This is the story of a beautiful paradise on earth that has been living amidst sound of bullets, cries of mothers and marching soldiers. Torn between the politics and military of India, Pakistan and China, the state of Kashmir is known for its breathtaking beauty as much as its turbulent history.
The area shown in green is the Pakistani-controlled area, in orange is the Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir and the diagonally-hatched area to the east is the Chinese-controlled area known as Aksai Chin. Source: Wikipedia
One side of the concertina wires and 12-feet high fences, along India-Pak border calls it its “integral part”, the other side says Kashmir is its “jugular vein.”
Job-starved youth are greeted by their mothers as they shoulder responsibility to bring peace, soon to be survived by their tears and deaf pleas. They say, go and ask any Kashmiri, any, from anywhere in the world and ask him, has he lost anyone whom he knew in the last 26 years. A 'no' will be rare.
They say which day is not martyr's day in Kashmir.
Here's an example account of the news, that made headlines this month - 9 killings, 16 injured in 10 days.
Who can hear what they have to say.
Here's what a poet said about feeling voiceless,
In stampless envelopes, without an address
Dead letters at the post office are we
- Zareef Ahmed Zareef, contemporary Kashmiri poet
The most voiceless in all of Kashmir are not the governments, not the military, its the very people. What if ... there was a massive media that told us, what Kashmiris really want about their three choices - independence, uniting with Pakistan or remaining in India.
What if
The Kashmiris could use their own iconic embroidery to voice their say.
The people of Kashmir have impressed upon textiles all over the world with their distinct embroidery patterns (shown below).
Idea - The Digital Fabric
In this idea, the people of Kashmir can tweet #JoinPak, #InIndia or #Independence and we represented that data in three colors of their respective flags, Green - Pakistan, Orange - India and Red - Kashmir.
The tweets are analyzed for the choices people make and accordingly the digital embroidery pattern reflects it in its colors.
Location -
This idea is envisioned to be a massive media projection on a building or monument in the capital of the country, Delhi. Being at the heart of India's political scene, Delhi drives the political sentiment and is often the city to have people gather and voice opinion on the Kashmir issue, the geological proximity to Kashmir working in its favor.
The "Purana Qila" (the Old fort) in Delhi, is well known among public for its projection-based messages (shown below, one of the projections)
Visualization -
A lively growing pattern of embroidery onto the walls as people's tweets came in, with colors of the choices that Kashmiris make becoming more and more prominent.
So...
If most tweets include #JoinPak, the pattern will have more of green
If most tweets include #Independence, the pattern will have more of red
And like so in orange if most tweets are in support of #InIndia.
Data flow diagram -
This is an effort to listen to and present the will of the people of Kashmir. Hopefully, this will create awareness in the political and military landscape of the country and bring about a change long awaited.
References:
Hindustan Times.
Maps collection at University of Texas at Austin.
NDTV News.
Scoopwhoop article - https://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/kashmir-wants-to-be-heard/#.ayabs1z2l
Google images.
Koshur cart