Gujjar-Bakarwal agitation: Why Kashmiri tribals are up in arms
On July 28, agitated members of the Muslim Gujjar-Bakarwal tribe of pastoralists converged on a bridge over the Tawi river in Jammu together with their livestock and staged an indication towards the Central authorities’s transfer to incorporate the “Pahari Ethnic Group” within the Scheduled Tribe (ST) checklist by The Structure (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Modification) Invoice, 2023.
The federal government launched the Invoice within the Lok Sabha on July 26. The Pahari Ethnic Group and three different communities—“Gadda Brahmin”, “Koli”, and “Paddari Tribe”—will likely be included within the Union Territory’s Scheduled Tribes checklist if the Invoice is handed. The protesters claimed that the transfer was a direct assault on their hard-won constitutional rights.
The “Pahari Ethnic Group” is a social conglomeration of over 50 communities with heterogeneous and overlapping identities, together with so-called upper-caste Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. The Paharis inhabit Rajouri, Poonch, Kupwara, and Baramulla districts that sit on the Line of Management (LoC). Maybe why some safety consultants have cautioned that the alienation of the Gujjar-Bakarwals may set off ethnic battle and even resurgence of militancy within the area.
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Behind the Gujjar-Pahari flashpoint is the BJP’s “Mission 50 Plus” for the Meeting election after the panchayat elections scheduled for October-November this yr, based on political watchers. . Following the Modi authorities’s unilateral revocation of the particular standing of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, the BJP has been trying to forge social coalitions with electorally vital non-Kashmiri Muslim communities as its finest wager to drag voters away from the Nationwide Convention, the Peoples Democratic Social gathering, and the Congress.
Garnering the assist of the non-Kashmiri-speaking hill communities has been an uphill job for the get together even because it appears to be like to broaden its base amongst displaced Kashmiri Pandits and refugee households from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and West Pakistan.
Coronary heart of the dispute
On the coronary heart of the dispute are Rajouri and Poonch districts which have eight Meeting constituencies. The area has the very best focus of Gujjar-Bakarwals, the third largest ethnic group in Jammu and Kashmir. After Articles 370 and 35 A had been revoked in 2019, for the primary time 9 seats had been reserved for STs—six in Jammu area (Rajouri, Budhal, Thanamandi, Surankote, Mendhar, and Gulabghar) and three within the Kashmir Valley (Kangan, Gurez, and Kokernag)—when the Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Fee notified the brand new constituencies in Could final yr.
Gujjar and Bakerwal college students protesting towards the Invoice proposing to grant Scheduled Tribe standing to the Pahari Ethnic Group in Jammu and Kashmir, in Jammu on July 28.
| Photograph Credit score:
PTI
The brand new Meeting could have 90 seats, together with 47 in Kashmir and 43 in Jammu. “The reservation of at the least 5 Meeting seats in Rajouri and Poonch for Gujjars and Bakarwals threatened the political profession of the Pahari leaders. So, they began demanding ST standing for ‘Pahari Talking Individuals’ too. The BJP sensed a chance and supplied ST standing to them, driving a wedge between the already socially and politically divided communities,” mentioned Guftar Ahmed Chowdhary, a younger tribal chief. The dominant view on the bottom is that even with out political reservation, the Gujjar-Bakarwal group is robust sufficient to affect the electoral end result in over 20 Meeting constituencies.
Chowdhary argued that in addition to Gujjar-Bakarwals, different communities within the hills had been already getting reservation advantages beneath classes akin to Pahari Talking Individuals (PSP), Residents of Reserved Backward Space (RBA), Precise Line of Management (ALC), Different Backward Courses (OBC), and Economically Weaker Part (EWS) after the Lt Gov. Manoj Sinha administration expanded the social castes checklist in October final yr. “The federal government can enhance the scope of reservation beneath these classes. However it should not give ST standing to non-tribal communities,” he mentioned.
Bi-annual migration
A majority of the Gujjar-Bakarwals have a protracted bi-annual migration between Jammu’s forest plains and the excessive pastures of Kashmir and Ladakh according to seasonal climate patterns. Nevertheless, the land-owning Paharis historically reside a settled life. In 1989, when insurgency broke out in Kashmir Valley, the State authorities constituted a State Advisory Board for the Improvement of Pahari Talking Individuals. The board was meant to make sure academic, cultural, and linguistic improvement of Pahari- or Potohari-speaking individuals in 4 districts. In 1991, when the State was beneath President’s Rule, Gujjars and Bakarwals had been granted ST standing together with a lot of the Ladakhi ethnic teams, however the demand of the Paharis was turned down. The Registrar Normal of India, which grants approval, reportedly seen the “Paharis as a linguistic somewhat than ethnic identification.
In 2014, the Omar Abdullah-led Nationwide Convention authorities once more beneficial to the Centre ST standing for Paharis. In January 2020, the Lt Gov. Manoj Sinha administration accepted 4 per cent reservation for Pahari Talking Individuals in jobs and academic establishments.
Up to now few years, certificates stating “Pahari Talking Individuals” have reportedly been issued even to natives of 4 districts who cited Urdu, Dogri, Kashmiri, and Punjabi as their mom tongue throughout Census surveys.
On October 4, 2022, Union Dwelling Minister Amit Shah informed a rally in Rajouri district that his authorities’s proposal to provide tribal standing to “Paharis” wouldn’t lower the reservation quota of Gujjars and Bakarwals. In actual fact, the BJP had held Articles 370 and 35A accountable for the plight of pastoral tribes. Quickly after the division of Jammu and Kashmir into two centrally administered Union Territories, the get together celebrated it as a “historic victory” for Gujjar-Bakarwals. However 4 years later, discontent is simmering within the tribal group over the tardy implementation of two key Central Acts: The Scheduled Tribes and Different Conventional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, additionally referred to as Forest Rights Act, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Modification Act, which grew to become relevant to Jammu and Kashmir solely after August 5, 2019.
“The federal government transfer to grant ST standing to non-tribal communities is an try to neutralise the advantages of those two Central legal guidelines. The Invoice goals to provide tribal standing to upper-caste Muslims and Hindus, together with communities like Mirzas, Sayeds, Rajputs, and Brahmins,” mentioned Talib Hussain, a tribal chief. “The federal government transfer is regressive and geared toward reviving the previous social order,” he added.
Highlights
- The Central authorities’s transfer to incorporate the ‘Pahari Ethnic Group’ within the Scheduled Tribe (ST) checklist by The Structure (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Modification) Invoice, 2023, has received the Gujjar-Bakarwal tribes agitated in Jammu and Kashmir.
- Launched within the Lok Sabha on July 26, 2023, the Invoice proposes to incorporate the Pahari Ethnic Group and three different communities—“Gadda Brahmin”, “Koli” and “Paddari Tribe”—within the Union Territory’s Scheduled Tribes checklist if the Invoice is handed.
- The Gujjar-Bakarwals see the transfer was a direct assault on their very own hard-won constitutional rights and concern that quota advantages should be shared with socially and economically superior communities.
Widespread apprehensions
If the Pahari Ethnic Group, as Pahari Talking Individuals are actually referred to as, will get tribal standing, there are widespread apprehensions amongst Gujjar-Bakarwals that their quota of reservation seats in jobs and training sector may even get divided. Along with this, the dual communities concern, the ST welfare grant beneath Article 275 (1) of the Structure may even get divided among the many newly added communities. “The bulletins of the BJP concerning Gujjar-Bakarwals and different tribes are simply an eyewash. The BJP authorities is robbing us of no matter little rights we had earlier than 2019,” mentioned Talib Hussain.
Bakarwal youngsters at an open-air group college in Doodpathri in Budgam district of central Kashmir, in July 2020. The group fears the brand new Invoice will reduce into their quota advantages in training and jobs.
| Photograph Credit score:
NISSAR AHMAD
A number of “Pahari” Muslim leaders, together with former Nationwide Convention chief and MLA Syed Mushtaq Bukhari, a distinguished Pahari face in Poonch and Rajouri districts, assist the choice to provide ST standing to Paharis. Apparently, the protesting tribals have gotten assist from the Akhil Bhartiya Gurjar Mahasabha and Samajwadi Social gathering chief Akhilesh Yadav, amongst others.
Reiterating Amit Shah’s assurance, J&Okay BJP chief Ravinder Raina and the get together’s Rajya Sabha MP and Gujjar chief Gulam Ali Khatana have clarified that ST standing to Paharis won’t encroach upon the prevailing quota for the Scheduled Tribes. “Historically, the ruling events have divided Gujjars and Paharis to win elections. That period of violence and discord is over. From now onwards, these communities will co-exist peacefully,” Raina mentioned in a media interview lately.
Locked in battle
The Invoice was introduced after a report on Socially and Educationally Backward Courses by Justice G.D. Sharma, former choose of the Excessive Courtroom, was submitted to Lt Gov. Manoj Sinha in 2021. For the reason that particulars of the Invoice and the contents of the report should not out there within the public area, the federal government transfer has been seen as an try to grant reservation to Paharis inside the tribal quota.
A Bakarwal group headed in direction of the higher reaches of the Pir Panjal mountains throughout their annual summer time migration.
| Photograph Credit score:
Ashutosh Sharma
The protesting Gujjar-Bakarwal leaders argue that the so-called Pahari Ethnic Group doesn’t fulfil the factors beneficial by the Lokur Committee in 1965 for designation as a tribe. On December 28, 2017, Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Sudarshan Bhagat informed the Rajya Sabha, by a written reply, that the factors typically adopted for specification of a group as a Scheduled Tribe are the next: (i) indications of primitive traits, (ii) distinctive tradition, (iii) geographical isolation, (iv) shyness of contact with the group at massive, and (v) backwardness. He mentioned that these standards had not been spelt out within the Structure. “The Authorities of India on 15.6.1999 (as additional amended on 25.6.2002), has accepted modalities for deciding claims for inclusion in, exclusion from and different modifications in Orders specifying lists of Scheduled Tribes (STs). Accordingly, solely these proposals which have been beneficial and justified by involved State Authorities/UT Administration will be processed additional,” the reply learn. “Thereafter, it must be concurred with by Registrar Normal of India (RGI) and Nationwide Fee for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) for consideration for modification of laws,” he mentioned.
Little question, a majority of the Gujjar-Bakarwals stay largely exterior the ambit of modernity and financial improvement. Barring a minuscule inhabitants, a majority of them proceed with their nomadic lifestyle regardless of a fancy net of challenges. Uncovered to a number of dangers and vulnerabilities, they lose their livestock repeatedly to illness, pure catastrophe, and highway accidents throughout seasonal migrations. The administration continues with its anti-encroachment drives towards Gujjar-Bakarwals, who’ve misplaced their conventional migration routes and tenting websites to frame battle, rising authorities infrastructure, urbanisation and worsening local weather stress.
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The group more and more finds itself locked in battle with native communities and even Hindu tribes akin to Gaddi and Sippis over shrinking pure assets. Due to destitution and social exclusion, the Gujjar-Bakarwals are seen as Muslims in Hindu majority areas of Jammu province whereas the Muslims in Jammu province and Kashmir Valley deal with them as social outcasts.
Based on social observers, the Pahari Talking Individuals don’t face such excessive existential challenges. The grant of ST standing to Paharis on the premise of language and financial backwardness is more likely to open a pandora’s field. In Jammu province, refugee households from Poonch, Mirpur and Muzaffarabad districts in PoJK, who additionally converse Pahari dialects, have additionally demanded tribal standing. There isn’t a dearth of such areas and communities which have immensely suffered attributable to militancy and border battle and stay economically backward.
It’s an irony that the Union Dwelling Ministry has ignored the demand of Chopans to be included within the ST checklist. Members of this landless group with over three lakh inhabitants are normally employed by native farmers as shepherds in Kashmir Valley. Consistent with the native climate, they migrate with the livestock between native grasslands and pastures within the larger reaches referred to as “Bahak” (Rangeland) designated by the Land Income Division.
