These days everybody seems to be joining this political party or the other and that too without being sheepish about the same as would be the case say a decade back. This fact, that is the fact of not being sheepish about one’s political affiliations, notwithstanding we Kashmiris as a nation do have this tendency to behave like members of the wooly species. Some days back when I voiced this opinion someone remarked that it may be so because we eat a lot of them, the sheep that is. Now of course we are admittedly rather devoted mutton eaters but to suggest that it is this dietary indulgence that makes our behavior similar to that of sheep is of course ridiculous! Anyway whatever be the cause behind it the fact remains that we do resemble sheep so far as our collective behavior is concerned.
Like for instance, we are timid like the sheep, easily led in whatever direction somebody decides to lead us, even if be to our own slaughter! We meekly follow without so much as a protest, maybe a token bleat or two but that is it. It is not timidity however but yet another factor that is the main premise for this we-are-like-sheep theory. If any of you is, or at some point of life has been, a keen observer of the sheep-kind you cannot have failed to observe that if one of the sheep takes off in a particular direction it is not long before the rest of the fellows follow in its footsteps and that too without any need for persuasion whatsoever. So much so that you have to somehow persuade, cajole or drag one of the sheep in any direction that you want them to take and you don’t have to worry about the rest of the flock, you can bet your life that they will all fall in line. It is this sheep-like behaviour that is exhibited by the average Kashmiri. Somebody takes a particular direction and pretty soon the whole nation follows.
Take the ‘armed struggle’ for instance. There was a time when almost every young fellow attempted to trudge the rugged paths and mountain passes to get ‘training’ (with a gun thrown in for a bargain!). This is not to say that all of them went for a lark. It’s true that quite a few went for it as the only solution to a vexed problem. It is equally true that a lot many went because the boy next door, or that guy living in the house on the corner, went. Of course many a parent tried to put a stop to such a risky endeavour, though some of them only half heartedly so because the family pride was at stake (it may have been that the swagger of that old chap who lived down the lane, and whose son was an ‘area commander’, was really getting to be rather unbearable!). Again the herd mentality at work, or perhaps it would be more apt to call it a ‘flock mentality’ since we are taking sheep as our reference point! So that is the way it was. Your neighbour went and so you too went, and ultimately every Tom, Dick and Harry (or more like every Mitha, Bitta and Gutha!) went for it!
Cut to another scene… there was this another wave in those very days. Some minor political honcho panicked and gave out an advertisement of sorts in a newspaper that he was calling it quits so far as this particular political party is concerned. Very soon the whole flock followed. If there was any guy who had so much as even cast a vote sometime in his life now there he was protesting and pleading in the newspaper that he had nothing whatever to do with politics (of the wrong sort that is!) and that he was either quitting his misguided affiliation or that the very suggestion of his having ever been affiliated with any political party was a rumour spread by his enemies (and who hasn’t them!).
The tide turned… Somebody realized that having a gun in your hands doesn’t mean that you are stuck with one side only and that you can easily join the other side without much ado. This opened yet another flood gate. Now you had as many chaps on this side as on that side and you never knew who was on which side. This was cross firing for sure and the confused lot (the poor sheep caught in the middle!) who were neither on that side nor on this side found themselves caught in the cross firing!
Anyway nothing lasts forever! Yet another torrent has opened up and this time around it is the reversal of the I-don’t-belong-to-any-party wave. Nowadays everybody is anxious to belong to some party or the other and as for the rest of the confused flock…well they will be there in the rallies of course!
(Truth is mostly unpalatable…but truth cannot be ignored! Here we serve the truth, seasoned with salt and pepper and a dash of sauce (iness!). You can record your burps, belches and indigestion, if any, at snp_ajazbaba@yahoo.com)