from an Indian Hindu friend,,,,
About Paradise On Earth, Kashmir.
CAN WE PERFORM BETTER IN OUR KASHMIR?
India is stuck, but the mould can be refurbished
Ashok V Desai
I have been in Kashmir again; I cannot think of a more beautiful place in India. As I write this, I am looking down on Dal Lake. On the other side are two hills; behind them are snow-clad mountains. I came first to Kashmir 58 years ago; though I have been here quite a few times since then, every time I come I feel I have spent too little time here.
And every time, I am exasperated with the Indian army. This time my vehicle was stopped at a barrier; I was made to get out and walk across past a soldier with a rifle ready to fire. It was a mildly unpleasant ritual I have experienced only in Kashmir; many Kashmiris no doubt experience it day after day through their lives. It leaves me with a bad taste about the army. The distaste does not extend further, because I know a lot of other Indians. But if I were a Kashmiri and encountered no Indians other than soldiers, I would hate Indians. I would also have a stereotype of Indians, which would include the murderers and rapists from the army that I have heard or read about.
These bored, hostile, sullen soldiers are not the only Indians that Kashmiris see. My flight to Srinagar was full of bubbly south Indians; my hotel was full of noisy Gujaratis. Both were typical Indians; they ignored their fellowmen, and behaved as if the world belonged to them. That is perfectly normal in urban India. In Srinagar, they behave exactly in the same way: they ignore Kashmiris. But Kashmiris routinely acknowledge and greet strangers. So in Srinagar, Indians look like products of science fiction.
They are not unique; foreign tourists on the beaches of, say, Italy, Spain or Algeria do not behave very differently. They have their own prejudices about lazy, dishonest locals; the locals have their own prejudices about fat, white, rich, lecherous foreigners. But they never express these feelings to each other; both sides do business with the minimum necessary interaction.
Many of these tourism-host economies have serious social and political problems. I found Jamaica a society run by women; especially in government offices, one found few white-collar men. A lot of men had migrated to the US. Kingston was reputed to be a dangerous place; after dark, one found hardly anyone on the streets. Male robbers were reported to remove manholes, and to rob the passengers when a car fell in. Spain is the worst performing economy in Europe; almost half of its young people are jobless. Egypt has been politically unstable for a couple of years.
There is not much lawlessness in Kashmir. But an economy specializing in tourism is prone to social sickness. Migration is one of the safety valves for these economies. Spaniards and Italians go and set up restaurants in northern Europe. There are many Algerians in France, doing mainly low-paid jobs.
What distinguishes Kashmir is the lack of this safety valve. Hindutwits are strong in India; they do not give jobs or accommodation to Muslims. Kashmiris suffer from an additional handicap: they are supposed to come from a land of terrorists. The problem would have been solved if Pakistan had been prosperous: it could have absorbed young Kashmiris. But it is a sick economy. Some Kashmiris have gone to Dubai; their remittances show in the construction boom in Srinagar. But India is a dead loss for Kashmiris.
So what can be done? Only the present model meets the minimum requirements of the government. India maintains an army of somewhere between a quarter and half a million men in Kashmir (including BSF, CRPF etc); they do no work, depress themselves and obstruct, harass and annoy everyone else. We should create tourist enclaves in Kashmir, guarded by the Indian army, serviced by Kashmiris and fed by tourists. The army can continue to be a nuisance, but in a small area visited by tourists. This is the way to make the army productive, and scale up the model that has developed by accident. And if the enclaves are compact and remote, they will leave most Kashmiris free to live their own lives.
About Paradise On Earth, Kashmir.
CAN WE PERFORM BETTER IN OUR KASHMIR?
India is stuck, but the mould can be refurbished
Ashok V Desai
I have been in Kashmir again; I cannot think of a more beautiful place in India. As I write this, I am looking down on Dal Lake. On the other side are two hills; behind them are snow-clad mountains. I came first to Kashmir 58 years ago; though I have been here quite a few times since then, every time I come I feel I have spent too little time here.
And every time, I am exasperated with the Indian army. This time my vehicle was stopped at a barrier; I was made to get out and walk across past a soldier with a rifle ready to fire. It was a mildly unpleasant ritual I have experienced only in Kashmir; many Kashmiris no doubt experience it day after day through their lives. It leaves me with a bad taste about the army. The distaste does not extend further, because I know a lot of other Indians. But if I were a Kashmiri and encountered no Indians other than soldiers, I would hate Indians. I would also have a stereotype of Indians, which would include the murderers and rapists from the army that I have heard or read about.
These bored, hostile, sullen soldiers are not the only Indians that Kashmiris see. My flight to Srinagar was full of bubbly south Indians; my hotel was full of noisy Gujaratis. Both were typical Indians; they ignored their fellowmen, and behaved as if the world belonged to them. That is perfectly normal in urban India. In Srinagar, they behave exactly in the same way: they ignore Kashmiris. But Kashmiris routinely acknowledge and greet strangers. So in Srinagar, Indians look like products of science fiction.
They are not unique; foreign tourists on the beaches of, say, Italy, Spain or Algeria do not behave very differently. They have their own prejudices about lazy, dishonest locals; the locals have their own prejudices about fat, white, rich, lecherous foreigners. But they never express these feelings to each other; both sides do business with the minimum necessary interaction.
Many of these tourism-host economies have serious social and political problems. I found Jamaica a society run by women; especially in government offices, one found few white-collar men. A lot of men had migrated to the US. Kingston was reputed to be a dangerous place; after dark, one found hardly anyone on the streets. Male robbers were reported to remove manholes, and to rob the passengers when a car fell in. Spain is the worst performing economy in Europe; almost half of its young people are jobless. Egypt has been politically unstable for a couple of years.
There is not much lawlessness in Kashmir. But an economy specializing in tourism is prone to social sickness. Migration is one of the safety valves for these economies. Spaniards and Italians go and set up restaurants in northern Europe. There are many Algerians in France, doing mainly low-paid jobs.
What distinguishes Kashmir is the lack of this safety valve. Hindutwits are strong in India; they do not give jobs or accommodation to Muslims. Kashmiris suffer from an additional handicap: they are supposed to come from a land of terrorists. The problem would have been solved if Pakistan had been prosperous: it could have absorbed young Kashmiris. But it is a sick economy. Some Kashmiris have gone to Dubai; their remittances show in the construction boom in Srinagar. But India is a dead loss for Kashmiris.
So what can be done? Only the present model meets the minimum requirements of the government. India maintains an army of somewhere between a quarter and half a million men in Kashmir (including BSF, CRPF etc); they do no work, depress themselves and obstruct, harass and annoy everyone else. We should create tourist enclaves in Kashmir, guarded by the Indian army, serviced by Kashmiris and fed by tourists. The army can continue to be a nuisance, but in a small area visited by tourists. This is the way to make the army productive, and scale up the model that has developed by accident. And if the enclaves are compact and remote, they will leave most Kashmiris free to live their own lives.
