Srinagar, Jan. 12 -- There was a time in Kashmir when spirituality did not announce itself. It did not need microphones, entourages, or a cheering gallery. It arrived quietly - often barefoot, often hungry, often alone.

The recent social-media upheaval around the Sandeep Mawa-Ghulam Rasool Hami controversy may look like a fleeting digital quarrel, but it is, in fact, a symptom of a deeper civilizational illness: the evaporation of Kashmir's spiritual spine under the weight of ugly noise.

A society anchored in spirituality does not rush to verdicts. It pauses. It doubts. It allows silence to do the heavy lifting that shouting cannot. Kashmir once knew this instinct well. That is the time when saints needed no stage.

The Rishi-Sufi tradi...