliance, decided on May 26, 2008 that the to transfer 100 acres (0.40 km2) of forest land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) out of the total land area of 15,520.3 km2 (5,992.4 sq mi) in the main Kashmir valley to set up temporary shelters and facilities for the Hindu pilgrims.
Let me remind you here that the PDP led by Mufti Mohammad Syed, which later withdrew from the government, leading to its fall, had several cabinet ministers who were part of the decision making process.
Mufti Dances to Jihadis' tunes:
But they switched sides at the first hints of the jihadi separatists from the valley protesting the land transfer.
The protest was based on illogical arguments of "changing the demography of the valley" (this coming from a community which is responsible for throwing 350,000 Kashmiri Pandits out of their homes!!) and
"ecological imbalance" (allegedly arising from occupying 0.01% of the total land mass!!) [5].
These protests were not peaceful at all, and pelting stones at our Army and burning our national flag and chantings of "Pakistan Zindabad" soon became common on Kashmir streets.
PDP, fearing loss of votes, withdrew from the government.
The Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has been a Union minster more than once and AICC general secretary 9 times [6] - a national level leader, I mean - chose to bow to the separatists' pressure rather than stick to the nationalist decision his cabinet had taken, and revoked the order of transferring the land to the SASB (July 1, 2008). Interestingly, SASB members, the custodians of the Yatra and all the arrangements, were not even consulted, which actually was a legal requirement.
Hindus react:
This understandably resulted in dissatisfaction among the Hindu pilgrims and peaceful protests started all over India.
The Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti (AYSS), Jammu led the protests.
On one hand, one is ashamed at the fact that Hindus have to resort to a 61-day protest to get 0.40 sq.km of land for arrangements at a pilgrimage, but on the other, there is a feeling of self-confidence that Hindus won't take it lying down any more. This is the greatest message of this Andolan.
Initially, the agitation started with usual things like marching to and registering protests at the collector-offices, conducting awareness rallies, getting people involved, etc.
But there was no sign of any consideration from the government, and the need was felt that the pitch needs to be raised so that the Hindu voice falls on the deaf government's ears. A call for Bharat-Bandh on July 3 was given, and the whole nation came to a stand-still.
The movement on the Jammu-Srinagar highway was also affected and separatists and the media suddenly started declaring that Jammu has resorted to "economic blockade" of the Kashmir valley. Media went on showing the long queues of trucks laden with goods along the highway, which was a result of a few hours of rasta-roko and eventually got cleared up within hours.
Muslims support the Hindu cause:
Meanwhile, various Muslim organisations like the Muslim Front, Jammu Kashmir Muslim Federation and Gujjar and Bakkarwal Muslim groups, extended full support to the AYSS, as their bread and butter depends on tourism, and the yatra being one of the biggest source of income for them [7].
The first Balidaan:
The movement was in its ninth day. Seeing that there was no positive outcome, one Shri Kuldeep Dogra came to the venue, recited a poem there, and in his three minutes address said –"This movement now needs sacrifice and I shall sacrifice my life."
Saying this he sat down and immediately fell down with a bang.
Seeing froth coming out of his mouth, it was revealed that he had taken 'sulfaz' and before he could be admitted in the hospital, he had already become a martyr on the way [8].
The situation became tense. Army was deployed in Jammu.
Still, the agitation continued.
People would come out in thousands, carrying the tricolor and shouting "Bam-Bam Bhole", "Bharat Mata Ki Jay".
Army men would say, "how can we fire at those carrying the tricolor?"
The government called an all-party meeting to resolve the issue - some signs of hopes.
But the PDP chose to stay away, and the agitation continued.
The terrorists tried their usual ways to deter the movement [9], but to no success. Hindus were determined to fight for Bholenath's land.
Meanwhile, in the valley:
Separatists continued the "Jammu forcing economic blockade of Kashmir" rumor, even though the government clarified that the supply to the valley is normal [10].
A group of fruit-growers, led by the separatists, declared that they will cross the LoC to trade their goods in Muzaffarabad, PoK.
They were shouting 'Kashmir ki mandi - Rawalpindi', 'Seb toh sirf bahana hain, Rawalpindi jaana hain' .
They marched towards the LoC on August 11, and the police had to open fire, in which Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a leader of All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) was killed [11].
This angered the mob, which was apparently not expecting the Indian law enforcement agencies to stop them from crossing the LoC leading to an international problem, and more violence started in the valley. Police and army were attacked and India and its symbols abused, and Pakistan and its symbols hailed [12].
Our secular government wanted the Pakistanis breeding on our soil to be a part of the peace process, and their leaders were openly and shamelessly asking 'Why object to Islamic rule in Kashmir?' [13].
A curfew was imposed all over the J&K [14].
But the brave people of Jammu found out ways to register their protests in spite of the curfew.
They would spend the day in their homes, "guarded" by the army, and come out at the evenings. It would appear that everyone is taking an evening stroll. But everyone would walk to a pre-decided spot, usually the nearest chauraha, shout slogans, set an effigy on fire, and before any army/police-man is able to reach the spot, everyone would be back in home, the protest registered !
The independece day:
The pictures speak for themselves [15]:
In Kashmir  |  In Jammu |
A massive Jail-Bharo andolan was carried out throughout the nation, from 12th to 21st of August. A liberty was given to all the provinces to decide upon their convenient dates during this period and register protests by courting arrests.
If we take a look at the figures of Jammu itself, we can gauge the uniqueness of this movement.
Jammu has a population of 56 lakhs of which 16 lakhs are Muslims. From the rest of the Hindu society 2 lakh 21 thousand men came on foot and voluntarily courted arrest.
On the 19th, 1 lakh 74 thousand women came out of their homes and got arrested.
When asked for their names, every one of them replied 'Parvati', husband's name? – 'Shiva', address? – Baltal, Kashmir.
Perhaps this was the biggest turn up of our 'matri-shakti' in the history of world.
The third day was for the children.
1 lakh 12 thousand children between the age of 5 to 15 years courted arrest.
No mother or grand-mother expressed any concern about what will happen to the children in case of any stampede.
None of the children thought what would happen to their future career.
In the jail when asked for the name, the reply was 'Ganapati', mother's name? –'Parvati', father's name? –'Shiva', residence? – Baltal, Kashmir.
(Apart from Jammu, some 5.25 lakh people offered themselves to get arrested at 6120 places.The highlight was men of high status who generally do not come out of their homes also participated in support of this movement.) [16]
The governments of India and J&K state should actually have taken this opportunity to push a nationalist movement in the troubled state and utilize it to demolish all the separatist voices in the valley.
But the leaders, not able to rise above the appeasement politics and vote-bank strategies, failed the nation once again.
The Victory:
After witnessing this roudra-roop of Hindu-samaj, the government understood the gravity of the situation, and the depth at which the Hindu-sentiment is associated with the issue.
It took up the dialogue with the AYSS, and the two parties came to an agreement [17].
The government agreed that "certain decisions of the state government relating to the Yatra created misunderstandings which led to controversy and agitation and loss of many precious live".
The government also agreed that "The Board shall use the aforesaid land for the duration of the Yatra (including the period of making the required arrangements and winding up of the same) for the purpose of user by various service providers according to its needs and priorities.The aforesaid land shall be used according to the Board's requirements, from time to time", meeting the Samiti's original and only demand.
With this, the Samiti withdrew the agitation, and the 61-day struggle ended with the victory.
Thus, the Hindus steered one of the most important movements in the history of independent India through the troubled waters of separatist-pressure, minority-favoring leaders, international-pressures and even terrorist attacks.
The story of this movement will be written with golden letters in the history.
This youtube video is a nice summary of the sangharsh by the samiti:
Shri Amarnath Movement 4 - Tandava.
Time has come for the awakened Hindu Society to take inspiration from this movement, and to shed its image of being docile, always prone to be bullied and attacked by others.
We never go to attack anybody but if anybody attacks, in self-defense we should never hesitate to resist.
Bam-Bam-Bhole !!
Bharat Mata Ki Jay !!
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarnath_temple
2. http://www.amarnathyatra.org
3. http://www.liveindia.com/amarnath/form.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_civil_code#Subsidies
5. http://www.blogs.ivarta.com/india-usa-blog-column149.htm
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghulam_Nabi_Azad
7. http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/27sld3.htm
8. http://kashmirblogs.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/suicide-by-a-patrioticand-his-last-peomamarnath-issue/
9. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/02jk.htm?zcc=rl
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarnath_land_transfer_controversy#Government_position
11. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/11jk.htm
12. http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/19slid1.htm
13. http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/25sd1.htm
14. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/11jk3.htm
15. http://jammuburning.wordpress.com/tag/15th-august-in-kashmir/
16. RSS Sarsanghachalak K S Sudarshan's address (Vijayadashami, Nagpur 5-oct-08)
17. http://rediff.co.in/news/2008/aug/31amar2.htm
