Why Kashmir marathon was a disaster

What could have gone wrong with the Big Kashmir Marathon to turn it into a Mobithon? The intent of the organisers was certainly beyond doubt but their understanding of the problems on the ground was a little suspect.

To begin with, Kashmir is a cultural territory where you need to tread with care. Yes, a marathon was a good idea but maybe an international marathon with professional athletes running next to local aspirants was a bad one. It was like an overdose of a helpful drug. The way Kashmir has been for the past 60 years, you need to start small and start at the local level. The locals suffer from a “what is there in it for me” syndrome. Rushing into Kashmir to implant a global trend, without being sensitive to the local psyche can be suicidal, to say the least.

It is almost like trying to do business in Japan without giving a thought to the tea-drinking ceremony - the ritual drinking of the beverage that is considered the epitome of Japanese restraint and formality. You won’t get too far without understanding how Japanese perceive every gesture. That could very well be the case in Kashmir in a different time and space.

If you know Kashmir and the underlying resentment of the people living there, you will be sensitive to the fact that most locals suffer from a complex of deprivation. They have always felt alienated and the children of a lesser god. So when you put them in a competition against international marathon runners without giving them opportunities to come up to speed, you are doing them a disfavour by fuelling their insecurity and complexes. You cannot pitch them against professionals without exposing them to the drill a marathon requires.

Also the event was a little ill-fated. It was almost a year after the floods and the discontent of the people with the establishment is a raw vein that cannot be soothed by a sporting event.

Maybe a better initiative would have been to hold a Kashmir marathon for the local youth with handsome prizes. The hands that pelt stones for Rs 50 would easily be lured by the promise of winning an honourable sum, honourably.

Interestingly, during all my recent visits to the Valley, I have seen schools bringing their children to the Dal Lake to run their own little marathons around the lake, in the wee hours. Someone had to catch the trend and build upon it, one step at a time.

Also, one had to be clear on whether this was a tourism promotion campaign or an inclusion initiative. They both have to be handled differently. To achieve the objective of inclusion, the Kashmiri youth should have been made to believe that this is done to bring opportunity to their doorstep and see if some locals would want to be groomed as marathon runners.

Then there is also the cultural angle. If you would have been brought up in Kashmir, the first thing you would learn is to never let a mob have access to girls stepping out of stereotypes. Women participating in activities like a marathon can ruffle the conservative local males, given that they lack exposure to progressive ideas. It is not something that they grow up seeing. They grow up seeing grade one and grade two girls donning hijabs to school (It breaks my heart when I see the restricted childhood of those angels).

In a nutshell, Kashmir has to be handled with care. Even inclusion has to factor in knowledge and sensitivity towards the local culture and its customs.

We cannot start by taking Lido to Kashmir or by banning beef. The first few toddler steps in inclusion (already too late) have to be ground-up not top-down.