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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What Azadi means: Findings from a first-ever Home Ministry survey of Kashmiri youth by Riyaz Wani

What Azadi means: Findings from a first-ever Home Ministry survey of Kashmiri youth by Riyaz Wani

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published Published on Feb 2, 2012   modified Modified on Feb 2, 2012

Valley’s youth say peaceful political protests are the most effective means for achieving political aspirations. Estrangement from India is matched by the lack of interest in Pakistan

In 2010 the Ministry of Home Affairs had commissioned a focussed survey on the priorities and aspirations of Kashmir’s new generation, which had spearheaded the long spell of unrest, and found that 54 per cent of them identified “Azadi” as their preferred “final status of J-K”. However, the survey which is the first of its kind in J&K, found that on further exploration the picture becomes more nuanced. For 56 per cent of these youth 'Azadi' was about Kashmiris’ Rights—political, civil and economic. Others whose idea of ‘Azadi’ centered around the notion of a “territorially separate Kashmir” included eight per cent envisaging a sovereign and independent state of Jammu & Kashmir; 11 per cent wanting “freedom from India” and, 10 per cent who said ‘Azadi’ meant “a separate Kashmir without furnishing any further details,“ the survey report stated.

“Rights matter for the Kashmiri youth though their public discourse is still framed through the usage of more popular vocabulary of self-rule and ‘Azadi’,” the report stated. However, the survey revealed that more than 75 per cent of youth feel that peaceful political protests are the most effective means for achieving their political aspirations. At the same time, the disillusionment with the gun option runs deep as it is rejected by an overwhelming 72 per cent of youth. “Though only 12 per cent admitted their own regular participation in political rallies, they were much less hesitant in acknowledging their participation in the earlier political protests ranging from a few months to a couple of years. At the same time, the ranks of those protesting on the streets are steadily growing,” the survey revealed, adding that a segment of youth, mostly in the age group of 20 to 35 years, had been using cultural avenues such as films, music, art, novels and poetry to make their voices heard. “However, their numbers are very small making it difficult to measure their impact among the larger civil society in Kashmir”.

The premises of this survey, according to Ministry of Home Affairs, was that youth hold an important key to understanding Kashmir’s political dynamics since they had spearheaded the militant secessionist movement in the late 1980s and, they remained at the forefront of the street violence that has rocked the Valley in the past few years. “The sheer demographic fact that currently 48 per cent of the Kashmir Valley’s population falls within the age group of 15 to 35 years underscores the importance of this survey,” the survey stated. “The driving spirit of this survey’s recommendations is to make the Valley’s youth an important stakeholder since they will shape Jammu & Kashmir’s political future. The survey underlined the deep alienation among Kashmiri youth from the mainstream India. “Their disconnect with India is evident as not more than 20 to 26 per cent of the entire Valley’s youth are following developments in India,” the survey stated. According to the survey this was partly due to the historical baggage the young Kashmiris carry and partly because there are few avenues that expose them to an alternate way of understanding India both in terms of its legacies and as a land of future opportunities. However, the estrangement from India is matched by the lack of interest in Pakistan. “The current generation of youth also records a sharply waning interest about developments in Pakistan”. The survey found the worldview of Kashmiri youth “Valley-Centric”. “The Valley’s youth is not only Kashmir-centric in their thinking but their idea of what Kashmir stands for is predominantly shaped by developments in the Valley. They show little interest and have poor awareness about those who live in other parts of Kashmir both within and beyond the Line-of-Control,” it observed. “Only 31 per cent of the youth in the Valley was aware of the correct political status of Azad Kashmir that it’s autonomous but under Pakistan’s control; 17 per cent of them simply had no idea about it and 38% believe that it is an independent country. Only nine per cent of them knew the correct political status of Gilgit and Baltistan, i.e. Northern Areas. Nearly 50% had no idea about the products being traded across the Line-of-Control”. Significantly, the survey revealed “a clear, subtle but perceptible trend” that the youth in Kashmir are turning to Islam, though the scale of this phenomenon varies considerably across its different manifestations. An important indicator of this trend was that 61per cent of the Valley’s youth were listening to religious sermons on their audio/MP3 players and 25 per cent of them identified the local mosques and graveyards as places for getting together with their friends; to get news on Kashmir; and, gain more knowledge about Islam. A small segment regularly watches programs about Islam on Peace TV, Press TV, Al Jazeera and PTV, it observed.

The survey was administered in six districts of the Kashmir Valley: one each from a rural and urban location in South Kashmir, North Kashmir and Central Kashmir. These included Srinagar and Budgam in Central Kashmir; Anantnag and Kulgam in South Kashmir; Baramulla and Bandipora in North Kashmir. The sample was collected on the basis of a structured, partially open-ended questionnaire with a total of 59 questions.

Call for radical social engineering to change views of youth

Home Ministry study suggests involvement of government, media and civil society to let youth join mainstream politics

The Home Ministry’s study on Kashmiri youth which finds them estranged from mainstream India and their outlook, framed by self-rule and Azadi discourse, suggests radical social engineering to transform their views. It seeks a far-reaching institutional role, involvement of government, the media, civil society, educational institutions and corporate sector to bring this about.

The study makes three important recommendations:

Recasting the relationship between the government and the media

The study calls for a “better interface” between the government and the media through certain institutionalised regulatory mechanisms whose provisions must be enforced in a transparent and consistent manner.

“In short term, the government needs to evolve an effective media strategy to deal with any critical event that can potentially spiral into an agitation,” the study says. One way the survey expects to accomplish it is through the government trying to create a level-playing field for private players in the electronic media as well as national newspapers by establishing robust regulatory mechanisms and giving the media a free hand, subject, of course, to their compliance with the law of the land and adherence to well-recognised professional norms.

“For the print media, urgent steps need to be taken for establishing a fair and transparent audit system of newspaper circulation. A regulatory system will allow market forces to come into play and ensure fair distribution of government advertisements in local newspapers and also help remove the ‘secret’ hand of funding of both state and non-state actors,” the study says.

The report also makes a case for “a subtler but perhaps equally important step” which is for the government officials to adopt a more discerning approach towards those violating such norms by making a distinction, for instance, between separatist ideologues and rabble-rousers from the youth who are venting their anger through peaceful protests on the streets. “Those resorting to hate-speech or hacking government websites should be booked under specific and appropriate laws rather than locking them up under the general emergency clauses of the Public Security Act,” the survey adds.

Pluralising the discourses on Kashmir

The government, civil society and the media in Kashmir need to collectively undertake a “foundational enterprise of pluralising the trajectories of debates on Kashmir” in order to both generate a more informed public discussion as well as more finely tuned policy responses.

“Educational institutions should encourage students to engage with socio-political and economic issues facing Kashmir with an open mind and improve their skills of critical thinking so that they can independently think about such issues,” the study says. The survey also recommends creation of a web-based knowledge bank on Kashmir in order to provide easy access to primary resources and data on the state that highlights the multi-faceted character of this conflict, including strengths of India’s democratic principles, its focus on development priorities and governance practices.

“The government could partner with an institution like the National Media Foundation for instituting competitive grants and fellowships to Kashmiri journalists to travel to other parts of India and/or abroad and to do joint stories in order to provide them exposure beyond the Valley. The key to success of such initiatives lies in their design and execution to be accomplished by a team of professionals in the field,” says the report.

Transforming the social milieu of the youth

The biggest challenge facing the government and political and civil society of J&K, the study reveals, is not only to change the perceptions of the youth but also to bring about their participation in mainstream politics and, socio-economic development of the state.

It calls upon MLAs and MPs as well as civil society activists to undertake innovative initiatives for involving the youth in affairs of local governance. It also seeks involvement of the corporate sector in public-private partnerships to start training programs for inculcating skills of entrepreneurship among the Kashmiri youth.

The study also makes a case for the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports promoting sports among the Kashmiri youth by setting up sports academies, promoting cricket leagues that already exist along with basketball and rugby leagues and making the old indoor stadiums functional by providing new equipment. Besides, the study also advises the government to seek civil society’s opinion and support for re-opening old movie halls, facilitating private investment for making new ones and bringing in theatre groups from other parts of India to perform in the Valley.

“The driving spirit of this study’s recommendations is to make the Valley’s youth an important stakeholder since they hold the key to Jammu & Kashmir’s political future”.

Riyaz Wani is a Special Correspondent with Tehelka. 
riyaz@tehelka.com

Tehelka, 26 January, 2012, http://tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ws260112Exclusive.asp

Tagged with: Governance



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