Kashmir: Betrayal, Uncertainty and Fear make a Potent Brew

The drive from Srinagar to Shopian in South Kashmir on the sixth Friday since the nullification of Article 370 is eerily calm. On one stretch of the road near Kakpora, just before Pulwama, stones and the odd, felled tree trunk appear as makeshift roadblocks- laid by local youth to prevent any vehicular movement- military or…

After Balakot, time for a diplomatic offensive

War is politics by other means, said Karl Von Clausewitz, the Prussian military strategist in the eighteenth century. As societies change, and politics changes, so does the nature of war, and the battlefields wars are fought on. The two weeks since the Pulwama attack has shown us that the battlefield is now also on television…

Cracks in a Faustian Pact in Kashmir

Last week, it was video of the army using a local boy as a human shield as they tried to evacuate a group of polling officers under attack by stone pelters. This week, it is the chilling video of gau-rakshaks attacking Gujjars, traditional cattle herders, including women and a 9-year-old child taking shelter inside a…

Kashmir: Behind the Rage

Over a month after Burhan Wani’s killing in an encounter by security forces, the question of whether the ongoing protests are about glorifying a terrorist or whether his death was simply a trigger for simmering rage to boil over is moot. As ‘Azadi’ protests pierce the silence of curfew, and the stillness of strikes brings…

Survivors’ Tales: Politicising the Floods

Everyone comes back to the same concern of rehabilitating people in Kashmir. While the dismal amounts of state relief continue to trickle in, the biggest casualty of the election campaign has been the declaration of a comprehensive rehabilitation package for Jammu and Kashmir. One that pulls together housing, employment, opportunity and infrastructure in a well…