Malla Jameel Ahmed
Kashmiri society derives its values and principles more often from the very religion they practice and scarcely to the culture that in its essence has seen a sharp decline due to the cultural invasion that usually in its initial stage seemed alien to us. The emergence of the foreign culture somehow becomes successful in finding a niche for its survival even after having a detrimental effect on the society. The families and the parents trying to instil the true values in a pursuit of organising their children’s to face the future challenges and overcome the problems is seen in every sphere of the society nowadays. The race of giving their children a world class education which primarily is argued with the notion of rise in competition level in the education sector but are reasonably driven with the societal competitions that has deep rooted their tendencies of being seen as a superior or equal if not inferior. This blind race has made a deep impact in our society as the childrens who are pure from all these things finds themselves entangled for none of their fault. Sparing the parents whom could not afford such level of education for their children does not reflect any sense of importance to others even if their contribution towards the society in other terms are highly admissible. If following the above narrative, one can deduce that the society has lost its level of understanding and reached to the point where it cannot differentiate between as to what is wrong and what is right. The point of immorality that is a hot topic nowadays with the advent of recent episodes that took place in this once called land of pirs and sufis or one may say land of pure. Immorality is seen by many people as a phenomenal approach by correlating it with the influence of cultures, poverty, westernization, lack of religious guidance and last but not the least the waning of fear of being punished or castigated for doing anything wrong. Immorality breeds declining of societal values or vice versa emulating into a societal collapse. The disintegration may be relatively abrupt or gradual but is doomed to happen until and unless necessary remedial and corrective measures are not taken into consideration with a systematic execution through various means. As far as our kashmiri society is concerned, we may attribute the rise of immorality to the following reasons:
- Inefficacy of religious Institutions
The question of whether or not morality requires religions has been debated through the centuries from ancient times. Socrates has once said “ whether goodness is loved by the god because it is good or whether goodness is good because it is loved by the gods”. The religion is not the only precursor for the emergence of the morality but it is the most important reason for the inception of the morality in its true sense. Previously the religious institutions played a great role in imparting the knowledge on moral topics thereby inculcating a sense of respect and empathy for others, self control and moral discipline fostering fairness and opportunities for moral reasoning. However, in the recent times it has been seen that the grip of the religious Institutions have somehow diminished almost to the level of zero and have become devoid of the purpose for which they were supposed to be adhering. This diminutive status of religious Institution has transcended from their infighting and internal tussles for power and control. The culture of debates in the religious Institutions were considered an offensive act thereby ruling out all the means of coming to any kind of conscience among the masses. Resultantly, nowadays the sermons given in the religious Institution are not paid heed to and are not taken seriously as the orators themselves are not well informed/versed with the reasons prompting the youths to resort to such immoral activities. The best way as is always pioneered is to identify the root cause of evil that is perpetuating within the society, only then you can eradicate it and the same thing is applicable to immorality which could be addressed only by striking the right cord and specifically targeting the reasons for its upsurge by correlating them with the real life day to day experiences substantiated with the scientific basis and its effect on the society.
- Lack of parental guidance.
Most basic components of conscience which includes a sense of guilt, capability to be empathic , ability to distinguish between right and wrong are developed at the age of 5 or 6 among children and are flourished with the years to come. Parents act as most constant tool for appropriate character development. Parents also assist by exposure to examples of behaviours that negate their own views of positive values and virtues. However in todays times , the same has taken over by the new phenomenon of association of happiness of children with the material things . Intending to make their children happy, parents out of love and societal norms give them expensive gift, but one thing the parents forget that the children’s have a very curious mind and they usually don’t get amazed by the quality of the gift but by the quantity. They start a very peculiar learning of judging themselves and others based on the quantity and possessions of the gift. This material attachment in the coming years do more harm which can extend to the punishments. The urge for more and more leads them to the path of resorting to immoral activities. It is high time for parents to shun their ego and remove the dust from their eyes, only then they can see the faults in their parenting.
- Exploitation of Unemployed youths
Unemployment is the situation of actively looking for employment but not being employed. Unemployment can spur psychological spur such as anxiety, depression, lack of confidence, huge amount of stress. Unemployment is the major source of ill wills in the society. Unemployment brings a societal gap where an unemployed youth finds themselves lagging behind in every sphere of the life. This divide increases with every passing day and in a search of finding a suitable means of the livelihood, they end up on wrong end. There are many groups in the society that are always ready to exploit the vulnerabilities of unemployed youth for their own benefits and the innocent youths fell prey to these kind of traps which ultimately make their life miserable. Our Kashmir valley is no exception to this kind of curse, not only the limitation of jobs in government but the non-availability/existence of private sector has added more to our woes and has enhanced the miseries altogether. The need of an hour is to explore the means of facilitating the creation of jobs through which the already depressed youth can find a sustainable means of livelihood. Entrepreneurship is one great idea, but is only limited to papers and has lot of loopholes. The unemployed youth enthusiastically trying to set up a income generating means ends up with a great dissatisfaction and are left in lurch after getting dejected from every quarter. To address the problem, single window system is to be created in every government Institution which will suffice the need of un-employed youths, thereby reducing the time required to get the clearances from the government organisations.
- Poverty
Poverty in itself is immoral, unjust and oppressive as it is marauds the basic values of humanity and its continuation like wealth provides an avenue for certain temptations to come our way. Unequal distribution of wealth has created this menace and due to the policies created by the so called intellectual pygmies in the present dispensation “the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer”. Poverty is one of the precincts of the rising immorality within our society as it is hard for the youths of present times to digest the thing that he is coming from a poor background and he should limit his desires. Instead, the generating of leverage from false proposition ultimately leads him to the disaster. The Claws of poverty are long and it is therefore no surprise that these problems are found among group who are in desperate struggle among poverty.
- Un-controlled access to internet
The recent event that took place in this region can be set as a best example as to how this boon has emerged as a bane. The un-interrupted use of social networking sites has created a sense of delirium among the youths and are at the verge of getting addicted to such things. The use of social networking sites may seem unproblematic in its initial days but it attains a status of inseparable part which becomes hard to take off. Further providing the internet services on cheap services has made the internet accessible to everyone and the service providers are providing the network facilities with internet features at quite lower rates that their previous fixed rates. No age bar is kept on the subscription/availing the services internet facilities. As such, the children’s are becoming the ultimate casualties for the irresponsible behaviour of the internet service providers.
In the end, if one try to draw inference, the rise of immoral activities is a coupled breakdown of economic, cultural and social Institution with a sole aim of destroying the societal fabric and need to be addressed as soon as possible.
As is rightly said by Salahudin Ayubi (Liberator of the Jerusalem)
“if you want to destroy any nation without war, make adultery and nudity common in the young generation”.
( The writer Malla Jameel Ahmed , Government employee at Govt Dental College & Hospital, Srinagar.)