The first incidence involved an extremely poor Gujjar tribal family from North Kashmir, who had come to Srinagar’s Lal Ded maternity hospital for delivery only to be turned away and thrown out by a Kashmiri doctor because the family including the pregnant Gujjar lady was “smelly” and wearing “dirty clothes”. The poor Gujjar lady wad forced to deliver outside the hospital on the road in extreme cold as a result of which her baby died within hours of taking birth. The Kashmiri hospital staff was extremely rude towards the family hurling anti – Gujjar racist abuses towards them before throwing them out of the hospital.
The second incidence involved an extremely poor Kashmiri speaking family from my own home region of Beerwah, who had come to get their handicapped and immobile son treated at Srinagar’s SMHS hospital located at Karan Nagar. This extremely poor Kashmiri family faced the similar insensitivity, disdain, humiliation, abuses and insults at the hands of Kashmiri doctors at SMHS hospital as the poor Gujjar family had faced at the hands ofKashmiri doctors at Lal Ded maternity hospital. Once again, the doctor and the medical staff at the SMHS hospital, Karan Nagar turned them away because the poor Kashmiri family looked “dirty” and was not wearing “nice clothes”. The doctor and the medical staff did not even take pity on the pathetic and pitiful condition of the handicapped young man from this poor Kashmiri family, who had to be carried in arms and who needed an immediate medical attention.
One might say that one or two negative incidences don’t reflect the collective mindset of a society but the greater question is that how long are we the people of Kashmir going to live in denial about the complete collapse of societal empathy for which Kashmiri people were known for once upon a time. The grim fact is that, a tiny upper class of Kashmir valley that includes the rich, upper middle class and elite class of Kashmiri society has turned into a selfish, exploitative, insensitive and self-serving bunch of shameless and greedy people, who just don’t care for vast section of Kashmir’s poor and disadvantaged people. This is especially shameful given the fact that Kashmiris an overwhelmingly Muslim majority region and yet Kashmir’s elite class seem to have forgotten some of the very basic tenets of Islam, which teach us to have compassion, kindness and empathy towards poor.
Kashmir’s elite class only superficially indulges in showing its so called “concern” for the poor during the time preceding Eid by merely doing the “ritual” of zakat, which they obviously don’t mean it. If Kashmir’s elite class were having the real genuine and honest empathy for its poor, then the incidences like that faced by poor ofKashmir, whether they are from poor Kashmiri families or poor Gujjar families in Kashmir valley’s hospitals, administrative offices, courts, banks, secretariats and other government and private institutions wouldn’t arise with such great frequency.
It is really pathetic, disgusting and repulsive that Kashmir’s elite class continues to humiliate, insult and de-humanize our own vast section of poor by treating them as “untouchables”, calling them “filthy and dirty” and “smelly”. The question that we the people of Kashmir need to ask ourselves is that why is Kashmir’s elite so obsessive about “dirty”, “smelly” and “torn” clothes of our own poor people? Why does our Kashmiri elite treat our poor people – worst than animals? Why does Kashmir’s elite, who is quite well-educated including being literate in English & Urdu language treat a poor Kashmiri, who can only speak Kooshur language like a worthless being?
The sad tragedy and even sadder reality of Kashmir is that the gap between the rich & upper middle-classKashmiris on one side and that of poor and destitute Kashmiri on the other side is perhaps the widest in entire South Asia. Kashmir’s poor today is leading an extremely challenging and difficult life of immense struggle, even as Kashmir’s rich and upper-class elite is leading a fabulously lavish life of luxury with complete and easy access to money, jobs and all-important institutions. The elite class of Kashmir has disproportionate control over nearly all resources and institutions of Kashmir and are also among the most corrupt and nepotistic people of J&K state, who are only and only concerned about themselves and their own families and extended clan, whether they are in politics, government services, business, health sector – it does not matter – elitism is all pervasive and omnipresent every where in Kashmir.
This double whammy of monopoly over resources and jobs, control of Kashmir’s institutions and prevalence of Himalayan scale nepotism and corruption among Kashmir’s elite class has made them so arrogant and insensitivethat they have long back stopped treating their own poorer cousins like humans. The poor of Kashmir, who is already crushed under the burden of violence, conflict and destitution has to additionally undergo an almost daily insult and de-humanization at the hands of Kashmir’s elite, which continues to remain intoxicated by the power, money and monopoly over resources, so much so that they don’t think twice about shredding to pieces, the dignity of a fellow human being, who is also poor, a Kashmiri and a Muslim.
JAVAID BEIGH is a Political Activist and has worked as PRO to Ex CM of J & K. Has studied MBA ,MPA besides many years of corporate work experience from some multinational companies like INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES BANGALORE…
