South Kashmir hears echo from Dadri killing to Bharat Mata ki Jai

That experiment is being tested by political controversies outside Kashmir.

Time was when Kashmiri Muslims thought of themselves as separate from the Indian Muslim, above the fray of debates that roiled the rest of the nation — be it Mandal or Mandir. That distance has shrunk. Today’s bruising debates over identity, religion, and diet, they say, play out on every mobile phone in Kashmir as they do in the rest of the country, the fault lines these engender cut too close to the Kashmiri’s own political struggle of identity and nationalism.

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With the PDP-BJP alliance, these issues have come home, touched Kashmiri lives dramatically: whether it is the Tricolour at the NIT, the Bharat Mata ki Jai campaign across the nation, or the killing in Dadri of a father (wrongly) suspected to have eaten beef. Or the hanging of Afzal Guru and the crackdown in JNU on those who questioned it.

Many young people cite incidents in which Kashmiri students are beaten up across campuses in the country to argue that the Centre pays no attention to those but gives a quick hearing to NIT Srinagar’s “non-local” students that they feel “insecure” in the Valley.

“The reality is we are getting beaten up everyday outside the Valley, and we are getting beaten up here also,” says one student in Pulwama.

The new generation in the Valley, like their companions everywhere else, get their get their news from messages on Whatsapp and other social media.

“We are very connected, and we get to know everything that’s happening in India,” said a student in a college in Anant Nag, “and when we see what’s happening here, our passion for azadi increases”.

The most representative question among the young men and women The Indian Express met is: if I fly the Tricolour over my house, will India accept me as an equal citizen? And they have the answer to that too: “No, because for Indians, most of us Kashmiris are terrorists”.

“When a truckdriver from Kashmir was burnt alive in Udhampur in the name of beef, no one asked why he needed to be killed,” said a teacher in the Anant Nag college. Emphasising how connected young people are now, the teacher said “each and every Kashmiri wants to be treated with dignity and at par with the rest of India.”

But, he said, that is not what they are getting. “Had there been a single Kashmiri in that video from JNU,” he said, referring to the Kanhaiya Kumar episode at Jawaharlal Nehru University, “that person would have been tortured by now in ways you can’t imagine”.

Super connected on social media, Kashmiri youth have multiple and unexpected reference points to assess their own situation.

“Entire India protested against the Nirbhaya rape, we also held demonstrations here, but when it happens to Asiya-Nilofer in Shopian (in 2009) people in India don’t care,” said another student in a private coaching class in Pulwama.

Through social media, too, are transmitted photographs or videos of slain militants, their funerals. The J&K police and Army believe this is fuelling the unrest and are desperately looking for some way to prevent it.

“At checkpoints, they are now looking through the memory card on my phone. Why shouldn’t I carry photos of my shaheed brother in my phone? What kind of freedom is this?” asks a 22-year-old student of sociology in Pulwama.

“When the Army does an encounter, they come in hundreds for one militant hiding in a house. Then they destroy that house. They use heavy shells and mortars. They destroy our property without pausing to think how we are going to rebuild that house, where will we live,” said a girl student in Anant Nag.

The Kupwara incident, in which five people were killed last week after the rumoured molestation of a girl, is the new resentment.

“Outside Kashmir, they use water cannons to disperse protestors. Why don’t they use them here? Only in J&K, they use bullets to stop protests. Why the difference towards Kashmiri youth? In short, we are not safe in our own land. India says we are part of India, but does not treat us a part of India. India wants our land, not the people”, said one Pulwama student, describing himself as a minor, when asked for his age.

Chief Minister and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti was quick to react to the Kupwara killings. She visited Kupwara, met with the families of those who had been killed, promised them compensation and justice, even though she did not go to their homes but saw them at the dak bungalow.

Her response has won some appreciation in the Valley and has been compared favourably against the manner in which former chief Minister Omar Abdullah made the first reach out to the families of the children who had died in the 2010 agitation three months after the first deaths.

But in PDP’s own south Kashmir stronghold, the party is under strident attack. The reason: its coalition with the BJP.

Underlying the rage in south Kashmir is what young voices across its four districts describe as a “betrayal” by the PDP.

Of the 16 Assembly constituencies in south Kashmir, the PDP won 11 in the 2014 election. Young people turned out in high numbers to vote for the party.

“The PDP told us, vote for us, we are the only party that can keep the BJP out of the Valley,” said a Tral advocate. He said the “U-turn” by the PDP after the elections had shocked those who had voted for PDP.

“We worked for the PDP, we canvassed for them. Then look what happened. They tied up with the enemy just for the sake of power,” said a teacher in Tral.

“Ok, now they are in power at least they could have repaired the roads. They said they will bring money for development by making this alliance with the BJP. But BJP at the Centre did not give money even for flood relief. So what’s the point voting?” asked a student at the Pulwama skills development institute.

A first year student Arts student in Anant Nag says there is so much corruption in government that there is little hope of qualified people who do not wish to give bribes ever getting jobs. He went on to describe how his brother, a Ph.D, was given the run around by an elected official who finally asked him if he could stump up Rs 1 lakh.

But, says a teacher in Tral, “don’t blur the lines between our grievances and our aspiration. Aspiration is azadi. Grievances are like Centre does not hand over power projects in Kashmir to the State government. Our development needs and separatism are two different things. We vote for development, but azadi will not come without talking with Pakistan”.

A Srinagar police official said there was “a feeling of betrayal, confusion and not knowing where to go now” among the youth in Kashmir, especially in the PDP’s stronghold.

PDP political workers and politicians were not active on the ground, afraid to face voters, the police official said. “There is a political vacuum in south Kashmir. It has left a space that is wide open that is available for anyone to fill. PDP workers are too weak, and other parties are not interested because they have never had a base here.”

The police claim they are showing restraint despite grave provocation, including the time when a police vehicle was set on fire. But an official asks: “How long can we keep dispersing such massive crowds (at the encounter sites and protests) peacefully? This is ultimately a political problem, and it has to be resolved only by politicians.”

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