I Dread to Think

Here is a writer’s description of executing a difficult job with craft: “throwing a lamb chop past a hungry wolf”. If it was only this difficult, and needed just this much craft, politics in Kashmir would have flourished. But doing principled, and direct politics in Kashmir is like rescuing a lamb chop from the ravenous wolves. You have to put your hand straight into the deadly jaws.

Leave the distant past, even the recent; just look around your and start counting. How many families suffered ruin just because a member was associated with some resistance group. Charged with different cases, usually a string of them, they are put to perpetual imprisonment. They are subjected to inhuman treatment. Their families suffer endlessly. The condition of these political activists, and leaders, poignantly reminds us of the actual cost of the actual politics in Kashmir.

Just this week, wife of a prominent political activist Shahid-ul-Islam suffered brain haemorrhage. Shahid, a militant commander turned a member of a political party, is facing imprisonment. We all know why they are facing, what they are facing. We also know how pathetic the condition of prisoners like Shahid, is. Shahid has two little daughters, and his wife is now faced with a serious health problem. We might differ with the manner resistance groups sometimes conduct their activities. But is it the particular conduct that brings wrath of the lords on them. Never. They are penalised for what they are, and not for what they are charged with.

Shahid’s is not the lone case. Every day we come across such news; how hard the life of a political prisoner in Kashmir is. And those who are lodged in jails outside Kashmir, and outside J&K, suffer doubly. This is the straight outcome of them joining a politics that speaks of the actuality of Kashmir. The very first act of democratic politics in Kashmir is treated as extreme form of crime.  Because democracy in Kashmir begins with the fundamental question of Right to Self.

 Intellectual, and discursive, treatment comes later, what strikes as a ton of bricks in the first place, is how huge the cost of politics in Kashmir is. It weighs you down. What must the people like Shahid be going through each moment of their life. It terrifies. You walk straight into flames.  You only last till you are ashes. This is the cost of politics in Kashmir.

Politics is a forbidden flame in the hell called Kashmir. You touch it and the wrath of the lords descends. You lose your right to burn in this hell, a normal way. The scale and speed of your ruination goes up, to a maddening level. Ask those who faced this repression.

This is an expression of pain. In this situation one can pray for some providential help. In this world of humans one can tell the tale of this repression to as many as one can. May be someone seriously attempts to hold back the hand of repression. One can take it to the civilian spaces in India and show them the face of the state they are the citizens of. But what can be done here – that is the question we all need to answer.

Some people have answered it by presuming that the question doesn’t exist. We wrongly name them as mainstream parties. They thrive on hypocrisy, perfidy, and lying. Some say there is no scope for any kind of politics, and to atone for the sins committed in 1947, the only canticle is AK-47.

The climate of control in Kashmir won’t allow any large scale growth of a plant called politics. We have to be content with what can actually grow in our land, before this climate changes. The lesson is not to escape politics, but to strive with ingenuity; find some small spaces to sow the seeds of politics in Kashmir. The seeds that are not genetically modified, and the space that is our own.

This state finally wants to melt the strength of my society. It works hard on how to produce an individual of its design. We need to work on these two; an individual less vulnerable to the wiles of this state, and a society less accessible to this state. That makes my politics original, and lasting. Any occasional protest, or some sensational eruption, against this climate of control would pay only if we ensure a formidable society, and a strong individual.

mrvaid@greaterkashmir.com