Kashmiri students were attacked by local students, Jodhpur
Ali[1] is an intense-looking Kashmiri young man studying in Hyderabad. There is the Maulana Azad University (MAU) and the Hyderabad Central University (HCU), both institutions that have Kashmiri students; where each of them experience a special style of everyday discrimination. Be it at the MAU or HCU, talking about the unrest within Indian universities with Kashmiri students, invariably the conversation turns to the valley and the situation there.
“Every day my folks are worried; they worry more when they hear or read about or see the agitation in Hyderabad. In Kashmir we are in a permanent state of curfew, sometimes surveillance; our family does not want us to get involved here, too!!” says Ali.
My thoughts turned to Ali and his fellow travelers, in Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai…. Especially when we read today how some Kashmiri students are abused and thrashed in quid pro quo assaults, all over the country.
This morning, April 9, The Hindustan Times reported one such brute assault.
Jodhpur
A group of Kashmiri students was assaulted in Jodhpur’s Vyas Dental College on the evening of April 7, in an alleged backlash against the police attack on ‘non-local’ boys studying at Srinagar’s National Institute of Technology (NIT) three days ago. A mob of 30 people armed with knives, iron rods and sticks attacked the Kashmiri students at the annual cultural event of the private college, some of the victims in Jodhpur told the media. The assaulters reported had their faces covered, chanted the predictable “Pakistan Murdabad” slogans, were on the look-out for Kashmiri students and proceeded to beat up every one they could find. Some students who sought refuge inside the hostel were also allegedly assaulted, their furniture damaged. Today they live in fear for their lives.
More than 100 Kashmiri students study in this college. It was local students and the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) that had started the assault, raising ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogans. The institute’s director Manish Vyas is flatly denying the assault!
Chittorgarh, Mewar
All of March and April saw Kashmiri students being targeted in different parts of Rajasthan.
Kashmiri students were attacked reportedly by students from Jammu on April 2 after India lost to the West Indies in the T-20 Cricket match!! The incident took place at Mewar University in Chittorgarh. Of the nine persons arrested, four were the victim Kashmiri students themselves!
What is it about Cricket, India, Pakistan, and Kashmir that seems to bring out the very worst in us?
The police have reportedly arrested four of the assaulters as also the victims!
The same institution, a fortnight earlier has been the scene of another assault on Kashmiri students
On the night of March 14, word went around in Mewar University in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, that a few Kashmiris were cooking beef in their hostel room. Soon a crowd of students gathered around to protest. A picture started circulating on WhatsApp with the caption “Kashmiri students cooking beef”. A mob, reportedly including members of the militant Hindutva group Bajrang Dal, assembled outside the private university, demanding action.
Violence seemed likely. The police arrived at the campus in the middle of the night and broke up the mob. They also took away four Kashmiri students along with a sample of the half-cooked meat. The next day four other Kashmiri students went to the police station and turned themselves in “on the advice of the [university] administration”. They were in detention for two days, until a board of experts confirmed the meat was not beef. It turned out a few Kashmiri students had sneaked some meat into the hostel that is “strictly vegetarian by policy”. They were cooking it in their room when someone smelled it and raised a protest, thinking it was beef. Things spiraled quickly from there.
But for over two decades, India and Indians have let young Kashmiris bear the brunt of brute attacks, a situation that reflects deep seated individual and institutional prejudice.
Jaipur
Following the happenings at NIIT in Srinagar, Kashmiri students here had to bear the brunt. Suresh Gyan Vihar University in Jaipur, where a Kashmiri B-Tech student said the row had created a negative perception about Kashmiris. “Every J&K student is painted with the same brush …J&K students otherwise enjoy an amicable relationship with students of other states.”
Bhopal
The higher education commissioner of Madhya Pradesh has asked colleges to ensure safety of Kashmiri students as about 300 students of the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology in Bhopal took out a march in support of NIT Srinagar’s non-Kashmiri students.
Citing a letter issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the Department of Higher Education, Madhya Pradesh, has directed colleges in the state to ensure the safety of students from Jammu and Kashmir studying on their respective campuses. In a letter addressed to both, principals of government and private colleges, OSD (higher education) Amit Jain said that the principals should make such arrangements on their campuses that students from the state of Jammu and Kashmir remain safe and feel protected.
The letter was issued after a missive from Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The missive states: “Students of the State of Jammu and Kashmir are studying in different colleges and universities located in various states/UTs of the country. There is perception among the people of Jammu and Kashmir that their wards are being treated with suspicion and hostility outside the state.
“In this regard, it is requested from the State governments to ensure the protection of the students from J-K. Incidents affecting these students may be handled with utmost care and sensitivity,” the missive reads. Meanwhile, the Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) has decided to collect information on all the students from J-K studying in colleges affiliated to it.
2015
In January 2015, the police detained 10 Kashmiri students at NIMS University, Rajasthan, after clashes broke out between them and students from Bihar. Fearing more violence, many Kashmiri students left the hostel. Two month after that, Kashmiri students in a Kanpur institution alleged that local students attacked them.
2014
In February 2014, for instance, 67 students from the Swami Vivekanand Subharti University in Meerut were suspended and told to leave the campus for celebrating the Pakistan cricket team’s win against India in Asia Cup. The vice chancellor called the students' behaviour “unacceptable” and the police accused them of disturbing communal harmony. The charges were dropped later.( http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/sedition-charges-against-kashmiri-students-who-cheered-for-pak-dropped/312097)
In May 2014, three Kashmiri students at a private university in Greater Noida were abused, assaulted, called terrorists and forced to raise anti-Pakistan slogans.
In December 2014, locals attacked and injured eight Kashmiri students at the Global Research Institution of Management and Technology, Haryana.
Kashmiri students say people frequently tell them to be thankful to the central government, particularly if they are benefiting from scholarships.