Sanjay Kak, documentary film maker and, by virtue of that, a classic participant-observer in the field of politics, has been immersed in the Kashmir matrix all his life. Here, he responds to the situation in the Valley post August 5, 2019—an ‘era’ of siege, as he calls it. An interview with Sunil Menon:
Life in the Valley has not seen ‘normalcy’ for 30+ years. But what was the last year like, especially during the information blackout when no light escaped in or out?
I was in Kashmir the week before August 5 last year, to do the Amarnath yatra, revisiting the trek after exactly thirty years, after 1989. To see that pilgrimage transformed into a showcase alliance between the new militant religiosity of pilgrims—the chant of Bhole ki fauj karegi mauj filled the air—and the aggressive militarism with which the yatra is conducted, was really quite difficult. I was probably still processing that experience when I flew out of Srinagar on August 3,...
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