Once one is out of school in India, it is strange how several beliefs go on to be shattered as one learns more. For example, one learns that Jinnah’s 1946 Direct Action Day was a lot more brutal than what textbooks said, and that there was much more to the 1948 annexation of Hyderabad state than the one page dedicated in school books. Another moment of revelation for me as an Indian youth was seeing the beautiful (but under-celebrated) film Yahaan 11 years ago. Several of my pre-conceptions about Kashmir, its people, and its state of affairs were decimated in one clean stroke of courageous, honest cinema.
The film essentially taught me that for someone like me who has never faced even a fraction of what Kashmiris go through each and every day, it is not exactly sensible and logical to have strong opinions on what they should do and what their future should be. I realized how the frequent proclamation of “We will never give up Kashmir” is as senseless as someone from Assam or Kashmir giving a verdict on, say, the Kaveri river water dispute. Yahaan, for the first time, convinced me that when it comes to highly sensitive socio-political issues, we as citizens should tame extreme opinions, because there are always some important aspects which get ignored in the heat and noise of nationalism and patriotism.
It is astonishing how even the most educated among us quickly turn irrational and narrow-minded when it comes to such a sensitive topic as Kashmir.
One of the most amusing things about the masses is how proficient they are at stating and believing opinions as facts. The Internet is replete with hundreds of webpages (both Indian and Pakistani) commenting on several facets of the subcontinent’s history in single-dimensional, biased ways. There is no dearth of websites and YouTube videos spewing highly inflammatory discourses, zealously maintained by Muslim or Hindu fundamentalists. Often the young Indian’s post-school (and these days even during-school) contact with history, especially Partition and post-Independence events, happens via these incorrect, propagandist takes. To add ignorance to injury, hardly anyone of us ever reads history from multiple authentic sources. Unsurprisingly, a large majority of India’s young “digital” millions have scant knowledge about its past, although that hardly prevents them from being aggressively opinionated.
Konkan, on the western coast of Maharashtra, is one of the most beautiful places in India (so is Kashmir, I hear). Born and brought up in a town there, most of my childhood memories revolve around natural beauty, the rain and the greenery. The fun at school, the peace, the nice people, and the brushes with innocent teenage love. Today, I realize how lucky I was to be born there.
When I try to imagine what an average young person born in Kashmir in the 1980s will recollect about their own childhood, what come to my mind is human cruelty, bloodshed, the colour red. Frequent curfews, violence, jingoistic people, the beginnings of hate and revolt. How many of us from the rest of India have seen family members being brutally beaten or killed before our eyes, or seen them leaving home one fine day and never coming back? Yet we so quickly and thoughtlessly form opinions on the Kashmiri people who have been through some of the worst, most terrible situations that the current world has seen. What is it about our “love for the country” that makes us forget loving our countrymen and women? And, most importantly, why have we lately become so eager to repeat the mistakes Europe committed in the 1930s and 40s in the name of nationalism?
If we wish to change the Kashmir situation, we first need to change ourselves as citizens of India (with the same positive change happening in Pakistan too).
Kashmir is so complex an issue that there is no plain black and white there. It will be a high point of maturity for our nation, and for us “rest of Indians” when we finally accept and understand that. Besides, despite the fact that the Kashmir issue is predominantly of geographic and political origin, it has turned (or was converted) into a Hindu-Muslim conflict. We must not fall prey to this maleficent fallout of the crisis. There are several anti-government movements in other states actually heralded by non-Muslims: the ULFA and Maoists, for example, have been no less violent than the militants in Kashmir.
History is a great guru. It is not just a chronicle of the past, but also a crucible of precious lessons. Still, hardly any one of us attempts to understand our country’s history with an open, unbiased mind. We love waxing eloquent about events like the Partition, and maligning the likes of Gandhi and Nehru, but much of it is done on the basis of half-baked, selective information collected from hate-filled websites and WhatsApp forwards. It is astonishing how even the most educated among us quickly turn irrational and narrow-minded when it comes to such a sensitive topic as Kashmir. As with most problems plaguing India, the Mahatma can be invoked here too. Be the change you wish to see in the world, he urged. If we wish to change the Kashmir situation, we first need to change ourselves as citizens of India (with the same positive change happening in Pakistan too).
What the Kashmir crisis needs is strong political will, and we as citizens must take the responsibility of creating a conducive atmosphere — by shutting up…
We can commence by amending our ignorance (or perhaps by first accepting we are ignorant) about the Kashmir issue and about India in general. Both Hindus and Muslims need to get rid of the propagandist notions that we have been fed by our respective “fun-folks” (fundamentalists, that is). Expert historians like Ramachandra Guha (India After Gandhi), and credible government officers like A.S. Dulat (Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years) can help us begin doing that. Besides, there are two recent books, one by a Kashmiri Hindu and one by a Kashmiri Muslim, giving us a different perspective each. As you can see, it’s four books already! But that still won’t suffice to give you complete knowledge of this intractable issue. Once we get more knowledgeable about our past and understand the complexity of historical events through such active efforts, we start turning into more responsible citizens instead of click-happy social media maniacs.
But our responsibility doesn’t end there. Perhaps the most important reason for a peaceful political solution for the Kashmir crisis never being reached is that the governments and leaders of India and Pakistan are scared of infuriating the general public in their respective countries. This, I believe, is the most farcical form of injustice that the Kashmiri people have had to go through. Their fate depends more on what a far-flung Maharashtrian or Keralite thinks about Kashmir rather than what they themselves think. It is terribly amusing that a nondescript Gujarati, who may never even have chastised his local corporator for the dilapidated municipal hospital, will be more than willing to get violent or encourage violence “for Kashmir”. We need to grow up and understand that there is a lot more at stake for the terrorized and alienated people of Kashmir (both Hindus and Muslims) than there is for us, the non-Kashmiri Indians. This is geopolitics, not some social sector issue like corruption or women’s safety that each Indian citizen should scream and try to influence decisions.
Instead, we should show faith in the governments that we have chosen, in the experienced bureaucrats who assist the government, and the expert historians who guide them both. Our paramount duty is to give them and the people of Kashmir a pressure-free environment to discuss and decide on the matter. Huge mistakes have been committed by all involved parties in the past, but we can’t afford endlessly revisiting the same mistakes. What the Kashmir crisis most importantly needs is strong political will from all sides, and we as citizens of India must take the responsibility of creating a conducive, favourable atmosphere for it — by shutting up, minding our own business, and letting the government and Kashmiri people mind the Kashmir business.
The Article first Appeared HERE
