Table Of ContentEducational Strategies
for Youth Empowerment
in Conflict Zones
Transforming, not
Transmitting, Trauma
Nyla Ali Khan
Educational Strategies for Youth Empowerment
in Conflict Zones
Nyla Ali Khan
Educational Strategies
for Youth
Empowerment
in Conflict Zones
Transforming, not Transmitting, Trauma
Nyla Ali Khan
Edmond, OK, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-66225-7 ISBN 978-3-030-66226-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66226-4
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For my father who always believed that the story of the people of Jammu
and Kashmir was one of resilience, not of defeat.
Foreword by Robert C. Barnes
“In her book Educational Strategies for Youth Empowerment in Conflict
Zones: Transforming, Not Transmitting, Trauma, Dr. Nyla Ali Khan
boldly deals with the reality with which all of us are faced with today.
She warmly recalls the beauty of her homeland, Kashmir. For decades,
tourists have travelled from around the world to experience the inspira-
tion of Kashmir’s majestically beautiful mountains. However, this is no
longer a possibility. After decades of political unrest, Dr. Khan watched
the disintegration of her beloved homeland which has had a devastating
effectonthepeopleofKashmir.Similarresultsofthesamenegativeener-
gies are seenin Americancities suchas Chicagoand New York, as well as
other cities worldwide.
I refer to the words of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who
said, “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.” Victor
Frankl (author of Man’s Search for Meaning) might have substituted
the word “purpose” for Nietzsche’s word “why.” Nietzche’s “any how”
mighthavebeenFrankl’sword“circumstance.”Franklvalidatedthescien-
tificrealityofhistheoryknownasLogotherapybystudyingtheprisoners
in Nazi camps who were allowed to live. Those prisoners who had a
purpose in life were the ones who survived. Those prisoners who did not
have a purpose to live chose suicide.
Dr. Nyla Ali Khan refers to the richness found in the legacy of her
ownparents,grandparents,andotherswhochoseFrankl’sconceptofSelf-
Transcendence instead of destroying what had been achieved by others.
vii
viii FOREWORD BY ROBERT C. BARNES
This legacy has instilled in her a love for her homeland and given her an
appreciationforthestrongintergenerationalsupportsystemshereceived.
Dr. Khan’s book belongs in homes, educational classroom, and libraries
around the world.”
Dr. Robert C. Barnes
President of the International Board of Directors for the Viktor
Frankl Institute of Logotherapy
Abilene, Texas, USA
Foreword by Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri
Dr.NylaAliKhan,scionofaleadingKashmirifamilyinherbook,Educa-
tional Strategies for Youth Empowerment in Conflict Zones, has given a
verymovingaccountofthesituationinJammuandKashmir.Themisfor-
tunesthattheycontinuetosufferisduetotheunendingconflictbetween
Pakistan and India ever since independence. She has suggested educa-
tional strategies for youth and employment in conflict zone, such as
Kashmir. I can fully empathize with the pain reflected in her writings.
In my book, Neither a Hawk, Nor a Dove, while dealing with the issues
of peace in Kashmir and between Pakistan and India, I pointed out that
a very large number of Kashmiris, particularly, women and children had
sufferedpsychologicaltraumaduetothepresenceoftroopsonthestreets
of their towns and villages. This was the major reasonwhy it was decided
duringtheback-channeltalksthattroopswouldbewithdrawnfromurban
areasgraduallytotheLineofControlandkeptthereatthebareminimum
needed to maintain law and order. Pakistan, as a reciprocal gesture also
agreed to do the same in AJK.
She also emphasizes the importance of training citizens to seek non-
militaryandhumanesolutionstotheproblemsoflivingunderoccupation
forces. While I can understand her motivations and empathize with her
sentiments, all major international issues including those in the Balkans
and in South Africa to which she refers needed a just political solution
before peace could be restored. I gave all the details in my book, the
contents of which have not been contradicted by any Indian or Pakistani
ix
x FOREWORD BY KHURSHID MAHMUD KASURI
whowasintheloopinthemostsuccessfulpeaceprocessbetweenthetwo
countries since independence during our tenure. The wisdom underlying
the envisaged solution and of peace between Pakistan and India was real-
ized by both BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Congress
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. PM Vajpayee who highlighted the
need for ‘Insaniyat, Jamhuriyat, Kashmiriyat’ had realized that this could
alsoprovidethebasisforpeaceinKashmirandbetweenthetwocountries,
for which purpose he ‘extended the hand of friendship to Pakistan’. PM
Vajpayee’s wisdom is also reflected in an article ‘Kumarakom Musings’
carried by one of India’s leading magazines, ‘the Outlook’: ‘two things
were keeping India from achieving its potential at the international level;
its problem with Pakistan over Kashmir dispute and the demolition of
BabriMasjid.’Dr.ManmohanSinghoftheCongressPartyduringwhose
tenure we had agreed to a detailed framework for resolving J&K also
remarked, ‘I dream of a day, while retaining our respective national iden-
tities, one can have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore, and dinner in
Kabul.
Kashmirthroughcenturieshasbeennotedforcommunalharmonyand
religious syncretism and Dr. Nyla Ali Khan is obviously imbued with the
same spirit of Kashmiriyat about which all Kashmiris can be genuinely
proud.IhavealwaysmaintainedthatasolutionofJ&Kispossibleifthere
is a political will on both sides and the solution envisages a win-win for
KashmirisPakistanisandIndians.IwouldconcludebycongratulatingDr.
Khanforhereffortstowardssuggestingthestrategiesthatwillhelpreduce
some of the pain that all Kashmiris, men, women and children feel so
acutely.
Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Lahore, Pakistan
Foreword by Mani Shankar Aiyar
Dr.NylaKhanisnotonlyachildofthetraumathatJ&Khasbeenunder-
going since the early ’90s, she is also an exceptional survivor through
emotional resilience. She demonstrates that even as the tragedy of her
people unfolds, and does not seem to have an end, it is possible to find
hopeandforgivenessevenasitispossibletofindfaithinoneselfandone’s
destiny instead of giving in to bitterness or hatred or aching for revenge.
Her prescriptions, drawn from her own suffering and psychological
rejuvenation, are universally applicable and can be applied to society as
whole and not just a particularly strong individual like herself. Her own
path to escaping out of present despair and into the “sunlit uplands”
of an imagined future is not resort to violence but the quintessential
Kashmiri response to centuries of oppression: conviction in pluralism
and democracy and good sense prevailing eventually over tyranny and
oppression.
ThatshebelongstothepremierpoliticalfamilyoftheRiyasatdoesnot
much intrude in her account or her formulae for resolution. Rather, it is
an intense love for her homeland, pride in her cause of genuine constitu-
tionalfreedomforherpeopleandloveforherfamily,aboveall,herdoctor
fatherthatsustainsthereaderthroughthewrenchingtimestheauthorhas
been through and, indeed, is going through even at present in a distant
land.
Sheisanexileonlyinaphysicalsenseforherheartbeatsinhervaleand
her mind is enveloped not in hatred, which is the obvious reaction, but
xi
