Is celebrating Pakistan team's loss in Srinagar sedition?

This past Sunday would be remembered for years, if not decades to come. It was a jam-packed stadium at Mirpur where India lost to Pakistan in a crucial cricket match thanks to the last over heroics of Shahid Afridi. It was à la Eid affair back home in Kashmir with celebrations starting just after Afridi’s last hit sailed across the boundary for a Six. I surprised my friends here at the university by sharing with them my happiness of India losing the match. Upon seeing me happy they expected India to have won the match. Back in India, more than 60 Kashmiri students of a University were suspended by the authorities and booked for ‘sedition’ for ‘celebrating’ the Indian team’s loss.  

In Kashmir, i studied at an institute which is unique for a college/university in Kashmir. The majority of the students in the institute were non-local, non-Kashmiri students. During the course of my studies there were many cricket matches we watched together in the common-hall of our institute. Among all of them, I remember three cricket matches which are significantly relevant in the present context.

In 2009, the ICC World Twenty20 Final was played between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Lord’s. Pakistan won the match with, again, Shahid Afridi playing a major role. Indian students rooted for Sri Lanka in the match and Kashmiris cheered for Pakistani team. I decided to go home, watched the match at home partly because I did not want to hear the battle cries and hooting by fellow Indian students in case Pakistan lost the match. However, the Kashmiri students at the hostels after the match were ecstatic. Pakistan having won the match, Pakistani national song was played in hostels on full volume with only the joy of having won the match. An odd slogan here and there. "Meri jaan Pakistan".

Australia versus Pakistan. St. Lucia. ICC World Twenty20, 2010 - Semi-Final. At one point of time in the match Pakistan were cruising along with the match having set a huge target of 192 runs before the Australian team. With every falling wicket the joy in the Kashmiris watching the match was reaching new levels. Indians were silently watching the game and gradually leaving the common-hall. Just when Mike Hussey began pummelling Saeed Ajmal’s deliveries across the boundary the Indians felt a new lease of life. The last five balls bowled by Ajmal went for 23 runs and Hussey took Australia into the finals single-handedly. By the last over, only the mess-workers were in the common-hall with Kashmiris having retired themselves to the hostel rooms. While Hussey raised a storm at St. Lucia, Indians raised one in the Chenab hostel at NIT Srinagar. Slogans, MCs, BCs and celebrations. It was as if India had just won a war against Pakistan although the Indian team was knocked out earlier, having lost all of its matches in the knockout stage.

We did not damage college property just because the Indians celebrated Pakistan team’s loss, acting upon their sentiment. We did not demand their rustication, or suspension. We did not burn effigy of the Director because the Indian students had violated our sentiments by celebrating a Pakistani loss. Many of us were willing to battle it out verbally, or may be physically as well. But, restraint was the way. We would always ask ourselves, “If we fight, the news will go out and there will be problems for Kashmiris studying in India”.

India versus Pakistan. Mohali. ICC Cricket World Cup, 2011 – Semi-Final. This was The match. Special arrangements were being made, both, by the students as well as the college authorities. Students in hostels without internet did some self-made arrangements for watching the match while as the authorities decided to shut down the common-hall for the night. Just in case. Police was deployed in the campus. And India won the match, and went on to win the Final as well. Those who had stayed back in the hostel reported ecstatic celebrations with slogans and all. “Indiyaaaaaaa, Indiyaaaaaa”. Again there was no fight, there were no demands for suspension of students. Had there been some sort of equivalent of Hindutva parties in Kashmir, I think they might have demanded the same for the Indian students who celebrated the Pakistan team’s loss. But there are not any!

For me, however, it did not come as a surprise to see the bigoted reaction of the same Indians who studied with us at the same college in Kashmir for four years. One of them commented on the recent suspension of the Kashmiri students saying, “First step towards controlling anti nationals” and six others ‘liked’ this comment. Strangely, one of those who ‘liked’ this comment also lives to believe that Pakistan is all about hunger and bombs. To quote him,“Bahut pyaar karte hain kashmiri bhaiyon se... aise nahi jaane denge paakistan... bhookho marne, bombs me udne ke liye”. Well, UN testifies that poverty levels in India are alarmingly higher than in Pakistan.

It is like them saying to us, “I have a sentiment. It is called National Interest. I can abuse, arrest or kill in its name.”

“Thou shall not have a sentiment!”

Is it just a game? India versus Pakistan!

It is another of those days when a game of Cricket is not just a game. The game surpasses itself. It is not a war but there is a people who have seen all what it takes to call a people a war hardened people. It is not just a bowler delivering the ball and the batsman hitting it, it is about the heartbeat of an entire people skipping a beat with every delivery. It is not just about 11+2 players battling it out at a particular time on the field, it is about an entire nation with a history linked to both the teams' nations letting out their emotions to express their sentiment. It is not about who wins the match that is important, more important thing is who loses the match. And this is the thing which satisfies the, may i borrow the term, 'collective conscience' of my nation in a somewhat emoticomic way.

It is not just a cricket match, it is a India versus Pakistan cricket match and Kashmiris root for the Pakistan Cricket Team in such a match.

KunanPoshpora, GawKadal, Zakoora, Sopore, Pathribal, Machil, Chittisinghpora, Tufail Mattoo, Wamiq Farooq. Maqbool Butt. Afzal Guru. Curfew, Crackdown, Encounter (fake?), Rashtriya Rifles, CRPF. Occupation.

Cricket is followed back home like the Champions League, here, in Europe or like the NBA in the US, if we need a comparison. Some people even say, "Cricket is a religion and da da da player is its god!" This is just to tell what Cricket means to the people in South Asia - India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.

When India wins a Cricket match it generates a wave of nationalism and nationalistic pride across the country.  When it wins against Pakistan all this is topped with an inexplicable happiness in the Indian fans, which may, in some cases, spill over into anti-Pakistan bigotry. On the other hand when India loses a cricket match, more importantly against Pakistan, Kashmiris see it as a perfect antidote which punctures this nationalistic pride of Indians. The same nationalistic pride of the same national interest which has served as a forever-young, collective conscience satisfying, blood-thirsty alibi to deny justice to Kashmiris for the past 67 years. 

The joy is inexplicable. Well, i am not going into he details on how Kashmiris forget everything on this day and become cricket experts/commentators! Or how it feels like a Curfew, or what a friend called Cricket Curfew, on this day!

It is not just about the joy of seeing India lose on the cricket field (read battleground) to Pakistan. It is about how a cricket match brings Kashmiris across the world together, cheering for one team to win. People may argue that it is just a game of cricket but for a Kashmiri, it is much more than just a game. It is an opportunity, howsoever insignificant for some, to see the back of the collective conscience of a particular nation.

P.S. If Pakistan loses the match, we have an antidote for that thing as well. "Tum jeeto ya haaro, suno, humein tumse pyaar hai!"