ECONOMICS OF MILITANCY

The total population of the State according to census of India, conducted in 1981, was 59,27389 of which 19,30,448 were Hindus, 38,43,451 were Muslims, 1,33,675 were Sikhs, 69,706 were Buddhists, 1,576 Jains, and 2,481 Christians. The population figures, quoted above did not includethe two and a half lakh Hindus and Sikhs, who migrated to Jammu and Kashmir in 1947, and the Hindus and Sikhs who were displaced from the territories of the State occupied by Pakistan and who have lived in the State ever since. These people are still awaiting settlement in the State. This has been in contrast with the expedition and efficiency with which the Muslim refugees from Tibet, who claimed Kashmiri lineage and who migrated to Kashmir in the wake of the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1950, the Afghan refugees and thousands of Muslim immigrants, who sneaked across the Cease-Fire Line, from the occupied territories, in the wake of the Indo- Pakistan conflict of 1965, and the Bangladesh War of 1971, were settled in both the provinces of the State. These ugly facets of the Indian policy towards Kashmir and the double standards of the State Government have hardly been known outside the State and have generally been lost in the din of the orchestraled tradition of tolerance and secular values of the Muslim leadership in Kashmir.

The total population of the Hindus according to the Census of 1981, formed 32.4 percent of the total population of the State. The population of Sikhs formed 2.1 percent of the population of the State and the population of Buddhists constituted 1.1 percent of the population of the State. The population of the Hindu and Sikh Sharnarthis, refugees still awaiting settlement, constituted 4.1 percent of the population of the State. Added together, the population of the Hindus, the Sikhs and the Buddhists in the State, constituted 39.7 percent of the population of the State.

The population statistics of the State have been cited here to provide a broad background of the demographic composition of the State, to

• remove various misconceptions about the relative strength of the different communities in the State, including the Muslims in Kashmir,
• bring to surface the consistent effort of the successive State governments to distort the population statistics of the Hindus in the State;
• show that a large part of the Hindu population, the refugees who settled in the State in 1947, and the displaced persons of the occupied territories of "Azad Kashmir", were always excluded from the population statistics of the State during the last forty seven years;
• expose the consistent efforts of the State Government, under whose instructions and supervision the census operations were conducted totamper with the population figures of the Hindus in Kashmir, a fact clearly borne out by the stark contrast of the figures of the Hindu population estimated by the census authorities and the actual number of the Hindus who migrated from Kashmir;

The Jammu and Kashmir is a prosperous State, whieh in terms of per capita in come is placed fourth among the Indian States. There was a continuous rise in domestic produet of the States in terms of crores of rupees from 249.59 to 458.10 at constant price (1970-71) in 1985-86 and the growth registered in this behalf at current price in 1971-76, rose from Rs. 249.59 crores to 1,479.49 crores.

The per-eapita growth registered between 1970-71 to 1985-86 was from Rs 548 to Rs 2,204, at current price and Rs 548 to Rs 683 at constant price of 1970-71. The prosperity of the Muslims accounted for a greater share in the figures cited above due to more favourable allocation of financial resourees for the Kashmir division, varying between 65 to 69 percent as compared to 35 to 31 percent allocated to the two divisions of Jammu and Ladakh.

The widespread propaganda campaign about the so-called economic deprivation of the Muslims of Kashmir, was designed to conceal the real import and objectives of the militancy and was aimed to mislead the Indian public opinion in order to provide tactical advantage to the secessionist forces working against the unity of the country. The Muslims in the province were and still are, a prosperous community. The Muslims of Kashmir dominated the economic organisation of the State, as shown by the following facts:

• The hotel industry is a highly lucerative industry in Kashmir. It was always a closed preserve of the Muslims of Kashmir. The Muslims owned about 96 percent of the hotel property in Kashmir, the Hindus owned only 2.2 percent of the Hotel property in Kashmir.
• 94 percent of the State subsidy paid on horticulture, agriculture, agricultural implements, fertilisers, pesticides etc. was appropriated by the Muslims in Kashmir with 2.4 per cent and less of the subsidies received by the Hindus.
• The Muslims appropriated the whole of the State subsidies on industrial loans, exports, self employment schemes etc. The share of the Hindus of Kashmir in such subsidies was negligible; less than 0.1 per cent.
• The share of the Hindus in the industrial loans, provided by the State Government, the loans on self-employment schemes, loans on small scale and handicraft industrial units and the lands alloted for the establishment of such industries, was negligible; less than 0.1 per cent.
• The Hindus were almost excluded from contracts and public works undertaken by the Government and were given, on an average, a share of 4 percent in the works undertaken by the State.
• The share of the Hindus in the exploitation of forest products till the forests were nationalised in 1979, was 6.2 percent.
• The licensing for quarrying, mining of marble brick-kilns, was a monopoly of the Muslims.
• The manufacture and export of carpets, of Kashmir was a monopoly of the Muslims of Kashmir.
• The manufacture and export of shawls of Kashmir was a monopoly of the Kashmiri Muslims.

The Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir were never the oppressed masses in the State. In the Dogra regime, they formed an important part of the Dogra ruling class. After the accession of the State to India, they ruled the State in the name of Islam, exercised unristricted authority and power, replaced the middle class the Dogras had forged in the State, by a formidable Muslim middle class, to provide an economic base for the Muslimisation of the State. After the communalisation of the government and society was accomplished, they demanded the separation of the State from India, as a condition for the realisation of their Muslim destiny. The militant violence, which struck the State in 1989, and which continues unabated, marked the culmination of the Muslim struggle for the secessation of the State from India and its unification with the Muslim Commonwealth of Pakistan.