What do peace and development mean in and outside Kashmir? The gap widens | The Indian Express

What do peace and development mean in and outside Kashmir? The gap widens | The Indian Express

Written by Sofi Ahsan |Updated: August 23, 2019 7:54:18 am

What do peace and development mean in and outside Kashmir? The gap widens

As the debates about religion and region get shriller, I am reminded of my identity — a Muslim from Kashmir — at each moment when I think of using Article 19 of the Constitution of India, or merely when telling someone my name.

Think about those under lockdown and pray that this — absence of any information about your loved ones — never impacts your homes and hearts. (Express photo by Shuaib Masoodi)

When she travelled outside Kashmir for the first time last year, to visit me in Chandigarh, I was taken aback by an unexpected but stark observation from my apolitical mother. “There are no forces here on the roads,” she said. Today, and for the past many days, the promised dawn of a new Kashmir, to my mother and everyone there, means a siege: More gun-wielding men and suspension of all that is law and order.