Kashmir has subsumed life in Kashmir. The problem is bigger than the prospect; political positions on the issue have become more relevant than the perspectives on it and solutions overwhelm situational facts. We have become a civil society that has opinion sans informed reasoning. We have a state that has authority without legitimacy. We are a people who have slogans but not a voice. Our children have hopes but no heroes; our young men have apathy not aspirations; our elders breed cynicism not confidence. Our histories are hagiographies, our news is trivialised and our realities are fictionalised.

issuse-3This is precisely the reason why we are unable to comprehend what is happening around us; ragda agitations one day and poll participation the next.   To be sure, we are making a fetish of our very existence by camouflaging and hiding facts and realities.even from our inner selves. Our biggest problem is the paralysing powerlessness of our civil society. It is a problem that concerns every one of us.

The fact is that we today have no real civil society, no sense of heightened social consciousness; no courage to see ourselves as we are. It is in this context that Kashmir Life has taken birth. Kashmir Life aspires to ignite the social power that comes from our beliefs and value systems, the cultural power that comes from freedom of expression and consciousness, the personal power that entitles every Kashmiri citizen to feel that he or she is, in fact, an empowered citizen and not a colonised soul. We have to revive the confidence in our values, our politics, our economy and indeed, in ourselves. This is our agenda.

Indeed the silence is deafening We need to answer our own questions. But before we do that, we must ask the right questions. This is not a matter of a party or ideology or faction. This is not a trivial matter of regime change, making political points and building conspiracy theories; it’s a matter of our identity. Kashmir Life sets out to creating our own narrative, the narrative of our ethnicity, of our reality – as it is, not as it ought to be. We aspire to be the beacon of hope and empowerment.

We want to inspire to aspire for better journalism; for an informed debate; for ethical professionalism; for a truthful tomorrow; for a dignified existence.  For this, it is imperative to report and analyse the context – ideological, emotional, economic and social – in which we live and in which the conflict has occurred and continues.

We, at Kashmir Life, aspire to raise the consciousness that includes both intellectual apprehensions and psychological change.  It is important for us that our readers get to read about themselves; their concerns not just articulated but also appreciated; their defeats mentioned but also mourned; their successes not just analysed but also applauded. Kashmir Life will change the paradigm of reporting, Insha Allah!  Our readers, Kashmiris as they are, are also citizens of the world.

We aspire to put before them an offering that is Kashmiri in its sensitivity and sensibility but international in its style and substance.

Bon Apetite!

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