Listening to the Stones Part 2

In continuation of our series of conversations on Kashmir, we invited former RAW chief A S Dulat, former chancellor of the Islamic University of Srinagar Siddiq Wahid and student activist Fahad Shah to talk of why the rage, the resistance – and the state response – in Kashmir are escalating.

They represent three faces of the Kashmir issue but if one thing was somberly clear, it was that all three – including Mr Dulat, who spent years as the head of Indian intelligence – believe that Kashmir today is more alienated from India than ever before.

Fahad spoke of why the young throw stones or pick up the gun and why India has “psychologically lost Kashmir”, while Mr Dulat argued that Kashmir could not be won by force, and challenged the audience to ask, “If India can make room for Telugu sub-nationalism, Bengali sub-nationalism and Tamil sub-nationalism, what is so problematic about Kashmiri sub-nationalism?”

Other thorny questions were posed and addressed: if Kashmiris put themselves in India’s shoes, would they give up on Kashmir? Was Kashmir alienated from India because of the human rights abuse it suffers, or because its Muslim identity does not allow it to seek accommodation within India?

These are tough questions, and it is not just answers but the right to ask difficult questions that Kashmir demands. We’ll continue the thorny, but necessary, conversations over the next few months. First, though, if you’d like to dig deeper and try to understand why Kashmir burns, we’d urge you to watch this conversation, as well as our session with former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, in entirety.

Watch the full session above.