The decade-long militancy in Jammu and Kashmir has claimed thousands of lives and has displaced countless more. But its most serious victim has been the secular and liberal fabric of Kashmiri society. With militancy in the Valley being virtually spearheaded by Pakistan-backed mujahideen and the movement for Kashmir's liberation assuming the character of a jihad, the grip of Islamic fundamentalists on the society has tightened.

Although the Valley has been virtually emptied of Hindus, the resultant homogenisation helping the fundamentalists, in Jammu, where the Hindus constitute a majority, the conflict has assumed communal overtones ...

The attacks (on Hindus) have only sharpened the wedge between the two communities ... The Hindus ... see the security forces as their only protection against the militants.

The distrust and suspicion that prevails between the two communities is a far cry from the secular and liberai tradition that Kashmir has always boasted of.

According to Amitabh Mattoo of Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, the outward symbols of Islamisation, such as the ban on smoking, closure of cinema halls and bars and the increasing number of women wearing burqas are not as visible today as it used to be in the early 90s. Nonetheless, there is a strong and not-so-obvious attempt at the Islamisation of society, especially in the Valley.

New mosques ... with domes and minarets have replaced the traditional flat structures of worship unique to this place. And ... burqa-clad women ... are a common sight in Anantnag and Baramulla. A more subtle approach is through education ...

Another disturbing fact is the participation of a large number of Kashmiri youth in the Islamisation process ...

Anti-India has automatically translated into pro-fundamentalism ... Today Kashmir's composite culture is fading away. Shivratri, which used to be one of the most popular festivals in J&K, among Muslims and Hindus alike, has been largely forgotten.

For (Mirwaiz) Omer Farooq ... a former (head) of the Hurriyat Conference, the blame for the rising fundamentalism rests squarely with the government in New Delhi. "The Indian government and its troops have adopted a very repressive policy here; as the majority of people are Muslims they feel the Indian government is anti-Muslim", he said.

"With the introduction of the gun culture, there was an attempt to apply Islamic principles by force in the early 90s. The attempt succeeded te some extent ... " However, some (think that) fundamentalist values can never be imposed on the Kashmiris and assert that Sufism – a synth sis of various traditions - was the dominant influence and Kashmiris are not fundamentalist by tradition and temperament ... A view that many disagree with ... (Source: The Week, 8 August, 1999)