IT has been about five years since the abrogation of Article 370 and yet a profound ambivalence still lingers in the air in Kashmir. The people remain caught in a web of uncertainty—torn between two competing realities. On the one hand, there is an undeniable sense of loss—the stripping away of a special status that once defined the region’s unique identity within the Indian Union—and on the other, there is a tentative hope that perhaps this new order will bring opportunities that the past had failed to deliver. But the question still haunts the Valley: Was the removal of Article 370 a blow to their autonomy or a gateway to a more prosperous future? The answer, it seems, is elusive. Each person harbours their own truth, their own sense of what has been lost and what may yet be gained. And in this symphony of emotions, where grief and hope play out in uneasy harmony, one thing is clear: no one quite knows which note to strike.
Whatever happened to Article 370 and whatever emotional toll it has had on the minds and souls of the people of Kashmir, time has kept its steady pace and life has never ceased to exist in this part of the world, as was otherwise assumed from time to time. Time, in its implacable stride, continues its course. Yet time’s steady march is not without irony for it moves like a river, cutting through mountains yet softening the stone. As we see in Kashmir, there is a curious and perhaps unsettling normalcy that has taken root. The streets are no longer echoing with the chants of protest, the strikes that once paralysed the Valley have become relics of a past era. There are no more stones hurled in anger, no more children rendered blind by the cold brutality of pellet guns. Kashmir, once a land of unspoken grief, has found itself lifted from the prime-time news cycle where once it was a constant subject of debate. A silence thick as a mist has enveloped the Valley, but it is a silence that holds its own secrets.
この記事は Outlook の October 11, 2024 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 Outlook の October 11, 2024 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
Trump's White House 'Waapsi'
Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election may very well mean an end to democracy in the near future
IMT Ghaziabad hosted its Annual Convocation Ceremony for the Class of 2024
Shri Suresh Narayanan, Chairman Managing Director of Nestlé India Limited, congratulated and motivated graduates at IMT Ghaziabad's Convocation 2024
Identity and 'Infiltrators'
The Jharkhand Assembly election has emerged as a high-stakes political contest, with the battle for power intensifying between key players in the state.
Beyond Deadlines
Bibek Debroy could engage with even those who were not aligned with his politics or economics
Portraying Absence
Exhibits at a group art show in Kolkata examine existence in the absence
Of Rivers, Jungles and Mountains
In Adivasi poetry, everything breathes, everything is alive and nothing is inferior to humans
Hemant Versus Himanta
Himanta Biswa Sarma brings his hate bandwagon to Jharkhand to rattle Hemant Soren’s tribal identity politics
A Smouldering Wasteland
As Jharkhand goes to the polls, people living in and around Jharia coalfield have just one request for the administration—a life free from smoke, fear and danger for their children
Search for a Narrative
By demanding a separate Sarna Code for the tribals, Hemant Soren has offered the larger issue of tribal identity before the voters
The Historic Bonhomie
While the BJP Is trying to invoke the trope of Bangladeshi infiltrators”, the ground reality paints a different picture pertaining to the historical significance of Muslim-Adivasi camaraderie