Dal Lake, Kashmir
A month ago, there was a siege in a village. A contact, who will remain unnamed for security reasons, gave me a horrific account of the military madness that took place in the pristine valley of Kashmir.
They did it again. They shot four boys in our neighborhood. One was fifteen-years old.
Oh God, I thought. He is too young to die. He belongs to someone.
I could not (did not want to) imagine how the boy’s family reacted to the news of his sudden and senseless death.
For nearly 70 years, there has been cyclical violence in Kashmir, a valley perched between India and Pakistan with snow-white mountains, fields of green, and looming chinar trees. Many families I know have learned to live with violence: the fear, uncertainty and the surprise that comes with the Army’s search for so-called militants.
Will the war ever end?
I have asked myself this question for nearly a decade. Women in their 60s and beyond have told me the conflict will end when people in power want it to end. But that seems hopeless when more than 700,000 men in uniform, black boots on their feet, and weapons slung over their shoulders, roam the streets.
For decades, families have witnessed nothing less than brutality in the name of national security.
Living in conflict, and in the absence of an independent state, people I have interviewed demand peace. Just enough peace to save their children from savage shootings and a manhunt for the real militants in-hiding.
What will peace look like in Kashmir?
No shootings. No sirens. No night (or day) raids. No random arrests. No tear gas used against peaceful protestors. No rape. No shame or humiliation. No trauma. No false prison terms. And so on.
In my own book, and this is not a book pitch, I have written about the survivors of war–countless women, the silent witnesses to violence, who have the courage to continue living. Because they have families: children, a husband, parents, siblings, etc.
Survivors do not stay alive because they want to live with unknown outcomes.
They live for hope. For the love of God, the majority of Kashmiris believe in freedom. Someday.
To learn more about Kashmir, I recommend my 3 favorite books
- Kashmir: The Case for Freedom by my all-time favorite Indian female human rights activist, Arundhati Roy
- The Tiger Ladies: A Memoir of Kashmir, a personal story by Sudha Koul
- Curfewed Night: A Memoir of War in Kashmir by storyteller and journalist Basharat Peer
And of course, my own book which focuses on the women of war, Secrets of the Kashmir Valley.
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