Although these minor fissures and protests are considered as necessary impetus to regulate the policy measures of state but nowhere in the world has been seen a stone holding hands clamour even for a dark filament to brighten to see the world.
|| JUNAID MALIK
The struggle for peaceful and dignified life has marked the history of Kashmir ever since ages but the present epoch has now reached to a stage which is in the hands of a generation knowing nothing but for a stone to find answers to their decades old question unanswered with more struggle to follow. this struggle has seen and experimented every tool but alas! the Newtonian reaction lands it to a pool of blood and graves. Kashmir is the only region in this sub continent which draws every policy from a single stone thrown by an alienated crowd of oppressed and dejected lot of bruised society.
Although these minor fissures and protests are considered as necessary impetus to regulate the policy measures of state but nowhere in the world has been seen a stone holding hands clamour even for a dark filament to brighten to see the world. Kashmir now has become such a place where everything is decided and decorated by none other the thing but a stone. You need food, pelt a stone; you need electricity to warm yourself throw a stone; you need healthcare fling the stone; you need education for your child, give him a stone; you need to prayer and you are barred, do nothing but shower the stones. even if you want to save your honour and live a peaceful life you have nothing more but for a stone.
This object once used to lay foundation of civilization has now become the foundation of a unjust and inhumane order of things in Kashmir Today the youth of Kashmir is not alienated and frustrated because of oppression and colonialist policies of ruling dispension only but it is a collective effect of things which has fed the present generation who have seen the first ray of world and heard the first sound under the shadow of cries despair and tears of their mothers. This aggrieved and hypnotised generation by extraneous factors is sure to be induced to any friction by a slightest twist of atmosphere in a colonised society. This alienated and frustated generation has been socialised and stratified in such a atmosphere in the last three decades which has lost the relevance of mutual trust at the hands of those who are at the helm of affairs.
Dejected by one and stabbed by other group this helpless youth move from earth to heaven to find peaceful and dignified existance. the crux of this problem is collective effect of million factors which has negated the growth of a fertile genetion. The hurried and politically vested decisions at the time of partition’ The afternaths of carrot and stick policy of India, the jugular vein theory of Pakistan, promises and counter breaches of words and that particular section of enlighted generation who always wanted a free and just society away from the clutches of colonial powers. The youth of Kashmir left no stone unturned but at the end of day they found nothing but a stone which is itself the embodiment of years of struggle and strife.
These stone holding hands are actually those fists who wanted to write a new history of Kashmir who are more enlighted more educated more emancipated and more rational to understand and actuate the things. But to the continuity of legacy they were crushed bruised tortured and tormented which subsequently snatched their hopes and aspirations. Today this alienated youth of Kashmir is drenched and fatigued by political social educational and psychological trauma who at the slightest turn of events gets readied to poune with his stone just like a soldier in war who showers his bullets even before he sees his enemy. this youth runs from piller to post to find the solace which is hard to find since each group basically is a goal oriented which is scripted somewhere else and executed on this gullible lot.
Kashmir now has become such a place where everything is decided and decorated by none other the thing but a stone. You need food, pelt a stone; you need electricity to warm yourself throw a stone; you need healthcare fling the stone; you need education for your child, give him a stone; you need to prayer and you are barred, do nothing but shower the stones. even if you want to save your honour and live a peaceful life you have nothing more but for a stone. This object once used to lay foundation of civilization has now become the foundation of a unjust and inhumane order of things in Kashmir
The same group identifies itself with the seperatist and with the mainstream depending upon the cannons from which it is fired to meet their ends but this nebula of common misery indoctrinated during years has only one thing in the hand at the end of the day: the stone. Now it has learnt over the decades that the solution of all their miseries lies with in this object which is easy to find in the streets of valley but hard to hit the target. The youth of kashmir is now identifying itself with this stone to allay all their fears and Apprehensions.
This gradual drift from the gun totting youth to stone holding hands is a result of multitude of factors which have failed during the torrents of kashmir struggle. these epochs and stratas of kashmir struggle has passed through different phases which finally culminated in to a stone age which has given these alienated youth a sort of platform away from the armed struggle. the sudden uprising of 2008 and 2010 is grim reminder of the fact as to how the movement has drifted from a armed struggle to civilian unrest. it is pertinent to mention here that the command of this uprising is now being held by the educated and awared youth of the valley who have been socialised and indoctrinated apart from the values of kashmir culture by the treacherous and colonial moorings.
This can be corroborated from the fact that more than 2100 approx.cases were registered on stone pelters mostly teens and those who are in the prime of their youth in the 2010 civilian uprising against state oppression and atrocities. Hundreds Of PSA cases are being registered on these volatile youth now and then which gives further impetus to the already boiling situation in kashmir.The humen right activists are raising their voice more particularly after some startling photographs went viral on social media sites wherein teen age boys were seen hanfcuffed in the court premises. This had further maligned the credibility of law enforcing agencies and their civic action programmes counselling these tender buds for a better cause. Many international and national NGO’s, human right organisations and civil right watch dogs are extreamly critical of this macabre situation in the valley which is destroying the ethical values of a human society.
All these factors of arrest and intimidation of youth, torture in police custody, application of draconian l aws o ver t een g roups a re giving birth to generation which in the coming times would know nothing short to pelt stones for every life issue and its tranmission to the coming generation. This fact has been corroborated with substantial studies and proofs by defence experts, think tanks and intellectuals like one herself prof. Radha Kumar who served as central government intraculator to engage with civil society after the 2010 mass approach of Pakistan and last but not the least archaic strike and strife daily dose approach of separatist camp has spoiled this generation with the weapon of stone. the alienation and apathy of this generation can be seen from the fact that this young brigade is now associating itself with those pseudo revolutions which has nothing to do with Kashmir cause like the waving of Isis flags over the towers sky scrapers and in the processions and funerals itself. a trend is being seen in the last two years on kashmir wherein t eens and young a re seen waving Isis flags in front of security personals. this alludes to the fact that uprising against state oppression who recently remarked categorically that india will loose Kashmir within a decade if the present situation persists in the coming times.
Today the youth of Kashmir is not alienated and frustrated because of oppression and colonialist policies of ruling dispension only but it is a collective effect of things which has fed the present generation who have seen the first ray of world and heard the first sound under the shadow of cries despair and tears of their mothers.
kumar had been to every nook and corner of the state after her appointment and her revelations are just a tip of ice berg even if we analyse the situation from the Indian prism. A paradigm shift has been analysed in the last few years that the seperatist tendencies have got sandwiched with the day to day issues of civil society of kashmir which collectively has put this militarised zone in to kind zoo where animals can roam and feed what they are fed in limited boundaries according to their masters. This rising lot of young Kashmir is in the doldrums of identity crises which catapults him to any stage where he is put in by the external factors. The resultant of all these issues is the outbreak of sangbaaz brigade; as they are called, on the streets of Kashmir in front of guns and cannons which is itself a red alarm to the wrong policies of state machinery.
These last three decades of oppression, uncertainty and melodrama has turned the gullible youth of Kashmir in to a molten lava which finds its fissures as and when the crest is broken by the fractured disciples of this alienated alcove. the extent of this mistrust and manipulation has reached to such a height that a single yell from a distant corner on social media sites invokes the inundated response from every nook and corner of the valley, the recent being the rumours of child deaths due to administration of few drops of medication and the war like situation seen on the streets of Kashmir alludes to t he fact that trust has lost relevance in Kashmir. this macabre situation has turned this alcove in to a land of mistrust and manipulation which once used to be the abode of saints and seat of learning. an alienated generation who has listened the first sound of life as that of fires and explosions is not sure to hold toys and flowers in his hand but a stone,a stone with which he is scripting the new history of Kashmir. the colonial policies of India, the jugular vein approach of Pakistan and last but not the least archaic strike and strife daily dose approach of separatist camp has spoiled this generation with the weapon of stone.
The alienation and apathy of this generation can be seen from the fact that this young brigade is now associating itself with those pseudo revolutions which has nothing to do with Kashmir cause like the waving of Isis flags over the towers sky scrapers and in the processions and funerals itself. a trend is being seen in the last two years on kashmir wherein teens a nd y oung are seen waving Isis flags in front of security personals. this alludes to the fact that though they may have no sympathy for Isis but they can associate with anything which gives sleepless nights to the security agencies. thanks to the role of media for projecting this vicious organisation as somewhat a protagonist for the Islamic world. This volatile and gullible generation is the resultant of all those factors which has bleed the streets of Kashmir and will keep on inundating its walls and streets till the blood merchants keep their enterprises going on the mounds and graves of Kashmir.
The movement which has passed through different epochs has finally given the most lethal weapon in culmination to this young brigade of Kashmir sangbaaz who is writing the new history of Kashmir by his blood.
Writer can be reached at: [email protected]
(Editor’s note: Views expressed by the author are his own, Kashmir Leader doesn’t subscribe to any of his views)
