The youth of Kashmir fight for freedom. The government struggles to control. And primary school kids take action!
Primary school students protest against unrest in Kashmir Valley
A group of primary school students from Ganderbal staged a demonstration to protest against the never-seeming-to-end unrest in Kashmir. There were about 20 students who walked with placards that read, "We want freedom from poverty, we want freedom from illiteracy, we want freedom from backwardness".
It is heartening to know that young school kids, still in their prime were motivated to spread this message. What the older men, with years of experience, sitting in the highest wings of the government could not do, young minds, still trying to learn the ways of the world, did. They brought to light a bigger cause - their right to freedom of education. Educational institutes in Kashmir have been closed for up to two months now, hampering the education process of Kashmiri students.
Angry onlookers at the demonstration were heard saying -
"What about the lives of 65 people, who were mostly students and died in the police and CRPF firing since June 11? Did not they have a right to live?"
“Our kids are being killed day in and day out by the forces. At the moment, their life is supreme to us, not their education."I sympathize with the onlookers and perhaps they have a reason to be agitated with the authorities (though I smell political gains from these protests than an actual need felt for freedom from India). But how can the Kashmiri youth be so sure that the new men who come into power in independent Kashmir will work for the betterment of its people? Kashmir's welfare lies in the social upliftment of its people - their freedom from illiteracy, poverty and backwardness, rather than their freedom from the country.
The future of Kashmir should not be sacrificed for its present. Every action they take must be well thought out and in the interest of this generation as well as the next, not just a vent out of boiling blood. I wish the youth of Kashmir would learn a lesson from their younger counterparts.
Nice post again kira :)
ReplyDeleteas we all know that kashmir is facing pak's threat and what i think is that most of the living their are in fovour of pakistan so they don't allow any developement or change to take place. and as we know since independence foreign countries have eye on her. and it is an international issue so foreign countries don't allow anything changing in kashmir as they might face some threat to their country.
ReplyDelete@ Debojit: Thank you!
ReplyDelete@ Manisha: The people living in Kashmir are in favor of independence. Kashmir is not an international issue. It is an Indian state. Why should it be anybody other than Indians' business?
Kashmir would probably be better off materially in India. But sometimes people are willing to sacrifice riches for self-determination. Freedom's price?
ReplyDeletePlus, some Kashmiris have convinced themselves that having control over their hydropower, tourism, minerals, and handicrafts trade would leave an independent Kashmir better off.
I feel for the kids who just want to go to school. I also feel for the kids who have told me they are willing to die in order for Kashmir to be independent and the heavy presence of Indian forces removed.
@ Ben: I agree with you. But to extend the idea of self-determination from a nation to an individual, I don't know how much free choice of one's own actions the Kashmiris will have, without external compulsion i.e. the new government's dictats. I hope they know what they're doing.
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