Education: The Main Victim In Kashmir

Syed Mustafa Ahmad
For a nation to achieve the greatness, the tool of education acts as the backbone. The necessity of education is nor overlooked in any religion or thought. Everyone, regardless of any privilege, has laid emphasis on the need of getting and imparting to the present generation and the future generation as well. If we talk of civilization, there education is the only tool that makes it to remain aloof from others because the people, who are civilized, can never underestimate the role of the education. Everywhere is education. It is present in different forms. It is education that we learn or get every day. We, consciously or unconsciously, learn a lot of new things everyday or get more experience of the things that are already learnt. In short, education, in any condition, should never be overlooked. It should be the concern of everyone living in the society. Oxygen is necessary for the survival of life. In the same fashion, education is important for everyone. Without oxygen, a person dies, in the same way, without an education, a person also dies in s different manner. However, there are many versions of education in the present world. But this is not my concern here. Everywhere, there is some concentration on the basic objectives of education. However, this very pillar of any nation has come into attack. It has become the scapegoat of any social upheaval, political upheaval, economic upheaval, moral upheaval, etc. In this part of the world, educational system has been in doldrums since 1990. There are so many responsible for this. Internal factors and external factors are responsible for the deterioration of the educational system in Kashmir. Let us have a glance at some basic facts.The main source or cause of deterioration of the educational system in Kashmir is the false democratic system. On the name of democracy, dictatorship is prevalent. In the 1990s, during the assembly election of 1987, rigging happened on a large scale. The losers were declared the winners and the winners were declared the losers. It was the murder of democracy in a broad daylight. It gave rise to the gun culture in Kashmir. The new wave of confrontation between the Indian forces and the Pakistani_ based militants took the shape. Apart from the loss of lives, our education system became its soft target. The schools were set on fire. The schools, imparting the religious education, were sealed or set on fire. The students with beards were taken into custodies. Their careers were ruined. The dreams of building good careers, were shattered in front of the innocent students. Some miscreants in the garb of religion, exploited the youth of that time and mobilized them for the greater cause of life than studying; Jihaad or an Islamic war. A long list of youth joined the armed movement and left this world. Fear gripped the whole valley. Mental trauma became the order of the day. People began lose interest in studies. Eventually, our education system became the main target of the mindless politics. The main motive of politics is to government people in the best of ways. To provide them necessary education and have inclination for the innovation, are the main objectives of an elected government. However, this is not the case here. In 1991, more than 110 days were lost by the students due to turmoil, which was started by the dictatorship and the fascists in the disguise. Our Pandit brethren, who still are the part and parcel of our culture, were deliberately made to leave this valley in the darkness of a night. They left everything here. But one thing that they took with them was education. They were expert tutors. They didn’t lose their balance of money of mind with which the Kashmiri people are still unacquainted. Our generations old love was broken by these politicians, who are still waiting for the chance to disrupt the smooth functioning of the valley.
Dissent, creative debate and respect for the diversity can do miracles. The world is changing fast. And in this change, we want the government to be accountable and responsive. Overall, we love this country and crave for its development.
Continuing with the process, the passing away of the HM Commander, Burhan Muzzaffar Wani, in 2016 is the reminiscent of the legacy of the 1990s. A class tenth student was forced to join the militants’ ranks due to the callousness of the government. They never try to know what the common people want. Referendum means to know the opinion of a common man in Kashmir. But the opposite is the order of the day. Brute Force was unleashed in 2016 to crush those who want real democracy. No one tries to know the reason that why the youngsters join the militancy. Getting a five hundred note for pelting stones at the government forces, makes no sense. Political upheavals ate the backbone of a democracy. Dissent and the creative debate open the avenues for the participative democracy. When a genuine voice is suppressed down with the brute force, the extreme steps to be taken by the youth, especially by the students, become the order of the day. They become indifferent to their studeies because the promises of the past are never fulfilled. The genuine voices when choked, make no sense of education. Education, then becomes a formality of getting a job, rather than becoming a true personality. It is quite true in the present times. The way the students leave their studies for something noble according to them, should have been an eye-opener for the people at the helm of affairs. Why the human resources are wasted like this? Professor Rafi, Sabzar Sofi, Manaan Want, etc., are the beads in a string, who were fed up with this harmful version of democracy. Why does the Constitution bid manipulated in a broad daylight? Why are there dual laws for a same crime? Why do we get different punishment for the same crime? Why is the merit losing it value? Why is there no freedom of speech and expression? Where is cultural preservation? Where is the right to live? Where is the right to live in dignity? Where are the courts in real sense? Where is secularism? Where is the rule of law? Where is constitutionalism? Where are the nationalists? Who are pseudo_ nationalists? Where is employment? Where is development? These are the basic questions, which haunt us every now and then these questions, when left unanswered, make the situation volatile. The real worth of education is to prepare students for the reality of the society. But when the educational system is incompatible with the ills of the society, the necessity of education is mitigated. And the students like see interest because there is a wide gap between the reality and the practical. Last but not the least, the abrogation of Article 370 is still debatable. Curfew was imposed in the darkness of a night and the Constitutionally_ valid article was made hollow. However, it is an another debate that it was already hollowed out. We are taught the ways to be followed in amending a law. But when it comes to practical, those ways, which were taught to us, list their meaning. They have no worth at all. The distorted statements are made to hide their dirt. This too happened with us. The students were left puzzled. How could a democratic nation act so loosely? How could the lofty ideals of the framers of the nation kept in abeyance? The repercussions of the Article are to be borne by the inhabitants of the people of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh, in whatever sense it may be. The loss of the students is of more significance. They lost a lot of time. They lost precious years during your community’s blockade. Many became mentally frustrated. Many don’t come out of the shock. Many took to theft due to job loss. In short, a big chunk of our population got lost due to the hasty decisions taken by the government. The above-mentioned things are revolving around a single theme; the mindless politics. There is hope. Listen to a common Kashmiri. Try to know what he wants. Look out for the sustainable development of the whole Asia. It is a nuclear flashpoint. It not only will set the South Asia but the Whole world on fire due to the process of globalization. Brutal force damages the image of a democratic nation. Dissent, creative debate and respect for the diversity can do miracles. The world is changing fast. And in this change, we want the government to be accountable and responsive. Overall, we love this country and crave for its development.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are his own, [email protected])