Lessons from Nature

THE ARMED UPRISING in Kashmir against India began in October 1989. Just a month before this, I visited Kashmir, where I had to address a large gathering at the Tagore Hall in Srinagar. On the same trip I met with numerous Kashmiris. One day, I went with a group of Kashmiri Muslims to an open valley just outside Srinagar.

All around were beautiful scenes of nature. From the towering peaks rivulets were cascading down the valley. As I sat on the banks of a stream alongwith my Kashmiri acquaintances, I noticed the way the stream flowed till it arrived at a boulder. It did not try to break the rock to be able to move ahead. Rather, when it met the rock, it simply swerved to the left or to the right, around the sides of the rock, and kept on with its journey uninterrupted. This is an inevitable happening with all streams and rivers, but when a foolhardy man finds a ‘boulder’ blocking his path, he wants to smash it so that he can forge ahead, even if that results in his journey coming to an abrupt end once and for all. This is precisely what has happened in Kashmir.

I turned to my companions and said, ‘This is a message from Nature to you. This fact of Nature tells you that if in the journey of life you face a hurdle, you should not seek to hurl yourself against it to carry on ahead. Rather, what you must do is  carefully avoid the hurdle and continue with your journey. This is the secret of success in life. This applies equally to communities and individuals.

The only way to progress is to avoid the hurdles and avail of the opportunities to build one’s life.

Personally, I do not regard the military or political presence of India in Kashmir as a hurdle for the Kashmiris. The Indian army initially entered Kashmir for the sole purpose of protecting its borders, along which it was stationed till 1989. Indian soldiers did not at that time enter Kashmiri villages or other localities. But when in October 1989 Kashmiri activists took up weapons against India and launched a militant movement, the Indian Army in order to combat the uprising entered those Kashmiri settlements where the militants were present. Even if the Kashmiri Muslims had considered the presence of Indian soldiers in Kashmir to be a hurdle or a challenge, the only sensible way out for them was precisely what Nature itself has taught us—that is to say, to ignore the problems and avail of the existing opportunities.

This is not a principle that one should adopt simply out of compulsion. This principle is a universal one. It applies to all individuals and groups. It applies just as much to Muslim-majority countries as it does to countries where Muslims are a minority.