Our ‘Bleak House’: Notes on the degradation of Kashmir’s Society

What is to be said of a Kashmiri journalist whose dream wish of working for a reputed newspaper comes true - not because of talent but politicking? What is to be said of him when he, in a churlish manner, makes a snide remark on my comparison between the third world and the developed one? (His referent here was the deaths in Europe because of the heat wave). What is to be said of a woman who, contra her Islamic faith and cultural mores, psychologizes everything and then uses psychological techniques - learnt and picked in the west - to intimidate and bully her friends and family to bend to her warped will?

What is to be said of the economics prevalent here now - that almost approximates predatory capitalism? What is to be said of persons who grovel before an outsider but at the same time sneers at contemptuously at fellow Kashmiris? What is to be said of a functionary who given a modicum of power behaves like an emperor with the laity at the mercy of his or her whim? What is to be said of a society where people respect others only on the basis of the extent of their power and wealth? What happens to the social and other aspirations when counterposed against this hierarchical grid?

Some would postulate that the answer lies in culture. But while this would be a facile and facetious ‘answer’ - it may be that that the real reasons lie in the development of aspects of our culture. It cannot be culture because Kashmir has a very rich legacy - defined by depth, subtlety, nuance and even cosmopolitanism – of vibrant poetic and literary traditions. While this tradition - sadly and unfortunately - appears to be in its death throes, but the great poets of yore - both faith inspired and some of them romantic poets - have crafted and penned Kashmir in words of sublime beauty. If then Kashmir produced great poets, doyens of literature and so on, culture cannot be the only explanatory variable. To be sure, elements and aspects of culture, yes, but not entirely.

So - what explains our general degradation?

It would appear the major prong of the ‘answer’ lies in the nature and evolution of our self. This self - both collective and individual – is a stunted one, defined by an inferiority complex that limits the scope of our ambitions and worldviews considerably. For example, we get titillated by the prospect of a government job. It sates our sense of insecurity and then once the government job is secured, the ‘government servant’, struts, preens and leaves no stone unturned to demonstrate his or her importance by engaging in petty power plays. (If the person in contention is a ‘gazetted officer’, God save the rest of us less hallowed people!). This is not to merely single out the salaried classes but to put the matter into perspective. Re our ‘political classes’ - the less said the better. It appears that the sense of self of most is derived by the number of security guards they have, the vehicles that support their entourage and of course, the huffing and puffing and so on.

The same, in a different avatar applies to our business classes. Their quest - again a very limited one - is not to develop the productive capacity of our economy, or to be counted amongst legit wealth creators but to be a franchisee, ‘importer-exporter (whatever that may mean here), or a landholder, with his or her wealth to be splurged on conspicuous consumption. This manifests itself in owning large, voguish motor cars, walking with a swagger, patronizing cafes where they desperately want to be seen, and wearing allegedly fashionable clothes - which they can’t carry well. All this is to be seen and counted among the ‘nouveau riche’.

The depth and scope of the ambition and aspirations of our professional classes is determined by being a ‘medical doctor’, a public functionary (with the chauffeured white laal batti (red bulb) car as the ultimate in ‘pride and prejudice’, a couple of motor cars, and the ability to berate subordinates. For lesser mortals like us, all this sets the aspirational grid and quotient. This warped condition could have lent itself to the ‘powerless’ and ‘moneyless’ aspiring for something better, something salubrious.

Nay, the aspirational quotient of the deprived and the marginalized by the terms set by the so-called contemporary elite. A member of the deprived classes will do his or her utmost to grovel before the ‘sahib’, pay his or ‘respect’ in the most obsequious manner to the ‘sahib’ or ‘sahiba’ as the case may be. He or she will, in turn, paradoxically look down upon someone who is below his or her station. But, ironically, when a member of the deprived and marginalized classes gets a semblance of power or money, he or she becomes more ruthless than his or forbears.

There is neither sense, sensibility, proportion or dignity in the comportment of all our sections of society. These are features of a hierarchical and casteist society that normalizes social and other forms of inequality, iniquity and inequity by its everyday practices. The problem and the issue, in all likelihood whittles down to, at the risk of repetition, a stunted, malformed self. This stunted self is then stricken with an inferiority complex that manifests in jaundiced forms – like the ones described in this essay.

Is there redemption from these diseases? This is a billion-dollar question. I profess and confess that I do not have an answer to it. But I can only speculate maybe curating an authentic self, free from the detritus of a malformed self, could form one prong of the answer. But what authenticity in an age of ‘pride and prejudice’, artificiality and artifice, false egos and false pride, the quest for illusory gratifications and so on would mean, I don’t know. All that can be said with a degree of certainty is the picture that presents itself appears to constitute a ‘Bleak House’. But as our faith emphasises and affirms: the case may and must be rested on hope!