Begging in Our Name

Some people manipulate empathy in mainland India for personal gain, eroding trust and leaving honest Kashmiri students and professionals to bear the stigma.

- Aamir Altaf

I came to Hyderabad with the same lives as anyone leaving home: to study, work, and build a future. But on the streets of this city, I came across a side of our own people I had never imagined.

Men and women from the Pir Panjal region, the Chenab Valley, and the Kashmir Valley were not here for education or employment. They were here to beg.

They slept on footpaths, huddled outside shops, and waited near places of worship. Their pleas were carefully crafted, invoking hunger, oppression, and faith.

“We have no food at home,” they said. “The state has left us helpless.”

They begged “in the name of Allah,” twisting our community's values of empathy into a tool for manipulation.