India, Kashmir and the Gen-next

Unmistakably, the recent upheaval in Kashmir, occasioned by an expression of a submerged freedom sentiment, and tainted with blood, has brought a tectonic shift in the public opinion in India. Although the recent unrest has not engendered a similar response elsewhere in the world, there is no gainsaying that Kashmiri’s main target audience resides not in the capitals of Western or Eastern countries- whose foreign policy priorities are dictated by their national interests- but in their own backyard. In pursuit of their freedom objectives, Kashmiris need to engage their would-be emancipators who live across Kashmir’s borders in India and Pakistan.
The public in India needs education on the ground situation in Kashmir. Thanks to privatization of TV channels a new generation of Indian journalists, for example NDTV’s incisive Burkha Dutt, is slowly but steadily arriving on the scene. In a perfect world, the Indian TV channels would be expected to telecast the events in Kashmir as faithfully as dictated by fairness; but that is a topic for another day. Admittedly, some small opportunities for putting across the Kashmiri viewpoint have been afforded to the Kashmiri leadership by some of India TV channels. Furthermore, India is fortunate to have robust internet connectivity in the urban areas. This has only helped to speak to younger generation of India’s netizens. It is making a difference; India is coming of age.
India’s war with China was a turning point in redeeming it from lack of national self-confidence giving rise to a besieged mindset that has informed its national security and foreign policy doctrines. At the turn of the millennium, India’s social and economic turnaround has enabled it to look beyond the insecurities of partition. The revolution in the IT sector has dramatically changed India’s fortunes, and a new generation – the so-called GenNext- has been inviting increasing attention. It is not a mere coincidence that the confluence of factors such as widespread education and a flourishing economy etc. that has created a self-respecting and self-confident generation of Indians has also contributed to an awakening among the new generation of Kashmiri youths that something has been amiss in their lives and the lives of their shy and stoic predecessors. The Kashmiri youth’s desire to be counted among those who will not be trampled forever is matched only by their yearning to live peacefully among themselves within and peaceably with others outside their deeply wounded paradise. Add to this mix the desire among the current generation of India’s youth-- confident in their abilities and desiring to take India’s progress to the next level-- to see their country counted among the giants of this century. They are willing to confront the political and social issues facing their nation, a mere mention of which has been a bête noire of the preceding generations. Asking for resolution of Kashmir dispute is no more a taboo for the young Indians. The old habits die hard and the task is onerous indeed; nevertheless, India’s youth are beginning to question the validity of holding onto Kashmir against the wishes of its people. It is a small beginning but your first rupee is a starting point for your first hundred. Since youth are the future of any nation, the youths of India and Kashmir need to connect. This is not just a matter of political expediency or good neigbourliness but also a civilizational imperative. A beginning has to be made first in the hearts and minds of the India's younger generation. Let them ask what enrages their counterparts in Kashmir. The walls will come down tumbling, and the justice for Kashmiris will immediately follow.
Recently, several refreshing and daring articles have appeared in the columns of various Indian dailies and magazines encouraging India to ‘think the thinkable’. These articles have not only poured cold water on India’s claims over Kashmir, where swaths of people have been clamoring for freedom, but also highlighted the futility of holding on to Kashmir at high costs to the national budget and honor. They have also debunked the myth that the democratic and secular India will be broken asunder if Kashmir were to separate from the Indian federation. India is too big a country to fall part if Kashmir goes. India’s youth have been intently reading and watching K-news.
In this context, informed lessons are being drawn from the Serbia’s untenable claim that ‘Kosovo is Serbia’, and inseparable from the Serbian federation. Under the Kosovo Peace Plan of 1999, America and the European Union agreed to grant Kosovo ‘substantial autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’. However, after nearly two decades of uncertainty it was realized that the forced union was in the interest of neither the contesting parties nor the peace and security in the region. Kosovo’s independence being a new reality, Serbia’s GenNext has debunked the myth that Serbia was incomplete without Kosovo. In their recent parliamentary elections, they have displayed maturity to separate fact from fiction; they have affirmed the victorious Serb Democratic Party’s new thinking that life in Serbia could go on without Kosovo, and that Serbia’s potential integration with the European Union was more profitable in the long-run than the continued unjust and fruitless land grab in Kosovo. They have chosen reality over myth, and decided to move on.
The moral of Kosovo’s independence for India is that without addressing the issue of nationalist aspiration of Kashmiris in the valley and the surrounding areas, any attempts at achieving the desired territorial integrity or the desirable national integration, peace and progress will remain tentative.
Whereas the dire need for the Indian state to enforce its ‘writ’ on the streets of Kashmir- before it looses whatever legitimacy it retains- is understandable, what defies logic is its apparent belief that it can continue to suppress the deep-rooted popular sentiment for freedom in Kashmir by using brutal tactics through its coercive police- state mentality. Consider how Hitler wanted to extinguish India’s freedom struggle against the British. The consummate proponent of the ‘ final solution’ had advised the British ruler Lord Halifax in 1937 to “shoot Gandhi, and if that does not suffice to reduce them to submission, shoot a dozen leading members of Congress; and if that does not suffice, shoot two hundred and so on until order is established. You will see how quickly they will collapse as soon as you make it clear that you mean business.”
If you substitute, ‘shoot Gandhi’ with ‘shoot Kashmiris’ in the Hitler’s advice quoted above, it will become apparent that the Indian defense and security strategists have been assiduously consulting their history books, and unfortunately, drawing wrong inferences. If that is the case, they must then be ready to bear the consequences for their follies that are at once despicable and fruitless. The British wisely ignored Hitler’s advice not because they could not have implemented it but because this would have only accelerated the process of British demise in India, and advanced, by a few years, India’s (and Pakistan’s) birthday. It has been widely accepted, even by Gandhiji himself, that if it were not for the British democratic tradition and sophistication of their national temperament-- self-confidence and high self-esteem--they would have repeated several Jallianwala Bagh massacres. It was a conscious decision by a world power not to indulge in wanton killing of those who wanted their land vacated by a foreign occupier. It is time that India borrows a chapter from its own history, and draws appropriate lessons. It is India’s turn to show to the civilized world that it is a conscionable and a self-confident nation worthy of a great civilization; a nation where Gandhiji lived. India has much to gain from talking to Kashmiris and end the bloodshed there. The onus is on India's younger generation- -the GenNext. Now is the time.

Author is a US based Kashmiri