Should students join politics in Kashmir? It is a hackneyed question. It has been debated in the past in schools, colleges, universities and media. Those for it often quoted Mahatma Gandhi. He at all important junctures of Indian Freedom Struggle called upon students to join the freedom struggle. Those opposed to it often took refuge in a quote from Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali wherein he has not been in favor of students joining politics.I leave the moral debate over students’ participation in politics to educationists like Prof. Agha Ashraf Ali and Prof. Abdul Gani Madhosh and look at the dynamics of students’ participation in politics in the state. In fact no serious work has been done by any of our political historians on the role of the student community in the Kashmir struggle. Seen in right perspective a comprehensive and honest political history of Kashmir is yet to be written. The blur that has been surrounding the objectives and goals of the political struggle of the state since 1931 could be attributed to the lack of a political history of Kashmir.Here in this column I will try to look at the role of students in politics at different phases in our history. It would not be wrong to state that Kashmir’s struggle for freedom was started by Muslim students of Jammu about a decade or so before the birth of the Muslim Conference in Srinagar. The Muslims Students and Youngman Association was started more or less in the first decade of the twentieth century. It was this student’s organization that raised its voice against the denial of religious and political freedom to the people of Jammu and Kashmir by the autocratic Dogra rulers. Notwithstanding Kashmir struggle has been purely struggle for justice and fairplay against denial of equal rights to the Muslims and discriminatory and oppressive tax system for the majority community the cause for the birth of this struggle was religion. It was first preventing an Imam from delivering the Friday sermon in a Jammu mosque then the sacrilege of the Quran that sparked the widespread agitation in Jammu. This agitation was led by the Young Men’s Muslim Association an organization of students and youth of Jammu that though born in 1909 was revived by Chowdary Ghulam Abbass in 1924. The cause of 31 July 1931 uprising that is seen as an important benchmark in our struggle has been religious and not political. It was not at the beginning of the movement against the feudal autocracy that the students played a pro-active role. The role of students emerges more distinctly at the critical juncture of the split of the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference and birth of the National Conference. A substantial section of students had opposed the move. It in fact has been this phase of our struggle that not only shaped the politics of the state but is seen by many a historian as the year of birth of Kashmir tragedy. During this phase the students played a pro-active role in politics. The most important role was played by the Muslim Students Federation. In 1944 this students organization was in vanguard in receiving Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Many student leaders were arrested and put in jails for many years. Like all other dissenting voices the voice of the students was also strangulated after 1947. Many a student leaders were either pushed across the Cease Fire Line or were forced to leave and crossover to the other side of Kashmir. Some best minds who could have made immense contribution to the growth of development of the state were exiled. After 1947 we see a brief role of students against the deposition of Sheikh Abdullah. Some students had raised their voice against the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah and they were arrested. The arrested also included Farooq Abdullah- it was first and last time when Farooq Abdullah was arrested. There has not been much of a role of students in politics in the state after 1953.What could be seen as a major role of the students in politics in the state started during the 1964 Holy Relic Movement? The 1964 saw the birth of Jammu and Kashmir Youth League which had Abdul Rashid Kabali, Muhammad Anwar Ashai, Sheikh Ghulam Muhammad, Sufi Ghulam Qadir and many others in the vanguard. This organization was followed by the Jammu and Kashmir Young Men’s League, Jammu and Kashmir Students Action Committee. In one of my previous columns I had written a bit in detail about the role played by these organization during the 1964 Holy Relic Movement and the 1965 youth movement or even during the 1967 Hindu agitation. In that column that I did not go into the causes of the death of the Youth League, I did not go into details as to how some of its top leaders were handpicked by the intelligence agencies that had made Sheikh Abdullah to forewarn people against some of youth organization. I leave this subject to the honest confession of some of the members of these organizations. Their honest confession could not be a lesson in politics for the new generation but would also enable them to discern a much needed role in the given bizarre political situation of the state.The 1965 students movement in Kashmir could have emerged assumed the same significance and importance as that led by Cohen Bendit in France or Tariq Ali in Pakistan at the same time but for the post 9 August 1965 happenings that took away Kashmir initiative from the youth movement. It is in itself a debate as to how adversely the operation Gibraltar effected the Kashmir movement.
