For ages, we have been hearing slogans like, “Kashmir is burning;” “Kashmiris demand their right of self-determination;” “The Kashmir Dispute must be resolved according to the UN Resolutions;” “Wake up United Nations;” “Kashmir Bany Ga Pakistan;” “Pakistan stands with Kashmir;” “Go India Go Back” and many more. These slogans reflect the moral stance of the Pakistani state with no intentions or structural attempt to psychologically influence the youth. Kashmiri youth is very independent in thinking, choosing a school, career and living, either in AJK or any other part of Pakistan. On the other hand, India is contemplating a popular slogan of Kashmir being its “Atoot Ang.” It now has a very fascist plan in store for Kashmiri youth.
Recently, while watching TV, I came across another term, “Deradicalisation Camps for Kashmiris.” For many days, the term has been debated in electronic and print media.
Addressing a gathering in India, a military commander of Indian Forces and Chief of India’s Defense Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, also made an insane public statement. He said that India would set up large scale de-radicalisation camps for Kashmiri youth in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) and young Kashmiris could be shipped off to these camps to eradicate their religious extremist tendencies. The statement was endorsed by other Indian officials as well. It is also believed that the first de-radicalisation centre in IoK is on the cards. Rights activists and Kashmiri intellectuals are deeply unsettled by the statement. The statement could presage another disturbing turn of events as it shows the highest levels of the Indian military views about Kashmiri people.
The BJP government has already been pushing a religious-nationalist ideology that favours India’s Hindu majority and alienates its Muslim minority
While on February 5, 2020, it would be the 185th day of Indian lockdown in Kashmir since it scrapped Article 370 of Indian Constitution, which started a new controversy by cancelling the special status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
Some questions come into my mind:
(i) What has made the Kashmiri youth violent?
(ii) What has made them take up arms?
(iii) Why are they labelled as “radicalized youth?”
(iv) Is it fun to live by the gun?
I am unable to find answers to these questions and can’t understand why is the rest of the world turning a blind eye to the suffering of the Kashmiri people while being aware of India’s criminal acts? Since the scrapping of the Article, Kashmir has been suspended in tension, with most internet service still shut off and schools deserted. Thousands of additional troops are there. The entire intellectual class, including elected representatives, is arrested.
The youth raised in a conflict zone is strong enough to feel that what is happening around is normal. Their pictures on media show that the trauma seems normal to them. All is normal for them because their minds are conditioned to be immune to these seemingly normal situations. They do not feel oppressed unless they step outside. They do not know they are in chains till they taste what real freedom is like. They are hopeless people; clueless about their future. They are locked, cut off and thrown into oblivion. For years, they have carried autumn in the coffins of leaves. Like the waters are frozen in the Dal, Kashmiris are clogged under siege. They are numb and frightened as the hunters gaze at them. Silence is the louder sound. They listen to each other crying only. Like John Keats put it in Ode to a Nightingale, “The weariness, the fever and the fret … Here where men sit and hear each other groan.”
The BJP government has already been pushing a religious-nationalist ideology that favours India’s Hindu majority and alienates its Muslim minority. In December 2019, the BJP government passed a highly divisive law, called the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). It created a special path for migrants to get Indian citizenship if they are not Muslims. Outrage at the law set off weeks of nationwide anti-government protests, which continue. As a recipe of further disaster, the Indian State is transforming itself from a secular polity to an extremist, intolerant and chauvinist Hindu state.
Though Kashmir is a political problem, it needs a political solution but the Kashmiris would be justified in taking up arms if the international community fails to stop their ethnic cleansing. The UN resolutions have given the oppressed the right to an armed struggle against occupying forces. They have the right to resist under international law. It is their war of liberation under international law. Staying calm and relaxed cannot be expected from them after the BJP government sowed seeds of oppression. Because of the BJP’s current Kashmir policies, insurgencies are going to be more open and centrifugal forces are going to assert themselves. Kashmiris have a history of struggle and support. It is one of their certain principled commitments. IoK is a conflict zone. It can influence anybody. A place that is already a garrison does not need to be camped again.
The writer is a researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI)