NIT Srinagar unrest: The us-versus-them rift in student body

Srinagar: Word has spread that students should assemble in the common hall and within minutes it is packed. The speakers are resolutely defending their call to shift the campus out of the Valley and there are no dissenting voices. The National Institute of Technology is the only campus in Srinagar where a large number of non-locals study. An explosive situation is unfolding here after India's loss to the West Indies in the World T20 semi-final. Some Kashmiri students had cheered for the West Indies, which enraged the non-locals and resulted in clashes and vandalism.

On Tuesday, the non-Kashmiri students gathered and raised slogans such as " Bharat Mata ki jai" and "Vande Mataram", triggering fears of another clash with the Kashmiri students. Police were called to the campus and they used force to disperse the students, injuring a number of them. Later, the CRPF were called and they remain posted on the campus. A two-member team of the Union human resource development ministry visited on Wednesday to take stock of the situation. Although clashes are rare, Kashmiri and non-Kashmiri students often find themselves pitted against each other on a campus that has emerged as a microcosm of Indo-Pak hostilities. Whether it is India playing Pakistan in a cricket match or a debate about Kashmir, the two groups of students are always split. The Telegraph managed entry into the campus on Wednesday. Students, most of them non-Kashmiris, were spread in groups across the lawns. A large number of CRPF men, who were deployed at the site, were engaged in friendly chats with them. "There are 2,710 students studying here, out of which around 2,000 are non-Kashmiris," a student leader remarked. Officials in the HRD ministry said there were 1,200 Kashmiri students and about 1,600 non-Kashmiris. All the students who spoke to this paper did so on the condition that their identities would not be revealed. The students said they held no grudge against the Kashmiri students. "Whatever happened on Thursday (when India lost to the West Indies) happened. But what happened yesterday is unpardonable. We were ruthlessly beaten up by the police. We are not safe here and want NIT be shifted to some other place," a first year student from Jharkhand said. But the alleged police highhandedness has only added fuel to an already inflammable situation. Violent clashes may be rare and the students may be living amicably in the hostels, but the divide between Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris is deep. "They wish us and we wish them," a student from Bihar said. "But normally it does not develop into friendship... I haven't seen a single Kashmiri cheering for an Indian team and it is where they are different from us.... They raise pro-Pakistan and pro-Aazaadi slogans. That is why we want a Tricolour to be unfurled at the main gate of the institute." Although they live in the same hostel, the students said Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris don't share rooms. If they are allotted the same room, they usually change places to ensure that Kashmiri students share with other Kashmiris and those from outside with other non-locals. At one place on the campus, one Kashmiri student was engaged in a friendly discussion with non-locals. But scratching a little deeper, the differences surfaced. "They are accusing the police of roughing them up but isn't that what we face every day? When we are beaten (across Kashmir), there are many in India who defend them (police)," the Kashmiri student remarked. A group of Kashmiri students said it was they who felt unsafe on the campus. "The outsiders outnumber us and the campus has been handed over to the CRPF. It is we who were beaten after which the police was brought in to control the situation," one said. Non-Kashmiri students are using the situation as a ploy to force the Centre to shift the institute, they argued. The turbulence on the campus is taking regional overtones as several people took to the streets in Jammu on Wednesday in support of the non-Kashmiri students. Some groups have also called for a Jammu bandh today. -The Telegraph Calcutta