Kashmir A Volcano

Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. The Indian media must learn to portray the conflict and human rights violations in the region in a more nuanced way, and not reduce Kashmir to a catalogue of death, destruction and emergency laws. More importantly, reporters need to engage with what it means to administer what has been called ‘the world’s most militarized zone.’ Only then can the country answer a more fundamental question: Just what should be done to create conditions that allow Kashmiris to choose their destiny? That, perhaps, is the only way to avoid further destruction in the region.”

Dear people of India and Pakistan! Let us try to resolve the Kashmir issue like nice, adult guys, even if it means letting go of our nationalist dogmas. Let Pakistan delete and ditch honestly and totally all the umbrellas of non-state actors, and let India thoroughly demilitarize its presence in Kashmir. Let us be willing to carve out a way which would allow the people of Kashmir to decide their fate for themselves —even if it leads to and results in the appearance and emergence of Kashmir as a fully separate and independent new state.

Let us realize that nation and flag and stuff are just symbols after all: working illusions and fictions which human beings have concocted through the accidents of history to cohere together and be productive. They are for human beings, human beings are not for them. Thus when you see that real human beings are suffering because of something symbolic, stop and know that things are being pushed too far. It takes no time for a constructive good to morph into an outright destructive evil —in fact this is the nature and essence of evil: it is misplaced heroism.
Let us compete in the field of sanity not war-mongering. Let us ignore and laugh and sneer at the jingoistic demagoguery of Zaid Hamids and Arnab Goswamis and bury them in shame and irrelevance. Let us focus on our common enemies: poverty and misery, illiteracy and ignorance, lack of basic healthcare and the general economic deficiency and impotency. Let us make universities, hospitals, welfare organizations, and trade and markets our reasons to be proud. Let us vie in refining and polishing the centuries old Sub-continental heritage we both have inherited: let us throw songs, films, dramas, poetry, and books brimming with ideas and philosophy on each other! —Now that is how the heroics of mature and healthy rivals looks like.

Meer Abass
Assistant Professor : Department Of English
Govt Degree College Handwara