The movie ‘I’m Not The River Jhelum’ is a completely false depiction of the terror years in Kashmir, which ended with the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. News reports from Pune said that some activists opposed the screening of the movie in Pune because it shows the Indian Army in a bad light. Yes, I agree that the movie wrongly maligns the Indian Army. But the damage done by the movie goes far beyond that.The filmmaker peddled the same lie that many agenda-driven filmmakers have chosen to do earlier. They decide to blame the Indian state for all the issues that plagued Kashmir, without any understanding of the ground realities.
Zero Understanding Of Kashmir Examine the movie’s trailer, which proudly displays the following quote:* “A searing critique of state-induced terror and violence in the troubled valley.”This comment reveals that the reviewer has zero understanding of Kashmir, is happy peddling the same lies and maligning the Indian state. Whatever these filmmakers may try to project, they cannot take away the horrors that Kashmir suffered when it was in the grip of Pakistan-sponsored terrorist organizations. The fact is that Kashmir did not suffer from state-induced terror and violence. Kashmir suffered from the terror and violence orchestrated by terror organisations. Another quote displayed on the movie’s trailer is this:* “Gives a powerful and haunting sense of living in the most heavily militarised zones.”The filmmakers and the reviewers don’t have the courage to say that Kashmir was one of the world’s most terrorised zones. Terror organizations terrorized the entire local population so that nobody had the courage to question their diktat. By brainwashing and indoctrinating the Kashmir society, these Pakistan-sponsored terror organizations made people believe that their future lay with Pakistan.Thus started a whole saga of radicalizing boys from middle class and poor families. Their minds were corrupted, and they were made to think like jihadis. The boys were made to believe that this present life meant nothing, and paradise awaited them if they gave up their life for ‘azadi’.
Kashmiri Youths Were Driven to Jihad Let us ask some tough questions here. The men who radicalized boys and youths – did they send their own sons or younger brothers to become jihadis and fight for azadi?No. They made sure that their brothers and sons studied in the best academic institutions in India and abroad, got plush jobs and led a prosperous life. Meanwhile, they had other plans for the sons of poor and middle-class Kashmiris. These poor youths became stone pelters, Over-Ground Workers (OGWs) of terror organizations, or they became militants. Following any of these trajectories, their youths were destroyed. Their families were left wailing.So many of my friends became victims of illusions peddled by the terror organisations and by the radicalized clerics. So many of my friends became stone-pelters or militants or OGWs (Over-Ground Workers) and got killed. My youth years were also destroyed by these terror forces. These filmmakers do not show any of these truths. They are scared to tell the truth about the terror organizations that held sway in Kashmir. Instead of speaking the truth, these agenda-driven filmmakers want to give gyaan to us Kashmiris on the terrible times that we lived through. The Movie Lacks Honesty And Courage The movie is silent on how the terror organisations completely crushed the lives of ordinary Kashmiris. The movie does not have the honesty to say that the Army and the security forces protected us Kashmiris from the terror organisations. In a few hundred words, can the horror of over 30 years be explained? The filmmaker should have asked himself why Kashmir is happy and prosperous after the abrogation of Article 370?It is because after decades, people have been released from the suffocated life that they were living. Now our children happily go to their respective educational institutions. They pursue their happy dreams. Parents don’t have to stress whether their children will come back home safe. Life in Kashmir does not close early evening. Now people do not live in a pall of constant fear and violence.When movie theatres opened across Kashmir after more than two decades, the elderly people were very happy. They recalled the happy times when they would visit cinema houses in their respective towns in Kashmir. The terror organizations made sure that the life of people was constantly miserable. The reason is that it is easy to make miserable people opt for jihad.
Peace And Prosperity Of Naya Kashmir Kashmiris are ambitious and aspirational people. All parents want to see their children flourishing. All this is possible because of the peace and prosperity brought to us by Naya Kashmir.Kashmir has rejected violence and terror. We have had enough of it. We are weary of it. People all over the world want happy spaces to live in. It is the same for us. We also want happy, joyous spaces to live in. The remarkable pace of development and progress in Kashmir over the last two or three years has been watched across Kashmir.Many Kashmiris have started saying that they are very happy about the transformation that they have witnessed in Kashmir. This is because of the multiple positive and affirmative initiatives taken by the government.The trailer of the movie, ‘I’m Not The River Jhelum’ lists the awards won by it. Evidently, those who chose the film for these awards are ignorant or wilfully blind about the realities of Kashmir. (The writer is the President of Peace Awareness Foundation and the Director of Gaash Coaching Centre, which provides free education to poor children and orphans in Old Town Baramulla)
