Peace
is something which every nation, every society, every community and every
individual aspires to attain. Even all the great religions of the world have
the ultimate aim of achieving peace. But the question that first arises is that
why peace is so important? A little thought to this question made me realise
that there is an inner calling for peace inside every individual and every soul
wants peace. Moreover it is in times of peace that civilizations have greatly
advanced.
Peace
in context of Kashmir
Walter
R Lawrence in his book “The Valley of Kashmir” written more than a century
above mentions a very important point that the crime rate in Kashmir is almost
zero. In his opinion there was no need of a policeman! These observations by
him give us a very important insight into the psychology of Kashmiris. It tells
us that Kashmiris by their very nature were peace loving people. And people
today also have the same gene pool, meaning that they too are inherently, by
their very nature, Peace loving.
The
events of the past seven decades have however disturbed this peace in Kashmir
and we all are familiar with these events. When you loose a thing, its only
then that you realise its value. Same is the case with peace in Kashmir. Loss
of peace here has not only led to loss of tourism, economy and precious lives,
but it has deeply scarred the minds of the people. Trauma, pessimism and
hopelessness have deeply been woven into the fabric of the society and peace
seems to be the need of the hour, more than ever.
Kashmir-
Peace and stake holders
Kashmir
is what the books of history call a conflict zone and as is case with every
conflict in the world, there are various stake holders who hold key positions
and can play a very important role in resolving that conflict. The three major
stake holders in Kashmir conflict according to my understanding of the problem
are
Ø India
Ø Pakistan
Ø The people of Kashmir
Although
all the stake holders in this conflict are important, but keeping in view the
past history, it seems that at least for the time being, it is impracticable to
expect something from India or Pakistan. As such I would like to focus my
attention on the people of Kashmir and how they could work towards the
development of a peaceful Kashmir. This also seems to me the most practical
way, because right now Kashmiris are not in a position to influence any of the
two countries in their decisions. But what we can do is to work jointly among ourselves
at various levels so that each individual does his bit to make Kashmir better,
peaceful and prosperous.
How
leaders lead here- Lessons from Eidgah
Born
in 1989, I have some hazy memories of my childhood. I remember the processions
and the aazadi slogans. I do not remember singing any songs in my childhood but
I do remember shouting, “Hum kya chahtay Aazadi” in a babbling, half broken
voice. Infact these are the earliest words I remember I have spoken. I do not
remember childhood voices of mummy, Abu ji (father), Daadi (grandmother),
Tootha (grandpa), but strangely I do remember these slogans of aazadi.
However
with age I began to divert my attention to slogans and things other than
aazadi. It all used to go well for some time, but then again there was a blast
or a human rights violation case which used to pinch my conscience and shout
out, “something is wrong”. Whatever this “wrong” was, I had adapted myself to
live with it. “Wrong” just seemed to be a part of life now. But the 2008 and
2010 protests (Ragda Ragda, as we lovingly call it) did make me realise that we
cannot always live this way.
“Eidgah
Chalo” in 2008 was a real eye opener. Distance from my home to eidgagh is about
10 kilometres. On that day, all roads were leading to Eidgah. I too went there,
only after having an altercation with my mom, who was never up for it. I walked
those 10 kilometres and did not board a bus, because like many others I wanted
to feel the air of aazadi. Walking down the streets and then the by lanes of Down
town seemed to take me down the memory lane, back to my childhood when
processions were the order of the day. Seeing a 2 year old child in underwear,
shouting in a half broken voice, “Aazadi, Aazadi” made me remember my own
childhood. 18 years ago it was me who was in place of this child!
Reaching
Eidgah, I saw the biggest procession of my life. I had never seen so many
people. I met an old man who told me that he had left his native village before
Fajr prayers, so as to reach Eidgah on time. Such was the enthusiasm of the
people. Seemed like the fabled “Aazadi” is just round the corner. I certainly
expected the leadership to deliver that day. But to my utter disappointment and
shock, nothing happened. The microphone did not work that day. No attempts were
made deliver a message. People said
their prayers and left. All I asked myself was, “Is this a joke?” What kind of
leaders do we have, if they are not able to capitalise on such an opportunity?
I realised that expecting miracles from this leadership is asking for too much
and that the need of the hour is that each one of us, on an individual level
and then a collective level too should try to contribute in a small way for
building up of peace in Kashmir. Moreover seeing the disunity among the various
leaders here, only cements my belief.
Thus
I am not writing in this essay about the Indo-Pak dimension of the problem, or
that related to the Kashmiri leadership (Seperatists or mainstream), but about
the steps and actions which we as individuals of this society need to take, so
that Kashmir moves towards peace.
Sometime
ago I saw a cartoon drawn by one of my friends (Samurah Kashmiri), and it really got me thinking.
The cartoon is shown below:
This
cartoon demonstrates an important truth about the Kashmir scenario, the truth
that the real solution of the Kashmir problem lies with the people of Kashmir
and not with any outsider and that if we have to look for a solution, we must
look for it within ourselves. Personally I believe that for a peaceful Kashmir
we need to work regarding three major aspects of the society
- Economic development
- Moral and social
development
- Intelligentsia development
Economic
development
A sound economy is a very important for a society,
and it’s even more important for a conflict ridden society. In a conflict ridden
society, economic backwardness leads to poverty and distrust which in turn
leads to violence in the society, and thus the society plunges into an abyss. The
valuable human resource which needed to build the society is forced to think
about survival and thus each day is a struggle. Today Kashmir lacks economic development,
and that may lead to very serious consequences in the future. The need of the
hour is the economic reconstruction of the society at many levels. As far as I
can envision, the following steps must be taken for revitalization of the
Kashmir economy
Promotion
of entrepreneurship: - With no government
jobs around and no significant private sector in Kashmir, the youth here feel
frustrated every single day. There is no culture of entrepreneurship. With the
conflicted nature of Kashmir, it is impractical to expect huge investments in
Kashmir, which the people here should accept. However this should not be
treated as a handicap, but as an opportunity, because it means very less
competition, huge avenues for growth and a large market. Entrepreneurship must
be encouraged here and various fields like medicinal plants, leather industry, food
processing industries, recycling industries should be set up. Society should
encourage entrepreneurship, rather than discourage it.
Building
on what we have: - If we look at our
past, we would see that Kashmiris were never with a begging bowl in their
hands. They used to work. Some were carpet weavers, some potters, some
woodcarvers, some coppersmiths, some shepherds and so on. The problem with our
society today is that we have lost the dignity of labour. These kinds of works
are being looked down upon. What we do not understand is that problem lies not
with these professions, but with the fact that we have not upgraded and
introduced technology into these professions and as such we generate low
revenue. Kashmiris were highly skilled and were well renowned throughout the
world, these trades are our strong points and for sustainable economic
development we just need to improvise on these professions, rather than shunning
them.
Conservation
of our resources: - Kashmir has been
blessed with many natural resources and the biggest challenge for now is to
conserve them. Our forest resources, for example have suffered tremendously via
the smugglers who have taken full advantage of the uncertain conditions. Need
of the hour is to protect and nourish those forests and each individual should
take it upon himself to prevent deforestation, which would not only prevent
environmental degradation but will also provide for employment in near future.
Another major resource diminishing at a fast rate is agricultural land, which
is being lost to fast growing unplanned construction. This would have serious
repercussions as agriculture forms the backbone of this state. We need to stop
this madness of making palatial houses and flat systems should be introduced.
Moral
and social development
As far as moral and social spheres are considered, we need to look more into
our past than into our future. From our past we can learn a lot about being a
morally and socially just society, and we must look forward to be the same
again. The various measures needed for developing a peaceful society are
Looking
after the poor and downtrodden: - The conflict
itself has created many orphans and widows. The poor and downtrodden of the
society need to be looked after by each one of us, so that they are not
alienated from the society and do feel as a part of the society. Thus they
would contribute towards the society in a positive way. On the other hand, if
we do otherwise this would lead to economic disparity and division of the
society. This division would also lead to increase in crime rate, drug abuse
and other social evils as we are seeing now-a-days.
Better
education: - Curriculum needs to be revised
and we need inculcate practical knowledge. The stress should be laid more on
the practical part than upon memorization. Moreover moral education needs to be
provided to our children in schools. This would lead to upbringing of highly
educated and morally upright members of the society.
Communal
harmony: - Kashmiri Pandits formed an
integral part of our society. For sustainable peace there must be initiative
from among the people to facilitate their return back to the valley. The
Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Christians must live in a harmony and mutual respect
and understanding.
Returning
back to Islam:-More than 95 percent
of the population of Kashmir is Muslim and need of the hour is to return back
to the basic teachings of Islam. Islam itself means peace and the Islamic
greeting, “Salaam-u-Alaikum" means, “May peace be upon you". Thus in
a way our religion is about peace, peace not only at individual level, but at
community level, national level and even about global level. If we follow our
religion sincerely, peace will just come to us. Our valley is known as the, “Valley
of saints” and these great Sufis have taught us peace. All we need to do is
follow their teachings.
Freedom
from the captivity of negativity:-I
look around myself and I see that currently in our society there is too much of
negativity, scepticism and pessimism. There is hopelessness in people. Maybe it
is because of the conditions in our recent past, but that does not mean that we
must look at everything and everyone through the prism of negativity. We must
always have hope in a better future and belief in our abilities. As Iqbal said
about this land
"Zara
namm ho, tau yeh mitti badi zarkhez hai saaqi"
Protection
of our language: - In his 2011 Sydney
Peace Prize lecture, Noam Chomsky, known as the Father of Modern Linguistics
said," A language is more than just sounds and words. It is the repository
of culture, history, traditions, the entire rich texture of human life and
society. Loss of a language is a serious blow not only to the community itself
but to all of those who hope to understand something of the nature of human
beings, their capacities and achievements". Our language is fast being
lost due to our negligence. Some people even feel ashamed to talk in Kashmiri.
What they fail to realize is that language is one of the strongest bonds that
joins us as Kashmiris. If we loose our language, we loose our sense of
belonging to a community, and then it hardly seems plausible that we would work
towards that community’s peaceful development.
The
other half: - We must always remember that
here we have only one part of Kashmir and the other part is on the other side
of the border. We must try that there
must be trade, travel and other activities like student exchange programs
between the two parts of Kashmir. Also we must press for easier cross border
travel to the other part of Kashmir.
Intelligentsia
development
We
as a community need to nurture and nourish our youth so that from them we are
able to develop intelligentsia who would be able to foresee and deal with the
growing number of challenges which we will be facing in our future. They would
be trained and developed so that we are able to have better leaders trained in
skills like critical thinking, adaptive leadership and effective negotiation
etc. A better intelligentsia would mean better ability of the society to make
its decisions.
What
we need to always keep in mind is that it is all a very slow process. Attaining
peace may be difficult but it is not impossible. All we need to realise that
there are hardships, but when in the history of this world have worthwhile
things been achieved without enduring hardships, and if we work hard enough
towards our goal, we will achieve it.
Insha-Allah!
“Surely Allah does not change the condition of a
people until they change their own condition” (Ar-Rad, Chapter 13, Ayah 11)
“But lo! With hardship goeth ease” (Al-Inshirah, Chapter 94, Ayah 5)
PS- This article was written by me around 4 years ago for the Sajid Iqbal Foundation essay contest and won me the fifth prize. However with time, thoughts, ideas and outlook changes and today even I don't agree with the few things I said above. Criticism is welcome, after-all we all need to learn!