Kashmiris Are Suffering
By
Gulam Jeelani
15 January, 2008
Countercurrents.org
I was born in Kashmir, the
paradise on Earth, as it is regularly described by poets and travellers,
at a time when violence was literally unheard of. But only few years
later, this region of the world underwent a fateful idiosyncrasy that
completely changed the lives of ordinary Kashmiris by one way or the
other. The once serene and lovely Kashmir Valley with its gorgeous
mountains and rivers soon turned out to be a Valley of Blood. Today
if three or four people give up the ghost in a day, it is well thought-out
as being normal. The paradise has certainly developed into a major
problem, over which two neighbouring countries have fought three wars
so far. One cannot find anything that has divided India and Pakistan
as the Kashmir issue has, and nobody has suffered in the process than
the people of Kashmir.
I cannot exactly remember that on how many occasions I witnessed silence
everywhere, shutters down and streets deserted. On way to the destination
we often have to bear the brunt of tense soldiers in charge of every
yard with battle gear. We are ordered to get off the vehicles at every
security post; methodically body searched and asked to produce our
I-cards. It is only after security forces are convinced of our innocence
and we are allowed to continue our journey. Everybody is looked upon
with suspicious eyes by the men in uniform.
Almost two decades have passed since the outbreak of the strife, the
state of affairs in the Valley continues to be bedevilling with fear
and violence. Now, an idea of a family unscathed by the mayhem seems
bizarre. For those who remember Kashmir’s fame days, the alteration
has been gut-wrenching. My grandmother habitually says, ‘touhi
wichuv dedvanay yoat’ (you people witnessed only violence).
Rightly so, I fit in to the youth of nineties-the trouble years. I
could summon up many occasions when there was crossfire between the
security forces and the militants and we were forced by our elders
to lie on the ground. Every so often we had to even run off our dwellings
for safer places in reaction to the rumours of a predicted crack down
next morning. During my school days, a hartal (strike) or two in a
week was a usual phenomenon.
The unending imbroglio has not only ruined the enchanting Vale economically
but, has turned it into a land of widows and orphans, it happens to
be home to countless orphans and widows. It seems that in a society
where violence rules the day, the tears have dried up and as if people
have lost the normal human feelings. People here have become reliable
with innumerable repercussions of the strife in the Valley every now
and then. A good number even travelled to safer places and are living
in self exile, giving way to the breakage of relationships.
As Agha Shahid Ali says:
“I am writing to you from your far-off country.
Far even from us who live here
Where you no longer are.
Everyone carries his address in his pocket
At least his body will reach home.”
The trouble has not left even a single sphere of life untouched. The
education system of the state has also been one of its casualties.
Today teaching is not less than a burden for the teachers; the students
have lost the curiosity for learning. Academics in the state are in
total fiasco and teachers are incapable to insist on their lessons.
In an atmosphere of panic and violence the social order has been near
to destruction. One can easily become aware of a ferocious atmosphere
existing in every nook and corner of the Valley. It is a place where
graveyards are a common site to watch and where an I-card is next
only to oxygen. I memorize whenever my father leaves for office in
the morning, my youngest brother would remind him whether he has taken
the identity card with him or not.
The queries that over and over again strike my brains are for how
long do Kahmiris have to suffer? What is the way out for the problem?
Who is the real representative of Kashmir? Unfortunately the answers
to these queries are shrouded in mystery. No body wants to comment.
No body dares to call a spade a spade. People in this part of the
world have become immune of witnessing the funerals of their kiths
and kins.
For India, Kashmir is perhaps an ‘integral part’ of the
country, the only Muslim majority state and thus the bedrock of its
democracy and secular preamble. For Pakistan it is not less than a
‘jugular vein’ and often supposed to be an unfinished
task at the time of partition. While asserting this way both the countries
have suffocated the Kashmiris in between. One wonders whenever any
consideration is given to Kashmir, it is only for the personal sake
of the two nuclear powers and certainly not because Kashmiris are
suffering. Every time when ‘Kashmir conflict’ comes for
discussion, the atmosphere of anticipation all of a sudden turns into
anguish and both the nations fail to reach a consensus over the issue.
It seems that both the nations want to clash to the last Kashmiri.
In Kashmir, India has been making the use of security personals principally
as means of perpetuating chauvinism and familial authoritarian force
which is on the contrary supposed to be employed for external defense.
They are in a way trying to force the populace to submit before the
military might.
Yet, despite all of this, we must carry on, firm in our optimism that
things must and will change. This optimism can be well envisaged in
the poem that Agha Shahid Ali dedicated to his Kashmiri Hindu friend
Suvir Kaul:
“We shall meet again in Srinagar,
By the gates of the villa of peace,
Our hands blossoming into fists,
Until the soldiers return the keys
And disappear. Again we’ll enter our lost world, the fist that
vanished.
In our absence from the broken city.”
Gulam Jeelani
M.A. Mass communication (p)
Department of Mass communication
AMU, Aligarh
email: [email protected]
