11 March, 2014
"Head-Lights Off; Body Lights On"
We are in the domain of the Ace of Spades, the 25th Infantry Division of the Indian Army. It is a three hour drive from
Jammu to Rajouri, and this perhaps in the most prominent roadside sign you will
see along the highway. Words painted in terse block letters mark the iron gates
guarding military camps, all along a route that has long been known as the
Mughal Road.
A
drive like this would have been a breeze in any other Himalayan river valley,
but this is J&K, a magnet to assorted, armed fanatics from across the
border. If you happen to arrive at one of these gates at night with the wrong
lights on, chances are that you will be shot first and asked questions later.
Having
been warned not to travel after sunset, we had out in pre-dawn darkness, driving through
un-seasonal rains, along the Akhnoor plains and the Chenab river-valley, and
over hills overlooking an endless chain of sodium vapor lamps that mark the
Indo-Pak border.
As
the rains eased and darkness gives way to dawn, army trucks lumbered along the
highway, dropping ROPs - Road Opening Parties - soldiers in parkas and assault
rifles trudge up and down the roads. Places with evocative names keep coming up
-- Sundarbani, Kalighan, Naushera and
Bafliaz.
The
Ace of Spades is only the most recent in the long list of army divisions that
had passed through these mountains and valleys. In 1587 Jalaluddin Akbar
went down this road to conquer Kashmir. He left behind large gardens and new
townships. The Mughal army that accompanied his son, Jehangir, made its mark in
a different way – it built a fortified Serai, and named it after the emperor’s
royal intestines!
The
story goes that that in the early 1600's, Jehangir, was on his way back from
the Kashmir valley to Delhi when he suddenly passed away. Years of being an opium
addict and an alcoholic had finally caught up with him. In any case the power
behind the throne was his 13th wife, Empress Noor Jehan. Given the
precarious state of Mughal succession planning, this lady decided that the only
way to survive the inevitable power struggle was to act as though her husband
were still alive until they reached safer areas. So on the banks of the Rajauri
Nullah, she had the body eviscerated, buried the emperor's decaying innards at
Chingus Fort, propped his body on a caparisoned elephant, and carried on in
royal splendor, until they reached Lahore.
Today,
big changes are afoot in a region that has been racked by an insurgency spread
across two decades. Despite the heavy army presence, or perhaps because of it,
new institutions are slowly coming up to match the rising expectations of a new
generation. Prominent among them is the Baba
Ghulam Shah Badshah University.
The
university is eight kilometers off the Mughal road, and a leap of faith in more
ways than one. Named after a local Sufi saint, this seat of learning seems to
rise from the middle of nowhere, at the foothills of the snowcapped Pir Panjal
mountain range. It was started a decade ago by a retired Kashmiri police
officer with a Rs.20 crore donation from local shrines. With additional public
donations and government grants that followed, the university has been able to
set up labs, hostels, classrooms and libraries.
The
infrastructure and facilities does bring in local students in large numbers. Hostel
food is not bad and cheering at cricket matches here does not attract sedition
charges. However, in a state where parents are wary of sending their children to
universities in distant parts of India, the biggest challenge is to attract –
and retain – good professors. Local employment prospects continue to be grim.
On
our way back to Jammu, a pink mini-bus zips past a hairpin bend. In hills and
valley that have seen more guns and bullets than books or pencils, Simran Coach
has a big banner quite different from those outside the army camps. It simply
says, "O God Help Me".
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LINKS:
Mughal Road -- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ancient-Mughal-road-is-a-new-big-tourist-site-in-JK/articleshow/22188250.cms?referral=PM
Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Road
Chingus Fort -- http://explorejk.com/heritage/chingus-fort/
