Who are the Paharis likely to get ST status during Amit Shah’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir?

There’s excitement and concern in Jammu and Kashmir as Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived for a three-day visit to the Union Territory.

The Pahari people, mostly living at the foot hills of Pir Panjal mountainous range, are anticipating that Home Minister Amit Shah will make the announcement of them being granted Scheduled Tribe status during his rallies in Rajouri and Baramulla on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. The demand for Scheduled Tribe status has been a four-decade long one.

Catch all the LIVE updates from Home Minister Amit Shah’s Jammu visit HERE

However, the expected announcement has also caused concern among the Gujjars and Bakerwal community, who have expressed resentment over the proposed inclusion of Paharis in the ST category.

The Union minister was welcomed to Jammu and Kashmir on Monday evening with protests by the Gujjars and Bakerwals. Hundreds of Gujjar and Bakerwal college students gathered in Jammu and staged a peaceful march to oppose the likely inclusion of the Pahari-speaking people in the ST category.

जम्मू-कश्मीर के तीन दिवसीय प्रवास पर आज जम्मू पहुंचा।

विभिन्न कार्यक्रमों के माध्यम से जम्मू-कश्मीर की जनता से संवाद करने के लिए उत्सुक हूँ। pic.twitter.com/mEmBHIZ76V

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) October 3, 2022

Gujjars and Bakerwals also staged a protest in Shopian district of south Kashmir, threatening to intensify the agitation if Paharis are given the ST status.

Ahead of the expected announcement, let’s take a closer look at who are the Paharis, their demand for ST status and why there’s opposition to it.

Who are the Paharis?

Paharis are a socio-linguistic group who reside mostly in the mountainous regions of Poonch-Rajouri area, Mirpur, and some parts of Kashmir Valley including Baramulla, Kupwara and Uri. They make up almost 20 per cent of the population in Jammu and Kashmir.

Their mother tongue, Pahari, is an offshoot of Pothwari language with varying dialects and their own unique culture. They usually reside in rural areas and are majorly involved in agricultural and cattle activities.

The majority of Paharis reside in economically and socially disadvantaged regions. Over the years, they have been side-lined and have been struggling in the region.

Who’s opposing the ST tag for Paharis?

The Gujjars and Bakerwals, who form the third largest ethnic group in Jammu and Kashmir after Kashmiris and Dogras, oppose the status of ST to the Paharis.

In 1991, the Gujjars and Bakerwals were granted ST status and through this they received 10 per cent reservation in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions.

The Paharis contend that they should also be accorded the ST tag, as they live, like the Gujjars and Bakerwals, in the tough and backward terrain of Pir Panjal region, besides Baramulla and Anantnag districts. The Gujjars and Bakerwals, however, contest Paharis getting the ST tag, mainly on the ground that the latter are not an ethnic group but a conglomerate of different religious and linguistic communities.

Why has the matter cropped up today?

Though the Paharis have long been demanding for ST status, their demand for the same became more pronounced in 2021.

When Home Minister Amit Shah had visited the Union Territory last year, his first since the abrogation of Article 370, he had said, “Elected members of the Pahari community can now become a minister and chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, which was impossible earlier because of dynastic politics.”

“Prime Minister Modi is now going to solve the issues of the Pahari community. Soon BJP will grant ST status to Paharis which is their genuine demand,” BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir Chief, Ravinder Raina said in a meeting with Paharis, later. “The Gujjars, Bakerwals and Paharis are three sons of the same mother.”

This comes on the account of nine seats being reserved for tribals in the new 90-member Assembly to be formed in J&K post the delimitation process .

Some political pundits believe that the ST tag to the Paharis is the BJP’s way of trying to make inroads into the Pir Panjal region. They said that the BJP sees them as a potential vote-bank which can be consolidated by granting ST status to them while the Gujjar-Bakerwals, in the majority, are divided among various parties.

How have political parties reacted?

The likely ST tag for the Paharis have elicited different reactions among political leaders across parties.

Former state minister and Pahari leader Mushtaq Bukhari was quoted as telling Moneycontrol, “Though I stand by our Gujjar brethren’s right to protest in a democratic manner, it’s still disheartening to see. No Pahari protested in 1991 when our case was rejected and they (Gujjars) were granted ST status. It was political discretion than, and will be now as well.”

In the past few weeks, Mushtaq Bukhari, a senior National Conference leader from Rajouri, Mohammad Ehsan from Peoples Democratic Party, and several others have resigned and openly supported the BJP on the issue of granting ST status to Paharis.

Senior BJP leader Arshad Choudhary, who is from the Gujjar community, said the demand of the Paharis for the ST status is “spurious and unjustifiable”, and said the tribals got the ST status after decades of relentless struggle and secured 10 per cent reservation in jobs and education.

“The conspirators are all out to jeopardise the legitimate rights and interests of the tribals and render them unreal and ineffective socially, educationally, economically and politically, and create a pre-1991-like situation, and all this is utterly unacceptable to us,” he said.

On Sunday, former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti accused the BJP of “creating a wedge” between the Paharis and Gujjars, and cautioning them to be alert.

“Home Minister Amit Shah will come and go back. The BJP is here today, it will not be there tomorrow,” she said in a video appeal. “But the chasm that it (the BJP) is creating between you, the enmity… the vacuum they are creating….”

Urging that they belonged to the same region, Mufti added: “First, they pitted Hindus against Muslims and now they want the Gujjars and Paharis to fight against each other.”

With inputs from agencies

Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .