Conflict, Education and Future

[Plight of a student in a conflict-ridden environment]

Recently as I bid an adieu to my 20^th birthday, I have begun to realise that with each passing year, I am carrying some burden from the last two decades of conflict that seem to cage me without my explicit consent. There is something more than the acres of land that have de facto passed on to me as part of our ancestral legacy and that is the melancholy drawn from the curfewed nights and catastrophic days which were circumstantial if not ancestral in nature.

I was born a couple of years after tehreek in the Valley began. In what I see now, my birth has corresponded with the peak of the movement. When I was too novice to understand the tales of tehreek from my maternal uncle, my fabled granny and from other kith and kin of mine about crackdowns, curfews and predicaments in our village and all around during 90s; least was I aware such things might be impacting me as a student in years to come. 

As a student as I try to explore a golden future for me I feel the conflict of all these years has already taken its toll on me as most of my student time seems to have stayed underutilized. All those perturbing incidents like fake encounters, killing of youth, raping of women, torturing men, and days of starvation and diurnal curfews seem to be lurking at a mental spot where precious books should have. The conflict has hit the student population of the Valley badly.

The student population of the Valley has witnessed conflicts within conflicts. For example, when in 2009 Shah Faisal became the first Kashmiri to top the civil services examination and the whole Valley was cheering for him, the student population had little to bask about as they were caught between mourning, curfews and overall unrest triggered by Shopian rapes. They were stuck between the predicaments and continual strikes and shutdowns. If we look back right from the times of tehreek, it is the education system of our state that has been suffering the most and student population of all classes and all regions the worst hit victims.

I do not want to shy away from a confession. It is my low percentage in the 12^th examination. I could have done more and probably made my family proud by securing a distinction or above. But one of the main reasons that I have got the low percentage in my 12^th class is the shutdown of almost five months and troublesome situations in Kashmir. Such an atmosphere is anything but conducive for a student for whom lack of conflict during studies is as important as breath in life.

At a time when Kashmiris were cheering on the success of Shah Faisal, the future of Valley students was at bet. A student who wants to learn, to serve the nation, to fulfill the dream of his  parents; a student who has been called as the bedrock of our society wants to come out of his home to study and it is sad he  is not able to do just that on account of the conflict.

In the whole scene out of pocket students are the worst sufferers of this conflict as they are not able to pay to private tutors. They find themselves ground in the mill of predicaments and their dreams are shattered long before they are able to take wings.

And the sad part is that we are still suffering from those tyrannical times, we are still lacking the quality of education. I do not harbour any doubts about the capability of students of my homeland. They have the will and capability to excel in almost every field; only if there could be an end to the conflict and someone has the courage to give an ear to them. Till that doesn’t take place in a conflict-ridden territory as our, we will also have to mourn the murder of a million dreams.


A version of this article was also published in print edition of Rising Kashmir on Thursday, 12 April 2014. http://www.risingkashmir.com/conflict-education-future/