Jamaat-e-Islami’s return to politics: What it means for J&K elections

To understand the meaning and impact of Jamaat-e-Islami’s decision to field its candidates in the J&K Assembly elections, it is important to highlight the nature of the organisation and the intricate history of its role in Kashmir’s politics. Though initially part of Jamaat-e-Islami at the sub-continent level, it started operating as a distinct Kashmiri entity in the early 1950s.

From the beginning, it had serious ideological and political differences with the Sheikh Abdullah-led National Conference (NC). However, rather than competing with the NC at the political level, it confined itself to socio-religious and educational activities and set up schools all over the valley.
Jamaat joined the electoral fray for the first time in the 1970s on the encouragement of the Congress party, primarily to stall the possibility of Plebiscite Front (patronised by Sheikh Abdullah) joining the electoral politics. Hence, while the Plebiscite Front was banned during the 1972 Assembly election, Jamaat won five seats polling 7.2% votes.
However, as Sheikh Abdullah chose to return to power politics in Kashmir in 1975 following an accord with Indira Gandhi, Jamaat could not sustain its influence in the electoral arena. While it could merely win one seat during the 1977 Assembly election, it failed to win any seat in 1983. The NC controlled almost the whole electoral space of Kashmir at that time, mainly due to its anti-Congress and anti-Centre politics.
However, the situation changed in 1986 when NC entered into an alliance with Congress following the Rajeev Gandhi-Farooq Abdullah Accord. NC lost its political appeal and a political void was created in the anti-Congress and anti-Centre constituency created in Kashmir by the NC. Seeking to fill that void, Jamaat took the lead in organising a conglomeration of ideologically like-minded organisations namely, the Muslim United Front (MUF) to take on the NC-Congress alliance.
MUF, on the whole, created a lot of political hype in Kashmir during the 1987 assembly election and though it could poll around 31.8% votes (as against 45% of the NC), it could register its victory in only four Assembly seats. What made the result controversial was the NC’s narrow victories. In as many as 11 constituencies, the NC-Congress combine won the election by a very narrow margin and a simultaneous high percentage of rejected votes.
It was this electoral verdict which was to become the reason for political turbulence in Kashmir. With the allegation that the election was manipulated and rigged, the political environment of Kashmir was to undergo a major transformation. Jamaat thereafter was associated not only with separatist politics but also with armed militancy via Hizbul Mujahideen. When the All Party Hurriyat Conference was organised as a political face of militancy, the Jamaat was a key member of this organisation.
Though in the late 1990s, the Jamaat disassociated itself from the militancy it continued to be an active separatist organisation. Its political role thereafter remained linked with the ‘boycott politics’. Through the campaign for non-participation of Kashmiris during the varied Assembly and Parliamentary elections, this politics resulted in very low voter turnout in a large number of constituencies, especially in central and south Kashmir.
Though there are many theories about the reasons why this organisation (banned since 2019) shows its keenness to participate in the electoral process in 2024, it is difficult to know how far these are true. One can say one thing for sure: With the space for separatist politics totally undermined since 2019, democratic politics is the only political space available in Kashmir now.
It is only through this political space that any political organisation, however radical its past may have been, can seek its survival and future. The situation is unlike earlier when separatist/radical politics could resurrect and assert itself off and on. And that is the reason that not only the Jamaat, but many other former separatist and radical organisations and individuals are seeking to enter the electoral fray in Kashmir.
To speculate about the impact of Jamaat’s candidates (contesting even as Independents) on the electoral outcome, one needs to note that apart from NC, Jamaat is the only other cadre-based organisation in Kashmir that had its committed support base in Kashmir right since the 1950s. With its religion-oriented politics, it has represented a constituency in Kashmir, however small it may be, that is antithetical to the constituency represented by the National Conference. Even when it rejected electoral politics, it has been indirectly involved in mobilising its ideological constituency against the National Conference. PDP has been known to have the support of Jamaat during each election since 2002.
Apart from its traditional support base, what the Jamaat may be banking upon in the current assembly election is the ‘sentiment’ constituency made visible by the impressive victory of Engineer Rashid during the recently held parliamentary election. That the Jamaat has already entered into a ‘strategic alliance’ with Rashid’s Awami Itehad Party (AIP), gives us clear indications in that direction.
Rekha Chowdhary was formerly teaching Political Science, University of Jammu. The views expressed are personal