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The Kashmir Files: Some random thoughts

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Suniel Parihar
Suniel Pariharhttp://sunielparihar.com
Suniel Parihar is an Indian Army veteran and a Positive Psychology Practitioner. A published author, he has written three books viz. India's Spy Agencies : Shaken Not Stirred , 70 Years of India's Independence ( coauthored) , and Heal Yourself to Happiness. When he is not writing, Suniel spends most of his time reading, cooking , meditating and being one with nature.

As the path breaking and a brutally honest film The Kashmir Files, continues breaking records at the box office, deflating bloated egos  of the Bollywood Biggies and exposing the false narratives of the Left Liberals, my thoughts take me back to the Kashmir where I lived the  formative years of  my life as a school boy and later as a soldier.

I intend keeping it short due to the time and space constraints. So, I will not dwell into the ancient history of Kashmir and how the land inhabited cent percent by Hindus once upon a time is now predominantly a Muslim land. I am not opening those files of Kashmir. I am not opening any files actually except for the ones that are embedded in my memory.  

My early memories are of the 60’s when I was studying in the junior wing of Presentation Convent school, Srinagar. Israelis had bombed a mosque in a neighboring country and so the local Muslims first stoned the school premises and later burnt one of the buildings. I remember some of the classes including mine were temporarily shifted to the youth hostel. We missed palatial ambience of the school and cursed the culprits even as the fire was declared accidental.

Sometime around that time in the late summer of 1967, Srinagar witnessed another prolonged period of chaos due to protests by Kashmiri Pandits, for a change. The Parmeshwari Agitation, as it’s commonly called, started due to an alleged kidnapping of a Pandit girl by her Muslim co-worker. You may want to read an interesting article about the agitation here: https://kashmirblogs.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/parmeshwari-agitation-1967/    

Later, when I shifted to the famous Tyndale Biscoe school, located near the more famous Lal Chowk, things became even more interesting. Whatever would be the cause of protests, stone pelters – yes, they have always been there – would invariably target the school building. However, live action that I once witnessed happened in the Bakshi Stadium, where I had gone to watch an Inter – University Football match between Punjab University and the Kashmir University. In the first half, when the local team scored a goal, the crowds went berserk and understandably so. In the second half, the visitors scored an equalizer and there was silence all around except for a bit of cheering from the Punjab team supporters, mainly the local Sikhs.

So far so good. However, towards the end of the match, the Punjab team scored another goal and that infuriated the crowds. There weren’t many stones around I guess, so some of them started throwing chairs and some were seen rushing to the playing arena. The police – I think it was CRPF – somehow managed to protect the players even as people became more violent. Tear gas shells were fired and sensing more trouble, I scooted from the scene and reached home. Later, police fired to disperse the crowd and there were a few casualties. So much for a football match.  

My school wasn’t the only place of action. I lived near Hari Singh High Street in downtown Srinagar, an area dominated by local Punjabis. Real action in which one was personally involved would happen there. We, the non – Kashmiris had occasional street fights with the neighbouring Kashmiri boys.  Surrounded by hostile neighbours our situation wasn’t much different than that of Israel and we fought with the Israeli spirit.

These occasional incidents and sloganeering for azaadi apart, overall the Kashmir in the 60s through better part of the 80s, was pretty peaceful. However, there was always an undercurrent of tension, if not outright animosity, between Kashmiri Muslims and the rest and one had got used to hearing “Indian dogs go back”.  Things started getting really hot in 1987 after the state assembly election was held and Farooq Abdullah was reappointed as the Chief Minister.

The election is widely perceived to have been rigged and is believed to have led to the militancy in Kashmir. Of course, as is well known, Pakistan did all she could to add fuel to the fire. But then Pakistan provided active support to militancy in Punjab as well, so how come it succeeded in Kashmir and not in Punjab? There could be many reasons but mainly there’s only one. Think about it. The answer is not hard to find.     

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Suniel Parihar
Suniel Pariharhttp://sunielparihar.com
Suniel Parihar is an Indian Army veteran and a Positive Psychology Practitioner. A published author, he has written three books viz. India's Spy Agencies : Shaken Not Stirred , 70 Years of India's Independence ( coauthored) , and Heal Yourself to Happiness. When he is not writing, Suniel spends most of his time reading, cooking , meditating and being one with nature.
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