Kashmir — a view from Calcutta

I’ve never been to Kashmir, but one day soon i will. Kashmir, is a very special place for us in Calcutta, it evokes a sense of paradise and the pinnacle of romance, hence it is not surprising, that many couples, choose Kashmir as their honeymoon destination. Of course, the cinema of India, did much to establish this perception through its ridiculous romantic song & dance sequences centering around the house boats and meadows. Then of course the enumerable mention of Kashmir in books — fiction and non fiction, made it an inevitable part of my life . That is another Kashmir.

The other Kashmir which we know of is an unsolvable problem. A mass of humanity caught at the borders of dissection and paying a heavy price for the sins of their founding fathers & colonial masters. This Kashmir is written in blood. This Kashmir has necessitated wars, nuclear weapon proliferation, arms race, suspension of relations between India and Pakistan, etc. This Kashmir has been the icon of the anti centrist thought, has led to communal divisions within the country and continues to be a goose laying the golden egg for political parties, media and other vested interests in both the countries.

My friend was planning a trip to Kashmir for a long time. Finally after months of preparations he finally landed in Kashmir yesterday. Oh, i had almost forgotten about his trip. A few violent images on facebook on the agitation which has broken out in the valley due to the death of a young man — a terrorist to the Indian administration and by the size of the swelling crowd , a definite icon of resistance against the state, made me reach for the phone. My friend was buying some food in the market near the Dal lake. All seemed okay there, but he is of course planning to flee as quickly as possible. I felt bad for him and relieved of course at the same time. Anyways, i would possibly assign this as a part of travelling and sheer bad luck.

Southern Kashmir, however is in the midst of agitation, 20 lives lost, 200 people injured, from whatever information is forthcoming from official channels, however i suspect as usual that this is only sterilized news. But from the videos and reactions coming from unofficial sources, i would think that the situation is extremely grim and that the root of the problem has once again resurfaced and the consequences — both short & long term would be ab normalcy and extremely violent.

I wonder about several things. Why was this moment chosen to carry out this operation by the intelligence agency & how far is it motivated by the upcoming UP elections. Conversely was this young man, a victim of his own organizational politics, who obviously benefits from the killing, with the huge groundswell. The increasing specter of ISIS influence in India, would justifiably add to this speculation. There is the clear attempt by the usual social media army of the Hindu right wing & their Islamic counterpart, to add fuel to the fire, and escalate the conflict to the national audience thereby causing the necessary polarization in the vote bank. I really doubt if people running away from bullets and rampaging mob, have the time to compose and post facebook & twitter messages.

However in terms of the agitation, i suspect that much of the people’s angst is against the abysmal alliterative conditions, and they have found in killing of the young man an excuse and vent for that angst, against the authority. How much of it is about a Muslim identity & a separate nation really is something i seriously doubt. It is just that the narrative on media and the social media platform will obviously now get saturated by the Islamic angle, quite conveniently i must add. The cry of azadi may be metaphorical, azadi from this never ending problem, which is not of their making. In any case why should they be bothered about questions of nationality and nationhood, they are ordinary people who want to lead a normal happy life and the fact is that they are not getting what they want, is a just cause for them to revolt, anyone would. You don’t expect people on empty stomachs with leaking roofs and no jobs, with the fear of death hovering over them, sing praises for a nation, which allegedly, claims to be their ultimate destiny and thereby has to be held accountable for their problem, while the politicians and their elitist mates, drink champagne and travel around the world in jet planes, to allegedly solve this problem, buy some guns, crack some deals for their pals , etc, etc.

Of course now a mass of people grouped together as Indian Muslims, for the benefit of their master in politics, religion and media, will have to defend themselves — not that they really care. Anyways more on that some other day.

My friend, for example, stranded in Kashmir, is not at all amused and i doubt that he will start singing the national anthem and waiving the national flag at this moment. He will not. For him Brazil & Russia are far better places to spend his time and money than Kashmir. Call him anti national if you may, but that’s how i would feel.

I don’t have much time right now , so i’’ll say this to end.

To put it mildly you Bastards (and you know who you’re) — leave us alone !!