[Reader-list] Kashmir's lost generation is talking Gandhigiri this time

[Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्]

Young Guns Blazing

Kashmir's lost generation is talking Gandhigiri this time

30 Aug, 2008, 0000 hrs IST,
Gaurav Pai, ET Bureau
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/The_Big_Story/Kashmirs_lost_generation_is_talking_Gandhigiri_this_time/articleshow/msid-3423437,curpg-3.cms


As they march through the scorching sun with banners in their hands
and angry demands on their lips, one wonders if there are any
differences at all with their counterparts in the rest of the country.
But don't let their tender, newly-grown facial hair or the shoulders
that are yet to broaden with travails of age, fool you. These are not
some protests for a roll back of reservations in colleges or even a
movement against climate change. These kids are asking for not just a
new social order - but a brand new country.


Whether their aspirations will be eventually fulfiled or not is
another story. But it's a whole new generation of Kashmiris -
youngsters born in the initial years of insurgence in the late 80s and
early 90s, who is leading the protests in the valley this summer.
Cries by twenty-somethings for freedom from the Indian union are not
new, but youngsters denouncing arms and taking the peaceful route in
such large numbers is unprecedented here.
It's been more than fifteen years since such large-scale street
demonstrations erupted in the valley. The latest provocation may have
been the controversy over a small piece of land used by pilgrims
during the Amarnath Yatra and the subsequent economic blockade
engineered by certain Jammuites. But as most academics here will tell
you, scratch the surface and one will find wounds that run deep.
India Yes, but India No


Mohd Sami, a 19 year old Arts student, exemplifies this class of
restless Kashmiris, who say that it's the first time they have taken
to the streets in protest. As we chat over the course of the night in
a houseboat that his family owns, Sami almost delivers a crash course
in history. "Kashmir has never been a true and full constituent of
India ever in history, other than perhaps during a couple of centuries
in the Mughal era," he says stuffing a cigarette into an ashtray, only
to light another. "Why keep this facade of one country running
forever?" he asks.
It's not that he is anti-India on purpose. Trivia about new Bollywood
flicks is on his fingertips as he narrates how the unit of Singh is
Kinng took more than a month to shoot a song due to difficult weather
on location. Then there's cricket, that I realised during the course
of my stay, is one sure thing that connects mainland India with
Kashmir. Sami tells me that he tries to catch a cricket match on
television whenever possible, and evidently supports India when its
team is playing.


Sami studies political science at SP College, located in Srinagar's
famous uptown area Lal Chowk. It boasts of Sheikh Abdullah, Mufti
Sayeed and Karan Singh as its alumni.



Ready to go the distance
Like teenagers elsewhere in the country, these protestors too harbour
ambitions to make it big in their careers. Take for instance Mirza
Taha, 21, whom I met during a college students' protest that began at
8 AM in the morning at Amar Singh College situated in South Srinagar.
With his left arm around my neck, Mirza opens his wallet to show me
his NCC identity card, an organisation considered as the junior Indian
armed forces in the valley. Next, he tells me how he is preparing for
the IAS exams, as he wants to serve the society. "I too want to
prosper in my career," he says, clad in blue jeans and a casual red
T-shirt.


But the incidents over the past few weeks have made him rethink his
career plan. "I can sacrifice my career for the people but not people
for my career," he says, with a sincerity that is hard to miss. "We
are not against the people of India, but certain political forces
there are out to instigate us by wrecking our economy and creating
divisions between our people. But we will not be intimidated or
lulled," he emphatically declares.


We stop for a few minutes for a water break near a tap on the way.
Mirza points towards the thousands of kids on the streets who while
sporting different uniforms, seem to know their way without any formal
leader for the procession. "Can you show me one person who is carrying
a gun or a pistol in his hands?" he asks. I look into the crowd and
only find hands with banners and an occasional bandana.



Their experiments with Gandhigiri
"9/11 and subsequent events have showed that manifestation of anger
through violence seldom yields results," says Dr Sheikh Shaukat
Hussain, professor of Law at Kashmir University, and a renowned
Kashmir expert. "Besides people seem to have learned their lessons
from the 90s when youngsters took to guns, but only ended paying with
their lives," he adds. But he warns that if the Indian state fails to
redress people's grievances from hereon, there is no reason why
protestors will not take up the violent route again. Besides another
key reason why the protests have remained non-violent is because the
country that perhaps armed young men in the 90s, is itself facing much
bigger issues.



Tolerance in danger?
In 1947, Mahatma Gandhi had seen in Kashmir "a ray of hope in the
darkness", as communal harmony held against the tide of carnage that
had gripped the rest of the country. But walk anywhere in the state
today - in the valley or in Jammu - fingers are being commonly raised
against the people of the opposite faith. Jammuites complain that the
Holy Amarnath shrine land was taken away from them by Kashmiris. The
latter complain that Jammuites have blocked the vital Jammu-Srinagar
highway obstructing the passage of medicines into the valley and the
key produce of Kashmiris - their fruit - outside the state.



"The Pandit's exile from the valley (in the 90s) has exacerbated and
complicated the deep historical tensions between Jammu and Kashmir
that underlie the present détente," writes Ananya Jahanara Kabir, a
senior lecturer at the University of Leeds and the author of Territory
of Desire: Representing the Valley of Kashmir, in a column for a
newspaper. She feels that consequently new generations grew up "bereft
of a composite demography."



It's the economy stupid!
Stories of abuse in the hands of the security forces have become
commonplace in Kashmir. Whenever I introduced myself to any of the ten
lakh people gathered in the Eidgah protests last week, I was bombarded
with stories of how human rights abuses are rampant in the state.
Mustafa Hassan, 20, spoke of how his uncle was shot mercilessly a few
years back, Syed Iqbal, 25, narrated how he is denied a passport
because one of his distant relatives was declared a terrorist 10 years
ago.


"Successive governments have issued conflicting statements on human
rights abuses in the state and have always tried to sweep the real
issues under the carpet," says Mir Hafizullah, the advocate and legal
advisor to Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP).


Unemployment too may be rampant among graduates, but most Kashmir
watchers say it would be simplistic to attribute the protests to this
fact.


"Kashmir, that was once the manufacturer and producer for the world
through the silk route, has today has become a helpless consumer
economy," says the editor of a local newspaper, who requested that he
not be quoted citing fears of government prosecution.



The Pursuit of Happiness
Dr Hussain of Kashmir University says that Indian civil society has to
pressurise the government to take some remedial steps in this
direction immediately. One way he suggests is by allowing Kashmiris to
trade openly with other countries in the region - opening up the
Muzaffarabad highway could be the first step. Kashmir should be able
to leverage its legendary farm produce, handicrafts and power
generation abilities (due to the abundant rivers in the region) to
change the lives of common people, he feels.


Another common suggestion from most people I spoke to was that the
government could unveil a package for relief of political prisoners
and strip the security forces of some of their sweeping powers. But
what touched me most was when Irfan Latif, a 18 year old sardonically
remarked as to how India says Kashmir is its integral part, but never
treats its people like one. "Trust Kashmiris," he says with an
innocent smile on his face.


As I accompanied him through his march, which by now had reached the
sardine like lanes of Old Srinagar City, the afternoon sun made me
frantically search for a shade where I could take some rest. I coyly
asked Irfan, what time of the day would he and his countrymen halt the
protests. Pat came the reply - Ab to tabhi ghar jayenge, jab hamein
azadi milegi.