History of the Kashmir Crisis

To understand what's happening happening in India today, one must study the history of India from ancient time like going back to maybe at least 1000 years back to start studying what was happening in India then right. And why did the Muslims feel this sense of

fear from the extreme element within the Hindu community in India,

because Muslims had existed or coexisted in India with Hindus for over 1000 years, right. So, they had good reasons, solid reasons to fear living under a Hindu rule in India, especially when it would be a democracy when the British left because Hindus are the majority and this argument that Muslims from Bengal and West, western India and central India collective collectively would have outnumbered the the current Hindu majority of India is absurd. Anyone who knows the demographics of India wouldn't argue in that way. Why? Because what has changed today, there are more Muslims in India than there are in Pakistan. And they are demographically divided in ways that they cannot have a

real impact politically on the politics of the country. So, if you look at the Muslim population in India, it is in pockets, there is a pocket in Hyderabad, there's a pocket in

northern India, there are few pockets, possibly in West India, okay. And they're because they are divided demographically. They cannot have a real impact politically how many MPs do Muslims have in the parliament in India today? How many, how many real leaders who can actually stand and talk for Muslims there is one or two there are one or two people of course, this is why the founding fathers of Pakistan demanded a separate homeland in order to protect

the unique identity Muslims professed Hinduism as a new idea. Hindus are not homogeneous, they're not monolithic, they don't exist as a pocket as one united entity, that was never the case if you pick up histories from the Mughal period and even before that, they are written in Persian, even written by Hindus even written by who created Hinduism Hinduism was created by the British okay to divide the Muslims and Hindus along religious lines. So that they are easily governed and the British establishment colonial establishment favored Hindus over Muslims because they feared that Muslims who have lost power in India will try to come back to or they will try to claim back that

glory once they once had in India. So, that was the reason why the British political establishment favored Hindus and Hindus were appointed in important positions even in the 19th century. So, the the War of Independence or the Indian mutiny of 1857 caused the Muslims to be marginalized, they were completely sidelined. Because the British blamed the Muslims entirely for that mutiny, even though it was sparked or initiated by Hindus, the Hindu garrison at Meerut, in India in 1837. It was actually started by a Hindu soldier within the British East India Company, army his name was Mangal Pandey, and he initiated the rebellion. And it then then it grew to other regions of northern India.

And then the Mughal Emperor, who was a puppet already anyway, was forced into it by on gunpoint, some of these mutineers, they came and they occupied daily, and they forced the Emperor to take into shape because they didn't have a leader. They didn't have a leader, so they wanted some kind of Central leadership. So the blame was put on Muslims cut to cut the long story short, and Muslims are dense fourth, completely marginalized from important positions that were given to Hindus. Muslims lacked education. For that reason people like Mr. Khan, who had some erroneous ideas on Islam, unfortunately, he you know, kind of sparked many controversies, when it comes to his theological

views. But when it comes to his leadership for the Muslim community in India, he was very sincere, he wanted good for the Muslims. So for that purpose to that end, he established this college called Anglo Muslim College in a place called Aligarh, which later on no came to be known as the Aligarh University, the Oxford Muslim India base, right. And the elegant University produced many intellectuals because he could see so you could see So see, his name was Ahmed Khan, sir, was the title given by the British establishment to him for his achievements, right. So he could see that Muslims if something is not done very fast, will suffer financially economically, you know,

politically

That will impact Muslim well being in India. So that's why he established this educational institution to have an elite for the Muslim community, so that Muslims can have effective leaders, intelligent leaders, educated leaders who can lead the lead the Muslims of the subcontinent and that is what produced directly or indirectly, that particular group of people which rose to lead the Muslims during the independence movement later on and so, then how does how does this mean Kashmir issue is basically another very unfortunate episode in the history of colonial India, Kashmir is predominantly Muslim, right? Kashmir was governed by Muslims for over 1000 years again, Muslim

photons had direct rule over Kashmir, okay. In fact, we can find coins to this day from the Mughal period minted in Kashmir and Srinagar you have

the Mughal Emperor jalala Deen Muhammad Akbar.

His coins were minted in Srinagar, I have these coins in my personal collection. So, Kashmir has been there as Muslim territory for a very long time Mughal emperors would go there for you know, recued recreational purposes they will go and spend their time there. If an emperor felt sick or ill they would make their way to Kashmir. I mean, there are so many examples. Then after the Mughals declined. Other dynasties came in for example, the Durrani is the Afghans, right Mr. Cha abdali also known as Mr. Cha Durrani, he governed Kashmir directly there are coins that after the moments after the Mughal so how did how was Kashmir lost from I mean, how did Muslims lose control of Kashmir,

which is predominantly Muslim demographically, Kashmir is a Muslim territory, okay. I would say over 80% of the population is Muslim, right. So, when India was divided by the British colonial establishment, Kashmir would naturally come to Pakistan, right. But Kashmir was a semi independent territory ruled by Hindu a Hindu family called the dog grace, okay. This Hindu family got the the control of Kashmiri territory in the mid 19th century from the Sikhs, because Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Again, it's going to be a very long history lesson, and I'm going to shorten it so that people understand where we're coming from Sikhs

governed parts of India, particularly Punjab, the Punjab region for nearly 50 years. Okay. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who was born in currently Pakistan Gujranwala, okay. He rose to unite. Our he took leadership as as a young man of the Sikh

divided military orders, he united them, there were 12 different orders in different parts of Punjab, okay of the Sikhs, and they call them missiles. Missile actually means a group of people who are it's like a military group. So they would go into different territories, Rob plunder, and this is how they lived, right? So reducing united all these 12 groups and became the leader and he took Lahore from the Iranians. Okay, so after he occupied law in 1799, thenceforth, he governed with an iron fist, parts of Punjab and at one point, he was governing territory from rush hour to Moulton, wow, okay. Yes. And you govern for 40 years, he died in 1839. Cut the long story short, within 10

years, his empire was dismantled. And there were two Anglo Sikh wars. The British had the eyes on Punjab, which is very fertile regenerate, and it was producing

rice sugar, a lot of a lot of things. So the British had their eyes on the Punjab, so they defeated the Sikhs in two wars, two Anglo Sikh wars and the Sikhs lost influence in Punjab and the British imposed the direct rule. Now, at that time, Kashmir was governed by the Sikhs, right? Kashmir was occupied by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. And there are coins minted in Kashmir in the name of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his sons share sing and you know, others who came. I mean, there were not many Unfortunately, they all kind of died within a very short span of time after the father was

gone. So, Kashmir became a territory ruled by the Sikhs. But then the governor of Kashmir was Hindu. His name was collapsing. Okay. collapsing was directly attached to the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in lower so when things went wrong, upside down

In the center, gulab Singh announced his independence and they came to be known as the dog Ross okay this Dogra family, so, there was no direct rule of the dog has

a lower the value of Jammu and Kashmir which is predominantly Muslim population population is still Muslim okay dominantly over 90% is still Muslim okay. So,

from then to 1940s when India was basically split into two halves mainly

the the families still continue to govern even as as a tributary power. I mean they were like under the protection or you know, how can I put it it was like a vessel state, right. So, the over ruling power was the British colonial establishment. So, my Raja or the Raja of Kashmir at the time of the partition was Hari Singh, one of the descendants of collapsing.

Jenna approached him for the reason that the Legion Legion approached him in 1947. But before that, that Kashmir is a Muslim territory, it the population is all Muslim. So it would be only fair for you to join Pakistan. Right. And then narrow Pandit Jawaharlal

Nehru was the the leader on the other side who was representing Congress, Congress Party in India, who was one of the founding fathers of current day India. He approached

my Maharaja, how do you think that you should

become a part of India? So with some reservations, because he was Hindu himself or he saying he didn't care about the population, and in fact, there were some massacres carried out against the population man, they wanted to be with the Muslims. He joined hands with India. So India imposed an indirect rule on the value of Jammu and Kashmir, okay, which continued to this day, on paper, of course, Kashmir has been the most heavily militarized region in the world. There is.

I mean, there are close to a million soldiers in Kashmir as we speak right now, okay to subdue the valley to have control over it. And Pakistan wants it as part of Pakistan, because it was claimed by Pakistan as well. Right. So narrow promised when he took Kashmir as his own, as if it was his own, you know, to claim he promised that we will do a referendum for the population in the population wants to go independent from India or Pakistan is it would be their choice, or if they want to join hands with Pakistan, then that referendum never happened, unfortunately. Right. So Kashmir was given a special status.

And the article that guaranteed that was the article 370 in the Indian constitution and 35. Right, according to these two articles, just in the moment, right, yes. Which is exactly what was repealed on Monday. These two articles were repealed by the current extremist right wing, BJP Indian Government, okay. And they obviously didn't care about agreements made by previous governments and leaders. So these two articles guaranteed the semi autonomous status of the states of Jammu and Kashmir. So according to these articles, Indian civilians from mainland India couldn't buy land in Kashmir. Okay. the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India did not didn't apply in Jammu and

Kashmir. The people of Jammu and Kashmir could have their own flags, okay. They would have to consult the main land, the Indian government on issues regarding foreign policy, defense and things like that security issues. Other than that, Kashmir was constitutionally a semi Autonomous Region without any serious consultation, even with their own politicians to impose a direct occupational rule over the value of Jammu and Kashmir. These two articles were completely repealed by the current Indian government, which is well known for trading against Muslims for pumping Islamophobia, all the lynchings in India that have been taken place for the last five years is what happened yesterday.

Yes, how bad is your Muslims are being killed, you know, like, like, even like insects, basically,

you know, if Hindu mobs get together and they decide to kill a Muslim or a Muslim family

is all good police would be, you know, reluctant to take action because a lot of the times police themselves they sympathize with such more than they are they are part of the problem. So Muslims are facing a very difficult period generally speaking in India, very, very difficult.

I mean, recently all these issues have been raised about the triple talaq as if Modi or the BJP really cares about the environment, and some of the Muslim leaders have been raising this point that if you really care about the rights of women, which is the pretext they are using to attack the Muslim community by using one of the clauses of the Hanafi Fiqh, right. And this is what the Muslim leaders have been speaking about in India that don't think this is only a problem of the honeybees. It is a problem for for the Muslims because today they are attacking the Hanafi Fiqh. Tomorrow they will attack all fake they will attack Islam and this is the aim slowly make I'm talking about

specifically this hard, it is hard not to question their sincerity about protecting women were they being raped in mobs? Exactly, exactly. And on top of that, hold on, if you think about women's rights in India, the highest rate of rapes in the world okay is in India, unfortunately, India is the rape capital of the world. Number one, number two,

the highest rate of female infanticide is in India, the highest number of aborted female fetuses is in India, the highest number of child prostitution is in India, there are slums in India, Bombay, bayangol. You know, you know, I don't know way I mean, you will go and watch documentaries on YouTube, and you will see what's happening to women in India. So it is ironic for the government to suddenly the BJP government in particular, he suddenly wake up and start defending women's rights when it comes to Muslim Muslim women. Right. And Modi tweeted about that, that today. You know, there is something freedom for women or something like that. So this is like Sarkozy, right? In, I

think not very long ago, when he was the president in France. He said they are imposing this niqab ban to protect women who are against oppression, but hold on a second. France has a huge population of trafficked women who are being sold in markets. France has a huge problem with women, it seems like a normal kind of playbook to, to, to, to call to a crowd bang for kind of the blood of escape go get angry at this kind of demonized, populate? Absolutely, absolutely. Once you continue to kind of increase your own powers of government. Yes, and distract and distracting people from real problems. So, so all these coming back to Kashmir? Yeah. Coming back to Kashmir, I mean, currently

Now unfortunately, the situation is that India has imposed a direct rule over Kashmir its occupation now basically, is completely ignoring all the previous treaties and agreements and going against all the United Nation and the United Nations resolutions and, and all the advice of international leaders and requests from Pakistan and Kashmiri leaders. And even Indian politicians within India. Rahul Gandhi, the leader of Congress Party, which is one of the biggest parties in India has severely criticized this move. And he has warned that this move will potentially divide India and big things may happen like for the people of Kashmir, I don't know what this means. We have no idea

what's going to happen to them. And Indian army is unfortunately known for committing atrocities in Kashmir. It is well documented. I'm not even making this up. This is not because I'm speaking as a Muslim, my bias is speaking, there is documentary evidence of Indian Army committing atrocities against Kashmiri civilians, okay, 1000s of people have disappeared 1000s of rapes, okay, and other things, we as Muslim community around the world, we want the best for the people of Kashmir, we want the best for the people of India. But it seems that the government on the other side, doesn't want peace and they're doing things like this. And now there is direct occupational really hope and pray

that Kashmir doesn't become another Palestine, it is clear that the Indian government current the current government that why I keep saying the current government, it is ruled by a specific group of people. And they are known for the bigotry, they are known for the hatred towards Muslims, they are known for their hatred towards Sikhs, and Dalits. And it is an it is an elite which doesn't seem to be caring about the people of India, because of the kind because the kind of things they're doing. And

if India had problems previously, what this government might end up doing is, is completely escalating those problems out of control. Right? And it is very possible that our fears about the region may may come true, but we really hope, peace and justice for all people in the world, whether it's Kashmiris or Indians. And before we enter a very quick note, that we as Muslims, we represent a civilization, right? We don't represent a particular ethnicity

Or, or a particular language or a particular piece of land. We represent a civilization. It is a living civilization. It started with the advent of the Prophet of Islam sort of lives alone. It has a unique feature which has a unique character. We represent that civilization. We represent our poets, our authors, our libraries, our hospitals are our streetlights. In Cordova, we represent our philosophers in Baghdad, we represent our theologians. In Damascus. We represent our artists for example, calligraphers in India, we represent all of that Islamic civilization is absolutely beautiful. And this is what we need to highlight. We need to show the world that you can't just jump

from a bunch of extremists straight to the prophet and link them to the Prophet. No. If you want to talk about the Prophet, then you start talking about the place between the 21st century and exactly the rich history of the Muslim civilization or the Islamic civilization if you want to call that. Call that call that out.