I am a young man, all of 18 years belonging to Kashmir. From the time I can remember, I have not seen lasting peace in Kashmir. I have never known what a normal life is. Bullets, soldiers, mobs, terrorists, bombs – these are the words and scenes I have heard and witnessed since childhood. My schooling has been haphazard. In college, classes are not held regularly. Every other day either there is a ‘bandh’ called by the separatists or a curfew clamped by the government. Each morning, especially during periods of unrest, every Kashmiri is apprehensive as to what the day has in store for him. You may ask what does the average Kashmiri want. I will answer that. I want peace, I want normalcy, I want students to be able to study; I want people to be able to work, to run their businesses and not have to live in fear and uncertainty all the time. When Omar Abdullah took over as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir last year, I had hopes that the course of Kashmir may at last change, that we would begin to lead normal lives. But alas, that was not to be. His intentions seem to be good, but his inexperience is obvious. He lacks competent advisors and the separatists seem to have taken advantage of these shortcomings. As a result the situation is going from bad to worse. Those Kashmiris who side with Pakistan do not realise that for that country, Kashmir is just a pawn to be used against India. True, in the initial years after independence Kashmir was what Pakistan wanted, but they have since moved to ‘loftier’ goals – instability in India, balkanization of Indian states, destabilization of the economy, at least that is what Indians say. So if the Kashmiris think that Pakistan is fighting for them they are only fooling themselves. There were some stone-throwing incidents in Kashmir recently and I was shocked to know that some of my acquaintances were also involved. They are actually ordinary people like me; they are just giving vent to their frustrations. Seeing one’s city crippled everyday does make one feel utterly helpless. I know that being with India is in the best … [Read more...]
If I were a ‘Dongria Kondh’ tribal
“I belong to the Dongria Kondh tribe of Orissa, which is much in the news today. A multinational company Vedanta Resources wants to mine the bauxite of our revered Niyamgiri mountain. Luckily for us, Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh has taken his portfolio seriously and has downright rejected this proposal. Rahul Gandhi has declared that he is our ‘sipahi’. Well, let me start at the very beginning. There are many Kondh tribes in the Dandakaranya region and Dongria Kondh with a population of around 8,000 is one among them. We believe that the forests we live in were created from the body of a demon killed by one of our kings. The trees, grass, creepers around us are called considered parts of this demon’s body. I am one of those few in our tribe, who can read and write and I am taking it upon myself to spread word about us. Near where we live, stay other tribal people who agreed or were forcibly made to agree to give up their land for the same company to build a refinery. We see these people suffering today, troubled with problems like loss of means of livelihood and polluted water, and we, the men, women and children of the Dongria Kondh tribe have decided not to suffer the same fate, come what may! The cheek of these people, they want to blast the home of our god, Niyamraja! Have these people taken leave of their senses? The god, who sustains us, who provides us food from the bounty of the forests, who provides water from the streams, who provides us our livelihood – how will we survive if his abode is destroyed? If it was a place of worship of any other religion would they have dared to do it? It is sad that even the Orissa government which should have fought on our side has teamed up with this company. They do not seem to even bother that our tribe may soon be extinct; yes, if Niyamgiri is destroyed, the Dongria Kondhs will also disappear. In fact it is the knowledge of this fact that has given us the strength to fight. We would prefer to go down fighting. Here we are, living peacefully by ourselves, planting a few crops and selling … [Read more...]
Connect & Follow If I Were