“Kashmir may be conquered by spiritual merits but not by force”.Kalahana
We are born and die. Don’t we die? Some people don’t die. They are born not to die. They live for ages. They live in the pages of history: their voice resonates in the streets, in the ears of beautiful pastures, in the husk of barren deserts, in the hopes of millions, and in the resistant, glittering, and white eyes of incarcerated freedom fighters and the thumping and warm hearts of marchers.
They are heard and seen through the pages of the colonial, cruel, and oppressed history of man’s slavery. They challenge the most potent, powerful ,and mighty forces of the state. They represent brighter, wiser and moral side of human beings. They are the parallel force against brutal human history. Of course, they are tortured, incarcerated, persecuted, and martyred in this process of struggle. But they become immortal and live for ages.
Hercules for instance is still alive and and an immortal hero. Sometimes ordinary minds confuse the real history making men characters of myths. For instance, after one century Gandhi, Jinnah, Subash Chandar Bosh, Mandala, Martin Luther Junior, Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru, Maqbool Butt, and Yasin Malik will be considered the imaginary characters of myths and fiction because they make the impossible, possible.
The British Raj started with the colonization of the world. The East India Company held its feet on the soil of the subcontinent and ruled it until it left India. The colonial power was replaced by the new local colonial power. The power was transferred to the local oppressors and opportunists.
The British Colonial game was changed, threatened, and compelled to leave India by the sons of the soil.
Bhghat Singh was the one who understood the real meanings of Azadi. (freedom). He didn’t only wage war against the Britishers but against those facilitators of the colonial regime.
He has been the hero of the whole Subcontinent; equally admired, esteemed, valued, and respected in today’s Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. However, the real Azadi is still a distant dream. The ideals of Baghat Singh may be different but his stance of really Azadi was right. Through the lens of history, his struggle and his martyrdom have proved that we have not achieved the true meaning of Azadi. What is happening in today’s Bangladesh, India and Pakistan? In thenjoyinges, the slogan of Azadi is still being chanted on the streets. A few are enjoying a luxurious lifestyle and others suffer badly to the bare minimum. The trickle-down effect doesn’t even let them die. In Bangladesh, party rule has given birth to havoc. Political freedom is not guaranteed in the present autocratic regime. Elections are manipulated and the party in power has a license to shun all political opponents.
Ideally, Bhagat Singh’s Azadi should have been achieved and there shouldn’t have been any dire need for Azadi but sadly the word Azadi is still relevant in the region. This is not a matter of joy and felicity.
Bhagat Singh is still remembered and esteemed in Modi’s India. After British Colonialism India is trying to define herself as a local and regional colonial power. The independent states were devoured by the Indian hegemonic designs and ambitions.
Ironically, the ideal of the Indian nation, Bhagat Singh is still remembered, forgetting the fact that India is a colonial power herself in the present context of Kashmir. Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru, and Sukh Daves were imprisoned and hanged by the British government in 1931. The Indian state has been suppressing, persecuting, and torturing Kashmiris since 27 October 1947. The local hero of Kashmir Maqbool Butt was incarcerated and later hanged on 11th February 1984 like Bahat Singh. His crime was the same as ‘the slogan of Azadi’.
He had been striving for the right of self-determination and plebiscite in Kashmir. Alas! India appreciates and understands British Colonialism but is not ready to understand that India is a new colonial state.
Today, Yasin Malik is in the role of Bhagat Singh and has been challenging the new colonial usurper in Kashmir. His struggle is for Kashmir, purely political, unarmed, and for the right of self-determination which has been guaranteed by the world community.
As a matter of fact, what has changed after British Colonialism? The struggle of the masses had been in the past against the old masters and has been against the new colonial masters.
From the dreams of Gandhi to the dreams of Mandala and Martin Luther Junior, the world slightly changed. From the world of Gandhi to Jinnah, the world has been the same. From Baghat Singh to Yasin Malik, the real meaning of Azadi hasn’t been achieved and the struggle is still alive. History is being written by these resilient and brave characters and these characters are real, not fictional.
The writer is a lecturer and a researcher in the Department of Higher Education Colleges Muzaffarabad. The writer can be reached at kamranghulam@gmail. Com