Why are Sikhs of Kashmir angry?

Kashmir has historically been a multi religious society, where Kashmiri Muslims, Kashmiri Hindu Pandits and Kashmiri Sikhs have lived with each other for centuries maintaining cordial, harmonious and brotherly relationship.

After the exodus of the Kashmiri Hindu Pandits, the Sikhs of Kashmir are now the largest religious minority of Kashmir Valley, distributed equally among Baramulla in North, Srinagar in Central and Tral in south Kashmir Valley. The bond between Kashmiri Sikh and Kashmiri Muslim communities is as old as the history of Kashmir. The Kashmir valley is home to some of the most important and sacred gurdwaras located in Srinagar and Baramulla cities. So why is that the Sikh community of Kashmir is suddenly up in arms?

The recent controversy over alleged cases of forced conversion and marriage of Sikh girls has not only been widely publicised and politicised, but it has also ruptured the cordial relation between Kashmiri Muslims and Kashmiri Sikh communities. The problem lies in the fact that Kashmir's majority Muslim population loves to remain in complete denial of how their image is perceived outside Kashmir valley but sooner or later they are confronted with the bitter reality, which is never debated or resolved and therefore the problem continues to persist.

The subsequent rise of religious radicalism, orthodoxy, social conservatism and proliferation of puritan Islamic school of thoughts has further dented the image of Kashmir as an enclave of moderate, tolerant, secular Muslims, who followed their own unique syncretic Sufi Islam called "Rishiyat" that was an amalgamation of Central Asian Sufi traditions and Kashmir's own Hindu Shaivism.

It is a fact that Kashmiri Sikh girls are special target of religious harassment. My Sikh friends would regularly tell me how their Muslim acquaintance would ridicule their Sikh faith and practices and would encourage them to visit mosques and learn about Islam. Kashmiri Sikh girls would be pressured to be "girlfriends" with Muslim boys.

Sikhs in Kashmir are angry because they have been facing and quietly suffering the religiously driven onslaught of converting to Islam for a long time, accelerated by the rise of the new generation of radicalized, orthodox puritan Muslims of Kashmir. These radical Muslims don't even spare Sufi Islam following Kashmiri Muslims and regularly taunt and harass them of following a "corrupt" faith and indulging in "shirk" and "biddah" and worshipping graves, one can only imagine the plight of Sikh minority, who can't even express their misery and suffering that they endure on daily basis out of fear of their security.

It is not a question of Islam versus Sikhism, but of radicalism and intolerance versus Kashmir's glorious religious tradition of tolerance, Kashmiriyat and Sufi Rishiyat, which is at stake. We must understand and acknowledge grievances of our Sikh brothers and sister and strive to address them and make Kashmir once again a mecca of peace, tolerance and secularism.

(Writer is a political leader and State Secretary of People's Democratic Front)