Geelani, the pro-Pakistan Kashmiri leader, had not always despaired of democratic processes in India

In a widely circulated video from 2018, Syed Ali Shah Geelani is seen banging on a door, asking to be let out. “Open the door,” he says. “The funeral of your democracy is on its way.”

When the 92-year-old Kashmiri separatist leader died on September 1, 2021, he had been under almost continuous house arrest for 13 years. In the Valley, he was revered as the man who refused to compromise with Delhi and acquiesce to talks, even when other factions of the separatist leadership of the Hurriyat appeared to thaw.

Over the last decade and a half, Geelani had become the face of civil protest in the Valley. He routinely called for the boycott of elections held in Kashmir. But the veteran pro-Pakistan leader had not always despaired of democratic processes in India.

On the banks of the Wular

Syed Ali Shah Geelani was born in 1929 in Zoori Munz, a village on the banks of Wular lake in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district. The village would later inspire the name of his three-volume autobiography Wular Kinarey [On the Banks of the Wular]. His family was poor – Geelani’s father worked as a contractual labourer in the irrigation department.

Neither of his parents could read but they were keen on educating…

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