Maqbool Bhat: Romantic, Icon or Rebel?

Mohammad Maqbool Bhat- the founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and an inspiration for the armed insurrection against the state- was hanged on the 11th of February, 1984.  While a litany of charges was made against Bhat, he was hanged on charges of murdering a CID inspector, Amar Chand. Maqbool Bhat’s death made him a larger than life figure in the socio-political dynamic of Kashmir; he, after death, became an inspirational figure for the youth of Kashmir who took him to be their icon. In this sense, Bhat was a hero to many but a villain for others.  So who was Maqbool Bhat? What made Bhat to be what he became? And what inferences can be drawn from the man’s life trajectory and influence?

We will not dwell on the life events-births, marriage etc- of Maqbool Bhat; what we will, however, focus on is significant events in Bhat’s life –both formative and watershed- arrive at an inferential assessment of the man. Two incidents in Bhat’s formative years suggest that Bhat was a sensitive, rebellious child. 

The first incident occurred when Bhat was just eight years old. In 1946, just a year before the end of the monarchical Maharaja’s rule over J & K and  partition of the subcontinent,  Bhat was among the children who lay flat before the motorcade of the local feudatory who had come to extort the  exploitative “revenue share” from the local peasants. Because of a bad season, the peasants were unable to pay the “share” but the feudatory was insistent. The children of the village which included Bhat lay in front of the feudatory’s car and it was suggested to the feudatory that he either run over the children or accept the renegotiated share. The feudatory yielded.

Another incident which gives us some insight into the child Maqbool Bhat  which is in the nature of an incident reflecting the hierarchical nature of the then Kashmiri society. Bhat , being a precocious student, was  to  be awarded by his school authorities but the seating arrangement was such that the parents of affluent children were seated in the privileged section of the podium and those of poorer children were seated in the other section. Bhat rebelled against this over discriminatory treatment and refused to accept the award till this discriminatory arrangement was remedied.

These two incidents have been highlighted for illustrative purposed to accord an insight into Bhat’s personality and what was to become what Albert Camus called “existential rebelliousness”.  

The first incident may have inculcated fearlessness and an inclination to rebel against authority. Given the local feudatory was a figure of authority and lying before his motorcade would be naturally traumatic for an eight year old, this incident appears to have been a formative influence in Bhat’s rebelliousness and fearlessness. The second incident suggests a sensitive young lad who would not countenance indignity to his parents and thus a childish innocent propensity towards “ natural justice”.

These are not idle points. Psychologists and psychoanalysts attach great import to formative events and incidents in a person’s life and the “determinative” impact of these in conjunction with the personality type of a person. The inference that can be made from these formative incidents is that Bhat was a sensitive, rebellious child.

But this does not answer the question of Bhat’s morphing into an “existential rebel”.

A peep into Albert Camus’ classic, “The Rebel” may help us arrive at an answer to this question. Bhat from the perspective laid out by Camus appears be the classic “counter cultural man” in revolt. To quote Camus directly on the act of rebellion, the great writer asserts:

“Rebellion stems from a basic human rejection of normative justice. If human beings become disenchanted with contemporary applications of justice, they rebel. This rebellion is, the product of a basic contradiction between the human mind’s unceasing quest for clarification and the apparently meaningless or absurd nature of the world”.

Here we will tie “existential rebellion” with Camus’ with what the great sociologist Pierre Bourdieu calls “ habitus”- roughly the dialectical relationship between an individual and his contextual or structuring environment, something that an individual internalizes and becomes. 

Camus description  of the rebel and Bourdieu’s “ habitus” , in combination perhaps best describe Maqbool Bhat and his existential rebellion. Bhat , as we have seen, was a sensitive lad whose formative experience was that of rebellion and potential sacrifice against the local feudatory. This would have been both traumatic and formative. This was overlain by sensitivity and rebellion against existing social and political structures (so called normative justice)favouring the rich and the privileged. These incidents could be held to be the initial catalytic stimuli to Bhat’s later life which was defined by a structuring context (habitus) wherein Kashmir was defined by various but significant struggles of a political nature. In combination then and cumulatively, Bhat’s personality was indelibly defined by these and Bhat became what he became- the rebel and then an icon for some and a villain for others.

The question now, on the day of Maqbool Bhat’s hanging: can any lessons be drawn from Bhat’s life trajectory?

Yes. Obvious ones.

Bhat became iconic and an inspiration for Kashmir’s youth because of his rebellion against existing structures and his death. The lesson that can be drawn from this is to alter these extant structures in favour of more salubrious ones. Broken down this means instituting a conflict resolution paradigm in Kashmir that creates a new habitus wherein all stakeholders to the conflict over and in Kashmir are satisfied. That is, a paradigmatic shift must take place wherein the conflict is not merely managed or contained but resolved for good. This would call for political imagination and political will. Both, unfortunately, are conspicuous by their absence in the contemporary political condition that obtains , within and without. This, in the final analysis, is a travesty.

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