There are only a few places on the global map which are as beautiful as the Valley of Kashmir. Nature has adored the valley of Kashmir with its finest meadows, forests and gurgling streams. Trees in this vale never starve for water and the leaves are never sere. The mesmerising beauty of Kashmir indeed infuses new life into the people. It renews and rejuvenates you, no matter how marred your soul may be. However, like most beautiful and priceless things, Kashmir too has had to pay a heavy price for its beauty. Its closeness to Asian powers has proven quite fatal to it. The curse of geography has cost it dearly, the people of Kashmir their dignity to live.
Kashmir’s history is gory. It is full of bloodshed and untold miseries. The world might propagate that it is the Jews who have suffered the most during the course of human history but the truth is that while the Jews have been liberated, Kashmiris continue to be inflicted with unknown and untold miseries every single day. Jews may have been robbed of their homeland once but we continue to be denied the right to live peacefully in ours even today.
In the nineteenth century, almost every country scripted their independent future but ours is still murky. We still continue to fight for our dignity, our identity and our right to freedom. The word “normalcy” seems to have a completely different connotation for us. After every so called “normalcy” that is forced down our throats by our politicians, there occurs some form of crisis which overturns our economy and our society. This “forced normalcy” is scripted so as to keep the international opinion in check. It is scripted to conceal the brutalities and atrocities happening in the valley and the International community’s criminal silence over these atrocities is due to a new world order that is taking shape. World economy has once again shifted to the Asian countries after a gap of two hundred years. India and China are now among the biggest contributors to the growth of the world economy. After the tumultuous financial crisis and the Greek debt crisis, the western countries are looking towards these countries as a cure for their national economies. Much of their investment is made in India and it makes little sense for them to annoy a country that is expected to grow at more than 7% annually and is a market of some one billion people.
World politics are based on realism. Idealism has taken a backseat but it is not just because of economics, it is due to politics as well. The rise of assertive China has forced USA and other nations to lean towards India. Containing China has become imperative for them. The South Asian sea dispute was a clear example of where USA’s sympathy lies
World politics are based on realism. Idealism has taken a backseat but it is not just because of economics, it is due to politics as well. The rise of assertive China has forced USA and other nations to lean towards India. Containing China has become imperative for them. The South Asian sea dispute was a clear example of where USA’s sympathy lies. In the course of history, USA’s and NATO’s intervention has proved fatal for most developed countries. The war which was expected to windup within a short period of time has now dragged on for years. Pakistan has been crucial for USA and its allies in its intervention in Afghanistan. The area is now more unstable than it was. USA is presently occupied with the many problems that arose due to its flawed assumptions. It now has to deal with an unstable Iraq, Syria and an assertive Iran. The entire international community is adjusting to the new world order in which Asian countries are expected to play a larger role. Hence, it will definitely not want Kashmir to become a bone of contention or a cause of instability in the region. This is why international opinion only comes into force when war seems to be evident between India and Pakistan.
Coming home, the policies of India and Pakistan have always been of confrontationism. Their antagonism can be finely traced to the partition of the subcontinent. The three wars between India and Pakistan moulded the opinion of the public. This opinion was then exploited by the politicians to create a vote bank and sow the seeds of blind nationalism. Whenever the issue of Kashmir is raised, the Indian public looks at our struggle through the prisms of hatred it nurtures for Pakistan. In Pakistan itself, Kashmir has become a rallying point for anger against India. Thus, Kashmir problem lays eggs in both countries. The reason we have not been able to influence public opinion in India is because Indian media’s biased approach has kept the Indian public opinion in complete check. Indian media has fed Indians with biased reports about the ground realities and this has resulted in widespread anger and hatred towards Kashmir and Kashmiris. This may also be true for “Other Kashmir” or as it is called in India “Occupied Kashmir”, which is administered by Pakistan. Our valley has now been under curfew for over two months. We are facing the worst human crisis that our valley has faced since 2000. More than 11,000 have been injured, 89 people have been killed and some 300 turned blind. Present turmoil has not only broken several families, it has ended thousands of dreams. The state and the centre government, both have tried to address and dispose off the present crisis through brute force only. Nothing innovative has been discussed or done. Even the All Party Meeting ended without any solid outcome. All parties in Kashmir, be it political or separatist, seem to have hardened their stands which is in no way a solution out of this crisis. While the political parties need to empathise with the general public, Hurriyat also needs to distinguish between short term goals and long term goals. Consistent confrontation will only push Kashmir into a deeper crisis which will impact our society, our culture as well as our economy. It is up to our leaders now. They need to decide whether they want to behave like statesman and crack the code to the resolution of the Kashmir problem or let our entire society continue to suffer as we are suffering now. Trying to find a solution without accommodating the wishes of the common people will be like going in search of the philosopher’s stone. It will yield nothing apart from chaos and confusion.
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