Be Realistic

not active militants in the practical sense of the term but they certainly were so at the intellectual level. In the course of our conversation, I told these men that their self-styled ‘Kashmir movement’ was not in any respect proper or acceptable. I said it was certainly not an Islamic jihad and it was obviously not going to establish an Islamic system. Nor, I added, did separation from India make any sense. The ‘movement’ could only spell more destruction for the Kashmirs. The men passionately defended the ‘movement’ and even claimed that the Kashmiris would shortly score a ‘glorious success’. Then, at my request, they penned a few words in my diary to which they appended their signatures. ‘Once we separate from India’, they wrote, ‘our land will become an Islamic Kashmir.’ I told the men that what they had written was nothing but baseless, wishful thinking. They would soon realize, I said, how mistaken and unrealistic they were. Then, I penned the following words in my diary in their presence. ‘If Kashmir separates from India, the independent state of Kashmir that would come into being or, if Kashmir joins Pakistan, the Pakistani province of Kashmir that would be formed, would be a ruined Kashmir. The choice before Kashmiris is not between Indian Kashmir and Pakistani Kashmir, but, rather, between Indian Kashmir and a destroyed Kashmir.’ 18 years have now passed since this meeting. The developments that have taken place in these years clearly prove that the words of the Kashmiri mujahids were based on nothing but wishful thinking. On the other hand, whatever I had, with the grace of God, written in Peace in Kashmir