Kashmir- A Fools Paradise
By Shah Faisal
02 July,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Misunderstood by all,laughed at by many and pitied by many more,we are a hilarious world,nonetheless. It is mid-summer, weather is pleasant and Kashmir is on roads to protest against the land transfer to a religious organisation,and everyone seems to be really distracted and awe-struck by our on-street etiquette. Some steal the glimpses of a Palestinian Intifada from our mob behaviour and some have mistaken it as a malignant change in the benign voices of separatism ever present in the Kashmiri society. Some think that north-west winds were excessively saturated with the stench of religious extremism this time,and some smell the foul-air arising from the local hate-springs of valley. But the real truth about Kashmir is as sweet as a lie. Kashmir may not be as mysteriously deceptive as aurora borealis,but Kashmiris surely deserve all lime-light for arranging such a busy theatre beside the Himalyas. We are neither communal nor vicious and destructive. Do not take us seriously as we are just being funny.
It was
a season of mischief and staying idle would have surely threatened
our popularity. The ageing tulips in Shireen Bagh had ceased to invite
us now,and Kashmiris were desperate in search of fresh obsessions.
Musical evenings of Kashmir Haat had also begun to repel us with over-tones
of monotony,and the crowd needed another destination to invest it's
leisure and energy in. Non-local labourers stood already petrified
and it would have been unwise perhaps to engage in chasing them away,knowing
how recent was the last warning given to them. The Dal waters were
yet to overcome the stir left by strokes of Junoon band,when whole
Kashmir had gathered on its banks,as if the sufi musicians had charmed
us with a magical flute. The educated youth had their eyes on the
mammoth recruitment drive started by the government while as the uneducated
ones were eyeing alternative preoccupations. Tourist spots were bursting
at seems and lavish weddings were making us fatter and less coarse.
Temples furnished with festivity and mosques packed with peace. Kashmir
was at its comical best and suddenly the theme changed to tragedy,change
of costumes not
allowed though.
Next moment the infants shun their mothers laps,toddlers take to streets,lame people run,and everyone seems to have found back the lost stone of national identity,only to pelt it at the faceless enemy.
Politicians provoke the crowd. Separatists encourage it. Police dares it and the media pacifies it. Religion provided such a fuel that our blood kept boiling for nine consecutive days. And when the furnace ran out of fuel,we were surprised to find that threat to demographics of Kashmir had just been a hoax. It finished with crackers,although no one know who had won and who were defeated. The penchant for stone-pelting will be forgotten for a while again,now. But come elections,and the same crowd will shift its loyalities,invent new slogans for political rallies and finally pay obeisance to ballot boxes and voting machines,in traditional Kashmiri style. At the end we end up being clowns,who stand for no cause by standing for every cause.
Politicians play us like puppets though we claim to be actors par excellence. But this time it might not really work for us. Unknowingly we have fiddled with fragile threads of peace and religious tolerance in Kashmir,threads that make us likeable. The results are out and our audience,the world, is calling us communal once again. Our irrational impulsiveness is being mocked at and the world might even take a serious offense,this time. Sooner or later,Kashmiris will have to learn being hopefully humorous without being mockingly poignant,something that the residents of a paradise are supposedly popular for.
Shah Faisal
Freelance columnist
Hyderpora ,Srinagar.
[email protected]
