What Kashmir teaches about mutual mistrust

All this while that Kashmir stayed under a thick veil of information blackout, we have got different versions of normalcy returning to the Valley. It has been more than a month since the Government laid siege to the Valley and it seems the region has been frozen in time.

With no reliable information coming out of Kashmir due to the strict restrictions on the media, people haven’t a clue what to believe, instead just making do as they go about their lives. With many major political arrests and a clampdown on local Kashmiri journalists, there is no one left to speak for Kashmir. The only significant political voice from Kashmir that remains after the arrest of Shah Faesal would be that of political activist Shehla Rashid who has continued to raise concerns of human right violations amidst predictable brickbats and abuses. In a recent interview to Huffington Post she said that Indian Muslims had never spoken up for Kashmiris. This has absolutely been the case, until recently after the removal of the special status under Article 370.

Silence of Indian Muslims

Muslims in India have always been accused of displaying excessive bonhomie with their co-religionists all over the world but what they can’t be accused of is lending sufficient voice to the plight of those in Kashmir. The truth is, many Indian Muslims did not identify with the freedom struggle of the Kashmiris. Many have never tried to understand what their struggle is all about, and in fact have been quite wary of it, a perpetual reminder of the India-Pakistan partition, the after effects of which continue to linger, and which is still used as a means to take jibes at Indian Muslims.

So, it was understandable that they have decided to maintain a distance, since extending any kind of support to them would be considered akin to supporting Pakistan and earn them the label of ‘anti-national’. 

Now, events are taking place that give us a fair idea of what it means to live in an environment of uncertainty wherein one is demonised all the time. Staying silent is no longer an option, but the voices are few and Indian Muslims in influential positions continue to maintain their indifferent stance. Self-preservation is a far stronger instinct than the conscience.

According to the Kübler-Ross model, there are five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The Centre seems to be relying on the Kashmiris undergoing this very sequence, where they would pass through all these stages and finally fall into a state of acceptance and “integrate” with India.

Let me relate a story that underscores the Valley’s sense of alienation.

Sense of belonging

When I was in medical college, there was a girl in my class from Kupwara. During conversations, she would always refer to India in the third person as if India were a different country altogether and she belonged to a different one. I was aware that most Kashmiris didn’t think that Kashmir was a part of India but it stung me every time she would do that. Over the years I became close to her and coincidentally, during that time, my father who was in the Army got posted to Srinagar. When I was visiting my father in Kashmir, she invited me to her home. My parents baulked at the idea, but eventually gave in to my wish. She came to pick me up outside the cantonment gates. I wanted her to see my house but she vehemently refused to enter through the gate. I felt a little dejected by her lack of trust.

Yet, though I was supposed to spend just a day with her in Kupwara I ended up staying for a week. My parents were incessantly calling and asking me to come back but I was so enamoured by her village that Ii wanted to spend a few more days with her. On the seventh day, my parents landed in Kupwara to take me back with them. I looked at them, worry writ on their faces and realised that the mistrust was mutual. There was a checkpost right in front of her house and every time we went out, there was a heightened sense of being watched. In that one week of my stay there, I understood what oppression really means.

When I went out with her, I would drape a dupatta over my head. Once, when I asked her if I looked like a Kashmiri, she replied, “Sure, once you wipe off that expression of fear from your face you will.” Kashmiris who have been reeling under three decades of insurgency and braved all odds, know well that fear is not something they can afford to show.

Apart from the sheer injustice of the manner in which Article 370 was diluted and almost 8 million people were rendered voiceless, it is the apathy and indifference of a major section of India that is disconcerting. While people rejoice in the humiliation and subjugation of their own people, they are too short-sighted to see that the use of such brute force will only serve to alienate the Kashmiris even further and, what’s more, will only create fresh grounds for turmoil. According to the Kübler-Ross model, there are five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The Centre seems to be relying on the Kashmiris undergoing this very sequence, where they would pass through all these stages and finally fall into a state of acceptance and “integrate” with India. How long this may take and how long is long enough, nobody knows nor cares. The collective conscience of the country is in a state of suspended animation where people no longer think it’s necessary to question the government even for its most questionable actions.

As we sat on tenterhooks, unable to contact our relatives through the information blackout, we came across various unconfirmed reports of violence and forced disappearances, which only added to our paranoia. Recently, an IPS officer in Kerala, Kannan Gopinathan, resigned from service as a gesture of defiance against the curbing of fundamental rights of Kashmiris and the lack of response against it. In an interview he said, “If you ask me what were you doing when one of the world’s largest democracies announced a ban on an entire State, and even violated the fundamental rights of the people, I should at least be able to reply that I resigned my job.” When the restrictions are finally fully lifted, we as a nation must be able to tell our fellow Kashmiris that when they were gagged and confined and rendered voiceless, we never stopped raising our voices for them.