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A Solution to India’s Vastu Problem: Move Kashmir to Kanyakumari
Some years ago, I landed in Bangalore on my way to Delhi (where my parents lived) from Australia. It had been about five years since I had been home and, in the meantime, the country had started to open up. The changes were immediately apparent. I was able to rent a rather plush taxi to pay a visit to my cousin during my six-hour layover (our taxis didn’t use to be plush) and as I sat back and marveled at Bangalore Bengaluru (unrecognizable) a private radio station (private! unheard of!) called Radio Mirchi was playing. I’ll never forget what one of the announcers said (heavy South Indian accent):
The situation in the nation is sooooo bad because our country’s Vastu needs to be corrected. I propose that we take Kaaaashmir, and put it at Kanyakumari, and Kanyakumari and place it in Kaaaashmir. Whadoyousay?!
Hard point to argue, but it occurred to me that people may not really know where either of these is. Let me help. Kanyakumari is the southernmost tip of India (formerly Cape Comerin.).
Kashmir is marked on the map. (Just how we would have achieved Vastu compliance in this instance is unclear, but for what it’s worth, here is Bollywood’s attempt.)
Jammu and Kashmir was never a part of British India — it was a Princely State with a 97% Muslim majority Kashmiri-speaking population and a Hindu Dogra-speaking royal family from Jammu. But the region is quite linguistically diverse:
And somewhat less religiously diverse:
(Other is Buddhist and traditional religions.)
Suffice it to say most of the population is Kashmiri-speaking Muslim, but it is highly concentrated in the Kashmir Valley.
Which, by the way, is extremely beautiful:
So along came independence in 1947, and with it Partition, and the Princely States of the Raj were given the choice to accede to India or to Pakistan.
After some skullduggery, Kashmir acceded to India — something that Pakistan didn’t accept, so of course we went to war (the first of several), and the State was de facto divided between the two countries, with the border called the Line of Control:
This sets the scene for India and Pakistan’s ongoing disagreement about Kashmir, itself part of the larger existential argument about Partition, which has been jogging along ever since.
What might make it more than a grubby local dispute (that often ignores the actual locals) is that both countries have nuclear weapons, and they’re sort of inconveniently located. Australia’s ABC has a good summary of the current situation, but also provides a map (of course) which illustrates the issue perfectly:
It shows the impact of Pakistan closing its airspace to commercial flights, which it has done. It’s pretty close to a major air lane, not to mention a lot of oil.
I don’t pretend to know what Kashmir means to Pakistanis today, but for India, it feels as if it is our agnipariksha — at least one of them — how we are dealing with it, and eventually hopefully will resolve it, says so much about who we are.
In my humble opinion, a good way to think about what it all means for Bharat Mata.
Published in General
That is a beautiful photograph. Yours?
Excellent post Zafar. I couldn’t begin to decide who is in the right, but it gave me much needed depth to understanding the situation. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
Side question: If Kashmir is so heavily Muslim, how come it didn’t go to Pakistan when the countries were formed?
Side comment: Every time I hear of Kashmir, I think of the Led Zeppelin song, which is my favorite Zep song.
FIFY
I think this might be part of the answer.
I think of Kashmiri naan, which I can’t eat anymore (and shouldn’t have been eating when I was, but what did I know?) Delicious stuff.
That makes sense.
Goats?
Their product is more often spelled cashmere.
From memory trip advisor’s. I have not been to Kashmir since I was very young – prob seven or eight.
Great information on what is going on.
I am afraid that it will only get settled when one side is gone.
I wish I could say “I’ll be singin’ Kashmir Main Tu Kanyakumari the rest of the day” but after washing the dishes, taking a bicycle ride, and showering, I’ve already forgotten it. Well, the memory didn’t even last as long as the dishwashing. Sorry I never took that train shown at the end of the vid, if it’s way down south. My train to Trivandrum was cancelled after the one ahead of it derailed. Well, hanging around a small-town station in tropical India is not bad. The area was green and leafy, and a surprisingly large fraction of India is hardly either.
My face fails to scrunch concernedly as I observe I am unable to fly between Turkmenistan and India, not without a diversion to Bahrain or similar. Because I had a similar diversion when I flew between New York and New Delhi. The Iran-Iraq War had just broken out and I got a call from Air India notifying me of this change of route. Perhaps I was supposed to yelp, “Whoa, that changes everything!” but I did not. Only now, 39 years later, do I realize I was indeed expected to protest, or at least react. I imagine other passengers, most of whom were Indian citizens, did. Vainly.
Contrary to whatever my government is saying, I don’t have a dog in this fight, but if I did, it would be India, simply because I have not forgiven Pakistan for harboring Osama bin Laden. The only thing I disrespect more than Pakistan is my government, or at least those offices of it that maintain Pakistan is an ally.
Nice use of green.
There is no such thing as one side being gone.
There’s not even such a thing as two completely different and separate sides. Even in this.
Hear a lot from the Philistine’s point of view, do you?
I dunno. Is it really a settled opinion that they are gone? I thought it was still a controversial subject.
One of my relatives was stationed in Pakistan many years ago. After he returned, he explained some of what he learned about politics in Pakistan and the disputes between India and Pakistan. I remember feeling it was much more complex than portrayed on the news, and had a major headache thinking about it, to boot. Now that everything in the region seems to be heading toward a major simplification- war, and VERY possibly nuclear war- I find myself missing both the complexity and the headache. What a catastrophe another war would be.
Not to jinx it, but I doubt there will be a big war – though a contained Kargil like thing is possible.
As has been pointed out elsewhere it’s election time in India. And Im the Dim has his own virtue signalling to do. But what’s overlooked is that Jaish e Mohammed is a double edged sword, and The Pakistani Govt is aware of that and probably is okay with it being a bit blunted from time to time.
Also – nukes discipline the mind a bit.
Let us hope so