Dharma Files | Four lessons from The Kashmir Files

I draw the following four lessons from The Kashmir Files.

The first lesson to be drawn is the reality of the oppression suffered by Hindus. There has been a tendency to overlook it. It was necessary to overlook it during Muslim rule because claiming that it was so, would only worsen the situation, and perhaps invite further oppression. The ultimate oppression is the inability of the oppressed to even claim that they are oppressed — the silencing of the oppressed. This is not to imply that Muslim rule lacked any positive dimension. Its positive dimension has by now been fully recognised in the historiography of the period.

The point here is to document fully what many would consider its negative dimensions in this respect. Later, during the Independence movement, it had to be overlooked in the interest of presenting a joint Hindu-Muslim front against the British. After Independence, vote-bank politics dictated that such an attitude be continued. The Kashmir Files has bared that reality, however, in such a way, that the fact can no longer be suppressed. This will become all the more difficult to keep a lid on it if Hindu holocaust museums are inaugurated.

Some might fear the consequences of this but from now on, it seems, such truth alone could form the basis of reconciliation.

The second lesson to be drawn is the need to revisit jauhar. It is obvious, from the personal testimonies, in the wake of The Kashmir Files, that in some Hindu homes of Kashmir, kerosene and matches were kept in readiness for womenfolk to immolate themselves, in case the mob broke through. This is reminiscent of what the Rajput women did in medieval India by performing jauhar (Sanskrit jivahara?). Historians are especially familiar with three such jauhars performed in Chittor, and these are not the only ones. The only difference between what the Rajput Hindu women did, and what the Kashmiri Hindu women were prepared to do, is one of scale.

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The third lesson to be drawn from The Kashmir Files is that men and women are equal in rights and duties in normal times, in societies in which the rule of law prevails, and which are politically stable. The more the situation departs from these norms, however, the more vulnerable women become to the exercise of sheer brute force against them. Men also become vulnerable and horribly so, but no one who has watched The Kashmir Files is left with any doubt that the physical vulnerability of women in such situations is comparatively greater and therefore the need for special protection on their part. Men can also get raped but it is women who typically attract such treatment. The emphasis placed in some ancient societies on the physical protection of women, may not always have been a way of controlling them, but rather a way of dealing with this harsh reality, especially if ancient societies were more susceptible to political convulsions.

The fourth lesson has to do with a solution to the problem of Islamic extremism, which can often slide into terrorism. This lesson is not suggested so much by the movie itself as the effect it creates in minds seeking a solution to the problem of Islamic extremism or terrorism. When such minds seek a solution with renewed vigour, they realise that the two periods in the history of Muslim rule over India which enjoyed maximum Hindu-Muslim concord were arguably those of Zain-ul Abidin (r. 1420-1470) in Kashmir, and of Akbar (r. 1556-1605) in north India. Zain-ul Abidin actually tried to undo the excesses committed by his predecessor, Sikander Butshikin (r.1389-1413). The fact that Zain-ul Abidin hailed from Kashmir, makes him especially relevant in the context of The Kashmir Files. The other king, Akbar, opened a new chapter in Hindu-Muslin relations by enlisting the support of Rajputs for his reign.

Now both of these were kings who would be called liberal Muslims in modern parlance. What does this tell us? I think it tells us that it is when liberal Muslims become major players in the political process, that the relations between Hindus and Muslims tend to become normal. This leads one to ask: Is there any political party of liberal Muslims in India? And if there is not one, to suggest that perhaps this is the missing piece of the puzzle?

The author, formerly of the IAS, is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal Canada, where he has taught for over thirty years. He has also taught in Australia and the United States and at Nalanda University in India. He has published extensively in the fields of Indian religions and world religions. Views expressed are personal.

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Arvind Sharma