Srinagar, Aug. 4 -- A few weeks ago, a countryside boy from a government school told me he wanted to "learn how to speak English like the rich boys in Srinagar."

His teacher had praised his science marks, but he wasn't sure if that meant anything.

"They still get better jobs," he said, pointing toward the hilltop private school with gleaming buses and a tall iron gate.

He wasn't wrong. In today's Kashmir, the game is increasingly fixed.

We often talk about success as something earned. "Work hard," they say, "and you'll rise."

Yet rising is no longer about hard work. It's about where you were born, who your parents know, which school you went to, and whether your surname opens doors.

The myth of meritocracy survives only because it h...