US Silence on Kashmir
By Mohammad Yacoob
Los Angeles, CA
David N. Myers has rightly mentioned in the Los Angeles Times the ‘BJP vision of a Hindu India – one that bears little relation to the vision laid in India’s Constitution, which guarantees justice, liberty, equality and fraternity to all’(US silence on Kashmir emboldens autocrats, Los Angeles Times, August 30, 2019). His Op-Ed column has brought the pain of my crying for Kashmir in 1945 to surface after 72 years which was there like a dormant virus; cried as a young boy for being left out when joint family members went on a vacation to Kashmir. Cried again when India refused to give autonomy to Hyderabad State that ended up in India sending its forces in September 1948 in Hyderabad and annexing this richest state.
Mir Osman Ali Khan, one of the richest men of all times and popularly called the Nizam of Hyderabad - he was on the Time Magazine cover of the February 22, 1937 issue - did not join the Indian Union on August 15, 1947 when the British left the Asian subcontinent. He continued to remain independent for 13 months during negotiations for guarantees and autonomy, the same kind that was revoked by India for Kashmir on August 5, 2019. The Nizam, the most powerful ruler of his country in the Asian subcontinent, had his own currency called Osmania Sikkah; private army; Postal Department that printed Osmania postage stamps not British-Subcontinent stamps; NSR-RTD: Nizam State Railways, Road Transportation Department; Deccan Airways and Deccan Radio, Hyderabad. The Viceroy of India had an ambassador called Resident General in Hyderabad. The Indian Government was more interested in annexation rather than giving autonomy to Hyderabad and formulated a plan and executed it by disbanding private army and National Guard; absorbing NSR into the western and southern railway system, handing over RTD to a Corporation; pulling Osmania currency out of circulation; eliminating postal department; abolishing Urdu language as medium of instruction at Osmania University; and placing Deccan Airways under the Indian Airlines until it disappeared into thin air. In 1956, the Hyderabad State was broken into three pieces and given to three neighboring states, the Bombay State, the Andhra State and the Mysore State.
Now the Government of India has revoked Kashmir’s autonomy. In its September 1, 2019 editorial “The talks with the Talibans” the Times has rightly said that the Islamic State affiliate is undoubtedly a problem. Like this affiliate, India had for the last 72 years many affiliates of BJP engaged in attacks on Muslims by creating religious tensions. “Political demagogues and Hindu fanatics in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rose to power by exploiting religious tension and calling for the creation of a fundamentalist Hindu state and the start of the Ram Rajya, the Empire of Ram.” (Bob Drogin, Times Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, 15 December, 1992)
I wrote many letters to the LA Times in the last 45 years. In my letter published on July 4, 1979 under the title of “Muslim Holocaust”, I presented the factual data when 500 Muslims were killed, houses and businesses looted, burned and razed to the ground rendering 60,000 Muslims as refugees. My letter of March 28, 1983 gave the figure that 305 anti-Muslim riots take place in India every year. The figure in 2016 exceeded 600. In my letter of June 18, 1984, I wrote about the burning alive of Muslims in India. In my letter published in Times on January 12, 1991, I mentioned about my hometown Hyderabad that was burning and on fire. When my brother told me with a trembling voice on the phone from Hyderabad that we should do something, I thought of referring the matter to the UN, and wrote that we must fight back otherwise the Indian democracy will disappear.
YES! The Indian democracy has disappeared. A new ISIS has ascended to the throne of Hindu India. It is BJP: ISIS of Kashmir – BJP: Indian State for Illegal Settlement of Kashmir.
David N. Myers wrote in the Times that “US silence on Kashmir emboldens autocrats”. This silence is deafening, vociferous and telling that yes, we are also implicated in the demise of democracy in India. Now, it seems currently things are not favorable for justice, liberty, equality and fraternity for all.
(Mohammad Yacoob is former chairman of Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims in North America)
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