Conversion in Kashmir

Recently I came across an article entitled "Christian Proselytization Among Muslims", by Yoginder Sikand in the monthly Renaissance magazine. The article elaborated on the enormous efforts of Christian missionaries to attract new converts to their faith. Though articles of this nature are anything but rare, what really caught my attention was its bringing to light an enormous conversion rate to Christianity in the valley of Kashmir, 10,000 former Muslims to be exact.

Before making any specific comments on this fact, a historical issue needs addressing. Kashmir did not become officially Muslim until 1339 AD, previously being under the rule of Buddhist kings. Despite the presence of Buddhist rule, the people of the region were accepting Islam in numbers, because of the religion's contact with the Kashmiri land almost 500 years prior. Many eminent sufis entered the land and worked tirelessly for Islam promoting the cause of social welfare. Islam had gained rapid acceptance not because of political power, but through social reformation. The leadership of Kashmir was autocratic, and the Hindu caste system had made many Kashmiris disenchanted with their faith. What is significant to note is that Kashmiri acceptance of Islam, as is with all Asian cultures, was not politically driven, but socially driven.

Today, Kashmir is plagued with an unprecedented amount of violence, with atrocities being committed by both Muslim 'militant' groups and Indian forces. Though the Kashmiri liberation movement originated out of a legitimate demand for freedom by the Kashmiri people, it seems that morality and ethics have been lost by many in the zeal for political power and control.

Yoginder Sikand writes:

"Despite being in a majority in the state, the Kashmiri Muslims have done little by way of setting up institutions to provide relief and succor to the needy. The Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Awqaf Trust, with control over properties of several crores (millions in currency), has tragically done almost nothing by way of development work. Its activities are mainly confined to maintaining mosques and shrines, establishing shopping complexes, and providing a lucrative source of income to those with the right political connections. Kashmir University now boasts of a department of business management, but the powers that be seem to imagine that a department of social work is still quite unnecessary, and this in a state where over 50,000 people have been killed in the last decade or so. Recent years have witnessed the mushrooming of a number of NGOs in Kashmir, but many of these are said to be simply money-raking ventures. For all the talk of ‘jihad’ in Kashmir, there are hardly any madrasahs of note in the state, and for higher Islamic education Kashmiris are forced to head to the Nadwatu’l-‘Ulama and Deoband. On the other hand, although they are in a minority in the state, the Hindus of Jammu and the Buddhists of Ladakh are clearly ahead of the valley’s Muslims in establishing and managing development agencies for their own people."

This paragraph highlights the fundamental problem with an Islam, whose sole aim is political power. Christian missionaries have begun to make grounds in Kashmir through social welfare programs. Such a fact of a growing conversion rate cannot be solely attributed to a new zeal among foreign converts to spread Christianity to an unknowing people. Christianity was already existent for hundreds of years in Kashmir, but was never able to attract many converts. Though the liberation of Kashmir is essentially defined as a Muslim one, and this is undeniable considering the very foundations of it were the result of the partition of India, it is obviously clear that the political situation has hurt Muslims more than helped. The Muslim groups, caught in the power struggle, have failed to achieve anything lasting for Islam and if they were to gain power, it is obviously clear that their ineptitude could provide no general betterment for the Kashmiri people. This characteristic is not confined to the Muslim groups of Kashmir, but all of these so-called 'political Islamists'. By assuming that politics changes people, instead of realizing the political setup is the result of a psychology that already exists among the people, they further help the cause of deterioration in society. Further, their politics ends up becoming tyranny and dictatorship.