In a lush green playground, next to the Hazratbal mosque, Bihari, Haryanvi and Kashmiri boys are out again. Not protesting over divided national loyalties but jubilantly rooting for their cricket teams, stroking the ball into the clear blue skies at the National Institute of Technology campus. The wall of animosity, erected by cricket on the same ground two weeks ago, doesn't seem to exist. But then these are enthusiastic cricketers; scratch a little deeper and one finds, like in all the other arenas in Kashmir, NIT too is a place ridden with deep contradictions. Sitting under the expansive Chinar trees, several M.Tech students from various parts of the country, including Kashmir tell us, "There's no problem between us and Kashmiri students. See for yourself, we enjoy playing cricket together."

A sixth semester Kashmiri girl said, "Since this episode, that feeling of respect and love has disappeared. My non-Kashmiri friends behaved as if we'd done something to them. It was a boys' conflict. We had nothing to do with it. But they behaved so rude."

A Kashmiri girl asked, "How's it that they (non-Kashmiri students) felt suddenly insecure and threatened after four years?"

An eighth semester girl from UP said, "If we're supposed to be considerate towards the political sensitivities of Kashmiris, shouldn't they grant us the same? Why did they abuse India and our national sentiments on the campus? And where is our freedom of speech in Kashmir?"

Kashmiri students and teachers on the campus felt ABVP in Delhi politicised the issue and painted all Kashmiri students and J&K police in poor light. Non-Kashmiri students disagree with the insinuation and claim that the reaction was spontaneous.

Whatever the truth, their disagreements expose the current hysteria over nationalism across India. On the playground though, it's difficult to tell among a myriad ethnicities, who is a Kashmiri and who is not.