Tak­ing full ad­van­tage of the lock­down in the coun­try and the rest of the world, with protests and con­dem­na­tions lim­ited to on­line me­dia, the gov­ern­ment of In­dia through its ad­min­is­tra­tion in Kash­mir is work­ing over­time to fol­low up on its agenda of as­sim­i­la­tion of Kash­mir through ex­ec­u­tive fi­ats and new leg­is­la­tions. The re­cent or­der of reser­va­tion of job quo­tas for Pa­hari Speak­ing Peo­ples not in­clud­ing Sikhs and oth­ers has Sikh Kash­miris up-in-arms.

STREAM-ROLLING ITS ANTI-KASH­MIRI STANCE AND AT­TI­TUDE in a con­certed man­ner, the Kash­mir ad­min­is­tra­tion yes­ter­day is­sued a cir­cu­lar for reser­va­tions for Pa­hari-speak­ing peo­ple in the state to the detri­ment of many other life and death is­sues con­fronting the state. Set­ting in dis­crim­i­na­tion, which has an­gered Sikh Kash­miris, the no­ti­fi­ca­tion leaves many ques­tions open.

Mak­ing an amend­ment to the Jammu and Kash­mir Reser­va­tion Rules, a no­ti­fi­ca­tion has been is­sued by the So­cial Wel­fare de­part­ment which grants 4 per cent reser­va­tion to Pa­hari-speak­ing peo­ple. It is sig­nif­i­cant to note that the cir­cu­lar has added to Rule 21 sub­sec­tion (ix) clause (a) and (b) which read,

(a)        “A per­son claim­ing the ben­e­fit un­der the Pa­hari Speak­ing Peo­ple Cat­e­gory must be a mem­ber of the Pa­hari Clan, Com­mu­nity or Tribe hav­ing Dis­tinct Cul­tural, Eth­nic and Lin­guis­tic iden­tity.

(b)        He/​She must be speak­ing Pa­hari lan­guage and his/​her mother tongue must be Pa­hari.

The 20 April 2020 no­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­vides 4 per cent jobs for the Pa­hari Speak­ing peo­ple in the Union Ter­ri­tory job quota, in the quo­tas for eco­nom­i­cally weaker sec­tions, ex-ser­vice­men and Phys­i­cally chal­lenged per­sons, reser­va­tions in Pro­fes­sional in­sti­tu­tions and reser­va­tions in post-grad­u­ate courses.

Kul­bir Singh Badal -a young Kash­miri ac­tivist, speak­ing to the World Sikh News  said, “I have writ­ten to the Prin­ci­pal Sec­re­tary, So­cial Wel­fare (Jammu and Kash­mir) seek­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion in the mat­ter as the cir­cu­lar is not clear.” On be­ing asked as what needed clar­i­fi­ca­tion, Kul­bir Singh Badal nar­rated the prob­lem in de­tail, “Sikhs of Jammu and Kash­mir are part and par­cel of the Pa­hari com­mu­nity and Pa­hari is their mother tongue and they use Gur­mukhi Script for its writ­ing. And as per lin­guis­tics, Pa­hari is not an in­de­pen­dent lan­guage but a sub-di­alect of Pun­jabi.”

He fur­ther added that in 2010 a cir­cu­lar was is­sued by State Ad­vi­sory Board for De­vel­op­ment of Pa­hari Speak­ing Peo­ple Jammu and Kash­mir in which it was clearly men­tioned that Sikhs of Kash­mir and Sikhs liv­ing in Ra­jouri and Poonch be­long to Pa­hari Speak­ing Com­mu­nity of the Jammu and Kash­mir State.”

Strik­ing a stri­dent note, Kul­bir Singh said that if the dis­crim­i­na­tion con­tin­ues against Kash­miri Sikhs, they would fight a le­gal and the bat­tle for our le­git­i­mate rights.

Dur­ing the de­cen­nial cen­sus, lan­guages like Pun­jabi and oth­ers are re­turned by the pop­u­la­tion and not the di­alects like Ma­jhi, Mal­wai or Pa­hari. For cen­sus pur­poses, mother tongue is al­ways men­tioned as Pun­jabi.

“Sikhs, as usual, may ef­fec­tively be on the los­ing side as they do not mat­ter po­lit­i­cally,” said a Kash­miri ob­server.

Young ac­tivist Geet Kaur from North Kash­mir told WSN, “Sikhs are a mi­cro-mi­nor­ity and we want to ease our lives like every­one else. All gov­ern­ments in the past have ei­ther ig­nored us or dis­crim­i­nated against us. We are Pa­hari speak­ing peo­ples and we should be in­cluded in this new no­ti­fi­ca­tion. We want jus­tice.”

De­ven­der Singh, gen­eral sec­re­tary of Gur­mat Tak­sal from Sri­na­gar said, “We are thor­oughly dis­ap­pointed. Busi­ness is in the dol­drums due to lock­downs, strikes and con­flicts. Last year we were dis­ap­pointed with the SRO 425, now the new 4 per cent quota does not in­clude the Sikhs. We feel sad, but it seems that the gov­ern­ment wants us to leave Kash­mir and go out in search of our liveli­hood.”

“The J & K gov­ern­ment of the Union Ter­ri­tory of Kash­mir must con­sti­tute a com­mit­tee to look into the whole range of is­sues re­lat­ing to the Pa­hari lan­guage and the peo­ple who ad­here to it. Pa­hari is spo­ken by Mus­lims, Sikhs, Hin­dus and Chris­tians liv­ing in Jammu and Kash­mir and it is grossly un­fair to leave out any sec­tion.”

So­cial Worker Sukhbir Singh Khalsa

Sikh Kash­miri teacher and so­cial worker Sukhbir Singh Khalsa in his sharp re­ac­tion to the reser­va­tion for Pa­hari Speak­ing Peo­ples has said, “the gov­ern­ment of the Union Ter­ri­tory of Kash­mir must con­sti­tute a com­mit­tee to look into the whole range of is­sues re­lat­ing to the Pa­hari lan­guage and the peo­ple who ad­here to it. Pa­hari is spo­ken by Mus­lims, Sikhs, Hin­dus and Chris­tians liv­ing in Jammu and Kash­mir and it is grossly un­fair to leave out any sec­tion.”

Cin­e­matog­ra­phy stu­dent and po­lit­i­cal ac­tivist An­gad Singh, in the fore­front of the hu­man rights and po­lit­i­cal rights move­ment in Kash­mir, in his forth­right re­ac­tion, said, “we are fight­ing SRO 425 in the Supreme Court and we will con­test this dis­crim­i­na­tion also. Let the lock­down end and we will be on the streets.”

Last year Kash­miri Sikhs protested the SRO-425 favour­ing Kash­miri Pan­dits.  The All Par­ties Sikh Co­or­di­na­tion Com­mit­tee (AP­SCC) chair­man Jag­mo­han Singh Raina had termed the or­der as a ‘con­spir­a­cy’ to di­vide mi­nori­ties in Kash­mir, say­ing the or­der must be re­voked at the ear­li­est so that Sikh mi­nor­ity com­mu­nity must also reap the job ben­e­fits an­nounced by the In­dian gov­ern­ment.

“If the dis­crim­i­na­tion con­tin­ues against Kash­miri Sikhs, they would fight a le­gal and the bat­tle for our le­git­i­mate rights.

Ac­tivist Kul­bir Singh Badal

By keep­ing the no­ti­fi­ca­tion vague, is this not a move to make in­roads into the Pun­jabi-speak­ing Pa­hari Mus­lim belt of Ra­jouri-Poonch in Jammu to Uri, Kup­wara, Kar­nal right up to Kan­gan in the up­per Sindh val­ley?

“In­ter­est­ingly the Jammu and Kash­mir reser­va­tion rules in favour of Pa­hari speak­ing Mus­lims al­ready stands amended vide no­ti­fi­ca­tion in Jan­u­ary 2020. I am still not clear why a de­part­ment has to no­tify it un­less they plan any amend­ments.”  “Sikhs, as usual, may ef­fec­tively be on the los­ing side as they do not mat­ter po­lit­i­cally,” said a Kash­miri ob­server.

Sikh Kash­miris love their home and hearth. They love the Kash­mir val­ley, its peo­ples, its flora and fauna, the scenic beauty of the heaven on earth and their bond­ing with every­thing Kash­miri -peo­ple, food, cloth­ing, tra­di­tions and cus­toms, strug­gles and con­flicts. Will the gov­ern­ment of In­dia con­tinue its cam­paign to de­stroy this age-old re­la­tion­ship?