The young people who throw stones in Kashmir know that it will not bring a solution but see it as the only option left to them to vent their frustration at the government’s “oppressive tactics”.
Afshan Ashiq, 21, dreams of playing for the Indian national soccer team. She is a second year B.A. student at the Government Women’s College, Srinagar. Every evening, she is seen sporting a Team India jersey and working hard at the football ground outside the Tourist Reception Centre in Srinagar, the Kashmir Valley’s main city. She is one of the few Muslim girls in Jammu and Kashmir who excel at football. The State government hired her as a coach to help budding female footballers of the Valley learn soccer skills. So when she threw stones at the Jammu and Kashmir Police and paramilitary forces during the student protests in April, everyone in Kashmir and Kashmir watchers outside were taken aback.
Observations by former Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that Kashmir was slipping out of India’s hands started seeming apt. A wannabe Indian footballer had suddenly switched sides and joined hundreds of other stone-throwing youngsters who love doing anything anti-Centre. “Yes, I threw stones at the police, and, yes, I want to play nationals,” said Afshan Ashiq, who hails from Bemina area of Srinagar’s uptown locality. “The boys of the S.P. Higher Secondary School were staging peaceful protests, and we saw police firing tear gas canisters at them without any provocation.When I, along with eight to 10 more female students, reached the City Centre near Pratap Park, a police officer of my father’s age started hurling abuse at us and slapped one of the girls for passing through the area.”
Shocked to see her friend at the receiving end of police “high-handedness”, she started arguing with the officer. “With no weapon at my disposal, I decided to throw a stone at this oppressive police,” she said, but she was also quick to point out that she was not a regular stone thrower.
この記事は FRONTLINE の May 26, 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は FRONTLINE の May 26, 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
