Rameshwar Singh Jamwal
The killing of a tourist from Chennai, Thirumani, who was on his way to visit the picturesque Gulmarg area of Kashmir valley points to the worsening situation in Kashmir following the killing of few terrorists in Shopian and other areas of Kashmir. This had happened earlier also after the killing of Burhan Wani, in which dozens had lost their lives while staging violent protests, attacking soldiers, looting and burning government properties, a trend in continuation of earlier such attempts at small levels, pointing out something sinister. Is it by design or spontaneous, which the Government of India and the beleaguered Chief Minister of the state are trying to find but which may defy a logical explanation, if viewed from purely law and order conundrum or from a political prism, which some, like the former Chief Ministers, the father son duo and few other non descript leaders, political commentators and many others from the valley, are trying to make rest of the world believe. The secessionist lobby in the country and the state will always vouch for such events as it offers them the opportunity, as a readymade recipe for achieving their goals. The developing unsavory situation, besides causing loss of precious human lives and massive loss to property, has huge political ramifications as well, both for the nation and the state as well and also for those ruling the roost at present or those dreaming of grabbing it in near future. Such situations are being created deliberately to be exploited to the hilt by the enemies of the country, those functioning within the country as well as those sitting across border, to foment more trouble, to lure more vulnerable and young gullible minds to their fold and by secessionist and political groups to augment their depleting numbers. The fact that such incidents have been occurring at regular interval in the state and the subsequent events, of mobs going berserk, attacking the forces, and thereby giving the chance to the terrorists to escape can't be considered as mere anger against the political forces, it can't be anything other than a well planned tactic in furtherance of the stated objective of separatists and the neighboring country. How they do it is known to every security expert, but why they do it and which Criminological, sociological or Behavioral theory explains this berserk, suicidal behavior is perhaps not known to many and which is the real issue to be pondered over. But the authorities, both at the helm of affairs or those handling it at ground zero or those planning strategies in New Delhi should have pondered over the issue and come up with some plans so that such situations can be tackled in a scientific and coordinated manner in future but their attitude remains same, of reacting to the situation rather than preventing the situations to emerge. We may term it as lack of foresightedness, the intellectual smugness and the bankruptcy of rulers to look beyond the bureaucratic suggestions and try to find answer whether Terrorism is genetic or learned behavior, as well as to go into the causes which lead people to go berserk and lose their self controlling mechanisms and find ways to tackle it at mass levels. We have not bothered to find reasons as to why only in Kashmir the boiling points of normal human beings increase all of a sudden, and for no genuine cause, their so called angry gestures crossing limits. For this we may have to take help of latest gadgets and studies to find the reasons as to why so many people at once become violent and anti social only in a particular geographical region, confined to a few kilometers in the valley, something rarely witnessed in rest of world. Do we have any symptoms which could be considered to be predictors of their violent behaviors in later stages of lives. Latest studies show that in some cases low heart rates, some dysfunctional areas of brain like dorsal and pre frontal areas of brain, amygadala, hippocampus, the angular gyrus and the temporal cortex and even the slight variations in some trace minerals like, iron, zinc, cadmium, and many others, either in the expectant mothers or those in their wombs, can predispose some people to violence. Similarly some birth complications at prenatal, perinatal and postnatal complications and the low levels of MAOA Gene, have been found to be related to violent behavior, but is it so in case of Kashmir and that too on such a large scale. We have no answers because nobody in Union Government or state has thought on these lines. We have suggestions from all and sundry that Kashmir demands political solution and then the problem would vanish. Have we forgotten that decades back, when there was no such problem in the state, even in those days, thousands in Kashmir would react violently even for minor demands. Is it the continuation and aggravation of that genetic predisposition. Studies show that some people inherit nervous systems which give them a fearsome, risk taking, conscience free personality that can result in criminal, violent and even psychopathic behavior. These are the questions which require the attention of the interlocutors, the mandarins of Home Ministry and all those who are involved in efforts to solve Kashmir problem and they should have tried to find answers from Criminologists, psychologists and behaviorists but alas, we have been treading on a wrong path which will lead us nowhere. And as I have saying repeatedly, in seminars, in my write-ups and many other forums also, we may have to go to the psychology of mobs as differentiated from psychology of normal human beings, in Kashmir specific situation to understand, predict and then control such human behavior and study their behavior from a different angle as well.
The problem in Jammu and Kashmir is that till today, we have failed to produce leaders with broad visions, who could govern without the short term strategies of giving favours to their co-religionists and co-regionalists for remaining in power. Their efforts to stifle the real intellectuals from the bureaucracy, society and political horizons, from the rest of country and the other regions of the state ,has led to the dearth of intellectuals, who could steer the state out of its turbulent waters at crucial junctures. The so called tall leaders of Kashmir have faltered, in addressing the core issues and still they have not realized that the way the things are unfolding in Kashmir, it will have similar fate as that of Afghanistan or Syria as the religious ideologues are taking it in only that direction. How our Chief Ministers, the present or past, propose to handle such a scenario, and save their same constituency which they have tried to nurture at the cost of other deserving regions and individuals, it is for them to ask their conscience. They are at sea when we ask them about the ways to raise the conscience levels of people that will lead them to behave in socialized manners and have no ideas to tame mobs which engage in anti-social, violent behavior. Studies suggest that individuals being a part of large mobs, espousing religious or political ideology, peculiar to a particular cause, develop the feeling of no personal responsibility, where the threshold of normally restrained behavior is lowered and because of fault lines of system, people feel anonymous, less responsible for their such violent behavior and less inhibithed. Since the state does not impose any costs on such individuals, rather it offers them rewards, they feel that the conditions are ideal for gaining prominence, money power and even jobs, this leads to reinforcement of negatively acquired maladaptive behaviors. Human cognition plays vital role in causation and maintenance of maladaptive responding. Once our cognitive systems internalize and habituate to state ineptness in dealing with such situations, then it becomes difficult to make such tendencies extinct, especially amongst large groups or communities. Eventually such Internal forces, turn normal, law abiding simple citizens into frenzied, berserk, out of control mobs and their response specificity in such situations smacks of Neurotic behaviors. Think as to how and in how many years, you would be able modify the behavior of thousands and thousands of youngsters, bred on hatred for India, its institutions and its other residents. These problematic behaviors can be tackled but with different measures. We need to carry out massive studies and require to have some understanding about the processes involved in this change or acquisition of maladaptive behaviors and only then we can hope to find out of box solutions for such intrinsic problems but do we have the leadership in the state, ( Many at centre but they are helpless) which can understand all this, is the million dollar question. |
