Peace and Politics in Ladakh: Past & Present
Aamir A. Aman Drassi
10-12-2006

Bound by the common culture, language, ethics and race and just a generation before even bound by the same kingdom, in the Ladakh region the two communities (Muslims and Buddhists) were at a heart of a war after torn pages of the holy Quran was found outside a mosque in a Muslim minority Bodh Kharbu village in the outskirts of the district headquarters of Kargil. Once known as the adobe of peace and exemplary communal harmony and brotherhood just termed into the region of riots and goons.

Sparking off violence, these cowardly actions, threatens to slip apart Ladakh`s syncretic cultural traditions for ever.

Ladakh`s history is devoite of such religious riots, although it speaks of some minor religious conflicts between the Buddhist kingdom and the rulers of Baltistan but at the same time the history also reveals a large number of marriages between the two communities. In the past, political coalition often cut across religious boundaries e.g. the Buddhist Ladakhi rulers joined hands with Muslim Mughal emperor Aurangzeb`s army in 1681 when Ladakh was invaded by Tebatan-Mangolian army.
In other words we can say that the history of Ladakh does not reveal any inherent antagonism between the two communities. Ladakh was never known the sort of communal violence that most part of the India witnessed so far.

The relations between the two principal communities in Ladakh have been traditionally good and share many things like economy, culture and to some extent food. Owing primarily to the political developments in last one and a half decades Ladakh signaled some communal polarizations. These minor developments gradually but dangerously deepened the communal divides.

With some charges on the state government for discrimination, the whole Ladakh region demanded autonomous council for regional development. Surprisingly the then Prime Minister of India Mr. Narsima Rao first rejected the demand of a common hill development council for the twin District, but, when the demand was put by the LBA for the Leh district only, the Prime Minister conceded the demand. Although the Kargil district also came up with another development council in 2002 but very unfortunately the important "Common Regional Council" is missing in between.

Many serious problems arises regularly from time to time but were not sincerely probed, consciously or unconsciously, by the state or center government and unfortunately the peace breakers, with a vested interest, makes their way out all the time. The state and the center government can be asked that why not they did proper probing of the 1989 conflict and boycott situation. In a very delicate situation, the kidnapping of two Buddhist girls set the whole Ladakh on fire and the Buddhists had anti-Muslim protests. In elections once again the situation remains tense and a complete religious divide can be seen easily but the administration remains cool and calm. And the latest one is the desecration of the Holy Quran in the month of Moharam and then the chain reaction of the masses clearly gives rise to serious doubts about the regional, state and center authorities.

The latest one was the desecration of the Holy Quran in the Holy month of Muharam. The sentiments of the Muslims were already hurt by some blasphemous publications in the European media and another natural reaction to the desecration was evident, but at the same time the authorities fails to arrest the culprits. The reaction of communal instability in Leh was evident in Kargil but the authority fails to visualize it and fails to ensure preventive measure in Kargil.

It was not simply a law & order situation which is usually dealt with police forces but the situation was demanding high level intervention but the ground situation was that the team which was going to probe the origin of conflict was headed by a mere SSP. Was it enough? No, in fact the chief minister and other spiritual leaders should have reached Ladakh.
It is now very clear that with some reasons the Buddhists are demanding for the status of union territory and want to discord from the state of Jammu & Kashmir and on the other hand the Muslims are demanding the reopening of the Kargil-Baltistan road to meet their relatives in Baltistan and anyhow they are not in a position to leave the Baltistan sector all alone. The Muslims has opposed the demand of union territory and fears if they are ruled by the more advanced Buddhists. This was also apparent from the roundtable conference of Prime Minister of India in which diverging views came out from the leaders.

Thus Ladakh once known as the land of peace and communal harmony is now feeling some direct consequences of political policies. From the separation of the hill councils to the resent uncommon demands, deferent political parties have played deferent games so far in communalizing the region for vote bank.

So the conflict emerging in Ladakh is more political than that of religious and socio-economic. There is a common concern of both the communities in the twin district. The Muslim minority of Leh district and the Buddhist minority of Kargil district have their share of grievances and always tend to be in a communal harmony state but unfortunately are much less aware of politics. Thus without taking into consideration the politics of religious conflict the enquiries will not serve the desired purpose of uprooting the religious conflict in Ladakh. So until and unless the politics of conflict are not probed out and unless the diversifying political ideas are brought to the table the inter-communal peace and harmony in Ladakh remains under threat.

The New Delhi with its successive regimes in the state thus have played a direct role in eroding the Ladakh`s identity. Firstly a common Ladakh regional council is missing suspiciously and secondly some are supporting the division of the region on the basis of religion. Now it is the time that the government and other intellectuals should treat the whole Ladakh as a single entity, irrespective of religion, instead of encouraging the divide and rule motives. In short they should follow the natural alphabetic order "JKL" for Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh.