Bridging The Divide Between Religious and Political Thoughts - Journey of A Religiopolitical Activist
By Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam
15 July 2024
Journeys
Up the Hill: An Autobiography
Author:
Maulana Abbas Ansari
Translator:
Syed Asif Rizvi
Publisher:
Gulshan Books, Srinagar, Kashmir
Year
of Publication: 2023
Price:
Rs 1495 Pages: 434
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Maulana Abbas Ansari (1936-2022), was an
important Shi’a religious scholar and political leader, advocating the resolution
of Kashmir issue. Given his political activism, he was incarcerated for many
years, but as a religious scholar he has penned down scores of books. He has
also penned down his autobiography in Urdu, as it was his lingua franca, titled
as Khaar e Gulistan, it has been
ably translated into English for wider consumption by Sajjad Haider.
Translating a book needs, great efforts and maintaining the true spirit of the
original text explains the true merit of a translator.
In his Foreword Sajjad Haider informs us
about the book, “Maulana sahib’s autobiography is in fact an extremely
scrupulous endeavour to hand over a somewhat detailed account of the
vicissitudes of the incessant striving of three generations to a new crop of
Kashmiris. This is the chief purpose of his book.” (P-xii)
Maulana, believes that collective amnesia
is lethal for any community and people, so he used his time productively in
prison, to write prolifically.
He describes his childhood in a conflict
zone, with the World War Second looming large.
Then
the tribal raid in Kashmir soon after Partition, impacted his family, and he
describes the environment created by the tribal raid and the atrocities
committed by those associated with National Conference (N.C).
Further, his family was attacked by the
Bakshi family associated with N.C, and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad later became
Prime Minister, after ousting Sheikh Mohammad Abduallah in 1953. These attacks
continued because of the antagonistic political beliefs, although Bakshi’s and
their family were neighbours. Then there were perks and privileges to be
enjoyed if one gets associated with N.C, that is what Agha family of Budgam
did, earning financial benefits, while Maulana Jawad did not succumb to N.C
coercion (P-18).
The making of a scholar takes many efforts
and struggles, particularly when one comes from a humble background. His
student days in Najaf, Iraq, were spent in making his ends meet and keeping his
head above water. He informs the reader about how he managed to bear his
expenses, although he had got a stipend but that was not enough and his family
constraints restricted him to reduce the cost of living. We are further made
aware about the passing away of Maulana Jawad in 1957, when he wanted to return
to Kashmir. In the aftermath of this death, there was a tussle for occupying
the post of the deceased. His father, caring much about the opinions and
perception of people, as a middle-class person, did not want people to think
that he invited him back to occupy this post. Even after this magnanimous
gesture, others from his family like Iftikhar Ansari debarred him from the
Zadibal Imambargah, disposed and threw him out of the ancestral home, denying
his family any share in the lands they jointly owned. He was further pained as
he was denied permission to use the books in the library. This campaign against
him continued as Shi’a association opposed him, disrupted his congregations and
Majalis, while physically attacking
him too.
Maulana Ansari, informs the reader about
the Holy Relic movement, and its aftermath and how insistence on testing the
strand of hair of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), after it was retrieved, through fire
was rejected.
His important role besides politics, also
lies in bridging the divide between Sunnis and Shias. The misconceptions and
hostility prevalent among both groups had to be overcome and trust needed to be
generated among the communities. But these efforts were not tolerated, but
resisted. He informs us how the tallest leader of Kashmir, for his own personal
political interests pitted Maulanas against each other, thus dividing the
resistance against him, “Sheikh Abdullah now wanted to adopt a new strategy: to
use Maulana Hamadani against Maulana Farooq, and pit Iftikhar Ansari against
me. Regarding Maulana Farooq and me as obstacles in his designs, Sheikh Sahib
wanted to remove us from the scene. Maulana Farooq too had realized that Sheikh
Sahib wanted to remove all obstacles in his path by firing guns from his
shoulders.” (P-200)
His role in politics is an important one
too, but he is critical of the engagement with New Delhi, although he
recognizes the fact that he was mistrusted by fellow Kashmiris too.
“Recognizing, in the very first encounter, the Chanakyan stamp on Indian
politics has formed the bedrock of my 60 years of experience in public life.
Whenever I have come face to face with Indian politics in later political
battles, I have never been oblivious to this fundamental point. That is why I
have never become a tool in their hands. It is quite a different matter that I
have badly fallen victim to mistrust from those who are my own.” (P-162)
He is critical of Pakistan, how the
sectarianism and unstable government impacted the conflict resolution in
Kashmir. In Kashmir too, the dirty, murky and deceptive politics of N.C left no
scope for opposition. They were ruthlessly crushed by N.C., with the patronage
of New Delhi. Various Shia groups were also divided and their unity shattered
through political deceit and involvement of political parties. Then there is
discrimination against Shia community by various successive regimes. Further,
Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, usurped his property as well as the public welfare
trusts like Imam Hussain hospital. Vested elements also used the impact of
Iranian revolution for their own personal benefits.
Since the Muslim United Front (MUF)
elections in 1987, Maulana Ansari played a very prominent role in what came to
be known as separatist politics. He informs us about MUF, its formations and
decline. He is critical of the role of Jamaat e Islami, Kashmir, as it plunged
MUF into elections and threatened to break away from it, if MUF did not agree
to participate in elections. However, even when there was a wide rigging in
elections, and only four MUF candidates won the elections, instead of
boycotting the non-representative assembly, they joined it.
In the aftermath of these elections, there
was a massive armed insurgency in J&K. The insurgency soon turned into a
nightmare. “If, on the one hand, the massive swelling of the ranks of the armed
mujahedeen was considered to be a good omen, on the other hand there were serious
apprehensions of this turning out to be disastrous for the movement. Armed
groups sprouted like mushrooms, and they differed not only in tactics and areas
but also in basic ideology. Armed groups grew in number perhaps because those
across the border did not fully trust Kashmiris, or because the JKLF, which
espoused the cause of independence was not reliable in the eyes of Pakistan.
Therefore, its support was withdrawn and such groups allowed to flourish which
advocated accession to Pakistan. So, with the full backing of Pakistan, Master
Ahsan Dar and Muhammad Abdullah Bangroo formed the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in 1990,
and Syed Salahuddin assumed its leadership the next year. This new policy of
Pakistan not only bred discord and disputes on this side of the LoC, but also
led to several bloody incidents in Muzaffarabad, which was highly deplorable.”
(P-326) This armed insurgency led to the killing of Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq and
Mirwaiz Qazi Nissar, and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Valley, in which the
then Governor Jagmohan too played an important role. Maulana is critical of the
role of Pandits, how they stood against their Muslim brethren and what they
should have done to put a stop to their exodus (P-339-341). Then we are
informed about the Hazratbal siege and how it was diffused, the formation of
Hurriyat Conference and what led to its split.
Maulana does not shy away from truth, when
he confesses that Kashmiris themselves were involved in the killing of leaders,
religious scholars and intellectuals. “The list of the victims is long indeed,
but can we absolve ourselves by putting the blame of all these killings on the
Ikhwanis, Indian forces or intelligence? On a closer examination, our own
people were involved in the killing of these leaders and intellectuals. It is
not only I that am saying this, but this is the verdict of the masses. In the
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba investigation report of August 2011, it had been accepted
that it was the militants that had assassinated Maulana Shaukat Ahmad Shah.
Prior to this, Prof Sahib and several pro-freedom leaders had accepted that
Maulana Farooq Sahib, Lone Sahib and Prof Wani had been killed by ‘our own’
people. Yes, it is entirely possible that intelligence agencies get the bullets
to be fired by creating misunderstandings in such people by feeding them wrong
information, as happened in the case of Dr Qazi Nisar. Or that the state police
play an important role in these acts by scaling down the leader’s security at
the exact moment, as happened with Fazl-ul-Haq Qureshi. So, it is us that do
the deed, and then it is us against that lament. Together with the JKLF and the
Jamiat-e-Ahle-Hadees, the Hurriyat Conference had set up an all-parties inquiry
committee to investigate Maulana Shaukat’s killing and to identify the black
sheep behind the murder of political leaders and members of the intelligentsia.
But when clues emerged about the involvement of ‘our own people’ the committee
was wound up.” (P-376-377)
The Hurriyat Conference of which he was a
part did hold a number of rounds of dialogue with the Centre, so did some other
militant groups, but entering into a dialogue had its own perils, because those
who advocated dialogue were assassinated. He was also suspended from Hurriyat
Conference, when three interlocutors assigned by Dehi dropped uninvited at his
home. Despite, these perils he believes that UPA government led by Manmohan
Singh lost an important opportunity. “In any case, because of his weaknesses,
Manmohan Singh was unable to take any advantage from the flexibility in the
Pakistani stand, and also lost a rare opportunity to resolve the long standing
Kashmir issue that had presented itself in those extraordinary circumstances.
So, upholding the Congress legacy of buying time under the pretext of talks,
the Sonia-Manmohan duo thrust a fifth generation of Kashmiris into the fires of
war and mortgaged the progress and development of the people of both nations to
armies, armaments and defense budgets.” (P-393)
Given, this fact he also believes that New
Delhi has made a mockery of the Dialogue process, with the result that no one
is ready to enter or use it to resolve any crisis. “When rulers and politicians
sitting in Delhi see the security situation from their point worsening in
Kashmir, they buy themselves some relief by dispatching delegations and
interlocutors for political dialogue, the end result of which is merely buying
time. Whenever the Indian forces face angry revolts in the streets and lanes of
Kashmir, they utter the same hackneyed phrases which blame Pakistan, call
protestors as paid agents, and describe the Hurriyat as irrelevant, extremist
and non-representative. The rulers in Delhi and the state bend to the task of
damage control and say that talks would be held with everyone.” (P-414) But, he
believes that Dialogue process will only help resolve Kashmir crisis, that too
a tripartite Dialogue.
The autobiography ends in the year 2011,
that leaves a decade to be commented and analysed. This autobiography is one of
the important contemporary ones to be read, as it informs the reader about
variegated issues and their response by a separatist leader. There is a factual
flaw, when he writes about Hari Singh being the Maharaja in 1887 (P-4), that
needs to be corrected. This autobiography informs the readers about numerous
contemporary challenges faced by a Shia leader, both at religious and political
levels. Gulshan Books again needs to be congratulated for publishing this
important contemporary autobiography.
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M.H.A. Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism