Why Kashmir needs help from India?

Kashmir is burning again. It is more than a month now since the present unrest started. Every day news of the dead keeps pouring in and it is the young who are perishing. Is there now a real concern that it is our future that is dying every day in Kashmir? Skillful commanders have manipulated the youth and their wild bloods to serve their ends. It is sad to see promising lives being wasted in the inhuman war of a territory and a people.

Though, many voices of grief, discontent and dissidence is being heard above the din of gunshots and stone throws but so far no sane voice of peace. Yes, many including our Prime Minister have requested the Kashmiri protesters to drop the stones and go home, but the Kashmiri's are no longer listening. Is it because the injustice by the stakeholders has crossed the tolerance levels? Or is it that some opportunist and inhuman elements from the valley are using this discontent to fuel yet another age of insurgency and strife?

I say both. The present-day Kashmiri politician have left a lot to desire. Most of them want to keep the fire burning in their own hearth. All the development has been pocketed by the elite. Religion is effectively used by them to mark friends and foes and hide their own corruption. Such is the ignorance that many have professed their support to Pakistan. Perhaps they are unaware of the rights violations in Baluchistan, NWFP and PoK.

Also, the paternalistic attitude of Indian state cannot be let off the hook. It has compromised the fragile constitutional balance repeatedly through the history. Successive regimes have acquired power through electoral malpractices. Though, this is reduced now. Kashmiri's are suspiciously regarded and stigmatized in the mainland. A regular psychological analysis will tell you that when you are rejected somewhere, you are likely to behave in a manner infuriating to that group. It is now time that Kashmiri's be integrated in our societies as other equal citizens.

This marginalization and the anti-development atmosphere in the valley appall the youth. They have become victims of this vicious cycle of stereotyping when they start acting in the ways as depicted by the mainstream Indian society. Since they have faced rejection from India, they find the joy of taunting India by taking up arms.

It is obvious that few stones will not break the back of one of the strongest armies in the world. It is also true that few thousands, whatever they do, cannot challenge the might of the Indian and Kashmiri elite. But it is also known that the gravest and most violent of rebellions start by a somewhat insignificant spark.

Why 'Burhan Wanis' and not the 'Athar Aamir Khans' or 'Shah Faesals' have no takers? Why 'Asiya Andrabis' not 'Dr Ruveda Salam' are known? "O, for the wind in the pine-wood trees, O for the flowery, scented breeze ! In far Gulmarg ! In far Gulmarg!.... And all the scented scents which rise To subtly haunt our memories,.... As o'er its velvet growth we pass In far Gulmarg! In far Gulmarg!"



Written by Rishya Dharmani
"Life is not a mystery, as they say, rather it is simplicity itself. Unlearn, fail and realize the true joy."