An Endless Journey Where the End is Worse Than the Beginning

Afshana confronts reality that comes to each generation as it becomes wiser and grows older

(Ms. Syeda Afshana, 34, was born in Srinagar. She attended the Vishwa Bharti High School in Rainawari, Srinagar, and the Government Women's College in Srinagar where she received a B.Sc. degree. She completed her Master's degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from the Kashmir University in 1999 and was the Gold Medallist (first position holder) in her graduating class. She is currently a Lecturer in the Media Education Research Centre (MERC) of the Kashmir University and pursuing her doctorate on the role of internet after 9/11.)

And we need to think about our future

The wind across
the vale raining blood,
the ash strewn
paths weeping,
the shimmering
lakes crying,
the cindering
chinars shivering,
the day never
rising over the horizon.
The sand drifting
like black snow,
stinging the hearts
and
blinding our faith,
burying the
live souls and
vacant houses.
In this stark whisper,
the rocks wear
our pain,
the rains feel
our pangs.
Lifeless life in slow motion
stands on the Sulaiman,
with its soul in the Dal
trying to
sing a song—
Walo Ha Baaghvaano……

Fire is on. Kashmir is still burning. The periodic spates of violence have consumed two more lives this Friday. The peaceful protests are devouring the deaths.

They say movements demand sacrifices. Revolutions are watered by blood. Freedom comes at a cost. A colossal price that entails hammering out anything. Rather everything.

Kashmir has a bank of death and destruction to put a wager on. At least, the saga of last two decades tells us so. The amount of gory mayhem is the certain cost that the hapless people of this land have paid and, continue to pay.

However, the question arises: How Long? The compassion or combatant fatigue, or for that matter, the collective burnout may not be the plausible causes to put the whole issue through the mill. But then, the viability and efficacy of a particular mode of résistance needs to be grilled.

Down the armed insurgency to peaceful marches, the scheme of things has not remained similar. The typology of minds and methods has undergone an alteration. Something that was inevitable, partly due to local situational factor(s) and partly because of changes on the international arena.

However, the uncontrollable digression and de-railing of the events at various points of history as also the fracturing of militant and separatist groups, resulting in the presentation of divided multiple voices, took a heavy toll of the image of résistance. As such, the credibility crisis troubled it badly, all through.

Having witnessed one of the most deadly and ruthless counter-insurgency machinery, which consumed some of our best assets and also sowed the seeds of perpetual mistrust and discord among the various voices, that were apparently longing to achieve the same goal for the people, the public sentiment, survived somehow, witnessing episodic highs and lows, inspite of the counter-insurgency getting institutionalized by now, by growth in men, materials and technology.

Because of all those who proved worst turncoats by criminalizing the situation, again by victimizing their own people, the guns in Kashmir never fell silent. Thus began a rising penchant for an alternative non-violent modus operandi.

Sandwiched between the guns of natives as well as aliens, the situation in Kashmir has touched flashpoint time and again. Usually it chills down quietly, and rarely does it simmer to a sweeping outburst. The recent commotion in vale has, conceivably, proven the same. However, the way it has been handled by the people at the helm has unfolded their dithering and dual approaches. One fails to comprehend the consistency and dependability of their individual and collective statements at different occasions. The need of 'realism' by highlighting the need of dialogue metamorphoses overnight into an antagonistic mood of "conditional talks". The 'flexibility' of owning the decision of people, whatever that may be, soon narrows back into a blind "wedding with a country" that has so often stabbed the trust of people over here.

The dichotomy is so vivid, even as the bickering is couched. In the backdrop of this politics of claptrap, ambiguity and flip-flop, Kashmir seems destined invariably for betrayals by the clinging classes of rigid interests. The nation sans heroes and leaders: the ones who can rise above their individual level, and have the capacity to be indigenous and independent in their thinking and vision. And, of course, those who possess the political acumen to foresee the swing of national moods that is quite characteristic of this place and historically proven.

Consequently, with these factors at the flipside, the course of action at any juncture requires to be planned critically and pragmatically. The whole population cannot afford shutting down their business of life every now and then. The protests that snatch the precious young blood of this nation cannot go unabated. The 'Chalo' strategy cannot linger on and on and on, when the State has the absolute power to trample it forcibly and ruthlessly without any remorse, and reprimand from any quarter.

A group of specified peoples can take on the separate programs. They can march towards places of importance; organize sit-in protests; and campaigns of lectures/ sensitization/ awareness within and without the vale. The intervention of the masses should be occasional to retain its sway and staying power.

Mass movements become success stories only when the stability of struggling minds, morals and means coincides with the set goals. We need to understand that this is a land-locked part of a third world, unlike any European country where economies are open and any public outcry is strongly able to carry a point due to enormous intrinsic support, especially material and media back up.

This is Kashmir. We are Kashmiris. Let's accommodate this truth in our struggle.