MUSHTAQ BALA
It is visible in roads and tunnels cutting through mountains, in improved connectivity, expanding tourism infrastructure, new educational initiatives, sporting achievements, entrepreneurship, technology and a growing sense that the region is gradually opening itself to new possibilities.
But alongside this changing landscape is another Kashmir—quieter, less visible and rarely captured in official statistics. It is the Kashmir of young people waiting for meaningful employment, families struggling with rising costs, artisans worried about the survival of traditional skills, small traders navigating uncertainty and communities wondering whether development is reaching every doorstep.
Both these realities exist at the same time.
And perhaps the most important question facing Kashmir today is not whether development is taking place. It clearly is. The more important question is: What kind of Kashmir are we building?
Beyond numbers
Development is often presented through numbers. The number of tourists who visited, kilometres of roads constructed, projects sanctioned, investments announced, students who qualified examinations or young entrepreneurs who received financial assistance.
These figures matter. They provide evidence of progress and help measure performance.
But numbers alone cannot tell the complete story.
A road is development, but so is the shopkeeper whose business becomes sustainable because that road brings customers. A new educational institution is progress, but its real success lies in whether its graduates acquire knowledge, skills and opportunities. A tourism record is encouraging, but tourism becomes meaningful when its benefits reach the taxi driver, guide, hotel worker, artisan, farmer and small trader.
The true measure of development is ultimately human.
The unfinished youth question
Kashmir’s greatest strength is its young population.
It is also one of its greatest responsibilities.
Every year thousands of young Kashmiris enter the employment market carrying degrees, ambitions and expectations. Many possess remarkable talent. They are engineers, doctors, artists, filmmakers, sportspersons, researchers, entrepreneurs and technology professionals.
Yet education and employment do not always move together.
A degree should not become merely a certificate of waiting.
The challenge is therefore not simply to create government jobs. No administration can provide a government position to every educated young person. The larger task is to build an economy capable of creating diverse and sustainable opportunities—in technology, tourism, agriculture, horticulture, handicrafts, creative industries, manufacturing, sports and emerging sectors.
A young person should be able to imagine a future in Kashmir without believing that success necessarily requires leaving home.
What happens to our traditions?
There is another question that deserves equal attention.
Kashmir is not merely a geographical territory or an economic destination. It is a civilisation with a distinctive cultural inheritance.
Its languages, music, literature, crafts, architecture, cuisine and traditions have survived generations of change.
Yet many of the people who keep this inheritance alive remain economically vulnerable.
The master craftsman who spends decades perfecting a skill cannot survive on appreciation alone. Neither can the musician, artist, weaver or traditional artisan.
If we celebrate Kashmir’s cultural heritage while allowing its custodians to disappear into economic insecurity, we will eventually be left preserving memories rather than living traditions.
Cultural preservation must therefore become an economic project as well as a cultural one.
The artisan needs markets. The musician needs audiences. The young filmmaker needs platforms. The writer needs readers. The craftsman needs a dignified livelihood.
Modernity without losing ourselves
Kashmir should welcome modernisation.
Better roads, connectivity, technology, investment, educational institutions and infrastructure are essential for a prosperous future.
But modernisation should not mean cultural erasure.
A confident society does not abandon its identity in order to embrace the future. It carries its identity with it.
There is no contradiction between a technologically advanced Kashmir and a Kashmir that speaks its languages, preserves its crafts, respects its heritage and remembers its history.
In fact, the strongest societies are those that modernise without becoming culturally rootless.
Development must reach the last mile
The next phase of Kashmir’s development should perhaps focus less on spectacular announcements and more on the last mile.
The question should be whether the farmer can obtain a better return for his produce. Whether the small entrepreneur can access credit without unnecessary obstacles. Whether the student in a remote area has access to quality education. Whether healthcare is affordable and accessible. Whether public spaces are safe and clean. Whether young people can find meaningful work.
Development must eventually become personal.
It must be felt at the kitchen table, in the classroom, in the workshop, on the farm and in the marketplace.
A shared responsibility
Government has the principal responsibility to create an enabling environment, provide infrastructure and ensure transparent and accountable governance.
But society too has responsibilities.
Businesses must create employment and invest locally. Educational institutions must prepare students for the real economy rather than merely examinations. Civil society must encourage social responsibility. Citizens must protect public property, the environment and the dignity of one another.
And perhaps most importantly, Kashmir’s educated and successful people must find ways of giving something back to the society that nurtured them.
The future cannot be built by government alone.
The Kashmir we must not lose
There is nothing wrong with dreaming of a richer, better connected and more prosperous Kashmir.
That dream is necessary.
But prosperity should not come at the cost of compassion. Modern infrastructure should not be accompanied by social indifference. Economic growth should not deepen inequality. Tourism should not destroy the environment that attracts tourists. Urbanisation should not erase the character of our towns and villages.
We must therefore ask ourselves not only what we are building, but what we are preserving.
The Kashmir we want tomorrow should have better roads, stronger institutions, more employment and greater economic confidence.
But it should also retain its humanity.
It should remain a place where an artisan’s skill has value, where a young person’s ambition has a pathway, where the elderly are respected, where the vulnerable are not forgotten and where progress does not require abandoning one’s roots.
Kashmir does not have to choose between development and identity, between modernity and tradition, or between economic growth and social responsibility.
Its real opportunity is to bring them together.
The Kashmir we are building must be prosperous. But it must also remain recognisably Kashmir.
Mushtaq Bala is Editor-in-Chief of Kashmir Pen, an award-winning filmmaker, cultural commentator, and advocate for peace through narrative media.
