Since its release, The Kashmir Files has drawn magnanimous attention and overwhelming responses from all over India. Agreed, that to the local dwellers, “other Indians” and their viewpoints might not matter, but from a realistic perspective, it DOES matter.
You see, Kashmir may be land that belongs only to Kashmiris as the popular narrative goes.
But who constitutes Kashmiris? The Kashmiri speakers? Well, doesn’t that section also include numerous Punjabis, Dogras, Jats and Army personnel who in their course of work for over a decade, have picked up the local language fluently?
Kashmir may be a land that belongs only to those who are born there. Well then, what about children of migrants living and working in Kashmir for over a decade, who were born there. That does spell out the reason, why so many nonlocal labourers are being targeted and killed in Kashmir. And what about people like myself? Born in Kashmir, but raised outside? If those foreign tribes like Andrabis (Afghan origin), Shahs (Iranian origin), and numerous others are given an acceptance as Kashmiris then why not Sharmas, Sinhas or others?
So the reason is very clear— only those who stand in acceptance of toxic Hinduphobia, chronic racism against Hindus and a willingness to forgo compassion to humanity and compulsion to notify security forces about terror activities (Mukhbiri), just to rise in ranks of a toxic Pakistan-approved Islam, will be considered ‘Kashmiris’ in the true sense.
So we have Kashmiri Muslim politicians raising objections to The Kashmir Files, citing that the sacrifices of Kashmiri Muslims during the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits were not depicted in the movie. This truly amazes me. My community may have made numerous sacrifices, they still continue to get killed for the dignity and sovereignty of our nation, India. But do they ever care to disclose who is their killer? They want equal footage in the story of a community that suffered racism, ostracism, murder, rape and finally a mass exodus, but they don’t want to be part of the same team that is trying to expose their own perpetrators.
When Parvez Dar, a cop in the Jammu and Kashmir Police, was shot from behind mercilessly when he was walking towards a Masjid to pray Namaz, his family refused to speak up and reveal who killed him. I had gone to their home in Nowgam to bring out the truth about this gruesome murder. But his family, including his wife, his teenage sons, his brother and his grieving mother just said, please have tea with us and leave! However when Union Home Minister Amit Shah paid them a visit in his 3 day Srinagar trip, he offered Mrs. Parvez Dar’s wife, a government job, and she happily and willingly accepted it.
This is just one of the thousands of blaring examples of hypocrisy in the Kashmiri Muslim Society, which unfortunately makes them ineligible to garner mass sympathy for the sacrifices of Kashmiri Muslims like Parvez Dar.
Some sane nationalist voices have also tried to review The Kashmir Files in apparent neutrality— after all, it is either blind support or diplomatic correctness that works in Kashmir, never the truth. They claim that the “story depicted in the film may be true but hey! Ration was never denied to pandits.”
I am not sure how true that is, but I did experience that even identity is denied to someone who does not agree with the prevailing thought process. It’s true in my case, but there are other examples. Masrat Zehra, a prominent journalist, was tagged as ‘Mukhbir’ only because she used to cover ground encounters between the Indian Army and so-called ‘militants’. So she quit ground coverage and took to India-bashing journalism for more acceptance as a ‘Kashmiri’.
Zaira Waseem was one of the few lucky talents who found success in the Hindi Film Industry, or Bollywood as we call it, but she was apparently losing her identity as friends and family back home in Kashmir displayed unwillingness to accept her career selection, and so she quit Bollywood and took to a veiled existence for more acceptance as a ‘Kashmiri’.
My story is no less. I refuse to fit into the toxic narrative. I was raised abroad, and hence all kinds of efforts are being made to prove that I have no connection with Kashmir.
So it should be very clear, for those who deny true and valid identity to an individual just because he or she is a nonconformist, how difficult would it be for them to deny ration to a particular community just because they dared to say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ while living between chronic India haters.
When Kashmiri Pandits speak of Islamic Jihad as the reason for their exodus, it comes from the Kashmiri Muslim society’s inferiority complex– they want to be the perfect Muslims, but they depend on approval from foreign tribes like Andrabis, Geelanis and Shahs to certify their Muslimness. Such is the neediness to adhere to their approval, that these foreign tribes have been given not only acceptance but the highest positions in social caste ladders. So a native Kashmiri Muslim has no problem in accepting that a Geelani or Andrabi looks down upon him, won’t marry his daughter into his house, and will grab all the higher positions in politics.
Recently during Shab-e-Barat, in a village in Baramulla, a fight broke out between some enthusiastic youths racing for the top position in Muslimness. The fight started from an argument about whether Darood Sharief must be recited before or after Namaz. My cousin who happened to be there, quickly sent the Imam home, so that he would not get blamed for initiating violence in case the police arrived. Then he quirkily told the violent youth, that Muslims in other places of the globe right now are putting all their efforts into finding a cure for coronavirus, while you guys, the youth of Kashmir, are still trying to decide whether Darood Sharief must be read before or after Namaz.
This is an indication that Kashmiri Muslims, originally Kashmiri Hindus who converted to Islam, even today are suffering from a compulsive drive, to prove themselves as perfect Muslims— just like their idols— the Geelanis of Pakistan, a country where forced conversion of Hindus still prevails; the Andrabis of Afghanistan, a country where ancient Buddha temples were destroyed, and the Shahs of Persia who were known in history for being invaders of India.
All I can hope for is that Kashmiri Muslims get relief from this Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and get discourse from this misplaced path of Islamic Righteousness, which upholds that it is okay to fight, whether physically or ideologically, their peers and brothers from Hindustan; it is okay to fabricate your ancestral history so that you don’t connect with Hindus in any historical timeline; it is not okay to call killers “terrorists” unless they are from Indian Security forces; it is okay to help Mujahideen brothers break the law and kill the ‘outsiders’; it is not okay to be a Mukhbir; and that it is okay to deny validation to non-conformists— because all these are the only qualities that will authenticate their “Muslimness”.
The author is a Srinagar-based journalist and social activist. She is vocal about ground realities in Kashmir and appears frequently on National News Debates. She can be reached on her Twitter handle @MirYanaSY. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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