I was reading Indian Express of 17 August 2010 and suddenly came across a photograph, which was really horrifying for me. This photograph was from the Kashmir valley, in which a teenage boy (must be between 15 and 17) with blood flowing from his face, and with blood marks on his clothes and hands, was running on the road. The caption below says the boy was beaten by the police (while taking part in the protest rally.) I felt really bad for the boy and the parents of the boy, and in fact for his whole family. I too felt bad for all those teenage boys and girls, who are beaten or killed by the police and security forces in the valley. This teenage youth, the fact remains, have come in large numbers to the streets disregard of the curfew in place.
From a legal point of view the police have right to enforce the curfew and maintain law and order. The curfew rule does not allow people to congregate at one place. And the violation of the rule is punished by lathicharge or by shelling of tear gas or by other means of enforcement. Hence, from a pure legalistic point of view, and which is the Indian government point of view, police have the duty to enforce the curfew and maintain law and order. But the Kashmir issue is more than a mere legal issue to maintain law and order in the valley. It is a kind of tapestry woven by layers of complex threads. It is, besides a legal issue, a political, and economic, as well as a social and cultural issue. Hence, mere lathicharge, or tear gas shelling, or even killing, will not solve the problem. It needs a more complex and nuanced approach to deal with the issue.
Coming back to the teenage youth. The youngsters are guided by sudden spurt of emotions and passions, fuelled by the elder men and women. I doubt whether all the youth, or even a minor percentage of the youth, do really know, understand or assess the true import of the objective for which they are coming to streets so violently. I really doubt. If I am told to see dreams for a better future that is a fine rallying point for me and many people who think alike. But in a wider sense the fact is that nobody exactly knows what future is or what future years hold before us? Like usual politicians who promise so many things during election time to renew the same in next round of elections, these youth are promised with grandiose objectives. The youth are certainly misguided. If there is disenchantment in terms of poverty, unemployment, maltreatment by some security men, or even alienation, I am sure these are not enough motivations for the youth in such a mass scale to indulge in organized violence. It is difficult to find a teenage boy, in stable Indian states like UP or Maharashtra or Karnataka to indulge in violence, supported by other youngsters, and cause damage to public property because he is poor or unemployed. Hence, there is the larger picture. These teenage youth are shown pompous dreams and prosperous life post-Azadi. It is portrayed before them that all the problems will vanish in a whimper if the Indian control goes away. That is the magic mantra to move the youth to action.
But the predicament is that nobody knows what exactly Azadi is, or what exactly it looks like, even in imagination. If Azadi merely means the end of Indian rule, then we know the situation in ‘Azad’ Kashmir, which is ‘liberated’ from the Indian ‘occupation.’ The youth of Kashmir can well ponder whether the ‘Azad’ Kashmiri people are better off in any standard than them. And if Azadi means the Islamic rule, then we all know the situation in Taliban controlled Afghanistan or in a micro scale in the Swat valley few months back. The youth of Kashmir need to ask this question to themselves. The fact is that there are many Muslims in India, more than in Kashmir, who enjoy and cherish the secular credentials, and the multicultural ethos. No Indian did appreciate the demolition of the Babri Masjid or the Gujarat carnage of 2002, and in the same breath the Kashmiris must realize the situation from a broader perspective. It is true that there are excesses by the security forces, and there are ostrich like attitudes by the Indian state in many cases, but the solution can be found to these without any resort to violence.
Let the Kashmiris speak in one voice, let the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh speak in one voice, develop civil society organizations, restore faith in the democratic process. Let all the parties in the region including Congress, PDP, BJP, National Conference, APHC, etc. come together to the dialogue table and find the ways for an amicable solution. There is every justification for the demand for the revocation of armed forces special powers act, but street violence will not likely provide the needed clue to take such a step. It is true that there are human rights violations in Kashmir and at times innocent people have become victims to atrocities, but violence will not likely bring peace to the region and restore the victims their dignity. It may be true that the protests, which must be non-violent, will sound enough caution for the forces in Kashmir against repeating atrocities. But at the end violence begets violence, not peace.
The citizens of Kashmir must rise to the occasion. The parents of these youth, who take the matter to streets at the behest of demagogues and prompters, must tell their children to go to school, and resume their education and other youthful activities like sports. I have seen many Kashmiri youth with extraordinary talent. These lovable youth must be encouraged to excel, rather than destroying them by getting brainwashed, by dream-feeding, and then mobilized to indulge in violence. The parents of the violent youth must realize this and play a lead role to rescue the future of their children.
Besides the parents, it is the governments both of the state and the Centre, grassroots organizations and the civil society that must play an active role in this direction. One of the tasks before them must be to meet the people and convince them of the futility of violence. Not guns, but love, peace and harmony- there lies the key to solution of the Kashmir problem.
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