Kashmir's Societal Mirror: How Our Collective Deeds Shape Crisis & Policy

The Mirror of Our Making: How Kashmir’s Societal Choices Shape Its Reality

By: Javid Amin | 14 December 2025

A Valley at a Crossroads

In the shadow of the Pir Panjal, where the air carries the scent of alpine meadows and the weight of unspoken stories, Kashmir finds itself navigating a crisis that is as much spiritual as it is political. Beyond the well-documented geopolitical narratives, a deeper, more introspective struggle is unfolding—one that speaks to the soul of its society. The Qur’an offers a timeless lens for this moment: “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” (13:11). Closer to the bone is the profound principle that “Your leaders would be made as per your doings (A’amal).”

This is not fatalism; it is divine social science. It posits that the character of our governance, the ethics of our markets, and the very fabric of our daily lives are a collective reflection. For Kashmir today, this reflection reveals a troubling portrait. Our pursuit of sustenance and security—Roti, Kapda, Makaan—has become entangled in a web of moral compromises that are now manifesting as systemic failures. This ground report, built on cross-verified facts, local testimonies, and documented incidents, delves into how our collective a’amal are being mirrored back to us, from poisoned food to punitive policies. It is a call to look inward, for the reformation of our destiny begins there.

The Betrayal of Trust – When Noble Professions Turn Predatory

The Classroom as a Marketplace

The Kashmiri teacher, once the revered Moulvi Sahab or Guru, embodied the transmission of knowledge (ilm) and character (tarbiyat). Today, that social contract is fraying. The privatisation of ambition has transformed education into a ruthless industry. According to a 2023 report by the Jammu and Kashmir Committee on Private Schools, over 60% of complaints received from parents pertained to arbitrary fee hikes and coercive charges for “smart classes,” “international curricula,” and “personality development” modules that often exist only in brochures.

The exploitation is systematic:

The Textbook and Uniform Nexus: Schools frequently mandate purchases from a single, often in-house, supplier at prices 30-50% above market rates. A 2022 investigation by the Department of Consumer Affairs in Srinagar found a private school in Rajbagh charging ₹2,500 for a standard polyester uniform set available elsewhere for ₹1,600.
The Shadow Tutoring System: A ground survey conducted by this correspondent across ten private schools in Pulwama and Baramulla revealed that over 70% of subject teachers simultaneously run private tuition centres. Crucially, critical portions of the syllabus are deliberately reserved for these paid sessions, making coaching not a supplement but a compulsory, parallel education system. This creates an apartheid of access, where a child’s academic success is tied directly to a family’s ability to pay twice.

The result is a generation learning a dangerous hidden curriculum: that ethics are secondary to profit, and that gatekeeping knowledge for monetary gain is acceptable. When we, as parents, silently accept this—prioritizing branded schooling over holistic learning, or chasing marks at any cost—we participate in the erosion of this noble profession.

The Medical Mafia: A Ecosystem of Exploitation

The healthcare crisis in Kashmir is a stark case study in institutionalised opportunism. The doctor-patient bond, sacred in Islamic ethics and humanitarian practice, is being severed by a triad of greed: the prescription racket, the diagnostic lab nexus, and the pharmaceutical mafia.

Commission-Driven Care: Multiple healthcare professionals, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal, confirmed to this reporter a well-established practice of “referral commissions.” A simple case of gastritis can trigger a mandatory referral to a specific private lab for an endoscopy, costing upwards of ₹4,000, with a cut for the referrer. Data from the J&K Health Department shows a 300% increase in the number of private diagnostic imaging centres in the Valley between 2015-2023, far outstripping population growth.
The Fake and Substandard Medicine Menace: The problem is not just over-prescription, but wrongful prescription. In 2023, the Jammu and Kashmir Drug and Food Control Organisation seized spurious and not-of-standard-quality (NSQ) drugs worth over ₹1.5 crore in raids across three districts. These included antibiotics with negligible active ingredients and painkillers laced with chalk powder. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 10% of medical products in developing nations are substandard or falsified; in conflict-affected regions, that figure can be higher.
The Lab Test Labyrinth: An investigative report by The Kashmir Monitor in 2024 detailed how some labs manipulate results—showing false positives to prolong treatment or normalising alarming readings for a fee. The patient, armed with a potentially fabricated diagnosis, is trapped in a cycle of fear and expenditure.

This isn’t mere corruption; it’s a betrayal of the Hippocratic Oath and the Islamic injunction to relieve suffering. When we, as a society, seek shortcuts, demand instant cures, or judge a doctor’s prowess by the modernity of their clinic rather than their compassion, we feed this ecosystem. Our a’amal in valuing material signs of success over intrinsic worth have allowed healing to become a transaction.

The Assault on Sustenance and Soul

The Poisoned Plate: From Halal to Harmful

Kashmir’s relationship with food is cultural and spiritual. Yet, the quest for profit has contaminated this most basic trust.

The Adulterated Milk Crisis: A study published in the International Journal of Chemical Studies (2022) analysed 100 milk samples from Srinagar and found that 68% were adulterated, with contaminants including detergent, starch, and urea—a chemical compound used in fertiliser. This “white poison” is linked to renal and gastrointestinal damage in children.
Toxic Poultry and Meat: Investigations by local news channel Rising Kashmir uncovered the use of growth-promoting steroids in poultry farms, leading to birds reaching market weight in 35 days instead of 60. Veterinarians warn these steroids can disrupt human endocrine systems. Furthermore, the “Halal” label is often reduced to a ritualistic slaughter sticker, with little oversight on the animal’s health, the use of stunning, or hygienic processing, violating both Islamic law and food safety standards.
The Branded Deception: Even packaged goods are not immune. In 2023, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued alerts against several spice brands sold in Kashmir for containing unsafe colourants and excessive preservatives.

We are consuming harm, trading long-term health for cheap availability and visual appeal. The Qur’anic command is clear: “O mankind, eat from whatever is on earth that is lawful and good (tayyib)…” (2:168). Our collective a’amal—choosing the cheapest over the purest, ignoring source, and prioritising convenience—have made the marketplace a minefield.

The Silent War: Narcotics and the Targeted Decimation of Youth

Beyond food, a more direct chemical warfare is underway. Drug abuse is not a random social ill in Kashmir; it bears the hallmarks of a targeted crisis. Jammu and Kashmir Police data indicates a staggering 2000% increase in narcotics cases registered between 2017 and 2023. The substances have evolved from traditional cannabis to deadly synthetics like heroin, methamphetamine (ICE), and prescription opioids.

Ground Report from the Frontlines: At the Government Psychiatric Disease Hospital in Srinagar, doctors report that over 65% of new admissions in the youth ward are for substance use disorders. A counselor shared, anonymised for confidentiality, “We are seeing boys as young as 14 addicted to heroin. They speak of a sense of hopelessness, of trauma, and of peer networks where drugs are as easy to get as cigarettes.”
The Economic & Social Wreckage: The trade is lucrative, estimated to run into hundreds of crores annually in the Valley alone. It functions as a parallel economy, funding other illicit activities. The social cost is catastrophic: broken families, lost productivity, and a generation medicating its pain with poison. Community elders in Anantnag and Sopore speak of villages where every third household has a struggling addict. This erosion of human capital is a strategic defeat, and it thrives in an environment where moral policing often focuses on the superficial while this profound decay takes root.

Cultural Erosion: The Slow Fade of Kashmiriyat

Parallel to the drug epidemic is a softer, yet equally pervasive, assault on cultural identity. Kashmiriyat—the syncretic, artisan-rich, linguistic tapestry of the Valley—is being diluted.

Consumerism as Culture: A relentless media push glorifies a homogenised, materialistic lifestyle. The pheran is swapped for fast fashion, the shared Kangri warmth for individual heaters, and the intricate Sozni embroidery for printed logos.
Language in Retreat: The Kashmiri Language Initiative survey (2023) found that only 38% of urban households in Srinagar now use Kashmiri as the primary language with children under ten, favouring Urdu or English for perceived “social mobility.”
Policy as a Distraction: The constant churn of administrative changes, legal challenges, and daily survival struggles keeps the populace perennially distracted from nurturing its cultural core. When a society is busy scrambling for basics or navigating bureaucratic labyrinths, it has little energy left to safeguard its poetry, its crafts, or its unique worldview.

Our a’amal in devaluing our own heritage, in chasing a globalised identity at the expense of a rooted one, make us complicit in this erosion.

The Architecture of Frustration – Policies as a Mirror

When societal ethics decline, governance often reflects that coarseness. A series of policies, while perhaps legally justifiable in parts, are experienced by common Kashmiris not as governance but as punishment—a reflection of the collective harshness we have normalised.

1. The Bulldozer Policy: Trauma Without Transition

The drive to retrieve state land from “encroachment” is, in principle, a valid exercise. However, its implementation has been marked by a jarring lack of nuance and compassion, as per multiple ground reports.

Case Study – Baramulla, 2023: A 65-year-old farmer, Abdul Rashid (name changed), had tended an orchard on what was deemed “state land” for over 40 years, inheriting it from his father. He received a notice and, within 72 hours, a bulldozer arrived. His plea that he was willing to pay any regularisation fee or lease fell on deaf ears. The trees, his family’s livelihood for two generations, were crushed in an hour. This story, documented by local reporters, is not an exception.
The Psychological Impact: The abruptness, the visual violence of the bulldozer, and the irreversibility of the act create deep trauma and a sense of arbitrary injustice. It feels less like legal reclamation and more like a demonstration of raw power, echoing a societal trend where the powerful neglect gentle resolution.

2. The Reservation Shift: Fueling Division, Not Fairness

The 2023 changes to reservation laws in jobs and education, introducing new categories and altering percentages, have sparked profound anxiety. Regardless of the legal arguments, the social perception is critical. On the ground, it is widely seen as an alteration of a long-standing social contract, pitting community against community in a zero-sum scramble for shrinking opportunities. This fuels internal fissures, keeping people divided and distrustful—a classic reflection of a society where self-preservation has begun to eclipse collective solidarity.

3. The Power Paradox: Darkness in the Land of Energy

Kashmir’s rivers generate significant hydropower—an estimated 20,000 MW potential, with 3,500 MW already harnessed. Yet, the Valley faces crippling power cuts, especially in winter, and tariffs are among the highest in the region.

The Data: As per the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department, the Valley faces a demand-supply gap of about 15-20% in winter, leading to 8-12 hour cuts in many areas. Meanwhile, the J&K State Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved successive tariff hikes, increasing the average cost per unit by over 40% since 2019.
The Public Sentiment: This disconnect breeds a deep sense of exploitation. “We produce the electricity, we live in the cold, but we pay more and get less,” stated a business owner in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, a sentiment echoed in countless conversations. It mirrors an economic reality where the producer does not reap the benefit—a macro version of the farmer getting pennies for his apples while the middleman makes fortunes.

4. The “Smart City” Squeeze & Vehicle Registration Trap

As detailed earlier, policies like narrowing existing roads for theoretical pedestrian use, or creating punitive hurdles for vehicle re-registration, are experienced not as progress but as engineered frustration. They exemplify a top-down approach that ignores ground realities, reflecting a societal disconnect where the powerful are insensitive to the daily struggles of the common person.

Bottom-Line: The Path Forward – Reformation Begins Within

These interconnected crises—in professions, food, youth, culture, and governance—are not a series of unlucky events. They are, as the Qur’anic insight illuminates, a manifestation. “Your leaders would be made as per your doings (A’amal).” When a society normalises greed in its markets, apathy in its streets, and silence in the face of injustice, the system that emerges will institutionalise those very traits.

The solution, therefore, cannot be solely external. It must begin with a collective muhasabah (introspection) and islah (reformation).

Reclaiming Trust: We must revive the sacredness of the teacher-student and doctor-patient relationships. This starts by valuing ethics over expediency in our own choices.
Conscious Consumption: We must demand purity in our food and reject adulterated products, even if they are cheaper. Support local, ethical farmers and producers.
Community Shields: To combat drugs, communities must build networks of vigilance, support, and rehabilitation, moving beyond stigma to active love.
Cultural Courage: We must speak Kashmiri to our children, value our artisans, and take pride in the practices that define us sustainably.
Engaged Citizenship: We must hold power accountable, but with the moral authority that comes from first putting our own houses in order.

The Qur’an states: “Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” (13:11). Kashmir’s dawn will not come merely from a change in policy, but from a change in heart. It is a call to align our a’amal with justice, compassion, and integrity. When we do that, the reflection in the mirror—our society, our leadership, our future—will inevitably begin to change for the better. The time for that awakening is now.