A Letter for Kashmir.

Should we allow people to face the monster of the system alone? Or is the system supposed to protect them from the monster?

To whom this may concern,

Hoping you are well, I understand the current state of our politics (UK) is very stressful. However, this does not mean we can allow issues to slide away and be avoided.

“So, military and paradise, bulletproof jackets and the veil; breath taking vistas of mountains and crystal lakes are projected through barbed wire. Darkened army bunkers, the alert eyes of battle-ready soldiers watch over not an enemy or a border but school children, women going shopping, men delivering goods. And the certainty of yet another militant attack, blood, limbs, followed by reprisals by the armed forces. Such is the state of ‘normalcy’ into which children [in Kashmir] are born and raised. A cycle institutionalized and ritualized since the advent of militancy in 1991.”

This quote is taken from the 2012 documentary film, Inshallah Kashmir by Ashvin Kumar.

It quite succinctly and dare I say poetically highlights the paradox in the lives of our Kashmiri brethren living in one of the most beautiful and unfortunately, most militarised areas in the world -with reports of 500000+ Indian soldiers occupying Jammu and Kashmir.

Let me clarify, when I say our, I do mean you and me and all of us. They are our men, our women, our children. They are human beings. Their blood is our blood and their tears should be ours also. Their struggle is ours.

It’s not a struggle you hear about much. Honestly, I didn’t know how deep the well of pain went until I joined my father at a protest in February 2019. But, for the Kashmiri people this isn’t new at all.

For our people, conflict has become the norm.

Let me briefly remind you of the numbers which you must have seen before — over 60000 official dead in the last decades, ~8000 currently unaccounted disappearances, thousands displaced, mutilated, suffering and struggling to gain aid, and human rights violations on both sides.

Many of these are of preposterous scales with laws passed that promote impunity for the transgressors.

In the words of the report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (link below): “Special laws in force in the state, such as the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA) and the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 (PSA), have created structures that obstruct the normal course of law, impede accountability and jeopardize the right to remedy for victims of human rights violations.”

As human beings this is an issue that those of us with comfort and resources, with unsilenced voices and power, should maintain attention to and actively work with all participating bodies to manifest a fair and righteous solution.

We need to set examples.

Talk about it. Share their stories. Do not forget them!

From the mass graves to those blinded by pellet guns to all those missing with no inquiry, what do you say? What is your response to Parveena Ahangar of the association of the parents for disappeared persons? Children, as young as 8 years old, are being violently killed or raped or stolen away from families who do not have the power to do more than cry and shout, throw stones and riot, until those voices can again be suppressed.

Should we allow people to face the monster of the system alone? Or is the system supposed to protect them from the monster?

When I say monster, I don’t mean brutal soldiers or corrupt politicians. Yeah, those dudes could do with some serious CBT, but I’m talking about the monster you don’t see. The one we all have lurking — but only arises in those certain conditions.

Of course, for each person that situation is different.

This monster I speak of is the one that tricks you into seeing no links between you and the ones at the other end of the stick. The one that diminishes your empathy as you hear story after story of people being put through pain and torment. The monster that tells you that you don’t need to do anything — you can’t do anything. That monster takes a few names. Greed, fear — but words alone cannot provide justice. Only actions can.

Take action.

Is this the world you would allow your children to grow up in? One where others just like us suffer and we sit idly by, grateful that it is not us in those positions? When a child asks why is it they suffer, why are those people killed and why do we do nothing, what will be our response?

Shit, if my little sister, who just turned 11, asks me why a child who looks just like her is allowed to be destroyed, I think I’d break. No words, I would just cry. And if, when she gets to 12, 14, or 24 and she turns to me and asks me why this is still happening? What the fuck did I do to help? I pray I have a stronger answer for her than prayers and tears.

Like many of the issues in the less economically established places of the world, there is a long history of narcissistic exploitation by those in power and yet no matching guilt to own up for issues caused. Unfortunately, 70 years after partition, after wars and occupation, after unlawful killings, rape and disappearances, today the only time the world seems to care of the people of Kashmir is when the two nuclear big brothers on either side decide to fight over it.

Perhaps it is truly a territorial dispute over who feels most entitled. Maybe they’re arguing over who gains greater influence of Kashmiri resources, it’s minerals, and of course the Indus River and all it’s potential. Regardless, those who suffer are not in Delhi or Islamabad — they are in the valley.

What happens to them if that fight becomes a war?

Do your research. Take Action!

Both in Pakistani and Indian occupied Kashmir there are reports of unnecessary force, unjust internments and dismissals of freedom of speech. As pathetic as our UK government seems right now — with this whole Brexit malarkey and tory meltdown — at least we still have some semblance of freedom.

We must return to these people the honour, the rights all living beings should have and push for the demilitarisation of Kashmir in entirety and for the promised plebiscite so they may themselves choose their way forward.

We must show the people, of Kashmir, Asia and the world, that the true spirit of democracy is not dead. We will not let it be beaten, blinded, shot and destroyed. Kashmir deserves freedom. Everybody does.

I end this first of, hopefully few, but predictably many related writings with another quote from the documentary film, (which I urge you to watch and share), this time from a cartoonist who has suffered first hand from the issues created, Sajaad Malik;

“I’m fine mom, it feels like home here. What is home? Home is also a torture cell. I have no identity [at] this time. Outside [of Kashmir] I am being treated like a terrorist, here I am being treated like a slave. I need my space. We need it badly”

I am very grateful for your time.

But how much time do we have left?

Use your Voice. Do your research. TAKE ACTION!

Yours Sincerely
AFR.

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