Today is fourth martyrdom anniversary of Sheikh Aziz. The year 2008 obviously for many reasons will be remembered as one of the most traumatic years in the history of Kashmiri resistance. It was a dramatic period in more than one way. For a brief period of two or three months people belonging to every section of the society demonstrated a profound sense of purpose and unity. The intensity of emotions not only caught unawares the detractors of Kashmiri resistance, the enthusiasm of the youth to offer supreme sacrifices in pursuit of a noble cause was astonishing even for the most ardent supporters of Azadi.  The armed struggle having failed to produce desired results and besides the few years of relative calm had convinced the pseudo intellectuals that the Kashmiri masses have fully resigned to their fate. Then it was believed that the 1990 mass uprising was  a unique incident that will never get repeated in the foreseeable future.  The dramatic turn of events put paid to all these calculations. The tremendous ability of Kashmir to spring a surprise from nowhere is a well-known fact. Yet in spite of its unpredictability Kashmir has always strived to struggle against the repressive regimes, is a constant feature of the recent Kashmir history. However Kashmir has invariably failed to achieve its cherished destiny is altogether a different story.  While the failures have made the feeble hearted and moreover the fifth columnists to accept the defeat prematurely, the courageous time and again defying all the odds have kept afloat the flag of resistance.   
The 2008 mass mobilization was not a vain effort, entirely. The unprecedented show of unity to some extent helped to put off the sinister designs of forced social transformation. A period of shallow peace has again encouraged the forces of doom to carry on with their evil agendas.  The Hindutva forces with the active patronage of saffronised section of establishment have come to conclude that the conflict in Kashmir is rooted in its present Muslim identity. Therefore transform the identity dissolve the conflict, seems to be a devised strategy to deal with the situation.  Geography, political history but more importantly culture makes a nation. In case geography is unalterable, the dominant forces make every effort to reshape the narrative but the real onslaught always is on the culture.  Currently Kashmir is undergoing a massive cultural deformation.  The apologists of the unjust order in their futile effort to cover up the ongoing cultural aggression try to link the rapid cultural dilution with the globalisation.  In the post modern world it is not possible for any society to escape the good or bad affects of globalisation. For that matter Kashmir too is not immune to the changes taking place fast, elsewhere. Nevertheless the cultural degeneration taking place in Kashmir is not solely due to any globalisation. What is being experienced is truly a cultural aggression. Will this cultural design unleashed with a purpose succeed in disfiguring the Kashmiri identity, permanently?             
The social transformation is part of an evolution process. But here this natural process is infused and aimed to dilute the identity of a people as a part of a conflict management. In such a scenario the protection of identity assuming urgency becomes more important than the pursuits of political rights for the besieged people.  Rulers are drawing a momentary comfort from the prevailing calm; some enterprising ones have already started describing the present violence free atmosphere as a post conflict situation.   The calm on surface is utterly falsifying, the rulers seems to be unaware of the undercurrents.
 Kashmir conflict all along the history has been a political dispute.  Changing the context will not dissolve the conflict; it will for sure aggravate the dispute. For a common Kashmiri his religious identity is more important than any political aspirations.  Why the rulers are reluctant to learn from the history?  The 2008 blockade of few days led to the making of such an unprecedented public uprising that it very nearly had shaken the very foundations of the state.  And in case this besieged feeling is allowed to creep down, it will become very difficult to convince the already restless youth that the cultural aggression is not designed to change the demography of J&K.  A section of youth and that always has been the case is totally antagonised towards the system. Until now the political dispute has been the cause behind this restlessness.  And if the evil plan of dissolving the conflict through a cultural dilution is not stopped forthwith, there is nothing that could prevent the political dispute turning into an ugly religious conflict. Pushed to the wall, Kashmir will certainly resist the war of cultural aggression.    Any solution short of a meaningful resolution will only further complicate the nature of the dispute.
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Lastupdate on : Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
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