AR Bhat
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir consists of Jammu region as well as Kashmir valley in which volatile areas are mostly in Kashmir valley and certain districts in Jammu region. Historically, the regions of J&K as a whole were ruled over by Mauryan rulers, Kushan dynasty which saw introduction of Buddhism. Several Hindu dynasties were succeeded by Mughals, Sikhs and from 1846 to 1947 it was ruled over by the Dogras. After signing the Instrument of Accession, the State of Jammu & Kashmir got merged with Republic of India. Despite the legal accession, separatists & extremists in the then State of J&K for their own agendas and interests funded and supported by Republic of Pakistan created unrest all over the region which resulted in Insurgency and Terrorism. The notion of India being an occupying force in this State was propagated by these separatists to the general population who were gullible due to underdevelopment, lack of public information, poverty, illiteracy among other reasons. This led to psychological disintegration of the general populace from rest of India and also against the armed forces that are here to maintain the security of this region.
The regions of J&K were neither having a homogenous demographic populace nor a ruler from particular dynasty or religion over the centuries. Despite the heterogenic nature of dynasties that ruled this region, the culture and traditions of the general population has not seen much changes but adoption of best practices from different cultures into their own. Generally, the population of this region were flexible and accommodating until manipulation and propaganda took over the minds of gullible people.
Issue at hand now is like a hydra which cannot be eradicated until tangible actions with effective outcomes reach the grassroot levels of every corner of this region. The proxy war being induced by Pakistan with a prominent hand of the ISI and militant organizations in J&K can be made redundant only with constant efforts over two generations to come with implementation of grassroot governance, robust grievance redressal system, active education combined with vocational training and job opportunities for the youth to keep everyone engaged in constructive activities. Abrogation of article 370 has given a real time big impetus to this step towards physical integration of this region with rest of India which also has paved way for psychological integration with the idea of India. To implement the concurrent actions over this region to integrate the population with rest of India in domains of social, psychological and cultural would inflict negatively over the winning of hearts and minds initiatives that are happening regularly.
Key agendas enmesh from cyber and information domain: State-on-State info war, non-kinetic military ops to defeat hybrid forces, awakening of public conscience on efforts taken by Govt, renaissance of Kashmiriyat and religious harmony in tense areas, ‘Safety valve theory’ to constructively contain dissent and discontent, increased connectivity: roads and communications, exploring tourism options in unexplored areas, incentivizing ‘Home-stay’ tourisms, bring in more private investments and industries, social media censorships to prevent spread of false info, organizing annual All-India darshan for the youth/cultural exchange programs. The day when internal disturbances calm down and focus of general population of UT of J&K shift to development and progressiveness, one can safely assume that psychological integration of demography of this region with idea of India has been successful for which patience and versatile efforts in long term has to be pursued by the Govt of India, Administration of the UT, Armed forces that are deployed here and the civil society groups.
