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 re
