“Buddhists Playing With Fire”, a book by Prof Hari Om
JAMMU, Jul 15: The new book of Prof Hari Om, former Dean of Jammu University’s Faculty of Social Sciences and member Indian Council of Historical Research, “Buddhists Playing with Fire: Political History of Ladakh post-August 5, 2019” has hit the stands. The book – apart from throwing light on the history of Buddhists’ struggle (1947-2019) for separation of trans-Himalayan Ladakh from Kashmir and Central rule for the region — deals with the contradictory and mutually exclusive response to the abrogation of Article 370, reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir and creation of Union Territory of Ladakh on August 5, 2019, evoked in the Buddhist-dominated Leh and Muslim dominated Kargil. Leh celebrated August 5 as a day of thanks-giving while Kargil observed the eventful day as a black day.
The sudden and mind-boggling change in the political attitude of the Buddhist leadership in Ladakh in 2020 forms an important part of the book. That year, the non-BJP Buddhist leadership in Leh changed their goalpost. So much so, they and the otherwise highly hostile Kargil’s leadership joined hands to first demand the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution so that the Ladakhis could control the entire land and all jobs and then put forth a demand seeking full State status for Ladakh, coupled with an elected Legislative Assembly.
The book, in addition, throws light on the parleys between the agitating Ladakhi leadership and Union Home Ministry aimed at restoring peace – parleys that failed to break the impasse. The reason: While the former insisted on the Sixth Schedule and statehood status, the Home Ministry said no taking into consideration the region’s geo-political significance.
Besides, the book reflects on the immediate results that would follow the conversion of Union Territory into the State of Ladakh. The results: one, the otherwise powerful institution of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) would become a story of the past. Two, everything would be controlled by the Kargil-dominated State government, and the Buddhists, who today are a majority in Leh district and play all the shots there as well as in Kargil district’s Zanskar tehsil, would lose the political status they enjoy in their own district and in Zanskar tehsil. Since they constitute less than 40 percent of Ladakh’s population, they will always remain a minority in the Assembly, which discusses and decides questions of supreme importance to the happiness and well-being of the people.
That full state status would also negate what the great Buddhist leaders like Chhewang Rigzin and Head Lama of Ladakh, Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, did after 1947 for the Buddhists would be yet another immediate fallout if the Ladakh Union Territory given the status of a full-fledged State. This, and the manner in which opponents of the Narendra Modi government and certain vested interests tried to fish in the troubled waters, also forms the core of the book.
The book also throws light on the political status the Kargil would enjoy in the State of Ladakh, in the State government, in the elected Legislative Assembly, and in the Civil Secretariat. They would exercise veto power like the Kashmiri leadership enjoyed veto power between October 1947 and August 2018.
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