Much of Kashmir conflict is nothing but men and women running on treadmill whose surface is Chess patterned. Mill seems to be churning and running but no one going anywhere. Some old ideas churned over and over again. Chess pieces falling off the board….same positions refilled at same spot on the Tahreeki mill with new chess pieces (most of them children of fallen pieces). One of the more interesting movement on this stupid treadmill chessboard is that of Pakistan loving Kashmiri Pandits who had M.N. Roy as their ideological father.
On the surface it seems nothing changed. But, if you look closely, you will find that when the design of the chessboard drastically changed in 1960, even some of their Pak loving pawn pieces saw the obvious darkness at the bottom of the ditch.
” I belong to a group in Kashmir which was the first to challenge, in a vocal way, the accession of the state to India. Lately we have been doing some rethinking about our basic postulates as well as assessment of the political situation. Though, I believe, I share this process, in varying degrees, with my other colleagues, I cannot commit them to my conclusions as we have no regular contact with one another, being scattered in jails, Kashmir and Delhi
Most of us drew our inspiration from philosophies like Radical Humanism, Socialism or even Gandhism. It is interesting to recall now that when we were supporting Pakistan’s case in Kashmir on secular and humanistic grounds, Sheikh Abdullah was leading religious crowds in mosques and elsewhere in the name of Islam (but not communalism) as also of Kashmiri nationalism to accession to India.
Now when our tribe has somewhat grown we do not feel happier in the new company and rather find that our real goal is further receding. Our opposition to India was not based on our love for the ideals on which Pakistan was founded. We were rather motivated by a democratic ideal in supporting what we considered was the wish of the majority. Secondly, we, particularly Hindus among us, were keen to rise above the interests of Hindu communalism and Indian nationalism.”
Yachu of Kashmir Socialist Party was the Publicity Secretary of Political Conference of Khawaja Ghulam Mohiuddin Qarra found in 1953, the first Pro-Pakistan camp in Kashmir. It had other Pandits like Raghunath Vaishnavi (who incidentally was the first one to petition against the Shiekh for failing to protect a Hindu temple in Srinagar), Badri Nath Koul, Prem Nath Jalali, Niranjan Nath Raina and Prem Nath Bazaz too. The extract is a piece by Shyam Lal Yachu titled “Rethinking in Pro-Pak Camp of Kashmir” from the book “The Story of Kashmir: Political development, terrorism, militancy and human rights, efforts towards peace, with chronology of major political events” (1995) ed. by Verinder Grover.
“Rethinking in Pro-Pak Camp of Kashmir” in which Yachu recommended merger with India appeared in Kashmir Affairs 1960.
The reason for this turn is provided by Balraj Puri (Editor, Kashmir Affairs, first published in his magazine in 1960). It had to do with the nature of Pakistan and it’s increasing isolation.
“India’s tough international line on Kashmir also had a demoralising effect on the secessionists. Krishna Menon declared in the Security Council debates in 1957 that Kashmir was as irrevocable a part of India as Madras and the Punjab. Pakistan’s international prestige was at a low ebb. The merger of several linguistic states in West Pakistan into a single province and the imposition of martial law were not inspiring events for the Kashmiris. Sham Lal Yachu, publicity secretary of the Political Conference, the only professedly pro-Pakistan party of Kashmir, declared in a lengthy statement that serious rethinking had started in his camp. He spoke of the advantages of Kashmir’s willingly becoming a part of India.”
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Shyam Lai Yachu, born in Kashmir in 1929. He died in 1996 and like most of the people of his community, generation, cutting across ideologies, he died outside Kashmir, in exile. He died in Delhi at a relatives place, having never married.
