STATECRAFT
HAPPYMON JACOB
It is widely believed that the new generation in Kashmir and its views on the Kashmir conflict will be decisive in how the conflict is defined and shaped in the years to come; but this fact is hardly ever clearly understood. To me, this is the primary point of analysis and investigation in my ongoing visit to the troubled valley. Interactions during my occasional visitsto the valley or following social network debates are certainly not sufficient in understanding the Kashmiri youth’s views on the present and future of the conflict. But then being based in a New Delhi-based university, all I can do is so much. In the following paragraphs I paraphrase some of the views that I gathered from my many interactions with the Kashmiri youngsters. One caveat: as is to be expected from any politically charged region, there are differing views on any given issue, and so clubbing them is for purely analytical purposes.
Increasing trust deficit
I have known Kashmir for the last two decades and, at least to my mind, the trust deficit that exists in Kashmir is on a constant increase. One university student narrated how the university authorities keep a watch on the students when they engage in political debates and discussions within the confines of the university campus. Many non-Kashmiris may not know that that political activism is not allowed on university campuses in the Kashmir valley. How can the government hope to produce thinkers and analysts out of its university campuses if it does not allow political activism and debates in its universities? New Delhi keeps announcing new economic packages and political initiatives to bridge the psychological gulf that exists between itself and Kashmir, but hardly anyone I met seems to trust those promises, not anymore.
Resistance is personal, and ethical
There is a strong belief in contemporary Kashmir that it is unethical not to resist the injustice that is being done to the Kashmiris. People have different ways if responding to injustice; some are more vocal about it than others. But it would be unethical to not to respond to it one way or another, the argument goes. Life may go on as normal on Kashmir’s streets and people may seem happy too, but scratch that ‘normalised’ surface and you will see the rush of disgruntlement and anger coming straight at you. This personal and ethical act of resistance may assume religious forms, infuse violent outbursts, legitimize stone-pelting or simply continue to grow in the depth of their hearts only to find some form of expression one day.
Increasing trust deficit
I have known Kashmir for the last two decades and, at least to my mind, the trust deficit that exists in Kashmir is on a constant increase. One university student narrated how the university authorities keep a watch on the students when they engage in political debates and discussions within the confines of the university campus. Many non-Kashmiris may not know that that political activism is not allowed on university campuses in the Kashmir valley. How can the government hope to produce thinkers and analysts out of its university campuses if it does not allow political activism and debates in its universities? New Delhi keeps announcing new economic packages and political initiatives to bridge the psychological gulf that exists between itself and Kashmir, but hardly anyone I met seems to trust those promises, not anymore.
Resistance is personal, and ethical
There is a strong belief in contemporary Kashmir that it is unethical not to resist the injustice that is being done to the Kashmiris. People have different ways if responding to injustice; some are more vocal about it than others. But it would be unethical to not to respond to it one way or another, the argument goes. Life may go on as normal on Kashmir’s streets and people may seem happy too, but scratch that ‘normalised’ surface and you will see the rush of disgruntlement and anger coming straight at you. This personal and ethical act of resistance may assume religious forms, infuse violent outbursts, legitimize stone-pelting or simply continue to grow in the depth of their hearts only to find some form of expression one day.
This enormous and ever-increasing reservoir of discontent, anger and rage that is constantly filling up will one day surely spill out on the streets of Kashmir as it happened more than once in the recent past, contrary to the belief in New Delhi that since there was protest in the last three years, there will be none in the years to come. Indeed, the more injustice and the various perceptions of it prolong, the more time and efforts it will take to assuage those perceptions and feelings.
Chocked political space
The worst sufferer in present day Kashmir is the legitimate political space available to young Kashmiris for political expression. The chocking of political space in Kashmir is evident in a number of ways. At one level it is a direct result of the state’s own activities such as shutting down the social media outlets and cellular services at the slightest miff of trouble in the valley. At another level, this is due to the constraints imposed on all kinds of progressive politics in the valley. This is also seen in the manner in which the Kashmiri media is put under a variety of constraints. But more importantly, this is also done by the mainstream political parties when they appropriate the political arguments of resistance without really being sincere to its basic premises and long-term implications. Differently put, while on the one hand the state actively takes away their right to resist, the pro-state political parties are depriving the youngsters of their politics of resistance that dilutes the purity and sincerity of the politics of resistance itself. Is it not unjust, they ask, for their right to resist to be taken away in such a systematic manner?
Implications of militarization
For most Kashmiris, what the Indian armed forces do in Kashmir represent what India is all about. Hailing from where I am, I have different notions of India but I do not fault the young Kashmir for thinking about the way he/she does about India for the India they see is an ugly one. Not only do many of them feel physically insecure by the presence of the security forces in every nook and corner of their daily living space, but are also reminded, every day, of their own sheer helplessness. Women feel irritated by the harassing gaze of the security personnel and feel that their modesty is outraged by the might of the state. It is not just their land, they argue, is occupied by New Delhi’s armed forces but also their privacy, daily livesand political imaginations. As a number of young Kashmiris put it so bluntly the Kashmiri youth will not learn to speak the language of political reconciliation with India if their land continues to be occupied by the Indian armed forces. To make matters worse, when their own elected Chief Minister himself is unable to reduce the military presence from Kashmir’s streets, in spite of him wanting/attempting to sincerely do so, the Kashmiri’s sense of being occupied increases manifold.
(Source: Greater Kashmir, May 26, 2013. URL: http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2013/May/26/the-young-political-kashmiri-6.asp)
