Troubles in Paradise

When Pakistan and India became independent, Kashmir had already some sovereignty. The Maharajah was Hindu, but the majority of the population was Muslim. 1947 the Maharajah had to make a decision in choosing to join either Pakistan or India Before he reached a decision, a Pakistani militia invaded Kashmir and started a small pro-Pakistan rebellion. Indian forces came to the Maharajahs defence and got aided by most Kashmiris, who actually wanted to stay independent from the two giants. When the fight was over and the Kashmiris thanked for the help and wanted the Indians to withdraw, the Indians were like "nhaa.. We think we'll stay for a while." and the Maharaja signed a treaty with India. India controlled now most of Kashmir, except for the north-western parts which Pakistan had taken and a small part which China had taken. Since then, there has been constant problems in this area, with two major wars between Pakistan and India; one between India and China. Terrorist acts from mainly Muslim groups, pushing either for independence or joining Pakistan, usually hitting Hindu people in the southern regions and in India mainland. The Indian military has many times been worse then the militants they look for, accused for abductions, torture and discriminating the Muslim population.

2008: Some places in Kashmir have highly significance to the Hindu faith and many Hindus make pilgrimage every year to these sites, often being targeted by Muslim terrorists. This year the Shrine board, controlling land in holy Hindu sites, bought some land in Kashmir and this caused big reactions amongst the Muslim population. By the treaty with India, a law exists that forbids non-Kashmirirs to buy Kashmir land. So big protest and riots were made in the capital of Srinigar and in the country side. In the end they won their cause and the land purchase was revoked. So now, in the second biggest city, Jammu, with a predominantly Hindu population, big demonstrations and strikes were called. Also Muslim people started to get attacked by Hindu mobs and big religious clashes starting to accure everywhere in Kashmir.

This is when I'm coming from Kargil in Ladhak, crossing pine tree covered mountains down to Srinigar in Kashmir. My first impression is how much this looks like Switzerland, and that's also what Indians call this place, little Switzerland. With it's many flowers and wildlife, this has been called a paradise by people who has been here. It is very beautiful, but there is a massive military presence. Driving down the road, endless military convoys pass by and there are a couple of guards every half kilometre of the road down to Srinigar. When I finally got there, I didn't notice too much tension, even though so many soldiers and police. I managed to search up my recommended house boat between 1500 of them. The Dal Lake is located in the city and thus Srinigar has many canals and waterways. By the big lake you can stay in a house boat which is a nice experience. Most traffic is by gondola type boats and it's pretty good to have most business coming to you this way. As you sit on the porch, the convenience store (in it's true sense) comes floating by, the grilled lamb man, the tailors, etc, etc. Even the garbage collector comes by every second morning. Lot's of birds hang around here, kingfishers, ducks, geese and hundreds of eagles flying high above. Can life be any more easy? I submit that it can not!

The next morning Sharon arrived. Her bike is in a bad condition and it had to be transported to Srinigar where it could be fixed. A strike had been called to day, but some shops where still open. Walking down the city to find the place where the truck driver would drop the bike off, you could feel the tension in the air. At times people told us to go back, and up, further along the road we saw police with shields and bamboo sticks being hailed by rocks. After a while they had some protesters dispersed by tear gas, but the casualty was one police man holding his eye with blood flowing through his fingers. These incidents happened a bit here and there and it felt a bit aqward strolling by and asking the police for directions where to pick up the bike, while they and their colleges had just been into battle. Finally finding the place where the bike would be dropped, we sat down and waited and had a chat with a few military men and civilians. A small truck drove by on the opposite road, it was filled with men carrying sticks, and they threw rock and harassed any still opened shop and drove away. I asked one guy why the police doesn’t do anything, he pointed at the police man sitting next to me 'ask him!. Clearly, the police are a bit scared and/or reluctant to escalate the tension with the extremists. When the bike finally came, it had to be locked up in the shop. No work could be done today.

The next 2 days were similar tension in Kashmir. Protests, shops closed and clashes with police. I couldn't resist taking the camera down and follow a minor clash between police and protesters. I was very comical. The police seemed to adopt the tactic off being as disorganised as the ones they were fighting. Some police would spontaneously charge, but looking back and seeing no one had followed and had to run back. Both sides throwing as many stones at each other, with the line of control moving up and down. It all looked similar to the western front in WW1, lot's of shouting and screaming, teargas canisters being thrown back and forth, but nothing really accomplished. Me and some media in the middle of it all taking pictures. Finally the police retreated up to the intersection to the armed vehicle and secured that area. Victory shouts and dancing on burning tires on the protesters camp.

Finally Sharon managed to sort out her bike, which was quite funny because women drivers are unheard of up here. I took some time before they understood that there were no third person driving the second bike, she was driving the bike. One guy turned to me with a surprised look 'She can drive a motorcycle? Like, I mean, a long distance???'. 'Yes my friend' I said, 'She is well trained". With Sharon’s bike fixed, I took mine to another mechanic, Mr Hassan, to fix some minor stuff... I thought... in reality, I opened up a can of worms. Trying to fix the annoying sound I've had, we finally discovered that it came from the crank pin. Opening up the whole engine, we saw that the pin, instead of having a nut, had been welded on. A real blue peter badge! The welding had come undone and metal pieces where floating around in the engine. This would take time and money to fix and Srinigar at the moment was not the best place to do it. Tip nr2: Don't fix your bike in a notorious conflict zone!

The next day the situation had escalated. People in Jammu had blocked the road to Srinigar and stopping all trucks, even killing four Muslim drivers. This road is the life line to Srinigar and now people here started to get really pissed off... and hungry! A curfew was called in all Kashmir and Jammu and the minor incidents that acured in Srinigar, spread all over the city. From our house boat we could hear and see at the distance, fighting with police and tear gas shells exploding. This was not a minor clash as I had seen, but major ones with live rounds occasionally fired. In a big protest, thousands of Kashmiris was going to walk the road to Pakistan as to say that they had enough of India and wanted to join the Pakistanis. They were stopped on the way and shot at, killing 27 people and hundreds wounded. The hospitals in Srinigar were over filled and on local TV they were asking for medicine and any assistance that could be provided. The next 2 weeks was like this. Curfews and strikes, very few shops opened sometimes. Down at the boat house things were very good. I had been recommended a very nice family and they took care of us very well. The lake was like a safe haven and things were calm, the days with curfew I spent playing games with the boys and reading, very relaxing. When there was 'just' a strike, but you could walk the streets, I and Hassan drove around looking for spare parts and a leth man to put the engine back together. Driving through the city was like being in a war zone. On the roads, burnt vehicles were still smoking and masses of people were chanting slogans and stuff. We came in to a street and lot's of people started shouting at us. The thing is that I look very Hindu and if not that, then I look Israeli... both nationalities not very popular here! Two guys on a motorcycle stopped us on the way and Hassan told me 'STop! stop stop!' All of a sudden I was surrounded by 30-40 people with various home-made weapons and shouting at me at an unknown language. I looked back and Hassan had disappeared! I saw him in the crowd looking at me with huge eye's and thought 'F%^K!!!' I could just visualize him telling the crowd 'I didn't know he was Hindu. Let's get him!'. I looked around trying to guess the most leader type I could find, and told them that I didn't understand what they were saying and that I was a tourist. Hassan was saying to the crowd that I was English! The crowd kept on jabbering in some language, but finally a man with big al-Qaeda beard and white robe asked me in English were I was from and I said Sweden. He said 'It's ok, you can go' and started to push away the crowd with some other fellows. Hassan jumped back on the bike and we made distance, fast... I can look like many nationalities and in India I melt in very well, which is good for not being harassed by sellers and getting local prices to places. But here, it is defenatly a disadvantage with Muslim mobs wanting to give me stone showers and police wanting to perform bamboo massages. Usually they catch on pretty quick that I'm not local, but still.

At the end, after two weeks of drama. We managed to sort the bike out and finding a gap when there was a 3 day break from strikes, and we headed off!

Note: At the time of writing, the Hindu protests (which was done all over the country) gave results and the government agreed to give the land back again to the Hindu Shrine board. Happy feelings in Jammu, but in Srinigar, I can just imagine a massive conflict arising.