Manner of 370 abrogation was wrong, but if it brings back Kashmir’s magic, it will be worthwhile | The Indian Express

Manner of 370 abrogation was wrong, but if it brings back Kashmir’s magic, it will be worthwhile | The Indian Express

Written by Tavleen Singh |Updated: August 11, 2019 9:39:31 am

Tavleen Singh, a leading Columnist associated with The Indian Express. Find all Columns from Tavleen Singh here.

Manner of 370 abrogation was wrong, but if it brings back Kashmir’s magic, it will be worthwhile

To use a sledgehammer to abrogate Article 370 was unwise and risky. But, if it can bring back the magic that Kashmir once had long, long ago, then the risk will be worthwhile.

Kashmir was destroyed not by political problems and alienation but because of the advent of the new Islam that blew into the Valley in the Eighties, when money started pouring in from Saudi Arabia to groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami. (AP)

Of the arguments made against the abrogation of Article 370 all of last week by a plethora of Kashmir ‘experts’, the one that irritated me most was the one about Kashmir ‘losing its identity’. Which one? The one in which Hindus and Muslims lived together in total harmony? The one in which Kashmiri Islam was so moderate that unveiled women prayed in mosques? Or the current ‘identity’ in which Hindus have been ethnically cleansed from the Valley and Islam prevails in its most fanatical form? Having witnessed the changes in Kashmir’s identity first hand, let me remind you of them.