Srinagar, Aug. 11 -- Voting was never the whole of it. Democracy also lived in the wan penj, the small shop-front where neighbours drifted in to talk. It lived in the kandur waan, the baker's shop, where the morning bread queue doubled as the morning news. It lived in the mahalla darbar, the street corner where disputes got settled before they became grudges. Kashmir lost that everyday version first. The formal one arrived later. It was always going to be weaker for it.

Democracy has two lives. One lives in constitutions and polling booths. The other lives somewhere smaller. In a shopkeeper's stoop. A family argument at dinner. John Dewey called this second life "democracy as a way of life." He meant it plainly. Democracy was a habit, pr...