Rotten oranges and blighted hopes

Ishaq Chowdhary pulled the top off a wooden crate to show oranges fringed with powdery white mould. It was a freezing morning at the fruit market in Srinagar, capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, and market workers, huddling traditional fire-pots beneath their gowns, are sipping tea and starting to unload the day’s deliveries. The previous afternoon, five trucks rumbled into the market carrying oranges, pomegranates, bananas and grapes from Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

When the first consignment of Pakistani goods rolled across the Aman Setu bridge, or ‘bridge of peace’, 100 days earlier, they were welcomed by cheering crowds. It wasn’t quite the fall of the Berlin Wall, but after 60 years, a people severed by partition was taking a step closer together. For Chowdhary that excitement had long since ebbed. ‘It’s C-grade goods,’ he said, pointing at the oranges. ‘The best products are being sold at Lahore and Islamabad.