STEPSONS OF THE SOIL

In battles between insurgents and paramilitary forces, the dead on both sides are often from marginalised groups

- Akash Poyam

ON 14 FEBRUARY LAST YEAR, in one the deadliest militant attacks in Kashmir, a suicide bomber drove a car filled with explosives into a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force, on the Jammu–Srinagar highway in Pulwama, killing 49 security personnel. The incident invigorated the reelection campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, which began using national security as its primary plank for the upcoming general election. The party’s supporters increased the pitch of their nationalist and anti-Pakistan rhetoric.

That same month, The Caravan published an article titled, “Urban uppercastes driving Hindutva nationalism have little representation among Pulwama’s slain jawans,” in which the journalist Ajaz Ashraf analysed the social background of the martyred jawans. Ashraf showed that while those propagating hyper-nationalism on social media are often upper-caste and upper-class, the soldiers who had lost their lives in the attack predominantly came from marginalised communities, such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. He argued that it was the marginalised who often had to pay the price for the fervent patriotism of the ruling elite.