By Victor Edwin

New Delhi, Dec. 8, 2019: As a Jesuit involved in Christian-Muslim Relations, I felt it important to visit Kashmir and be with my friends for a few days and to know how the Christian presence in the valley brings solace to people burdened enormously over the last few decades.

Thanks to Zafar Mahmood and Packiam Samuel for giving me funds and facilitated my second visit to the valley after 23 years.

I went to Jammu and Kashmir first time in 1996, when I was missioned to Baramulla as a Jesuit regent in St. Joseph’s School, then administered by the Delhi Jesuits. The school had slightly over 2,800 students, both boys and girls, on its rolls.

When I went to one of the classes first time, a shattered window pane drew my attention. On inquiring, the children told me told it was broken during a cross-firing episode. A few months earlier, they added, it was a daily occurrence. Their explanation made me reflect on their hard life at a tender age. As the days went by I learnt from the teachers and others that it was the children who were the worst sufferers. They suffered much due to fear and insecurity.

In many ways the trauma made the children lose faith in themselves and in others. For me, ‘the broken window pane’ became a symbol of the shattered childhood in the Kashmir valley. I allowed myself to get disturbed. It helped me get into the shoes of the children. The feeling of being one with them changed my thinking pattern and consequently my teaching. To put it concretely, I began to listen to the children, their longings and aspirations. I followed every behavior of theirs carefully and considered these as statements about themselves. This helped me to understand them in an active context.

I must say their sufferings deeply moved me and their life held a message for me. I experienced compassion towards them and I wanted to uphold their dignity through my encouraging words. I often prayed and contemplated Jesus’ words: “I have compassion for the crowd” (Mark 8:2) and “Let the children come to me” (Mark 10:14). I also began to realize these Muslim brothers and sisters who suffer a great deal in a conflict zone like Kashmir are despised by many in the world, but they are objects of divine love. Through reading and reflecting on Nostra Aetate (In our time – the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council), I learned to think positively towards Muslims.

My regency year in Baramulla, I must say, was a period of grace for me, where I really began to love Muslims as part of my family. I came to believe that Jesus died for all and that He loves everyone, including Muslims. So, I deeply felt that there was a call for me to love Muslims.

As I reflected on my experiences with children as their teacher, I began to ask many questions about Jesuit mission among Muslims and my own thinking and feeling towards Muslims. One of the first questions that surfaced in my heart was: if we worship One God, as Nostra Aetate teaches, who are we to one another?

In the light of the Gospel, I recognized that we Muslims and Christians are brothers and sisters and belong to one family. I felt deeply surprised by my answer to my own question. I felt I was expanding in freedom of a child of God towards others, especially my Muslim brothers and sisters.

Everyone longs for Peace

When I went to the Kashmir Valley the second time four months after what The Economic Times reported on August 5: “Modi government has finally dropped the big Kashmir bomb today, with Home Minister Amit Shah moving to revoke two key constitutional provisions — Article 370 and Article 35(A) — that give the state of Jammu & Kashmir a host of special rights.”

With the revocation of these Constitutional provisions, tens and thousands of security forces were sent to Kashmir, scores of political leaders were taken into custody and thousands of young men were detained.

“The communication blackout, security clampdown and detention of the political leaders in the region has made it worse,” said Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International India.

I met a few of my friends in the valley who are government employees, professors, journalists and teachers, whose names I would not mention for obvious reasons. Their suffering is intense as children lost several months of schooling, business establishments are closed, and farmers met huge loses as their produce could not reach markets.

Besides financial losses Kashmiris strongly feel that their sentiments as Kashmiri within the Indian Union have been hurt irreparably. They feel that they were not taken into confidence in decisions that altered their social, political and cultural lives as Kashmiris. I gleaned, from the long conversations that I had with them, that the hope for peace is elusive in the region at the moment, although, and everyone without exception intensely longs for Peace. Peaceful resolution of the conflicts is their foremost concern.

Embers of Hope

In my conversations I find them constantly returning to their faith and culture founded on Islamic mystical traditions. Every one of my friends mentioned to me that Islam came to the valley of Kashmir directly from central Asia and khurasan and thus Kashmiris retain many of the Central Asian features in their culture, food, dress and architecture.

They also revealed that Sufi saints won over the hearts of Kashmiris on account of their piety and sincerity. They referred to Sufi approach as an inclusive approach. They indicated that Sufism served to promote a common way of understanding the world, thereby forming the cornerstone of the unique Kashmiri culture that transcends religious boundaries.

As a student of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, I could recognize that the Sufi belief of ‘wahdat-al-wujud’ (unity of all existence), in other words, finding God in everything make them inclusive in their approach. Some of the Sufis for whom it is not wahdat-al-wujud’ but they believed in Sharia centric ‘wahdat-al-shuhud’ (unity of all witness). They emphasized that all creatures observe one faith albeit different ways as God is transcendent.

In Kashmir one finds the Sufi orders such as the Naqshbandi, the Qadris, the Suhrawardi, the Kubrawi and the Rishis are present. They often referred to the sufi saints Hazrat Bulbul Shah and Shah-i-Hamadan. Sayyed Sharfuddin Abdur Rahman (Hazrat Bulbul Shah), was the first Saint who sowed the seeds of Islam in Kashmir in 13th century.

The Kubrawi Saint, Mir Sayyed Ali Hamadani (Shah-i-Hamadan), Kashmiris believe, came to Kashmir along with 700 of his disciples, who eventually settled down in various parts of Kashmir, spreading Islam and the principles of the Kubrawi Sufi order.

One could say that these Sufi saints are bringing consolation in their difficult hours. The inclusive and broad based Sufi foundation holds signs of peace in the valley. A shift from an emphasis on political expression of Islam to Sufi dimensions may offer Kashmiris a better space for dealing with the present situation.

Christian presence for Hope

The Catholic Church is present in the valley along with many Protestant churches in the valley for several decades. Their schools in the valley remain symbols of peace. They provide a space for the children to be children in the otherwise tensed atmosphere of the valley. Their hospitals give healing touch. Their social service societies provide skills for entrepreneurship initiatives for young men and women.

Christian interventions are small but impressive in the given situation. Peace activists from every religious tradition has to take an active role in discovering ways for peace in the valley in which I certainly believe both Christians and Muslims who long for Peace have a greater role to play.