Gen Z-Kashmir: A new tide
Aes che panin majboori.. election chu zaroori.”
“Nakli Shera yeti wath dera, asli shera aagya.”
(We have our own compulsions, only elections can sort them. Fake lion should make an exit, the real deal is here).
The slogans haven’t changed. Only, the audience has. In new Kashmir, Gen Z is suppressing a big yawn. Many of the old battlehorses of Azad Kashmir have either gone to azadi heaven or jail, and there doesn’t seem to be much appetite among youngsters for claiming their thrones. Although Article 370 is a topic as hot as the pizza at Pizza Hut in the City Walk Shopping Mall on MA Road, the young Kashmiri is dreaming of a new kind of freedom: jobs, jeans and pizzazz.
Outside the postcard-perfect lake and the Pir Panjal mountain range lazing under a floating cloud cover on late summer afternoons, the election campaign—the first after delimitation and scrapping of J&K’s special status—is noisily underway. The Valley wanted change. Now, it is in the air. With the last phase to be held on October 1, the sirens of VVIP convoys and hectic electioneering activity have punctured the peace of the Dal where quails move away from approaching shikaras and tourists smilingly get fleeced at the floating market. These, however, will never change.
“Change will come to Kashmir when our youth get gainfully employed. The pandemic took away two precious years of college life, and in turn, the students’ eligibility to apply for government jobs. The unemployment rate in J&K was recorded to be 18.3 per cent in January, way higher than the national average. We want to give them extended time for job applications.
Our party used to provide free coaching to students in my father’s constituency, Langate. We want to extend that to everybody. Our young generation has a lot of potential. We want them to participate in national sports events, too,” says Abrar Rashid, 22, whose father Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Engineer Rashid, 57, beat former chief minister and National Conference (NC) chairperson Omar Abdullah with over two lakh votes from the Baramulla Parliamentary seat earlier this year.
Rashid is out on bail, after his arrest in 2019 for advocating separatism and charged by the NIA under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He was granted bail on September 11 to campaign for the Assembly election. However, the victor in this election will need the nod from Kashmir’s Gen Z and millennials. The J&K government’s Mission Youth Scheme pegs the population below the age of 35 at about 69 per cent. It is a population that wants more.
Change is in the air. And it’s not what the politicians think. Gen Z will not vote blindly following azadi sentiments and separatist ideals. Nor will they swallow the BJP’s new deal without loads of salt.
This time Gen Z-K wants to listen.
They want to know.
Where are the jobs and where will they come from? When will new technology like AI, which is already racing through the world’s software empires, become accessible to them? When will the fate and conduct of girls in the Valley not be decided by the clergy? The Valley decides the ethos of the rest of the state.
Today’s youth are willing to call out the hypocrisy with less compunction than their folks. “Why is it important for Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter, Iltija, to cover her head during campaigning when she doesn’t do so otherwise? We want Naya Kashmir, which is a break from the past, but have we addressed patriarchal practices that we hardsell as culture in Kashmir?
I know, for a fact, many young women do not want to wear the hijab here, but there is family and societal pressure on them to do so. Iltija has become a youth icon. I wish she addressed these issues too,” says 18-year-old Kashif Nabi (name changed on request), first-year English literature student of Government Degree College, Baramulla.
More than their parents, who survived or perished (estimated 41,000 between 1990 and March 2017 according to government data) in the conflict, could aspire for; more than what the poll pamphlets of the myriad political formations like Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party promise; more than what they themselves can put out as a structured thought—Kashmir’s Gen Z wishes to go where AI takes them. They want the same jobs that the rest of India covets, and want to dream the Big Dream while trying out the new pair of anti-fits at the Superdry store. Is it the Indian Dream or the Kashmiri Dream? They haven’t voted on that one yet.
“Hum womens log ke liye gym centre kholenge (We will build gyms for the women),” proclaims Jamaat-e-Islami-backed candidate Sayar Ahmad from Kulgam constituency, in a video that went viral. “The Jamaat will give us gym centres? They should first stop dictating our dress codes!” adds Nabi. The political uncertainties and the violent nature of the conflict in the region have led to the voice of women being ignored for decades. Now, the buzzing social media trends are showing Kashmir’s young women sculpting bodies they want for themselves.
Iltija or Omar are both rookie and known faces in the electoral fray. The clichés of electoral promises appear like mallards on the Lake during migration season, the top among them are ending unemployment and restoration of Article 370; gingerly handled by the Congress.
But in the tony cafes and college campuses in Srinagar, at evening soirees and family dinner debates, Kashmiri youth seem to be in a hurry to shake off the past of martyrdom and Valley intifada, though this is not to say that dissent and dissatisfaction doesn’t lurk beneath. “We have our own struggles like managing work-life balance. Intifada is not for me,” says Nabi.
If youth like her are turning their back on the past, the present comes with new unanswered questions such as how and why old separatists are surfacing as independent candidates just before polls. Jailed cleric and separatist Sarjan Barkati’s 17-year-old daughter Sugra has been campaigning extensively for him for the Beerwah and Ganderbal Assembly seats. However, the paradigm is shifting. Ambitions and mental dimensions have changed. Gen-Z Kashmir, perhaps, wants to break free of the claustrophobia of protests that has claimed so many lives and careers.
Over paranthas and piping hot chai sipped in paper cups inside the canteen at Sri Pratap College, Maulana Azad Road in Lal Chowk, Faizan Mohmad Zargar and Asif Bhat, both 22, are talking about everything except elections. Zargar wants to learn AI. “Elon Musk taught me AI on X. I follow his tweets daily, and every time he talks about AI, I see my future. I want to go where AI takes me,” he says.
Zargar and Bhat are third-year BSc students in Information Technology. They originally belong to North Kashmir, the region that saw militancy at its peak in the ’90s. Prod them on politics, and out comes a sliver of disappointment. “We want better infra, better healthcare, better educational options and, yes, we want to find employment in the private sector. Political parties can’t come to power on old promises anymore.
Their election rhetoric has to speak to us, they have to write down our aspirations in their election manifestos,” says Zargar. According to a June 7 report in Greater Kashmir, the guidelines for the private industrial estate development policy are in the final stages of preparation in the UT.
Zargar and Bhat were barely 17 when Article 370 was abrogated. “I hardly knew anything about J&K’s special status. Whatever I learnt about it, was after it was scrapped. The only thing that concerns young adults in my generation in Kashmir is to be at par with the youth in other big cities in India. Café culture has grown in Srinagar, jobs should do too. There are some who still prefer the safety net of government jobs. We want vacant spots in the services to be filled and more new jobs to be added by whoever comes to power,” says Zargar.
Bhat concurs. He believes Kashmir’s Gen Z needs to be at the forefront of transforming Kashmir to Naya Kashmir. But what is Naya Kashmir?
“Naya Kashmir is a break from old lies, a chance to begin afresh,” says Bhat with a flourish. “People who boycotted elections in the ’90s, participated in the Lok Sabha elections this year. What do we make of them? I am satisfied with the BJP’s J&K policy. The lingering issue of unemployment must be looked into. Many educated Kashmiris wait for government jobs until they exceed the age limit and stay unemployed. Another issue is that J&K doesn’t benefit from its own resources as much as other states. The idea of turning Srinagar into a smart city doesn’t only mean better roads and signboards,” he says.
Bhat wants better waste management in the UT. “The government should build proper dumping sites. Agricultural fields are getting polluted due to improper planning. There is no proper drainage system in rural areas. Remember the devastating floods in 2014? The ineptitude of the irrigation and flood control department would have killed so many more if the rescue operations were not carried out on time,” he says.
He believes the health sector needs an overhaul, especially in rural areas. Many district hospitals there don’t even have a working X-ray machine. Patients are referred to Srinagar. Sometimes these hospitals can’t even attend to a pregnant woman about to deliver. For both Zargar and Bhat, development should go beyond Srinagar’s facelift.
“I appreciate more movie theatres coming to the capital, but rural areas are in dire need of basic amenities. We need better schools. The faculty should be answerable to the higher authority if the number of children failing annual exams goes up. There is no accountability. I may dig Musk, but I can’t let go of socialism in a place like Kashmir,” confesses Bhat. The UT once had 28,805 government and private schools. The number now stands at 24,279, indicating a significant reduction.
Meanwhile, academic and former Vice-President, JNU students’ union, Shehla Rashid broadly agrees with Zargar and Bhat’s views. She expects the victors in this election to come up with a model of economic development for the UT. Shehla says, “We can’t have a Gurugram model of development in J&K. The focus has to be on developing skill sets of aspiring youth. I am committed to that goal. Whoever wins these elections should be too.” Shehla is launching a book titled Role Models: Inspiring Stories of Indian Muslim Achievers.
The Valley’s young men and women are dismissive of Delhi’s quick assumption that the bright shiny faces of Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi, and their coalition would get their votes. “Being relatively young in politics doesn’t necessarily mean you have fresh ideas. A seasoned leader can also address our aspirations,” says Bhat.
Kashmiri youth are also keen to lend an ear to the BJP’s idea of development, but are wary of the shrill patriotic tests they are expected to pass. They are curious to know why Engineer Rashid got the electoral nod, but are uncertain of the direction of separatist rhetoric. Young Kashmir is not a homogenous grouping, difficult to crack for others as well as themselves; their dreams are as varied as the food chart in the KFC outlet that opened in August 2020.
The restaurant is on the top floor of the City Mall in Srinagar where Indian Spicy Veg is as much a favourite as Korean Tangy Chicken or American Nashville. This is a whole new generation that wants no speeding tickets on the highway to Tomorrowland. They pose queries about the past, present and their future to the netas who are vying for their votes. What happened to the Big Indian Dream of ‘Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat’ that Kashmir, and the rest of India, were promised by the BJP in 2019? Startup India has not propelled a couple of thousand entrepreneurial dreams in the region yet.
That red bucket from Kentucky, and the Srinagar Smart City Project to beautify the already-beautiful Dal, won’t be enough to satiate the hunger of young Kashmir.
Separatism has claimed thousands of young lives in Kashmir since 1989 when the fight for Azadi began. But the real conflict is the fight within. Member of BK Pora district’s development council, Saima Sofi, 27, has been in politics for four years. With the Congress, since a year after leaving Democratic Progressive Azad Party, Sofi stresses the importance of self-defence to train and discipline the young Kashmiri mind. A martial artiste herself, she teaches young kids the art of never giving up without a fight. “My school in Pampore encouraged sports. In college, I wanted to join the Defence services. I have also been a model and recorded music albums, but finally found my calling in politics,” she says.
Sofi feels a slow but definitive change in attitudes and life choices among Kashmir’s young. From crying out loud for Azadi, sometimes through violent street protests, the Valley’s girls and boys have now more tangible dreams. “Geopolitical realities have had a role to play. Few look at Pakistan anymore. It is a doomed state anyway,” says Sofi.
Busy canvassing for her party for the upcoming polls, she is taking a quick ginger lemon tea break at the 14th Avenue Café in Hyderpora in south Srinagar. In between sips, she says the youth of Kashmir identifies with Rahul Gandhi, and not Narendra Modi. “Modi is inaccessible. He travels with an impenetrable security detail, talks from a pulpit.
Rahul walks with the people. He has a big following among the youth here. I have grown up in Kashmir, and trust me, I have never seen the youth so interested in politics. The youth vote will come to the Congress because of Rahul. And the first step we will take after coming to power is wipe out whatever little presence the BJP has in Kashmir. What have they done for us except jumlebaazi?” she asks.
On the other end of the political spectrum, senior People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Naeem Akhtar insists their election manifesto has a definite roadmap for the Kashmiri youth. “We have a whole bunch of youth leaders in the PDP. The Centre talks about bringing industry to J&K and creating jobs. None of that has happened.
There is rising unemployment, fear psychosis about the fate of the state among the youth. Many have given up their citizenship and moved abroad for a better life, a more secure future. What has the Centre done except displacing Kashmiris from their own homeland? This election, the youth of Kashmir will vote for its own fate,” he says.
In a meeting in Jammu on November 22, last year, Director (Employment) in the Directorate of Employment, J&K, Nisar Ahmad Wani said Jammu and Kashmir’s current unemployment rate has actually decreased to around four per cent from 5.2 per cent in the financial year 2021-22, and plans to bring the unemployment rate to just 3 per cent, which is on par with the national average in the country.
But data doesn’t always capture despair. A generation ago, Wani’s statement would have brought cheer to the Valley. The current generation of professionals, and those with graduate and post-graduate degrees in the UT, are heavily dependent on government jobs since J&K lacks industry. This has led to a high level of joblessness among educated youth. The less qualified eke out a living from the government’s 100-day rural job guarantee scheme.
Member of J&K Legislative Council and BJP leader Surinder Ambardar claims he has the answer: “There was no transparency in the recruitment process of state government jobs earlier. Now, advertisements for jobs and examinations conducted are on the basis of merit. Our party is planning to woo the corporate sector to generate fresh jobs from the tehsil level upwards. We don’t want villages to lag behind. Our five-year plan includes revamping the tourism sector to create jobs.”
Beyond the sunlight of promises and hope lies a dark side to life in the Valley, darker than the shadows of the ancient chinars at twilight. News reports point at rampant drug abuse among both young males and females, not just in urban areas but rural regions, too. Heena Ashraf (name changed on request), 21, a student of Srinagar-based Cluster University, says drug abuse has become common on campus and in college and university hostels. “Religious sanctions, societal pressures, health scare; nothing seems to deter students. Drugs are easily available and few serious conversations happen on the menace. This should have been an election issue as it is in Punjab. Udta Kashmir is a reality no filmmaker has tapped into yet,” she says.
Ashraf says Kashmir’s youth are taking to drugs to escape reality, the sense of dispossession that seemed to have gripped the state since the abrogation. Not everyone has forgotten what happened to the youth a generation ago, and hallucination helps dull the pain that was. Pain is an inescapable part of life in Kashmir, so is redemption.
On August 18, 2000, Ghulam Ahmad Ganie got a phone call on his landline number at his home in Arwah village, around 32 km from Srinagar. It was a colleague of his 26-year-old police officer son, Gulzar. In a trembling voice he told Ganie that Gulzar was injured in a blast near Kothi Bagh police station in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. The Hizbul Mujahideen had triggered a powerful car bomb blast, killing 12, including 10 policemen and a photographer of a national daily in a decoy grenade attack.
Gulzar would fight death for the next one week and finally succumb to his injuries. Ganie, himself the private security officer of then J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah, would bury his son and all the dreams he had for his future. Now 82, he says Omar has a big connect with the masses, especially the Kashmiri youth. “Whatever has happened to my son, and many others like him, has happened. Educated young people today deserve jobs, better infrastructure, healthcare and a leader like Omar Abdullah who could give them the future they deserve.”
During his tenure as the youngest chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir (2009-2015), Omar had his own series of missteps. His comments on Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s death penalty invited nationwide criticism; he opposed the death penalty saying it would set a wrong precedent and fan more militancy.
But that’s all in the past. National Conference spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar, 42, says his party’s manifesto talks about the need for skill-based educational institutions for the youth in Kashmir by opening up technical institutes across the state. “Our other big focus is to bring ecologically sensitive projects here, because today’s youth understands that the environment must be protected.
The way certain development projects are being executed not just in Kashmir, but even in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, leading to landslides must be changed. The Srinagar Smart City project, which began in September 2017, is being executed in a hurry to show people the Modi government delivers on record time.
They plan to complete it by March 2025.” The record change he is looking for is self-reliance among Kashmiri youth. He is a fan of the South Indian model; of states like Hyderabad and Bengaluru. “Software companies must be invited to set up shop in J&K for the youth to get better opportunities and employment,” he says.
However, it would be a fallacy to say young Kashmir is gung-ho about change from azadi to getting jobs, combating climate change and going the AI way. Their guiding angel? Burhan Wani. Wani would play cricket with the village boys, crack jokes; there would be stories about his charming ways with the women.
When the 22-year-old was killed by the Indian army, there was a sea of supporters, suppressing rage, expressing sorrow openly. They were not crying for a slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant. They were mourning one of their own. The boys Wani had weaned away from normalcy to militancy were on the lookout for a new hero. In rage, they wrote graffities on walls, threw stones at outsiders in army fatigues.
The year was 2016.
Three years later, Article 370 was abrogated.
Ganie, who has seen generations of Kashmiri boys waste lives in the futility of chasing a chimera called Azadi, is hopeful that Wani will not be the perennial youth icon. He says being confined to homes by the full might of the Indian state has given Kashmir time to think. “There are many, many more military boots on the ground. The local boys have also moved on from old dreams,” he says.
It is time for Kashmir to throw up new heroes.
In Pulwama, one of the hotbeds of militancy, where the 2019 terror attack took place, killing 40 CRPF personnel, a young man in a crisp white pathani suit is campaigning. PDP’s Waheed Para shrugs off the ‘heartthrob’ tag, which has become attached to him. He simply wants to win young Kashmir’s heart. “This election is more about addressing the dispossession that people of J&K have been subjected to, it’s more about reclaiming the right to speak and the right to make decisions on our issues ourselves,” Para, 36, says.
He insists the PDP manifesto clearly speaks about the restoration of special status to J&K as well as demanding the release of Kashmiri youngsters lodged in jails across the country. "Those apart, locals must have a right in all government tenders. So, by and large, the issues in our manifesto aim to address the deprivations the people of J&K have been subjected to over the last six years, with a focus on ensuring that democracy is restored,” he says. Restoration of democracy goes beyond just votes.
Kashif Nabi says it is fallacious for parachuting patrakars and exit poll prediction-wallahs to stereotype Kashmir’s young as youth always crying for azadi. “Some of us simply want a ticket to a Diljit Dosanjh concert or, smell the coffee,” he smiles.
Meanwhile, a 31-year-old waiter at the 14th Avenue café overlooking the Jhelum river has come to work in Kashmir all the way from Gonda, Uttar Pradesh. “The café owners have given me a place to stay. The work is hectic because of the rush of tourists, but I love it here. There is peace and a sense of calm. I plan to bring my wife and kids here in the future,” he says.
Is he not afraid of terrorism? “I don’t think anyone is afraid here anymore. The future looks bright for young people like me who have come from outside. I was named after Him. He is taking care of this place,” he smiles.
His name? “Bholenath. Bholenath Bharti.”
The young and the ambitious
Asif Bhat, 22, is a final year BSc Information Technology student in Srinagar’s Sri Pratap college. He comes from Handwara town in North Kashmir. Bhat believes that being relatively young in politics doesn’t necessarily mean you will have fresh ideas. A seasoned leader can also address the aspirations of Gen Z. Bhat emphasises on the need to better the health and education sector in rural areas. He wants the young generation to be at the forefront of transforming Kashmir into Naya Kashmir.
Shehla Rashid, 36, expects the winners to come up with a model of economic development for the UT. She believes that Jammu and Kashmir can’t have a Gurgaon model of development. The focus has to be more on developing skill sets of aspiring youth. “I am myself committed to the goal of skill development in youth. Whoever wins these elections should be too.” Shehla is coming out with her debut book, Role Models: Inspiring Stories of Indian Muslim Achievers.
Faizan Zargar, 22, hails from Kupwara in North Kashmir. Zargar is fascinated by the world of AI. A third-year student of Information Technology in Srinagar’s Sri Pratap college, Zargar is a huge fan of Elon Musk and sees his future in AI. The only thing that concerns young adults in my generation in Kashmir is to be at par with the youth in other big cities in India. “There are some who still prefer the safety net of government jobs. We want vacant spots in the services to be filled and more new jobs to be added by whosoever comes to power,” he says.