Smoke & Mirrors

In the process of slaying a shadow, the silhouette has been sharpened

- Haseeb A. Drabu

CIRCA 2014. Halfway through election campaigning, it occurred to me that the issues of azaadi, autonomy and Article 370 were never raised in any of the meetings, anywhere. Not once was it asked of me where I stood on these. Even in private conversations with people—farmers, shopkeepers, traders, and agricultural labourers—the National Conference’s demand for ‘autonomy’ or the PDP’s concept of ‘self-rule’ were never mentioned, even in passing.

The reason for this, it turned out, was simple: people didn’t see these mainstream parties as having any role in the resolution of the Kashmir issue. These parties were only about governance and, in the words of John Lewis, the civil rights pioneer, about “good trouble”. Nothing more. Nothing less either! Coexisting with this was the palpable separatist sentiment that one could sense and see. The families of militants—dead or alive—were respected. They were invariably seen as the “village elders” who exercise influence that comes with upward social mobility. Over the years, socially, militancy had become a rite of passage.

The same people who would attend election rallies would also attend the funerals of militants. In their mind there seemed no conflict between the two. The former was an individual obligation born out of material needs, while the latter was a collective desire engendered by a certain understanding of political history. These two worlds were not reconciled with each other but inevitably coexisted. In between, of course, there were occasions of confrontation.