The principle would be the same if it were applied to any other part of India, whether Bengal or Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra. As India modernizes and integrates more, there are anxieties about cultural identity everywhere. In fact, these anxieties have been playing out right since There has been violence and bloodshed as well. But it is only in Kashmir that the violence has been on such a scale, and sustained for so long.
There are three reasons for this. The first is Pakistan, of course. The second is Article , which allowed Jammu and Kashmir to remain an apartheid state right until This puts them almost seventy years behind the rest of the country. The third reason is that the sense of cultural identity in Kashmir, or Kashmiriyat , has been distorted by Islamism.
Of course not. Not even a terrorist would be foolish enough to believe that. The problem is that the so-called Kashmiriyat has been hijacked by Islamism. The problem is further complicated by the now structural alliance between liberalism and Islamism all over the world.
As the West gets ready for a reckoning against systemic racism, the issue in Kashmir is projected before the world as one of self-determination. Fifty years ago, southern politicians in the US pushing for racist segregation laws would have welcomed this approach. Another hundred years before that, American states which wanted to keep slavery would have welcomed it too.
Quite perversely, therefore, it is often the liberal media that takes the lead in framing the Kashmir issue as one of self-determination. They have learned to play to the media gallery, framing their talking points in a way that will help their overground allies make their case for them. In the early s, the Islamists already terrorized most Kashmiri Hindus into leaving the Valley.
And so, during the current wave of killings, they have been careful enough to speak only of insider and outsider, instead of mentioning religion. This has helped their allies to shade the issue, and make it appear as a reaction to the abrogation of Article It is already shocking that anyone would sympathize with an apartheid law such as Article , but this is worse.
What is the remedy here? In the US in the s, the federal government passed a number of laws that ensured voting rights and civil rights for members of the African American community. In particular, state and local authorities trying to enforce racial segregation had their powers stripped away by the federal government. In India, the abrogation of Article has been a similar beginning.
Equal rights have now been given to all communities, including women. Gorkhas and members of the Valmiki community have been granted residency status. Kashmiri and Dogra have been included as state languages. A portal has been launched to allow displaced Kashmiri Pandits to reclaim their properties, which are now being identified by authorities across the Valley. There will now be a new delimitation of constituencies, which will allow fair representation for the Hindu-majority Jammu region.
The new Assembly will also have reserved seats for members of Scheduled Tribes. No wonder then that the enemies of freedom and modernity are very angry with what the Indian state is doing in Kashmir. Women in Kashmir follow this tradition very religiously. Whenever there is any good news in the family or in the neighborhood, they rush to their houses to congratulate them with three to four bags of goodies. It might contain fresh fruits,fresh pastries from the famous confectionaries in town or packets of almonds and candy.
Whether the good news is someone getting married or passing matriculation exams or cracking a professional entrance examination, Kashmiri women will shower you with almonds, candies and the signature ten rupee notes, pleated in a fancy fashion.
Kashmiri women burn the Harmal seeds or the Persian Rue in their kangris earthen pots full of burning coal,used to keep one warm in winters and make loved ones sniff its fumes to save them from the evil eye.
They consider it as folk medicine for all ailments and use it in spiritual practices. On weddings, Kashmiri women carry colorful envelopes and load it with cash money as a token of love for the bride or the bridegroom.
Do not be surprised if it is an odd number of notes. Their favorite numbers are 1,11 and The Wanwun is a unique way of singing on weddings.
They joyfully make two singing groups, divide the verses of a song amongst the two groups and each group sings them alternately. They include the mother,the father,the uncle,the aunt and almost everyone in the song. Kashmiri mothers will take all the misfortune of their children upon them. If you are a Kashmiri, you sure are well acquainted with these loving expressions.
The Wazwan is so loaded with different varieties of food,mutton in particular, that it gets too much to eat just for one meal. Earlier Kashmiri women used to carry plastic bags with them and sneak in the extra food, and try not to be seen,to avoid the embarrassment. Now they are provided with fancy resealable zap bags to take the extra food home and relish it with the uninvited members of the family Like a boss!
Their love, simplicity,chastity and hospitality is irreplaceable. They are all about love and sacrifice. There definitely cannot be anyone like a mother, specially a Kashmiri mother.
And I am sure you all agree. Remember me Log in. Lost your password? Search for:. I first met Syed Ali Shah Geelani in at his then partially-built residence in Srinagar's Hyderpora neighbourhood.
He had recently been released from prison. Although I have met him several times since then, it is that first meeting I remember most vividly. Geelani had a courtly appearance and kind manner, but I could sense the steel in his personality. He took out the time to speak at length with me - an Indian in my mids, I was then a graduate student at Columbia University.
At the end of the long conversation, he stood up, kissed me tenderly on the forehead and presented me with a copy of the Koran, an Arabic-English bilingual edition produced, I later noticed, in Saudi Arabia. He urged me to read it carefully. The ornate, bulky volume is still displayed in the living room of our family home in Kolkata.
Unlike some other Kashmiri leaders I met in the s and later, Geelani spoke with absolute clarity, with no hedging or fudging. Our conversation revolved around two points he made gently, yet forcefully.
First, he made it clear that although a proud Kashmiri, he considered his national identity to be Pakistani. Second, he was implacably hostile to the idea of an independent Kashmir. I already knew from extensive travels in the Kashmir valley that the large majority of its people, as well as Kashmiri-speaking Muslims in parts of the Jammu region contiguous to the valley, aspired for independence. For them, azaadi freedom , the rallying cry of the tehreek movement that had exploded in uprising and insurgency in , meant being free of both India and Pakistan, which had been fighting over their land since Pakistan's supporters - the core of which was made up of Geelani's Jamaat-i-Islami JI party - were a relatively small minority.
I frankly told Geelani this ground reality.
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