KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
The story of the Muslims of Jammu province is not entirely different from the rest of the Indian Muslims, claims a book “Kashmir Conflict and Muslims of Jammu” authored by scribe Zafar Choudhary, released on Thursday in Srinagar.
“The Muslims of Jammu went through exactly the same or even more horrible pattern of division and communal violence on the eve of the partition of India,” the book maintains.
The Foreword of 272 page book has been written by Kashmir’s erstwhile DivCom Wajahat Habibullah—the one who termed Kunan Poshpora mass rape allegations false. “Choudhary’s is an important work which will, I hope, help in addressing the impressions of Muslims of Jammu province,” he said in the Foreword.
While talking about the book, Choudhary said: “Being contagious to the post-partition larger Indian reality, the Muslims of Jammu have passed through a social, economic and political stress similar to the Muslims in rest of north India.”
Despite being domiciles of India’s only Muslim majority state, the author said, the Muslims of Jammu province are a minority for the reasons anchored in geography and history of this province.
“My this work is arguably the first ever focussed approach on the identity and profile of the Muslims of Jammu region looking at their present status as well as the social and political upheavals over a period of more than hundred years,” he claimed.
In 1947 the political situation of the Muslims of Jammu province was entirely different from those of Kashmir Valley, Choudhary said: “The fact that 70.07 per cent of the area of Pakistan administrated Kashmir is carved out of the former Jammu province is evident that developments in 1947 were highly significant for this province and Muslims must have played a role.”
Therefore, he said, a study into social and political position of Jammu Muslims, decades before defining events of 1947, becomes more essential.
“I have, in fact, taken the scope of this investigation as far back as 1890s when the first socio-political organisation of Muslims is reported to have come up in Jammu,” he said.
