Page 32 - aruba-today-20180519

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 19 May 2018
Kashmir nomads wonder what place they have in today’s India

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN, Associ- week later. Eight people,
ated Press including four police offi-
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — cials, have been arrested
Along a bustling road set in the crime and destruc-
amid a series of new Mc- tion of evidence.
Mansions in Kashmir’s main A police probe revealed
city, a half-dozen extend- the attack had been
ed families are camped in planned for over a month
an open field in shelters of as a way to terrify the Ba-
burlap and plastic. To an karwal into leaving the
outsider, they look like refu- area.
gees. Then, thousands of mem-
But they’re not. bers of a radical Hindu
They are nomads whose group with links to the ruling
families have traveled for party marched to demand
centuries between summer the release of the men ac-
pastures in the Himalayas cused in the attack, which
and winter grazing grounds happened inside a private
in the lowland plains, herd- Hindu temple. Hundreds
ing their goats, sheep and of Hindu lawyers also pro-
horses. tested that the men were
The Muslim Bakarwal, who In this May 9, 2018, photo, Gul Khan, a Kashmiri nomadic Bakarwal man carries a tired goat on his innocent. “We keep on tell-
usually stop only briefly in shoulder as he leads a heard of sheep and goats at Peer Ki Gali, India, 80 kilometers (50 miles) ing ourselves that this too
Srinagar, have settled in for south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. will pass. And yes, it will,”
a few extra days this year Associated Press said Mohammed Latief,
for a community marriage. But life for the Bakarwal is its Muslims, the Bakarwals say nomad leaders want a young man who often
This group, of about 50 changing. Cities are clos- have felt increasingly iso- to make the region major- works as a community
people, is traveling without ing in on their grazing lands lated as attacks by Hindu ity-Muslim. Residents and cook. “But the prime con-
their livestock, which others and traditional paths. Some extremist groups have risen forest officials have begun cern is that our lives are
had already taken to the of the 200,000 or so Bakar- after the Hindu nationalist fencing in areas that have fast changing. We’re losing
high pastures. wal have begun building Bharatiya Janata Party, or long been open, stopping our Bakarwal culture to the
“It’s a life of hardship,” said permanent homes, some- BJP, was swept into power the Bakarwal from reach- modern world.”
a 40-year-old man named times sparking hostility with in India in 2014. The reli- ing their traditional routes, Javaid Rahi, who runs the
Gami as he lit a cooking fire people living in those ar- gious divide widened even pastures and water sup- Tribal Research and Cul-
for the camp’s wedding eas, many of them Hindu. further in Jammu-Kashmir plies. The tensions have led tural Foundation, a non-
feast. “The skies above are That hostility turned to hor- state when the BJP formed to scuffles, harassment of profit group that studies
hostile to us and so is the ror with the January gang- a coalition government nomadic girls and, alleg- the state’s tribal people,
earth below. War, weather rape and killing of an with a regional party. The edly, the burning of nomad agrees. He says many Ba-
and wolf: All are hostile to 8-year-old Bakarwal girl, Himalayan region of Kash- huts by Hindu men. karwal have left herding to
us,” said Gami, who uses making the nomads won- mir is claimed in its entirety In 2016, a young man was become semiskilled labor-
only one name. der what sort of place they by both India and Pakistan killed in a police shoot- ers or beggars.
South of Srinagar, in an- have in today’s India. but divided between them. ing when Gujjars, another “This community is under
other Bakarwal camp, Nas- “It’s not the same for us For the Bakarwal and other nomadic Muslim commu- immense pressure. They’re
reen Bano was caring for anymore. Not only have Muslim nomads, the trouble nity, resisted police orders being accused of forest
her baby, born last week our lives been made diffi- has often been about land. to leave their settlements encroachment. Their pas-
during a forest stopover. cult because we’ve been Much of that trouble has near Jammu. sages are being restricted
Two days later, she began restricted from moving free- occurred around Jammu, In January, the 8-year-old and are subjected to com-
the trek to join her hus- ly, but now we’re also un- the majority-Hindu city Bakarwal girl was grazing munal attacks,” Rahi said.
band, who was already in der physical attack,” said where the Bakarwals have her family’s ponies near the “I’m afraid they’ll soon be
the highlands. one Bakarwal, Mohammed their winter pastures. Hindu town of Kathua, a couple forced to abandon their
“This is how it goes,” Bano Aslam, cutting mutton for nationalists accuse the no- of hours from Jammu, when core occupation of sea-
said. “We keep moving, the feast. mads of encroaching on she was kidnapped. Her sonal migration. In a de-
from one place to the oth- Like many of India’s reli- their land when they build raped and mutilated body cade or so, it’ll be a history
er.” gious minorities, particularly permanent homes, and was found in the woods a of past.”q

In this May 9, 2018, photo, a
Kashmiri nomadic Bakarwal
In this May 9, 2018, photo, Nasreen Bano, a Kashmiri nomadic boy leads the heard of sheep
Bakarwal woman poses for pictures along with her new born and goats near Dubgan, 70
In this May 9, 2018, photo, Kashmiri nomadic Bakarwals walks baby girl inside her tent at a temporary camp in Dubgan, kilometers (43 miles) south
with heard of sheep and goats near Peer Ki Gali, India, 80 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Srinagar, Indian controlled of Srinagar, Indian controlled
kilometers (50 miles) south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Kashmir. Kashmir.
Associated Press Associated Press Associated Press