Just read a news about NIT, Srinagar - there was clash amongst the students after India's defeat in T20 semifinals. The environment inside the Engineering College Campus resembled a room filled with it flammable gas. All it needed to light a match stick, in form of celebration of a section of students, post India's defeat.
The Valley's antipathy towards India snd sympathy for Pakistan is not something new. During my college days in REC (now NIT) there was unprecedented violence over in Srinagar. Those students from Odisha, (tagging those on my friend list Ashutosh Mallick Dave Patnaik Asis Kumar Swain ) who used to study in Srinagar REC (as NIT was known then) were shifted to ours, as their institute was closed due to prolonged disturbances. They narrated many interesting and harrowing stories. (One of them, Ashutosh Mallick, was taunted frequently SALIM MALIK TO MUSALMAN HAI, TU KAISE HINDU BAN GAYA, "Salim Malik is Muslim, how come you are Hindu", ascribing to his last name ).
The students from the Srinagar Valley were mostly Muslims, who kept to themselves and were completely segregated from their Hindu and Sikh counterparts from Mainland India. Except perfunctory interactions of exchanging academic notes and greetings on Eid and Diwali, there were hardly any interactions between them. Pakistan was seen as the Promised Land, the land of freedom and opportunity. When Zia Ul Haq died that fateful day in August, 1988 the mostly Muslims Kashmiris felt bereaved while the rest rejoiced in silence.
Nothing reflected the mental partition and the hiatus based on faith than cricket. The rooms of the Kashmiri Muslims adorned the pictures of Imran, Akram, Miandad and Salim Malik. In their common room, during Indo-Pak cricket encounters they used to sit segregated, with Kashmir Muslims cheering for Pakistan. Only Indian players who ever got an occasional cheer from the predominantly Muslim Kashmir students were Azharuddin and Arshad Ayub.
Unfortunately for the students from Mainland, India used to lose often to their traditional rivals. Their hapless supporters had to bear the brunt of taunts from the Pakistani supporters from Srinagar. It's no surprise for a politician from the Valley to sympathize with Pakistan, for he has correctly assessed the pulse of the locals.
I am sure this will ring a bell to my friends who studied in that institute a quarter of century ago. History never fails to repeat itself.
The Valley's antipathy towards India snd sympathy for Pakistan is not something new. During my college days in REC (now NIT) there was unprecedented violence over in Srinagar. Those students from Odisha, (tagging those on my friend list Ashutosh Mallick Dave Patnaik Asis Kumar Swain ) who used to study in Srinagar REC (as NIT was known then) were shifted to ours, as their institute was closed due to prolonged disturbances. They narrated many interesting and harrowing stories. (One of them, Ashutosh Mallick, was taunted frequently SALIM MALIK TO MUSALMAN HAI, TU KAISE HINDU BAN GAYA, "Salim Malik is Muslim, how come you are Hindu", ascribing to his last name ).
The students from the Srinagar Valley were mostly Muslims, who kept to themselves and were completely segregated from their Hindu and Sikh counterparts from Mainland India. Except perfunctory interactions of exchanging academic notes and greetings on Eid and Diwali, there were hardly any interactions between them. Pakistan was seen as the Promised Land, the land of freedom and opportunity. When Zia Ul Haq died that fateful day in August, 1988 the mostly Muslims Kashmiris felt bereaved while the rest rejoiced in silence.
Nothing reflected the mental partition and the hiatus based on faith than cricket. The rooms of the Kashmiri Muslims adorned the pictures of Imran, Akram, Miandad and Salim Malik. In their common room, during Indo-Pak cricket encounters they used to sit segregated, with Kashmir Muslims cheering for Pakistan. Only Indian players who ever got an occasional cheer from the predominantly Muslim Kashmir students were Azharuddin and Arshad Ayub.
Unfortunately for the students from Mainland, India used to lose often to their traditional rivals. Their hapless supporters had to bear the brunt of taunts from the Pakistani supporters from Srinagar. It's no surprise for a politician from the Valley to sympathize with Pakistan, for he has correctly assessed the pulse of the locals.
I am sure this will ring a bell to my friends who studied in that institute a quarter of century ago. History never fails to repeat itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment