Do Dangal Girl Zaira’s Trolls Prove Kashmiri Youth Are Angry With Anything That Steals Their Aazadi Narrative?

When 16-year-old Zaira Waseem wrote an apology note on her Facebook wall, the actor didn’t know that she would find herself on a fault-line between a battle of narratives.

Her response to her critics, who had objected to her meeting with J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and castigated her for being an actor, is laced with symbolism.

Consciously, the teenager begins her apology for her recent actions and meetings. She had met CM Mehbooba Mufti.

It was her way of conveying the acknowledgment of the region’s new reality, which is being shaped by and accepted by a growing population of young men, and women, who have been out on the roads in summer of 2016 shouting “Go India, Go Back.”

Television news channels went berserk to debate the “threat” to Zaira and potrayed it as a gender-crime. 

However, Zaira is not the only one to have faced the heat. 

There have been many others including men, from other professions, who have found themselves on the receiving end for various reasons. The attacks though have a single baseline: That Kashmiri youth are angry at anything which is projected at stealing their narrative of Aazadi (freedom) and appropriating it into an “Indian mainstream narrative.”

The moment of reckoning for Zaira was not her acting in a Bollywood movie which is now a blockbuster at the box office. The girl was freely moving with friends in Srinagar following her shooting for the film and even after its release with people greeting her for her role.

She was however targeted following her meeting with CM Mehbooba Mufti, which was duly publicised by the state's information department. Mufti's government and party, People's Democratic Party (PDP) has come under intense condemnation during the past six months of unrest in the state

Mehbooba’s government and party are facing a popularity deficit after more than 90 civilians were killed, several hundred were blinded and thousands were injured since July 8, 2016 in bullet and pellet firing by government forces.

Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba’s predecessor and arch-rival saw a link here.

Abdullah pointed towards the ground realities in the conflict-hit region which has seen insurgency for past 27 years, as he accused Mehbooba Mufti of trying to “usurp other peoples success to cover up her own failures” in tweets.

 “These people succeed IN SPITE of the Govt not because of it so it's best to let them enjoy their success instead of trying to hijack it”, Abdullah said.

Shah Faesal, who topped the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination in 2010, is often  trolled and accused of “being part of an Indian mainstream project in Kashmir”. The situation is the same as that of Zaira, of contesting political narratives.

“I think it has nothing to do with religion. Yes it has to do with conflict,” the IAS officer, whose entry into the civil service prompted scores of other Kashmiris to take part in competitive examinations, told Outlook.

Kashmir, he said, is one of the least conservative Muslim societies of the world. “We are far more open about issues of women education, purdah, gender mixing and personal law. Recreation is deeply embedded in our culture and we are a happy people by nature”, he said.

“It's the conflict which has divided people and made them take positions. It's because of contestation of political narratives that achievers in our society are being called to question”, he said.

 In his Facebook post Faesal strongly defended Zaira for meeting the Chief Minister. Faesal argued that as long as there is a government "such interactions will continue". “Those who have a problem should either go to jungle or create their own institutions which are independent of this oppressive state in all respects and where those people can also make a mark who don't want to engage with the state but who don't want to die either(sic).”

Waheed Jeelani is the Valley’s most popular singer who performs in all the functions including state government programmes. 

He told Outlook that despite living in a conflict zone, there has been no restrictions from any quarter on any "purely artistic activity in Kashmir.” He says Zaira shouldn’t have apologized to a trolls as the entire Valley was on her side. “I think Zaira must have some personal reason for writing the apology”, Jeelani said.

On January 14, Zaira, who played the role of wrestler Geeta Phogat in Bollywood flick Dangal, met Mehbooba Mufti. Mufti later called her a role model. Soon after the meeting few of her Facebook friends and followers trolled the actor. Zaira wrote an apology note after consulting her friends.

 “This is an open confession/apology. I know that many people have been offended and displeased by my recent actions or by the people I have recently met. I want to apologize to all those people who I have unintentionally hurt and I want them to know that I understand their sentiments behind it especially considering what has happened over the past 6 months”, the note reads.

 However, the young actor didn’t end her apology note with. She added that she shouldn’t be considered as role model as was stated by Mehbooba.

 “Want to make it very clear that I do not want anyone to follow in my footsteps or even consider me as a role model. I’m not proud of what I am doing and I want everyone, expecially the youth to know that there are real role models out there whether they be in this time or our history.”

 “To even consider me as a role model would be disgracing them, and their disgrace would be Our Disgrace” the note reads.

 It seems the teenager is not averse to the new realities of Kashmir where militants are increasing seen as heroes with their funerals drawing lakhs of people.

 The actor later deleted her post.

 Her post led Kashmiris from across political divides to support the actor with people coming out with their encouragement on Facebook. However, some women activists describe trolling against her a result of “deep rooted patriarchy in society.”

With the PDP government trying to 'project its own heroes' to counter the Azadi narrative in Kashmir, the meeting of the CM with 16-year-old actor is being looked as part of the exercise.

Earlier, the CM had described eight-year-old Tajamul Islam, a kickboxing champion, as role a model for the youth and held two meetings with her. Early this month the Finance Minister of the State released Jammu and Kashmir Bank’s calendar showcasing achievers including Faesal, Tajamul and others.

 "The state government and Indian state acts on script to project Azadi narrative of Kashmir as regressive to convey that Indian democracy is solution for Kashmir," Gowhar Nazir Geelani, a political commentator told Outlook. "And this narrative have no takers in Kashmir. They did it 2012 with musical band and they repeating it again. They call it battle of hearts and minds but 2016 uprising shows where this battle is heading to.”

In December 2012 three girls, Farah Deeba, Aneeka Khalid and Noma Nazir - all Class 10 students, had performed in a function at the Indoor Stadium here in a programme sponsored by the paramilitary CRPF. 

However, two days after their public performance, a Facebook page Kashmir News posted a photograph of all the band members abusing the girls. Subsequently, a fatwa issued by the state government backed Grand Mufti, Mufti Bashir-ud-Din, asked the girls to desist from music, ending up with the girls quitting.

“There are dozens of music bands in Kashmir. Girls are even joining the Indian Police Service . As long as their achievement is not pitched against the political aspirations of Kashmiris, no one is bothered about who is doing what,” Geelani explains.

He described Indian liberals taking up “cause Zaira” as “a hollow 'moral surgical strike' against Kashmiris” saying, “they didn’t utter a word when girls younger than Zaira were blinded by Indian forces in Kashmir.”

Interestingly, well-known human rights activist Khurram Parvez, who was booked under the Public Safety Act for three months during the summer unrest of 2016, took this battle of narratives to new level in 2013 . He organised a parallel musical Haqeeqat-e-Kashmir (reality of Kashmir) to counter the Zubin Mehta show and it had evoked a huge response. 

“The Government and some sections of the Indian media are using every opportunity to demonise Kashmiris, which is perhaps an indicator of their weakness. Haqeeqat-e-Kashmir was a well thought out initiative to highlight the sufferings under subjugation and at the same time an attempt to not allow the government to demonise our protest”,  Parvez  told Outlook.