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When surrounded by half a million soldiers and police officers, there are few notes more discordant than a single word.

But today, it seems to be at the tip of every Kashmiri tongue.

Independence.

"We are fed up with India and we are fed up with Pakistan," said Manzoor Ahmad, a 40-year-old tour operator in Srinagar, the capital of India's most northerly, and volatile, state.

"When I am in India, I am treated as a Kashmiri, and not as an Indian," he added. "If I am told that I am Kashmiri, then I am Kashmiri."

Ironically, as India celebrated 61 years of independence from British rule over the weekend, the country was scrambling to rein in burgeoning nationalist sentiment in Kashmir. But hopes of curbing that tide in Jammu and Kashmir seem to be fading with every deadly clash between separatist mobs and massive security forces. In the past week, about 30 protesters have been killed and between 300 and 500 injured as security forces try to control what began as a split between Muslims and Hindus - and has now spiralled into a full-blown uprising.

"There is no government in Jammu and Kashmir," said Shahid ul-Islam, personal secretary to separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. "There is no government. Nothing. Only people on the roads, that's all."

In recent years, the Hindus and Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir had managed to eke out a delicate harmony. Kashmir was just beginning to emerge from its violent past - when Pakistan and India fought bitterly over the mostly Muslim region - and welcome tourists. In the past five years, the picturesque Kashmir Valley, quilted in lakes, forests and mountains, saw a significant surge in foreign and domestic visitors.

"It was just all so fine from the Indian point of view, you had the Kashmiri separatists almost isolated," explained Seema Mustafa, editor of an Indian political magazine called Covert.

"Everything was moving so beautifully and then these guys start playing electoral politics. It was one of the best times after the militancy. But now, it has gone back to the '90s phase."

The seeds of a renewed militancy in Kashmir were likely sown in about 40 hectares of land. In early June, the state government announced it was transferring a swath of forested land to the management of a Hindu cave shrine, called Amarnath.

Unfortunately, the land lay squarely in the Kashmir Valley, which is almost entirely dominated by Muslims. Throngs of Kashmiri Muslims filled the streets in angry protest. By the end of the month, the government yielded, cancelling the land transfer.

But a very old and angry genie had been released from its bottle. As soon as news of the state's about-face reached the Hindu majority in Jammu, protesters took to the streets en masse.

"I think the chief minister was hoping the issue would get him some votes in the Jammu region and they didn't bargain on the kind of response that they got," Ms. Mustafa said. "Now, on both sides, in Jammu and Kashmir it has gotten far beyond the land issue."

On Aug. 11, Kashmiri Muslims vowed to break through a blockade of Jammu protesters, who were preventing goods from entering or leaving Srinagar. In the police firing that followed, a separatist leader was among the dead. Accusing police of targeting their leader, Kashmiris vowed revenge.

Perhaps, the most ominous sign that India is losing its grip on Kashmir is the seemingly irreversible rift that has grown between Hindus and Muslims. In Jammu, Hindus maintain a majority, while the population of Kashmir is overwhelmingly Muslim.

When the government cancelled the Amarnath land transfer, nationalist parties such as Bharatiya Janata Party stirred up the Hindu masses to counterprotest.

Increasingly, those public outcries threaten to rock, not only the capital, but the entire state where police and soldiers, despite their numbers, have been forced to flee their positions - or fan the flames of dissent further by firing into the crowds.

Tour operator Mr. Ahmad does not buy into reports that Kashmiris are targeting by-standers, including journalists and tourists. Why would they, he mused, scare people away from the region?

"Kashmiris don't want to spoil their own economy," he said. "If you are economically strong, you can fight for your independence. If you are weak, then you have nothing."

Tell that to the truckloads of young masked men, defying curfew to cruise the streets chanting "Pakistan! Pakistan!"

Indeed, Pakistan has become a focal point for the Indian government, which claims infiltrators from the bordering country are stirring up Kashmiris.

For its part, Pakistan has expressed its concern about the plight of Kashmiris to the United Nations, further straining relations between the uneasy neighbours.

The frequent sight of Pakistani flags in Srinagar is doing little to ease India's concerns that its long-time nemesis in the region is influencing the region.

While Kashmir teeters on chaos, some observers wonder whether there is any turning back.

"I don't think so," student Aijaz Ahmad Malik said. "They've killed a lot of people."

Credit: SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL