Yasin Malik’s journey for Kashmiris continues despite his detention, deteriorating health and an indifferent state apparatus.  11 years ago in April 2008, WSN Editor Jagmohan Singh wrote an Open Letter to Yasin Malik after meeting the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader in New Delhi on the sidelines of the screening of his documentary and exhibition -Journey to Freedom. The author raised questions about initiatives to win the battle for self-determination in Kashmir and elsewhere.

Dear Janab Yasin Malik:  Aadab! Last week, it was a pleasant opportunity to interact with you at the quiet environs of the Indian Social Institute at Delhi to watch the documentary Safri-e-Azadi -Journey for Freedom and photographs of your 114-day on-foot tour of the length and breadth of Kashmir.

I keenly watched the movie and saw the photographs in the exhibition.  I also observed that you are a quiet man. You intermingled with people but were a man of few words.  The years of solitary confinement in prison and a one year detention in a lunatic asylum in Agra may have brought about this characteristic in you.  I am keen to speak to your mother sometimes to learn more about your childhood. My hunch is that you must have been an ebullient child forcing your way through things. The diligent manner in which you are espousing the cause of Kashmir is commendable.

I write this open letter to you to share my thoughts with you on the subject of Peaceful Conflict Resolution in South Asia in the context of Kashmir.

It is interesting to see that the struggles in Punjab, Kashmir and North-east are gradually becoming peaceful and democratic.  Key players in the insurgency movement have come over ground and are now part of the process seeking a peaceful solution to the question of rights in respective areas.

The people of the world need to see the participation of women in the meetings that you held in various regions.  When womenfolk turn out on the streets for seeking rights or redress of wrongs, it is time for the repressive nations to change their tactics.  Alas, it would not be so in case of India. 

I would like to acclaim you for your diligence to walk through 7,000 villages all over the state, listen to peoples’ woes and provide them with hope, succour and support.  What you said in your brief talk while introducing the documentary is important, ‘the people of the world need to see the participation of women in the meetings that you held in various regions’.  When womenfolk turn out on the streets for seeking rights or redress of wrongs, it is time for the repressive nations to change their tactics.  Alas, it would not be so in case of India.  As we are witnessing, though the Kashmiri guns are silent, the Indian Armed Forces continue their offensive, violating human rights with impunity.

It was remarkable to see in the documentary and at the exhibition, volunteers and leaders from all walks of life –Hindus, Sikhs, trade union leaders, and other community leaders participate shoulder to shoulder with you.  The message was clear though the documentary and the exhibition could have been carefully edited and better organized.  The graphic designer in me urges me to request you to adopt a more slick and professional approach while using this medium.

 Read also Yasin Malik’s health worsens –Kashmir shuts down, world silent

In your speech at the India Today conclave held recently, you have said that the time for Kashmir is now.  Tomorrow may be too late.  Sadly, no one in India is listening.  Your journey of peace did not find much mention in the mainstream media even though you came to Delhi to tell the world about it.

All of this and the current events in Tibet made me think about the role of peaceful methods in conflict resolution. I would like to share with you the thoughts that came gushing to my mind while I was watching the scenes from Kashmir in the august company of octogenarian leader P. N. Dhar, Justice Rajinder Sachhar, Gandhian Nirmala Devi, India TV host Rajat Sharma, and many new civil rights activists whose names I do not know.

Do the media in India react to any peace initiative? Anywhere? Think about it.  The guns went silent in Punjab and most embassies that had set up Punjab desks, wound it.  All religious and political parties of Punjab protested the blasphemy in the movie, Jo Bole So Nihal for weeks together.  The state simply ignored it.   While the peaceful protests were on, there was a violent incident in a cinema hall showing the movie. The next day, the movie was out of cinema halls all over the country.

The guns are silent in Kashmir, yet inspite of your best efforts, hardly any people from the diplomatic corps of Delhi was present to listen to you.  Chanu Sharmila is on fast for the last six years in Manipur. Does anybody in the media even report about her health conditions and the reasons why she is on fast?  The Dalai Lama is peace incarnate, but had his peaceful Buddhist followers not resorted to resistance and offensive in Lhasa, would the world have taken notice? As far as the Tibetan movement is concerned, since the last six decades, it has come into public purview, whenever there has been an uprising, as in 1959, in 1972 and now in 2008.  Had there been no Bhagat Singh, would anyone have listened to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi?

Had there been no Bhagat Singh, would anyone have listened to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi? 

Am I suggesting relinquishing peace efforts? No, far from it. All I say is that  the world is becoming increasingly difficult for ethnic nationalities seeking their basic rights.  Countries have crossed the boundaries of respect for human rights and humanitarian considerations.  Everything is subject to the geo-political interests of countries and the growing market economy needs.  Annual reports of Human Rights Watch, the Amnesty International and Special Rapporteurs of UN bodies are always rubbished by the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and their credentials questioned.

On March 3 2008, in the opening session of the United Nations Human Rights Council meet in Geneva, UN Secretary-General, Ban-Ki-moon said, “No country, however powerful, should escape scrutiny of its record, commitments and actions on human rights.” He further said that it was imperative to meet the high expectations of the international community which included the application of human rights values without favour, without selectivity, without being impacted by any political machinations around the world.”

“We must ensure that the world’s conflicts are effectively and sincerely resolved through serious and inclusive negotiation processes and creative problem-solving.” 

If the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban-ki-Moon had to say that the UN Human Rights Council needs to become more proactive, the writing is on the wall that even the United Nations has been unable to tame governments which are gross abusers of human rights.  Either through the aegis of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples’ Organisation or through any other new forum, we need to seek a statement from the UN Secretary General about respect for the right to self-determination in India.

 Read also Yasin Malik’s health worsens –Kashmir shuts down, world silent

Another significant point that you made in your speech at the conclave should be enlightening for all nationalistic movements.  You have pointed out that the growing youthful population in South Asia may be seen as an opportunity and a challenge.  India and the world should be wary of “deferring a conflict like the Kashmir Dispute to increasingly younger populations in a region plagued by inequity, intolerance, terrorism, poverty and disease.”

So what do we do? What should you do after a 114 day tour of your homeland?  I guess there are no easy answers.  The power of the governments and even sections of civil society to “engage and exhaust” –as you rightly put it is tremendous.  Still, what you stated at the India Today conclave is timely, “we must ensure that the world’s conflicts are effectively and sincerely resolved through serious and inclusive negotiation processes and creative problem-solving.”  Notwithstanding what India and Pakistan say to each other, the right of the people of Kashmir to themselves determine their destiny is inalienable.

“We must provide positive and creative alternatives to the path of violence and must ensure a global culture of non-violence and tolerance of dissent and that we don’t need to wait any longer before trying to do so.”  

Yasin Malik, JKLF leader at the India Today Conclave, 2008

Perhaps the answer lies in what you have sought.  “We must provide positive and creative alternatives to the path of violence and must ensure a global culture of non-violence and tolerance of dissent and that we don’t need to wait any longer before trying to do so.”

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To develop the culture of non-violence is not an easy task.  William Golding in Lord of the Flies and George Orwell in Animal Farm tell us that the intrinsic tendencies of man to dominate cannot be wished away.  Yet, as you say, hope should not be lost. With the world increasingly answering only to other options, I pray that the world responds to peace than to war.

With best wishes and prayers,

Jagmohan Singh