Pain and pride are interconnected with faith. One side pain can inflict wounds far worse and more lasting, while on the other side, the pain becomes pride when one is having faith that pain can bear good fruits. It becomes proud again as it believes that no one else understands and no one feels what I feel. In the contemporary Kashmir, there are atrocities in terms of killing, torture, detention, disappearance and so on. Everyone gets inflicted when one gets killed, detained or tortured. However, the mother in the family feels most as she remembers the pain when her child was born. The role of mother is always sacred and plays an important role in human development. Motherhood requires a lot of courage, unparalleled kindness, patience and strength. In Kashmir, the holy institution of motherhood has been brutalized because of prevailing violence for over the past two decades. The killing of Burhan Wani was the one-sided victory of India, but it was a final victory to the mothers of Kashmir. A new wave emerged in the valley, mothers started giving the name of Burhan to their newborn ones. It was also seen that the mothers of Kashmir were seen as more courageous and even most of the mothers pleaded their sons to takes a gun and fight oppression.
After 2016, as per sources, militancy in Kashmir raised more than before. People started open support to the militants. The youth including women marched towards encounter sites and threw stones on the security forces to help the trapped militants. However, the mother of the valley started leading funeral prayers, speeches and even giving gun salute to her son, who is either killed in an encounter or by police firing. This article would narrate some of the conversations of a mother and his son last time and try to find out how the pride goes dominant over pride. On 1st April 2018, a group of five militants were trapped in a native village of Shopian. Among them, one militant called home and pleaded forgiveness to his father. Instead of telling the son to throw arms and surrender, the father encouraged his son that fight rather than surrender. The audio clip went viral and it impacted the minds and hearts of the parents, whose sons have chosen armed revolt. The security forces and police recognised the cause and applied a mechanism to call back the rebel son of a family. Jammu and Kashmir police started making viral videos of mothers to beseech their sons the path of militancy. However, due to this mechanism, very few youths shunned the path and returned. The law enforcement agencies failed to stop the youth from joining militancy.
After Shopian viral audio call, the last call viral audios of trapped militants gets viral ever than before. By listening to these audio calls in which maximum militants talked last time to their parents and siblings, On 13th August, Tauseef Ahmad Khanday calls his mother last time and informs her about the encounter, in which he was trapped along with associates in the village of Shopian district. Till yet, the audio-based video has 96,174 views. In the call, the parents asked the details of the encounter rather than pleading his surrender. Both Mother and father pleaded him to fight bravely. On 27 November 2018, a most wanted militant Umar Majeed was also trapped in Shopian village. He also made the last call to his family. The audio-based video has 94,664 views. In this audio, the mother says to his son that can you come out from the encounter. In this audio, the mother also stated that I wished it earlier that your dead body should reach late in the night so that I hug your coffin entire night. Later she encourages his son to fire indiscriminately towards the forces. On December 13, 2018, Warri’s Malik was trapped along with his associates in Redwani. He calls family last time and states to his mother that your son is brave as he captured one army man alive in the encounter. His mother states that do not give yourself alive to them. She praises his courage and insists him to fight bravely. This audio-based video is having 63, 882 views. On 2nd February 2019, Shahid Ahmad Baba was trapped along with his companions in a native village of Pulwama. As another Shahid also called last time to his family, he told his mother that you stay firm and I can fight. He also pleads that do not weep, then I feel weak. His mother encourages him to fight rather than surrender. This audio-based video has 75,159 views.
The question arises, why such mothers plead to fight rather than surrender. Such mothers also feel pain rather than pleasure. But why they encourage their sons to fight,it cannot be denied that in the Kashmir valley, a cycle of violence has been created through the various mechanisms. The indefinite detention along with punitive torture even after freedom from such punishments, the other mechanism of securitization is implemented on such youth, which forces them to choose violence rather than peace. Such a mechanism should be stopped immediately, otherwise, the youth who are being detained without evidence should choose the same path and their families would support them. With the passage of time, the pain of mothers in Kashmir takes a paradigm shift. Instead of feeling pain, the mothers of such youth who join the militant ranks feel pride.
( The author is pursuing Ph D at the Centre for Gandhian Thought and Peace Studies, School of Social Sciences, Central University of Gujarat Gandhinagar. Views are exclusively his own [email protected])
