Today morning I sat on the dining table for my breakfast and
Jispa was reading the newspaper. One the page was this brilliant and lovely
photograph which won the MCC Wisden photo of the year award. This was shot in
the beautiful fall of Kashmir, and it captures the moment and its environment
so beautifully.
This is the magic of Kashmir, I told Jispa. Then I explained
the plight of the Kashmiri Pandit to her. Kashmiri is a place like no other. It
is extremely beautiful and magical. The valley has snow and autumn fall. The weather
in summer is lovely and the trees and lake all add to the magic that is like
something never seen before. It is no wonder that Pakistan and India fight to
retain this lovely piece of land. My personal suspicion when I have met people
from Kashmir, both Hindu and Muslim is that they always considered themselves
to be Kashmiri first and then accustomed to reality or religion as a state
identity moved to be an Indian or a Pakistani. I think our geography and
history strongly affects our culture and our sense of identity. Kashmir with
its unique geography and its isolation form the rest of the country before
modern rail and roadways meant that they tended to be different from the rest
of the country with its own uniquely different identity. They managed to carve
out a sub culture for themselves. The case in point being the Kashmiri Pandit. You
can recognize them anywhere thanks to their typical facial features and the of
course the Kashmiri nose. They were learned and educated. They prized education
and were keen to inculcate this in their young ones as well. They were in seats
of power in the Hindu Dogra kingdom that ruled Kashmir. They were amongst the few
Saraswat Brahmins to freely eat non-vegetarian food, as they ingrained
themselves with the local cuisine and culture. They are known to be foodies and
connoisseurs of non-vegetarian cuisine. Then the insurgency took ground in Kashmir
and terrorism and violence became an integral part of the Kashmiri life. Then
on one ill-fated day – 19th January 1990 when insurgency was at its
peak, the Kashmiri Pandits were asked to leave Kashmir immediately. They left in large droves leaving their
houses and their lives behind. I have spoken to so many of my Kashmiri friends
who where kids as they left. They speak about their wooden houses, two floors
high with wooden cabinets and beautiful rugs. They speak about the beautiful
chinar trees and the apple tree that they had in their plot of land on which they
lived. They speak about letting them all go as they left the valley to other
parts of India. Some of them left the houses on a ‘as is where is’ and the
others left it to their Muslim neighbors and friends. Some of hem were burnt,
the others forcibly occupied. These Pandits then ran away and many took refuge
in Jammu in camps where they were given bivouacs, where they thought it would
be temporarily before they could get back home. There was also a sudden mass
clandestine exodus under the watch of the controversial Governor Jagmohan. After
this exodus, no Pandit ever returned back to his home. The violence increased
and ebbed, but now the Pandits set up their home across the country and rebuilt
their lives. You have colonies in large cities like Delhi and Mumbai where you
will pockets of Kashmiris as they settled down.
Once you spend ten years or more outside rebuilding your
life, how can you go back? The government tried various incentives to get them
back and supposedly only one has returned. With it an important part of history
and culture was lost to Kashmir forever.
Now a new kind of violence in increasing in the valley. As
the youth get educated, they need jobs and income. There is none being created.
In Kashmir the land is fertile and plentiful. No one will die of hunger but people
will die of subjugation, propaganda and unfulfilled ambition. When I went there
the last time, around 12 years ago, the tourism industry had just started and
the people were recovering from the terrors aftermath. I realized it then, that
the people will now need industry and commerce to grow and live peaceful lives.
They need to be more connected to the rest and not so insulated. Right now, the
youth has picked up the ultimate weapon in its fight against the government.
Not the gun or the knife – but the humble stone. A gun can be fought with a
bullet and the person can be killed in response, brutally. But when the protestor
is an unarmed youth with nothing but a stone, then any act of retaliation by the
forces will be seen as excessive. The democratic foundation and moral high
ground of the country rests on its ability to treat its populace with care and
collective concern. Stone pelting is something that started the revolution in
Egypt and the Arab Spring. Here it is creating a problem unknown to the forces
who have historically dealt with the gun. With excessive media outreach, cell
phone camera and instant news, can a democratically elected government be seen
shooting at youth armed with a stone.
A new chapter is being written yesterday as I saw an image
that completely caught me. An image of young school girls throwing stones at the
armed forces.
Oh, my god. If young men pelting stones was bad enough, this
is the ultimate sign of revolt. You can still fight through and lathi charge a
gang with stones but can any government do anything with a bunch of school
girls throwing stones at the security forces. What moral right will the
government have in this case. What is its standing? This defiance cannot be quelled
by might but only by discussion, dialogue and what I really believe –
economics. Religion, freedom, beliefs, rebellion come from idle minds and poor
pockets. As long as ambition is given freedom, these can be managed within structures
without rise to violence. Trading nations don’t fight wars. Commerce abhors a
war. This the same reason why in spite of the vice seen on every street corner
in Bangkok, you will still find it relatively safe as a tourist. I walked around
the streets at night and I saw illicit bars and rampant prostitution, I was
solicited by every taxi guy but still I felt safe. It’s also one of the reasons
that people suggest when you talk about the low crime rate in Tokyo. There is a
debate – whether its effective street level policing or its the crime lords who
ensure petty crime is at bay and the citizens feel safe while they extract
money from the business. But if commerce is good to quell crime then it’s also
equally awesome for quelling insurgence. If the adage that no war can be won on
an empty stomach is true then the corollary is that no insurgence can be sustained
in the land of plenty.
The politics of insurgence is wonderfully understood by
those fueling it in Kashmir. They successfully got the youth involved in
pelting stones and now this. Now we wait for the Indian government to revert. The
army in the middle did something weird. They were in a situation where they had
to go in and get their people who were stuck in a mob that was pelting stones.
They did something quite innovative. They got one of the pelters and tied him
to the front of the jeep as a human shield.
Yes. The tactic seemed to have
worked. You got out of the situation without firing a single shot, no one was
harmed and the day was saved. But this is not war, this is a fight over ideologue
over your own people. Can you do that with your own populace? Can the
government so brazenly kidnap its own citizen and use him as a shield. That too
a person picked up from the street without a trial. It’s not about what’s right
or wrong at the time. It’s about how these instances can be used to fuel
further hatred and the feeling of them versus us. In the battle of ideologue,
PR is extremely important. You may have quelled the situation but you gave rise
to a few more revolutionaries, a few more girls who were emboldened to throw
stones. What are the long term
implications of your actions?
In the backdrop of this, look at the lovely picture of a the youth of Kashmir playing cricket, again. It suddenly has so much more meaning.
