Kashmiris have a habit of confounding all the self-appointed pundits and gurus on the Kashmir problem, with all their predictions, analyses and insights about the nature of Kashmir and Kashmiris and the future direction of Kashmir. Once the elections took place successfully in 2008, amid record turnouts, many Indian journalists, including Barkha Dutt, descended on Srinagar with smiles as wide as ever, full of satisfaction at the feeling that separatism had finally been defeated in Kashmir. One could see it in Barkha’s smirks when interviewing the despondent Sajjad Lone about the failure of the separatist camp to persuade the Kashmiri people to boycott elections.

Yet, barely a year and a half after these jubilations of late 2008, Kashmir is once again up in revolt. And this revolt is unlike any other that the Kashmiri people have ever mounted. Nothing compares to it, not the minor protests outside Central Jail on 13 July 1931, the sporadic protests that followed thereafter up to 1989, the popular protests that characterized the early stages of the insurgency in the 1990s, nor the upheaval that surprised all Kashmir observers in 2008. This time it is different. Tens of thousands of Kashmiris have come out to brave the bullets of Indian troops and paramilitaries in to make it clear that the demand for independence remains as strong in 2010 as it was in 2008, 1990, 1953, 1947 and 1931. Even though Kashmir history has never been formally taught in schools, the young people of Kashmir, perhaps the only generation in the world completely devoid of any knowledge of their history, seem to have separatist sentiments in their blood.
The Indian establishment has reacted with a mixture of surprise, alarm and continuing brutality. The protests have been described as ‘violence’ without any distinction between the lesser violence of the stone-pelting protestors and the greater violence of organized military and paramilitary forces equipped with lethal weapons. The State’s chief minister Omar Abdullah has even heaped the blame for the unrest on the protestors themselves and lauded the CRPF for exercising maximum restraint, despite clear evidence of young kids being lynched and kicked to death. His father, Farooq Abdullah, was so sick of being asked about Kashmir that he said ‘Kashmir ko goli maro’.

Only recently have India’s rulers realized that the situation is turning against them and that they must at least make symbolic gestures to reach out to the protestors. The Prime Minister’s attempt to assuage the feelings of protestors, with his appeal for calm in the Urdu language, was driven by a belated realization that this time it was different.

The truth is that this time it is different. This time it is a popular revolt by the Kashmiri people against the injustices that have been perpetrated against them and that have yet to be remedied. Thousands of human rights violations have been committed with impunity under laws such as the AFSPA. Yet, no headway has been made by the Central Government or even the State Governments to bring perpetrators to justice, abolish draconian laws, or improve the machinery of justice.

What is even more remarkable about the recent protests is that they have taken even the separatist leaders by surprise. It was quite common for the charlatan gurus and pundits who pronounce wisdom on Kashmir to dismiss Syed Ali Shah Geelani as a spent force and an extremist hawk without popular support in Kashmir. Yet, if there is any leader with true popular support in Kashmir, it is undoubtedly Geelani. He has won public support not because he supports one ideology as against another, but because he has maintained a consistent stand and has not compromised that, despite being marginalized by both India and Pakistan.

However, despite the energy and passion with which Kashmiris have protested, there is a danger of fatigue setting in and the movement losing its momentum. The recent revolt lacks any organization and it is unfortunately in this area that Kashmiris have always proved weak. If the movement is to sustain momentum, there must be proper organization. It is time for Kashmiris to learn from other nations and peoples the technique of political organization and mobilization. It is time for movements, slogans and self-appointed leaders to be replaced with a new political congress that brings together all Kashmiris of all political hues – separatist, mainstream or neutral – in a national convention where an organizational structure and programme of protests will be worked out in accordance with fair, democratic and representative procedures. This convention should adopt resolutions that are then put to a referendum where every adult Kashmiri is given the right to vote. It is time for Kashmiris to evolve their own mechanisms for consulting popular opinion rather than begging the rest of the world or an inefficient bureaucracy (the UN) to facilitate a plebiscite. The signature campaign of JKLF is a good precedent.

It is also important for the Kashmiri people to evolve organizations and structure to provide essential social services to everyone at a time when the State Government is virtually ineffectual. Kashmiris have long needed yet known how to evolve a spirit of community and this is the best time to resurrect it. This is the time to collectivise the provision of essential services such as education, health, refuse collection, supply of water and commodities and transport. Local communities should establish organizations to collect funds from residents and use them to provide essential social services. Efforts should be made to cut expenditure on imported products, including imported food and to give a fillip to local industries. The protests should be done in such a way that local businesses do not suffer, especially local agriculture and manufacturing concerns. Every effort must be made to save Kashmir’s exports such as handicrafts and fruits. If the social and economic aspect is not addressed, then there is a serious risk of economic collapse and upheaval and this would be a fatal blow to the Kashmir movement as it would inflict enormous suffering on the poor and alienate them from the movement.

This type of self-sustenance is crucial to the survival and strength of the Kashmiri movement. The mental and physical resistance of the people can only last so long before the need for ‘pani, sadak and bijli’ will once again interrupt the flow and allow the poor to succumb to government promises of jobs in return for their silence. It is not without irony that, on this day when the rest of India is celebrating independence from foreign rule, I quote the words of Allan Octavian Hume, the British founder of the Indian Congress Party, who inspired hopes of an independent India with words such as:
Sons of Ind, why sit ye idle,
Wait ye for some Deva’s aid?
Buckle to and be up and doing!
Nations by themselves are made!
Kashmiris should take this advice and create a place to be proud of.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST