In a move that is going to have a far-reaching effect on the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and the upcoming generations in the region, the government is all set to introduce a chapter on the abrogation of Article 370 and reorganisation of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir in the education curriculum of the newly constituted Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The event of Article 370 scrapping and bifurcation of the erstwhile State will constitute Chapter X, titled “The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019”, of the Political Science syllabus. This is a major development for the students of the newly carved out Union Territory, especially the Kashmir Valley, which has lived under misinformation for decades.
The political atmosphere and the propaganda in the erstwhile state was always such that people were made to believe that Article 370 is their only link with India and that they could remain a part of this country only due to Article 370.
With years of propaganda, seccesionist elements had successfully created the dogmatic belief that Jammu & Kashmir is different from other Union Territories and States. They were made to believe that Article 370 existed because Jammu & Kashmir is not as well integrated with India as rest of the regions.
Despite decades of backwardness, the Abdullah dynasty and the Muftis echoed the lie that Jammu & Kashmir became a part of India because of Article 370.
Last year, PDP President Mehbooba Mufti had said, “If you free Jammu and Kashmir from Article 370, you will free the state from country as well. I have said many times that Article 370 links J&K with the country. When you break this bridge, India loses its legitimacy over the state. It becomes an occupational force.”
The educational institutions, of course, remained the strongholds of the Islamists and the separatists. This is the reason why a pro-India seminar that highlighted the security threat posed by Rohingyas to Jammu was blocked by the Jammu University in 2018, when Mehbooba Mufti was the Jammu & Kashmir CM.
All voices that spoke against Article 370 within the valley were muzzled by the combination of separatists, anti-India political outfits and radical Islamists like Shehla Rashid.
But not any longer, as the government is now going to set the record straight. It will tell the upcoming Kashmiri generations about why Article 370 was abrogated.
Till date the dominant elements in Kashmir and the Lutyens’ intelligentsia has not allowed discussions on how Article 370 actually hurt the interests of the indigenous people. Industrialisation, affirmative State action and welfare schemes- everything was blocked due to this provision. And how its abrogation is going to finally do justice with all relevant stakeholders, including the marginalised sections in Kashmir and the lcoal youth.
For decades, Kashmiris were made to believe that Articles 370 and 35A were some kind of a lifeline for them. Fear-mongering led them to believe that they will be looted, their lands grabbed and demography of the region altered if these provisions got scrapped. This myth has already been busted.
Now, by introducing the abrogation as a part of the curriculum, Modi government has kicked off the herculean task of undoing the systematic indoctrination of the Kashmiri locals by the secessionist elements ever since the days of enactment of Article 370.