Letter: Remarks on Kashmir unacceptable

The Booker Award winner, celebrated Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, has stirred up another storm, a twister this time by saying: “Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact.” Not only that, she has asked India to march out of Kashmir, leaving the area to Kashmris, something former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had once promised.  

Her statement coincided with the US president’s visit to India, who incidentally also emphasized that India should talk to Pakistan and address the age old issue of Kashmir. He went to the extent of offering his services to be a party if so desired. These two developments brought the Kashmir issue into greater global focus within days, as compared to the days bygone.

President Barack Obama looks at peace in South Asia as linked to settlement of the Kashmir problem. He is leader of world stature and his sayings are not just proverbial but have deep political impact. Not many would question what he said on Kashmir in India. But as for Arundhati, there might be due and undue criticism. The Hindustan Times had reported she “may be booked for sedition”, and others said she might be arrested over her remarks on Kashmir. Yet some media editorials showered praise on Roy for being straightforward.

Perhaps the most interesting comment that I have seen on the guardian.co.uk. It says, “In an India obsessed with shiny new shopping malls and expressways and the launch of the latest international luxury brands, in rapidly morphing cities where slum-dwellers are shunted out to the suburbs and even the raincoats on a policeman’s back are sponsored, there is a desperate need for polemicists to remind the smug middle class about the 800- million odd citizens who don’t get to partake in what the tourism department calls “Incredible India”. Palagummi Sainath, the author of Everybody Loves a Good Drought, did it with elegance. Arundhati Roy does it with infinite righteousness.

There is an ever increasing awareness among Indian intellectuals about the gravity of the Kashmir issue, which has the potential of becoming a flashpoint of any nature and scale. The problem has held hostage all efforts for peace in South Asia, so why not get over with it.

Aziz Butt  
Jakarta