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Grasping The Current Mood Of The Kashmiri youth

By Aijaz Nazir

25 June, 2013
Countercurrents.org

As Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is in Srinagar , in what could be his last visit as the Prime Minister to the Valley, the youth of Kashmir is looking at him with an even greater sense of expectation than ever before. Standing at the cusp of critical times ahead for the state, what is the current mood of the Valley’s youth? In its view, what are the challenges that Kashmir is facing? What is its view on the separatist leadership? A random online survey carried out among the college and university going youth of Kashmir has given some pointers in this regard.

The findings of the survey were based on responses by 104 males between the age group 15-35 from all the 10 districts of Valley to an online questionnaire. The majority of the responses were from Srinagar (40), followed by Baramulla (25) and Anantnag (13) districts.

While this survey is not representative, it does give a criterion to gauge the mood of the Kashmiri youth on current scenario.

The recent elections in Pakistan and the return of the “Lion of Punjab”, Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League (N) as the Prime Minister has fuelled hopes in the Indian civil society that both India and Pakistan can take definite forward steps for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. However, when asked about their view on impact of Sharif’s victory on Kashmir, more than half of the surveyed youth (59%) were unsure of what it meant for the region. This is significant because many of those surveyed have witnessed the Kargil conflict and the specter of the India-Pakistan war in 1999 which followed then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s historic bus diplomacy with Sharif, during the latter’s second tenure as Pakistani Prime Minister.

The Valley is still simmering, most of it “under the surface” (as Chief Minister Omar Abdullah termed), after the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. But even as Omar sought to put the blame on the central government for poor handling of Guru’s execution, the local youth holds the state government squarely responsible for this with more than half of the surveyed youth (55%) saying that the situation was handled unsatisfactorily by the state government. Pertinently, not only the local population but many in the civil society outside Kashmir Valley had strongly criticised the curbs on newspaper circulation, shutting down of internet services and restrictions on people’s movement which were put post-Guru’s hanging.

Ironically, while the state government may have wanted to maintain law and order by stifling people’s voice, especially of the youth by these restrictions, it ended up further enraging the Kashmiris who were provoked not only by Guru’s hanging but also dismayed by the general lack of economic opportunities, corruption and other such issues. In this context, a many of the surveyed youth (25%) said that unemployment was the single-most serious problem being faced by Kashmir today, followed by corruption (24%), lack of basic infrastructure (16%) and militancy (8%). However, even more interesting were the responses the survey threw in the other category (20%) out of which a majority (58%) chose to mention the “illegal Indian occupation” as the problem while one respondent mentioned “Hurriyat as the problem”. More importantly, many of the respondents chose to express their views here. Some of the unique strands of thoughts mentioned by these respondents were that Kashmiri youth needs proper counseling, Kashmir should have freedom to live as other parts of India have and that the basic issues for Kashmiris are political instability and lack of trust in the governmental machinery. One argument among all these responses that stood out for this author was that Kashmiris wanted peace and were happy with India but the “Army’s involvement in various human rights violations had contributed to an increase in hatred towards India.”

The Valley youth seem to be divided as to whether the separatists led by Hurriyat Conference should urgently hold negotiations with the Indian Government for resolving Kashmir issue. While a majority (49%) of the surveyed youth said “yes” to this proposition, 40% of them said “No” and 11% chose to ignore.

Political situation of the valley has created a confusion among the youth. Conflict has not only created a violent situation but also pushing some of the educated youth into militancy.

Altaf Bashir student of International Relation at Islamic University of Science and Technology Awantipore, feels that while threat perceptions are paramount for any security agency, youth should be given an opportunity to freely interact with the Prime Minister rather than putting curbs on the local’s movement and jamming mobile phones.

Sense of alienation from India is deep rooted among the young generation of the Valley while the protests of 2008 and 2010 may be a distant history for the policy makers they are still a fresh memory for the youth.

Waheed Ur Rehman Para who studied conflict transformation in SIT Graduate Institute and worked with Kashmir Committee noted Guru’s execution has resulted in increasing alienation among youth. He adds that this alienation should be countered by CBM of release of Kashmiris lodged in various jails in the state.

Looking forward to Prime Minister’s visit Waheed says, “PM can at least assure fair elections which will help to resolve a lot of issues for youth and enhance the credibility of democratic institution in the state.”

Aijaz Nazir is a freelance journalist from Kashmir. He is a frequent contributor to various websites, covering current issues of J&K, focusing on social and political nuances. He can be contacted at [email protected]. He acknowledges the help of Sameer Patil who co-conceptualised the survey and analysed the data. Full findings of the survey are available at http://aijaznazir112.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/survey


 

 




 

 


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