Parochial road to destruction

Prior to August 5, 2019 there was a foreboding of an intrigue at work in Kashmir. Thousands of extra security personnel were being deployed to a place that is already one of the most heavily militarized zones in the world. That coupled with selective tweezing out of all non-Kashmiris, tourists, pilgrims, students, and laborers alike added to the uneasiness among the locals, notwithstanding the assurances of the state Governor. He along with the other minions of his administration, with the state being under president’s rule, kept on reiterating that people should not pay any attention to the ‘alleged’ rumors until that morning when the union Home Minister announced the stripping away not only the constitutionally enshrined autonomy but also doing away with the entity of the state and reducing it into two emerging entities as the appendages of the federal government.

 

It is difficult to know but not hard to imagine the reaction of the population in Kashmir, whose incarceration started on the eve of that fateful day and they remain in that condition to this day, stripped of not only their autonomy and the state but also their connections to the outside world. Reports coming out from the place suggest elaborate security procedures have resulted in redrawing of the zones with the generous use of concertina wires minimizing the local interactions. Virtually people have been forced to suspend their biology till the administration hopes them to accept the fait accompli. While it is painful to imagine the sufferings of those requiring immediate medical attentions, such conditions in general lead increased stress levels in general population.

 

Kashmir had been under virtual siege starting in 1989 after decades of myopic policies of the Indian establishment. As I personally remember, those days as a faculty member in Kashmir University, every waking hour would be characterized by a gnawing pit in the stomach and a wish that India had not so messed up the place. Since then Kashmir had seen marked increases in the cases with psychiatric and mental health issues that must have only aggravated under the current conditions of incarceration and isolation. The Lancet, one of the premier medical journals in the world has raised the concerns about the consequences of fear and uncertainty in Kashmir in an editorial in its latest issue. In the editorial the issue of over 50 000 deaths since the start of insurgency since 1989, besides the gross human rights violations by state security forces and armed groups including sexual violence, enforced disappearances and acts of terrorism have also been raised. The immediate concern remains the well being of the people currently held in complete incommunicado, irrespective of the political leanings, which must be further lending to the helplessness and stress.

 

In a related development, another reputed medical journal, the BMJ in its editorial has raised similar concerns about medical emergencies in Kashmir based on a letter from 18 physicians across the India who have warned that the grim situation ‘had led to a blatant denial of the right to healthcare.’ They also raised concerns about the consequences of the total unending clampdown. The Lancet has earlier also waded into the issues of health and safety in conflict zones around the world. It famously published seminal studies on the adverse health consequences of the Iraq war, where it showed precisely death of at least 116 903 Iraqi non-combatants and more than 4800 coalition forces over 8-year course. It was somehow reaction to the editorial on Kashmir situation that drew an illogical response from Indian medical fraternity including its premier body, the Indian Medical Association that penned a letter to the editor “withdrawing its esteem of the Lancet”.

 

Scientists objecting to facts presented in a scientific journal on the basis of nationalist tribal political leanings not only represent a disappointing trend but a downright dangerous one. History is fraught with examples when scientists shook forsake their learnings and scientific truths for the sake of nationalism and identity politics only to lend to eventual disasters. Scientific facts are not bound by tribal and nationalist sensibilities; the nations that understand those simple facts are those who forge ahead with inclusive welfare of the society. Parochialism only ensures a road to destruction.

Rajiv Kumar