In an era of unrestricted warfare, being oblivious to various conflicts surrounding us is not an option. Moreover, influences over these conflicts are not restricted to geographical boundaries and social media plays an important role in managing and channelising the narratives. Stakeholders of these conflicts, both individual, utilise this comprehension as per their own vested interests either to work towards conflict mitigation and peace building or to prolong conflict resolution. Hence, it becomes crucial to understand the role of various stakeholders and their mechanics of functioning to understand the course of conflicts and how it is impacting people. The issue continues to remain contentious even after multifarious approach by government to maintain peace and security in the region. The masses have only lost lives, property and peace of mind in this conflict scenario while prominent stakeholders have minced property and power out of the conflict. Hence, while the locals suffer, the vocals on the issue have gained by not allowing the embers to douse from the region. This articles aims to bring out the role of stakeholders in funneling the narratives of Kashmir issue, especially in the national and international discourse, to keep the conflict alive and not allow peace to settle in the region.
The question that arises here is that who all these conflict entrepreneurs are. Conflict entrepreneurs are people who inflict conflict in the lives of general public or a group of people for their vested interests. They benefits from the conflict in ample ways sustaining on a parallel economy generated through conflicts. They often mobilise individuals, groups and organisations using various tactics such as appeals to ethnic, religious and/ or ideological solidarity. Over the past decades, Kashmir has been developed as a case study on how a political issue can be developed into a conflict economy, in which conflict entrepreneurs thrive. An entire ecosystem has developed that feeds into and upon this conflict economy. They are the ones who are vocal in the media houses indulging in selective reporting. They are the ones who mince money by painting a grim picture of society for an audience that is least interested in improving the situation, however, would open their coffers for such negative images because it helps them propagate their ideological interests.
They are attention seekers who choose their targets well and they can be from any strata of society, politicians, government servants, media persons, teachers, religious preachers etc. And they can be best identified by finding their relevance in conflict generation and irrelevance in conflict termination.
While understanding the conscience of conflict entrepreneurs, very commonly the stress is laid on the aim of creating fear, repulsion and outrage in a population through the systematic employment of terror and brutality through them. Such conflict involves different degrees of dehumanization. The distress, death and loss of lives may be perceived with indifference by the conflict entrepreneurs, on the other hand it is extremely frightening and nerve-wrecking for the victims who are left with no hope for a peaceful solution in the near future. These conflict entrepreneurs lust for power, stature and money. Their actions are directed towards somehow being able to continue the violence and they may venture into dangerous fields to satisfy their lust. If we see the case of Kashmir issue, we may find that the reasons for present state of terrorism in the state is attributed to political rigging's in late 80s, however, no one discusses in public discourse that election rigging of 80s wasn’t the first of its kind in Kashmir. It was, however, the last of such incidences. There have been periods of politically stable governments in the state, periods of high percentage of voting and mass political participation. Yet, terrorism continues, and simple reason behind the conflict to continue, although in new form of radical terrorism is the role of conflict entrepreneurs.
Everything from hasty road crime to cold plotted violations against humankind rises out of the aggregate of collaborations between the brains of these conflict entrepreneurs and the weapons in hands of radicalised youth on ground, giving outward proof that this relationship has been portrayed by aggression, frustration or frank trauma. A human brain is as vulnerable to malicious encounters and false information as it is to more benign influences. Naturally the conflict entrepreneurs find it easy to bend towards the malicious side and lose empathy when it comes to the lives of people. All the conflicts in the past have led to the generation of hidden fear and trauma amongst the Kashmiris. Conflict entrepreneurs in Kashmir are disguised as human rights activists and under the pretext of betterment of people and voice for their rights, they brainwash them and use them to create unrest. The authorities, in turn, resort to various means to curb this down and bring peace. In this process, the Kashmiris suffer and pay the price whereas the conflict entrepreneurs, the catalysts, sleep in harmony. As a result, Kashmiris have come to feel unwanted and betrayed. They get brainwashed to the level that they see no other enemy bigger than the state itself. In the entire bargain, the development of these individuals and the union territory of J&K as a whole get compromised. A lot of government resources, that could have been used for development are spent on measures to calm down conflicts.
Education plays a very important role in the conflict ecosystem of Kashmir. These vultures have attacked the education system to brainwash the youth of the state to an extent that they find solace in aggression against the state and celebrate death in the name of session and religion. The society has been secluded from logic's and propaganda machinery has occupied the space. Even political and social resentments are converted into conflict against the state. The conflict entrepreneurs 3 catch hold of the aggrieved youth and plant seeds of resentment in their mind who go ahead by illegal means to express their rage against the state. As a result, they end up losing their life with no one to look after their families. The conflict entrepreneurs pay no heed to the family’s loss and this perpetual process of identifying individuals and brainwashing continues. As a result, it is the loss of innumerable young, aspiring, vastly capable and perhaps innocent lives.
The most important action to weed out conflict entrepreneurs is to make the cost of conflict, heavy for them. As of now, they gain out of conflicts while the poor masses pay the price. The ‘Vocals’ earn while the ‘Locals’ suffer. The situation should be reversed to a condition where the supply chain of these conflict entrepreneurs gets jeopardized in conflict scenario while locals continue to get the support of the government agencies. It has to start from grass root level that is from schools, from fields and from every single house by bringing the women of the society into folds of empowerment and development. At the same time, these conflict entrepreneurs should be segregated from society, marginalized and made to pay the price for the disturbances they bring to society.
The conflict entrepreneurs will always thrive to find soft targets that they can use to cause unrest. However, not letting individuals become these soft targets and giving them the feeling of belongingness with the whole of India and making them believe in the state’s and the centre’s concern for them will pave the way for a peaceful Kashmir. When infrastructure will develop and the youth is educated and employed, the general public will have faith in the authorities and it will look up to them with hope of further enhancement, thus making them believe in the system. Celebrating the rich cultural heritage of Kashmir and showcasing it at national level will make people proud of being a Kashmiri and will instill feelings of belongingness and oneness with the whole of India. The armed forces also contribute in bringing this change. ‘Iron fist with a velvet glove’ strategy is the need of the hour, ‘Iron fist’ for the disturbing elements and ‘Velvet glove’ for the ‘People’ of Kashmir. The bottom line is that, Kashmir is not just about muscular and security-oriented policy but also about hearts and minds of people. The way ahead out of this is development in the form of infrastructure, tourism, hydro projects, education, etc.
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