Sentiment versus irreversible reality tempers mood in Kashmir

un Joshi

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 2

An intense struggle is going on between the bruised emotions of Kashmiris and their gradual but reluctant acceptance of the post August 5 reality.

Kashmir is at the centre of these two confronting realities as it is striving to tame its angry emotions over the real situation, that there hardly is a way out to restore the regional autonomy and the limited sovereignty that Jammu and Kashmir as the state had, prior to the scrapping of the special status under Articles 35A and 370.

At a meeting of the stakeholders in a top, otherwise a deserted hotel, overlooking the Dal lake, last week, a pro-reality stakeholder was shouted down when he suggested that the new reality was there for all to see — those who exploited people for 72 years, brought about the tragedies of guns and bombs, leaving at least 42,000 dead. Pakistan that sponsored all this is isolated at the world stage.

He had to hear from many others in the meeting: “Have you sold your emotions.” They cast scorn on him as if he had committed some blasphemy against Kashmiri sentiment that seeks to speak for their religion, place, and the nationalism that had been at the roots of 30 years of the “movement” since late 1989.

There was a step back, and another suggestion was mooted that since the whole of Kashmir has suffered immensely, economically, let the government be asked to help out by waiving taxes and loans and interest on them.

There is an economic hurt. Hotels are locked down, fruit produce is bringing peanuts — the price of an apple box is far below the expenditure that the orchardists had spent in growing the fruits, leave aside profit, shopkeepers are in distress, and traders have nowhere to go.

This visible reflection pain of the people struck chord with others present there. “Let’s make a plea that the government should help us out because it’s their action that had caused this injury to the economy and the image of the place,” he said these words, and the mood at the meeting changed. It was a sudden transformation, as they hailed it as a perfect way of looking at things.

The emotion-peddling crowd, however, was worried that what face they would show to their own neighbours and fellow Kashmiris if they happened to re-open their shops and other establishments. It would be a betrayal to the cause — that the Centre imposed something that roiled our identity and cut us off from the world for two months. This trajectory has so many fault lines — didn’t we hear the cases where the dead lay in mortuary for days with their kin knowing next to nothing about their whereabouts, how can it be forgotten that the students, businessmen and others were arrested in a midnight crackdown.

They were pinned down by their own question, should they be seen compromising when everything is so painful. While there is an undeniable validity to these events that have become inseparable part of the unwritten history of the past two months, but when it came to suggesting an alternative, they have none.

Guns for the past 30 years brought disaster only and Kashmir is nowhere close to what it was in 1980s. Its future is not in the hands of Delhi alone. Kashmiris have a bigger stake and collective responsibility to see the logic as it exists today.

The experiment with guns, grenades and shutdowns for the past 30 years has not brought Kashmir anywhere close to “azadi”. That is past.

Second part, is that whom to look forward to — Pakistan was portrayed as a “friend,” and now that “friend” is “friendless” in the world. “We may like it or not, but that is the reality,” the thinking is growing among Kashmiris.