Arshid Malik
A lot has been written and reported about Kashmir in the past couple of decades ranging from thesis about the genesis of the problem in Kashmir to all probable solutions. But almost nothing has been written about the common people of Kashmir, which is to mean no narratives from among the common people have been scripted. We have heaps of books about Kashmir and the problem that surrounds it and that is just history and history is subject to subjective alterations and never qualifies as the “truth”. It is the narratives from among the masses that actually tell the tale about it all. Such missing narratives of the common people who have suffered in the past few decades first hand could have changed the way the “outsiders” visualize or conceptualize the problem in Kashmir. Almost no one except those who visited Kashmir and witnessed the facts that unfurled with every passing day in the Valley factually know what is “wrong” in Kashmir as of now. The little who had the heart or the assignment to stay inside Kashmir and witness events firsthand cannot also tell the whole story for they were from outside and never underwent the circumstances a common Kashmiri did. All “tales” that have been scripted by these “outsiders” are secondary accounts of what happened. It should have been the first prerogative of Kashmiri writers to wrestle out the true stories from the people who faced whatever hit them.
“History is for fools”, comments one modern day thinker. In the practical realm history is not the written word about what happened in the past by people who lived ahead in times but the consequential day to day lives that we live; the day to day incidents that catch up with us on a daily basis and as such history is a reality which unfolds with every passing hour and all that is written about the past in the future is a misaligned, subjective tale of events which is marred by the preconceptions, personal ideations and individual or communal bias. And this is the very history which is found “missing in action”. The real tale about events that unfolded and were scripted is very much different than what is written in one go after some research and citations. The narratives are practically nowhere and that renders the potential understanding and knowledge of factual events impossible.
I am a Kashmiri and I have not till date come up with an actual Kashmiri narrative except for my personal “confessions” and I feel very bad about it all the time. Well, the truth may very well be that I am not an able writer. But there are so many able writers out there in Kashmir who could still frame a narrative of the Kashmiri people. All people write about is the “genesis of the problem” or “how can the Kashmir tangle be resolved”. Aren’t we missing out on the actual problem which is the people of Kashmir and how they feel and have felt in the recent past? Well, let me confess that everywhere in India where I went or the people from outside whom I met at different intervals of time never understood what a “crackdown” in Kashmir signified. All they could do was reflect on their personal televised situational crackdowns around the world. No one understood the plight that sits inside the term “crackdown” strictly spoken in the Kashmir context.
I know what a crackdown is and what it means to me and my fellow Kashmiris. It means getting up in the dead of the night in the scary chills of the winter to the sounds of military boot footfalls and the consequent fear that exploded in our heads. Then there would be huge bangs on the doors assisted with yells and screams and very potential abusive words. We would crawl out of our beds if we were not dragged out of bed marching like ants to the nearest clearing and were made to sit there on the frost wearing what we would have been wearing while we were in bed. No heating systems except some “Kangris” which would have been somehow smuggled out by some elders and these were the only source of warmth for all of us (a maximum majority) who did not have them. This was in the dead of the freezing nights and we were made to sit still all through morning till afternoon and then we were “set free”. In between all this we would have to parade before cleanly arranged military vehicles inside which the “informers” would peek out to obtain a “suspect militant”. And whenever a boy was “pointed out” he would beaten to the pulp and then thrown inside the vehicle after covering his head with a gunny sack or something akin to that.
The women folk were allowed to weep inside their houses and were not forced to come out. Most women or perhaps all of them preferred to overlook the “crowd under crackdown” and as soon as a mother saw that her brother, son or husband had been “pointed out” she along with all the other women would start beating their chests and crying for justice. Obviously their shrieks fell on deaf ears. All this was a routine with around three to four “crack downs” scheduled each week. And I don’t believe that an outsider could ever gauge the depth of the fear and pain that the “crack downs” brought forth.
Eventually what we have gone through as Kashmiris would ever come out in the open without the narratives. Some sincere attempts have been made or so I hear but we need to focus harder.
