Friday, March 29, 2024
 
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The Sanghmars of Kashmir



By Ashish Koul


Ay bigird-i sham-i ruyat alami parvana’i
vaz lab-i shirin tu shurist dar har khana’i
Man bi chandi ashna’i mikhuram khun-i jigar
ashna ra hal inast vay bar bigana-i
O candle-faced one, the whole world flutters round thee like a moth;
thy sweet lips have caused commotion & bitterness in every home.
Such being the state of affliction of thy friend,
how woeful must be the plight of a stranger!


This is the first ever Persian verse by a Kashmiri written sometime between 1370 and 1450 by what some say, King Zain-ul-Abdeen ‘Badshah ’ (meaning a great king) who is believed to turn a new and secular chapter in the History of then a turbulent and intolerant Kashmir. Nearly 700 years latter Kashmir finds itself in deep turmoil waiting for another Badshah.


“Har raat khuda se dua me bas yahi mangtey hey ki sehar na ho; Allah kisi tarah se aftaab ko apni aagosh me rook lo taki kuch aur massomo ko zindagi aur mazloomo ko rahat mile. Kashmir ki takdeer me raat ke andhero me hi sakoon milta he” Says a 19 year old Shaheen Khan, a high school dropout from a west Kashmir hamlet. “Every morning we are required to leave homes and join the protests; we are damned if we do and doomed if we don’t. Kashmir is riding paradoxical tides says Shaheen Khan who speaks fluent English, Urdu and Kashmiri in the same breath. Shaheen represents thousands of Kashmiri youth who find themselves torn between their young dreams and poignant realities of a harsh Kashmir.


The valley has been held hostage to the stone pelters ironically chanting Azadi for over 100 days now. While young men are playing to a media gallery there is a stalk dark side to the ensemble on the streets. As the sun rises, Villagers in Magam march out to block roads to the City as part of the daily drill. They march out, pelt stones and return to their homes thanking Allah for one more day of life in the lost paradise. Rafiq Qureshi 23, who scored 73% in his 10th standard has laid his future to rest alongside the grave of his elder brother who was claimed by the “muhim” (the movement). “ My brother was shot is a crossfire between the protesters and the forces” says Rafiq. That , however, is the public truth. Magam and many villages and Mohhalas’ in the valley march out at the dictat of terrorist leaders, not just do they march out but risk their lives every day and if they don’t they anyway risk their lives of being targeted for a brutal death by the militants.


Far south lies Anantnag, now rechristened as Islamabad, a sleepy town with rich cultural and religious heritage as it lies enroute the annual Amarnath Yatra. Anantnag is also important being the first major town while entering the valley from Jammu. Once an important centre now lies muffled in a deathly eerie. “They keep a list of residents and maintain a meticulous record of people who follow orders and more specifically the ones who don’t” says Basharat Khan, a resident of Nai Basti. “If we don’t follow orders then they attack our houses. My car was attacked and all glasses smashed by a bunch of young boys barely out of school”. He rues that the teenagers on the street have no ‘lehaaz’ left for elders and even women. Basharat makes an important point that throws light on the current mindset of the people on the streets. “We grew up in an era of brotherhood with Hindu’s a minuscule minority but a community that brewed in a key element of religious and social tolerance which is long gone” reminisces Basharat.


Irfan Kashmiri a young lad of 20 years age, says the youth is completely confused. “Politicians asked for votes in the name of positively representing the aspirations of people involved in Muhim and now they are the ones targeting us”. Irfan is on the roads almost everyday with stones in his hands. He represents a generation that has found stone pelting not only as a means to express anger but also as a means of sustenance in the tumultuous downturn in the valley. Irfan is not alone, Sajad Ghani a readymade garments trader from Sangam Village on Srinagar National Highway says “Militancy is the biggest trade in the valley, most of the trade is controlled by businesses that have Muhim leaders as invisible partners”. People like Sajad symbolize the new age micro-economics firming up in the Valley where the economic divide is splitting the society into Have’s and Have-not’s. On-street militancy seems to be fast emerging as a career option for a breed of young Kashmiri’s who were born in the shadow of guns and terror.


Zaffar Khan 50 and son of an eminent academician in Anantnag agrees with Basharat; “We grew up together with Hindu’s and celebrated Eid with as much fervor as we did Diwali. We played together and we ate from the same plate; Kashmir in pre-90’s was an epitome of brotherhood, religious tolerance and a truly secular fabric that reflected the ethos pathos and lagos of being an Indian but the current generation has seen nothing but fanaticism, hatred and the curfews. The teens on the roads know nothing about tolerance and brotherhood”.


There is another shade of grey looming on the valley. The young ones on the roads have found stone-pelting a new way of easy life. Far from a war cry, the stone mujahids know that closure of the establishment means closure of schools and colleges and hence a reason for a week political class to exert pressure on the Government to promote the students sans examinations. Freebees are acting like intoxicating drugs on these young minds who have found stone-pelting as a vocation, perhaps more as an escapism. Not just escapism but also as a means to exert power in a society dominated by terror and the rule of the gun. “ Not just elders, these young boys also harass women who want to stride towards a progressive life. They are often threatened and even molested in the name of Muhim” says Shabnam 17 who dropped out of high school in Sopore after she was publicly abused for going to school.


It is not just domestic space where these young people are forced to tow the line, even social media space is not spared. “We are always under watch for our social media activities and anything that we ever say about the current state of Kashmir draws severe flak especially if we express dissent against militancy then we are trolled” says Rubina Ali, 43, a social worker from downtown Anantnag. “The current situation is choking the very spirit of Kashmir, yes we do seek a sense of liberation but current situation seems a hobson’s choice. Between the Government and Militants whom do we chose ?”. Rubina echos the silent voices of a disillusioned Kashmiris who believe that the current Muhim is a form of business of terror and we are mere hapless consumers crushed between Governemnt and the goons.


Modern Kashmir is a pale frail shrill of its glorious past and in a tearing hurry fast forgetting its legends and History. “How many Kashmiri’s would even know of Tahir Ashai AKA Ghani Kashmiri a legendry Persian Kashmiri poet whose work is prescribed study material for scholars in Iran but lives in eternal peace in a forgotten and depleted grave in Rajouri kadal area of Srinagar” says Bilal, 46, and a Professor in Kashmir University. The current generation knows nothing of the legendary past of the kingdom of Kashmir, its contribution to literature, art and culture. AbhinavGupta, Lala Ded (Lallesehwari), Avantivarman, Kalhan (the most authentic historian of ancient Kashmir), Charaka (one of the principal contributors to the ancient art and science of Ayurveda, famous for authoring the medical treatise, the Charaka Samhita). The history of Kashmir is as old as the creation of land itself. Appearance of the Neolithic man and later, starting with about 5000 to 6000 years ago, bears an extraordinary correlation with the Laukika or Saptarishi era according to which the current year is 5093 reflecting a continuous cultural History of over 5000years. This almanac is followed even today for purposes of horoscopes, religious functions and ceremonies of the original inhabitants of the valley. The legends of Kashmir have been forgotten and militants are re-writing a new history of Kashmir that encompasses Islam and terror as the only stakeholders. The new Kashmir that these young minds fancy; a new Kashmir that is being converted into Indian’s Palestine.


Zaffar is perhaps the last of Kashmiris who believes peace can only be restored to the valley only if their Hindu brethren were to return and pick up their lives from where they left it, but not in a ghetto or a secured Panun Kashmir. “There is only one Kashmir and it belongs to all of us; we made a mistake in 89 by not standing up to the snake of terror which now hovers over all of us and has left an entire generation poisoned blood in their veins and stones in their hands”.

(Names and locations have been changed to protect identities)

(The author is a media veteran and currently Business Head with a transnational group.)


(Disclaimer: The views, observations and opinions expressed in above write up of Scoop News are strictly author's own. Scoop News does not take any onus or liability for the veracity, accuracy, validity, completeness, suitability of any of information in the above given write up. The information, facts or figures appearing in the write up in no way manifest the position, standpoint or stance of Scoop News and the Scoop News does not assume any encumbrance or answerability of the same.)


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