In Afghanistan we have a lesson to learn

"The responsibility of change and revolution lies on the shoulders of the youth of Kashmir. It is time that they decide whether they want the status quo in the society or a complete transformation, that whether they want luxuries for themselves only or peace and harmony in the whole society, that whether they want the high profile living or a life worth living!" Mehdi Siddique comments

If there is any nation in the whole world which can be regarded as a glorious example of courage, bravery, self respect and dignity, it is Afghanistan. For it is the very nation over which Mughals tried to rule but they failed miserably, the significant efforts of Britishers were made to appear insignificant, millions of Ruble which the Soviet Union did invest accrued nothing, and now the American exercise is also not materializing. This is Afghanistan, where people share no bonds whatsoever with foreign oppressive regimes, their voice is by and large one, their hearts sing the common note and their feet move in the same direction.

Nonetheless whenever we hear the word ‘Afghanistan’ a strange fear grips us, we start imagining things like an atomic bomb exploding, rattles of machine gun and blood everywhere, but the reality is that in Afghanistan many nations have an example to follow, for they are the people who have held high the flag of self esteem, self worth and self possession throughout their history. A nation which sits on the negotiation table with honour and dignity and a nation which meets in the battlefield with strength and valour. A nation far more true and tall than we can comprehend.

Kashmiris must look upon Afghans as the source of inspiration. For this is the place very much similar to Afghanistan where every barbaric ruler and every tyrannical oppressor finds its stakes. From Umnatavati to Mongols to Azad Khan to Dogras, everyone has shown a keen interest in Kashmir. But the problem with Kashmiris is their conscious which is down deep in dreams. Even though the nefarious designs and notorious acts of the criminal rulers were well known, there was no major resistance to these rulers. And thus they successfully completed their terms. These rules came to end not because of the internal rebellion but because of the external strife. Thus one succeeded the other and the ‘poor’ Kashmiris with their mattress and pillows intact slept tight.

The bitter truth which we should dare to face now is that we were never ‘one nation’. This is the place where every idea flourishes and where every scheme gets a warm welcome and every proposal is appreciated! At the top of it the blunt rules have left corruption deep down in our hearts. We believe in something, think something else and do something else.

And today we stand at a place where we have lost over one lakh lives, that is not easy. In other terms we have lost one complete generation and we are still not heading anywhere. Why is it, I ask that the blood of Kashmiris has become so cheap that if 100 people are killed in Egypt the whole worlds bubbles up, we see the UN statements coming in too often, America going way beyond saying ‘what the people demand should be granted’ and other major nations of the world singing the same tune and when the same number of people are massacred here, we face a dumb world, over 6 month long protest appears something ‘too’ immaterial, ‘too’ insignificant.

Even though 2008 protest had put the whole political set up of India on toes, but then when in 2010 the protest was far more wide spread, we were very well seeing Indian politicians and diplomats sitting comfortably saying, ‘they will protest, they will exhaust and they will stop’. This statement was not a fragile water bubble with no reality, as they had witnessed how people can go against ‘their’ leaders and can participate in the elections in huge numbers immediately after they had chanted ‘ragda ragda’ in 2008.This is the stark reality, the oppressive regimes under which we have lived for ages have made us corrupt not only in a physical sense but morally and spiritually as well.

Most of us don’t even know what we want, what are we fighting for and why are we fighting for it? A reality too real yet too hard to accept. But if we really are well wishers of the society we live in then we must identify our short comings, accept them and try to overcome them. Let us take ourselves out of the ‘Narai e  takbeer’ world and face the real world which tells us that there are people who are striving for ‘Azadi barah e Islam’, and there are some striving for a ‘free democratic Kashmir’, some who strive for ‘better standard of life’ and so on. And the irony is that people feel complete free to make a cross dimensional travel and adopt other ideology at specific intervals, nevertheless they can come back and join the previous ideology when the ‘atmosphere demands so’!

On the other hand Afghans were never ideologically disunited to such an extent. They shared a common goal, and that gave dignity and honor to them. Each time a foreigner came to rule them, each time it had to leave in humiliation, disintegrated and dejected. The mountains of Afghanistan may not be as comfortable as our davenports in our homes yet while sleeping on them the Afghans can say ‘We are free’ something which we can’t say even when we are amidst the four walls of our comfortable homes. (Even the Chief Minister is a prisoner here; he can’t just stand and talk with his own people freely unless he has three tier and four tier security escorting him.)

Afghans were clear; they had a single driving force, people carrying one vision and one mission in entirety. And that is why they willingly gave up the business of opium cultivation when they knew it very well that drug trafficking is an industry worth over 78 billion dollars annually and they knew that Afghanistan is one of the largest producer of heroin contributing to over 61% of the total production, yet they preferred to walk bare footed and sleep without any shelter. For they had a definite plan in their mind, they wanted to change the whole set up and bring peace therein.

But we find in Afghanistan a nation ‘dejected’ and ‘backward’, this is what USA says and this is what Britain and Israel say. Yet Afghans did it in just one and a half year which all the major powers of the world were unable to do for decades and that is giving their people true liberation and freedom, freedom from drugs, freedom from tyranny and freedom from every evil. And they built a state which was the only one of its nature at that time and they called it ‘Islamic emirates of Afghanistan’. And it gave the Afghans peace and their women security and such protection which no other nation can offer to its citizens. (And USA fearing that Afghanistan might dominate the world politics laid a siege on it under the guise of 9/11, yet USA is a liberator and Afghans are terrorists!)

Afghans are the flag bearers of self respect in which we Kashmiris miserably lack. In Afghans we have an example to follow and in Afghanistan we have a lesson to learn. We must not see Afghans as failures and Afghanistan a failed state. A nation that strives for its total freedom, sacrificing each and everything cannot be a failed state. A nation which can challenge the nuclear powers of the world without any nuclear arsenals at its disposal cannot be a failed state. People who fight for peace, security, dignity and honour cannot be termed as failures. They are the true winners even if they don’t have complex stock market and booming GDP. The progress of a nation should be measured in terms of the charisma of its people, how they think and what they believe in and not in terms of tall buildings, aeroplanes and nuclear arsenals.

Kashmiris in their pursuit of seeking Freedom, justice, peace and honour must stand up as people with one vision, one mission and one goal. But alas, Kashmir is a nation fighting within! On one side we have Kashmiris who have joined the ‘security’ ranks and on the other we have Kashmiris those who pelt stones at them, calling them to give up their ranks. It is as if telling an Atheist to fear Allah (swt)! And the enemies of Kashmir are there at the other side of the wall mocking, ‘look at these fools’.

Ideology is what needs to be cleared; we must enlighten ourselves with the realities in Kashmir. If we dream of a Kashmir, where in would be peace, security and dignity for Kashmiris then we must stand up tall as the flag bearers of Honesty, truthfulness, sincerity and dedication. Let us not blame those who oppose us ideologically but educate them and let us do a microscopic analysis of the society and remove all evil practises what so ever. For a nation to boom and stand on its feet people have to inculcate righteousness in the very bottom, they need to have a clear ideology. We need to establish a forum, a community wherein youth can turn up in order to bring a change in the society. The responsibility of change and revolution lies on the shoulders of the youth of Kashmir. It is time that they decide whether they want the status quo in the society or a complete transformation, that whether they want luxuries for themselves only or peace and harmony in the whole society, that whether they want the high profile living or a life worth living!

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Mehdi Siddique is a Kashmir based thinker and writer. He blogs at www.mehdisiddique.blogspot.com

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