Soon after news channels began beaming an intercepted conversation, allegedly between a Hurriyat leader and one of its footsoldiers, in a video that supposedly lays bare cash payments made to foment protests, a counter video appeared on YouTube. It claimed that the official version had mischievously gained in translation. The Kashmiri equivalent of the phrase “enjoy your salary”, used to refer to government employees who earn despite not working during curfews, had been used as a convenient “proof” of how public protests may be sponsored.
This is just one of the many instances of how the internet is being used by Kashmiris to keep their resistance alive. It has helped them skirt the curfew and media censorship. Sabeha Mufti, a senior assistant professor of media studies at the Kashmir University, says the internet is often the only place to find “sane voices” on the conflict. “The mainstream media mostly hands out the government’s version of events. For a deeper understanding, I have to visit sites that, at times, are more credible and intelligent.”
Though Srinagar is not quite Tehran yet, many see a parallel between the online protests in the Islamic republic last June and the recurring demonstrations in Kashmir. Youngsters who can barely spell revolution are uploading videos set to Chris de Burgh’s rallying song, Revolution—telling images of public protests in Kashmir. Blogs too are rife with the rhetoric of azadi. In ’08, a video of the killing of one Shaheed Tanveer at a protest by security forces, shot with a mobile phone, went viral and became emblematic of the Kashmiri struggle online.
Predictably, the authorities are lurking around in cyberspace too. There are reports of Kashmiris being detained for “anti-national” posts on Facebook. Not just stones, the young in Kashmir are also pelting tweets and posts. And, like in Iran, it’s the latter the authorities in Srinagar and New Delhi will find more damaging and harder to throttle.
