SRINAGAR, INDIA — The students at the University of Kashmir have freedom on their minds.
Not from the tyranny of exams and professors, or of too-strict parents. What many young people here are dreaming of is freedom for their divided land, instead of being caught in the middle of a decades-old tug of war between India and Pakistan.
They got a taste of self-rule recently when thousands of residents rose up against a government decision to set aside forest land for use by Hindu pilgrims visiting a shrine here in India's only predominantly Muslim state, Jammu and Kashmir. The protests, in which at least six people were killed, were the biggest in years and forced not only an official reversal but the collapse of the state government this month.
It was a rare triumph of people power in the eyes of many Kashmiris, none more so than the youthful agitators in their teens and 20s who formed the majority of those chanting in the streets.
"It was like we were celebrating our freedom," said law student Saaqib Amin, 27, savoring the memory. "People on the roads talked about when we get freedom how much we will celebrate."
India and Pakistan each control parts of the contested Himalayan region, but both claim it in full and have gone to war twice over it. If nothing else, the protests put India on notice that it has yet to convince the younger generation of the benefits or justice of its rule in this part of Kashmir.
After nearly two decades of fighting between the Indian army and Kashmiri Muslim militants, some backed by Pakistan, New Delhi has won few hearts and minds here on its side of the divide, where unremitting bloodshed is almost all that many have ever known.
More than 60,000 people have been killed since disaffected groups took up arms in 1989 to press for independence or a merger with Pakistan, according to human rights groups. Civilians have been slain by militants' bombs and grenades; others have been kidnapped, tortured and killed by Indian security forces.
Violence has receded in the last few years amid peace talks between India and Pakistan, but tragedy still scars this land of breathtaking natural beauty, where an estimated half a million Indian troops remain posted, their fatigues and automatic weapons everywhere in evidence.
Here in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian state, there is anger at both the militants and the Indian security forces. But much more of it is reserved for the latter.
