[Reader-list] Jashn-e-Azadi,A Kashmiri review

[inder salim]

Dear Kher
Ur long piece on Kak"s Azadi is quite a journalistic one, but you see,
you have obviously  taken a side, and so has Mr. Kak.  So, we are
likely to have another piece which defends Mr. Kak and the reflections
continue. I think this all must lead us to a healthy society. In the
end, I believe we all want a discourse on each pending problem. Don't
we ?


As we all know that we are living in an age of Terrorism, and the
answers to that are very few.  One clear culprit is Anglo-American
approach to 'the other', as we all know, which was always prompted by
cold-war calculations. We can go in the history prior to that, and
then we have world Wars and then we have lot of kings who were
fighting wars, mostly  for beautiful women living in other Mohallas (
as we see it today ).  That all looks trivial now, but of course, some
real Heros emerged, mainly in the form of saints, poets, Sufis,
Darvishs, and other great simple men who really struggled hard to live
a simple life.
I am personally interested in that and not in the stories of
politicians, Kings and their names which constitute our academic of
History department.

The same thing can be applied to Kashmir as well.  Kashmiris  have
really struggled in the past, like people in other parts of the world.
I am interested in the pain of those people and in the pain of the
people who inherited that pain.  For example I am interested ( as poet
Sahir was ) in the people who designed Taj Mahal, who worked hard like
slaves for the making of Taj, and who also loved in their own way.
The problem is that in the present scheme of things people are heavily
dependant on a leader who can represent their cause. Everything goes
wrong here, because we often see that an elite personalities somehow
manages to grab the chance of representation. Words are easy to
handle, more so for our modern brand of Journalists. Some politicians
looks cheaper than  mediocre journalists, and we have tons of them
around us, who call themselves Indians but we are in fact worst than
criminals. A simple criminal has a dynamics, but an already rich
criminal in disguise is a disease like cancer.

So let us come back to Kashmir thing. But before that I want to talk a
little about Khalistan Movement. It has certainly fizzled out long
ago. Indians are happy that Punjab is  a peaceful area now, but what
we call peace can be quite illusory. The congress party in the country
is a talented party for playing all the dirty games. They played one
and we lost our stupid dear PM then and shortly after another naive PM
for another stupidity. All we know about Khalistan now is Delhi Riots
of 1984 and the amount of compensation granted to victims.( the
universal story of compensation )  Victims inside Punjab are almost
forgotten in the process. Look at how Kargil martyrs got a Heros
treatment/welcome , but all the other army personal who died during
all these 17 years were nothing in comparison.  In nut shull, THE
STATE is a big fraud in the name of maintaining our boarders and other
administrative things. No wonder that we are one of most corrupt
country in the world. I am proud ( I don't like the proud, )  to be
Indian but not the way politicians suggest.   It is disgusting even to
look at the fatty decent looking politicians who are the helm of
affairs on behalf of millions and millions of poor people,exploited
day in and day out, by all of us. Yes, all of us who claim to be great
patriots.

So before we talk about Sanjay Kak's film we need to talk about who we
are? And then move further, and then know who ruled Kahsmir for 800
hundred years and who are were masters and who were slaves. To hell
with those all the Kings and all the kings prior to that.  I am
interested in Haba Khatoon's poetry and not in the history of man
called 'Akbar the great' who killed her learned husband and king. My
dear  friend, it is really difficult to celebrate poetry of great
souls, but it is easy to speak about the anecdotes dramatized over the
years by journalist like us.

One such clue is that you found Mr. Kak using the poet Pairay Hatash
in his film. See , we all know our capacity to use a poet for our own
vested interests. But the line ' Darvesh-i-rov ' ( we lost the Darvesh
) almost returns back to nothingness as a sad echo, as if it was not
meant to be heard.  The poet regrets but do we ?  As far as my
knowledge goes, Kashmiri Brahmins refused  the re-entry of converted
Muslims to their fold, when they got a chance to do.  I have no
regrets for that, because Kashmiri Pandits were already  going through
a decadence of sorts. A little dose of Marxism gave us a great poet
like Dina Nath Nadim, again a poet, and as far as my knowledge goes,
intellectually only Left leaning Pandits scored.   This does not mean
that Mullahs were emancipating the Muslim brother on the other side.
So let us share the pain of the rape of the innocence of the people,
not only of Kashmir but of the whole world.

So I  guess, the conceptual dimension of Kashmir is not to be seen
through the statements of politicians, but in the very process of
history making. Some lies become truths and some don't. All the maps
of all the countries are temporary and were drawn by human beings, not
be Gods. These lines will change, as they have been changing in the
past. These lines are really of  little interest to me.  These lines
on the boarder are tattoos on the skin but deep down we are all flesh
and bone, the whole humanity if interconnect and a common blood of
love is running in all of us. Let us talk about that.

Was not Kashmir a problem before 1990 ? Was it peaceful to have a
Cricket Match between India and Australia in Srinagar ?  And before
that Kashmir had protests and we all know about organization called
Al-Fateh which resulted in the hanging of Maqbool Bhat. Was that all
peaceful. Was a long arrest of long Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah a
peaceful idea for Kashmiris. No, Kashmiris never liked the idea of
Indian presence in the valley. It would have easily merged in the
territory of Pakistan, but a rock like man stood between Pakistan and
Kashmir. The same man, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who not only changed
the course of history but protected the lives of pandits in 1947. but
the old Sheikh was a hallow man  looking of property and his sons to
succeed.  That is why we should not trust a politician, he can use us
like a mule and push us down in the gutter once we are old, or he
becomes dull.

For a while, let me put Azadi  as a synonym of ethics, and if we
suppress that form of human drive all we get is violence. Freedom at
any level is essential to human beings, and we know what cost we pay
for our little things to do. We all know that it is next to impossible
for Kashmiris to get independence at the moment, but then where do we
stand in depths of that question of ethics. And if we think that
Kashmir is law and order problem , like politicians think then we
should leave it all for them to decide. Why to bother even to write a
line or so, because they have power, they can do many things.  And if
we have say something, as an intellectual, then I guess it has to be
in the context of Azadi as ethics. There is nothing new in saying that
a terrorist is a bad word, the effort should be to fix the word
'terrorist' like a chip in the word 'politician'.  There are exception
always, but in general, a terrorist is a synonym of a politician and
vice versa.

As a journalist ( I hope u are not, i am not ) I agree with you quite
a lot, but please let us save our inner souls, inner beings, that
voice of a free man. We have miles to go…

with love
inder salim







On 7/26/07, Nishant <nicheant at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Dear Rashneek
>
> Can you give us the non-GoI figures of civilian Pandits and Muslims killed in Kashmir since 1990? If possible include other communities as well and give the source.
>
> Thanks, Nishant.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: rashneek kher <rashneek at gmail.com>
> To: reader-list at sarai.net
> Sent: Wednesday, 25 July, 2007 12:53:06 PM
> Subject: [Reader-list] Jashn-e-Azadi,A Kashmiri review
>
>
> Vivek has never been to Kashmir, he knows Kashmir as any other Indian would,
> through biased NDTV programs or through newspapers which don't present the
> true picture either. Yet somehow what he asked me surprised me. At the end
> of the movie he inquired from me as to why the movie did not have even a
> byte from Mirwaiz(in Vivek's opinion Mirwaiz is the tallest amongst Kashmiri
> separatists).I had taken Vivek with me because I thought he would relieve me
> of some boredom sitting through a rather long monologue cum endorsement
> session of two hours on Shahadat and Azadi.I half knew the answer for I was
> seeing it for the second time.The first time I had missed some initial 20
> odd minutes because I wasn't allowed into the auditorium for I might spoil
> the celebration of freedom(Jashn-e-Azadi).Wonder what censorship this was?I
> had to produce an e-mail invitation from the respected Director to get into
> the hall, for his authorities were strict on anyone who chose not to obey
> them. Anyways that's past now but the spirit of celebration should
> continue….shouldn't it…..
>
> I left without answering Vivek.I was far too buried in thoughts of Jashn. I
> took the road back to my house, not my home dear, that's already burnt, oh,
> way back in 1990, the Jashn of Azadi was being celebrated by torching my
> home in Bagat-i-Kanipora, in the night when we were all supposed to be
> celebrating Janam-Ashtami in the cool climes of our homes. The morning
> newspaper brought news of this celebration to the refugee camp which has
> been my existence since. I am sure a lot of people will say Jagmohan asked
> Pandits to leave, even for arguments sake taking that to be true, did it
> give a license to Sanjay Kak's protagonists to burn my house and desecrate
> my religious places. I wondered, was that the way of celebrating freedom.
> Maybe the director believed it was. That's why although he sat somber on the
> banks of Rembyaar in Shopian (while shooting for the movie), seeing the
> pathetic condition of a 5th Century shrine (of Kapalmochana which was now a
> broken Shivling, a desecrated spring and razed Dharamshalas) he did not deem
> it fit to be a part of the movie.
>
>
>
> A woman whose goat was killed by the fire that engulfed her house and
> cowshed was shown grieving for her goat. I wondered what would have happened
> to Mather and Chander, my two cows, did the spirit of celebration
> (Jashn-e-Azadi) consume them too, wonder whether they were Hindu or Muslim,
> my father bought them from one Mohd Yusuf in my village.
>
>
>
> My wandering thoughts much like the beard of my dear friend Masood often
> gives me sleepless nights in exile. This was destined to be one such night.
> I was instantaneously reminded of the curse of Lakshmi on us, Kashmiris
>
> * *
>
> *"Nilamata Purana 294-96. O lord, then angry Visoka cursed Kas'mira, "O
> wicked one, as I have been absorbed by you today by means of falsehood and
> you have informed Sati about my activities, so your people will be mostly
> liars, possessed of impurities, hired servants and dishonoured in the
> worlds." *
>
>
>
> What else explains so many gaveyards when we could have a thousand flowers
> blooming on the same land, I thought. What else explains Kashmiris being
> slaves for last 800 years? Sanjay Kak does mention our slavery of 800 years
> in his movie , what he however chooses not to mention is, who were the
> masters? Who enslaved us..he wouldn't say? Half truths as they say can be
> more dangerous than complete lies. Pyare Hatash's verses have been shown in
> a manner where an ordinary non Kashmiri viewer is made to believe as if he
> is also a protagonist of the Azadi. The translation of the couplet from
> Rajatarangni was wrong and again misappropriated. Calling Kalhana the
> chronicler of Hindu Kings was a mischief played in a subtle manner Therein
> lies the game of the movie maker, his adeptness at appropriating the
> content.
>
>
>
> The magnum opus (sorry for my description, but I am yet to see a longer
> documentary, probably verbosity is a virtue with Kak) has its own figures
> for dead and exiled. The movie says two hundred Kashmiri Pandits killed and
> one lakh sixty thousand exiled. The first images that flashed in front of my
> eyes when these numbers were shown on the screen were of Brijlal(my father's
> best friend) and Choti. Brijlal (a driver in Dept. of Agriculture) and his
> wife Choti were tied to a jeep in their native village and then dragged till
> dead. When we received their bodies they were chopped into small pieces as
> if someone had just brought meat from a butcher. Blood still was fresh in
> some of their veins as it had reddened the body bag in which we received
> them. What way to celebrate Azadi??? Kudos to the Robin Hoods who did this,
> kudos to the director for endorsing their way of celebration, sickness and
> creativity comes in such mental frames, I never knew. Beware… a lot of
> modern day Neros are around the corner.
>
>
>
> When I asked Sanjay Kak the source of these figures he said he had obtained
> these from some Joint Secretary in MHA, New Delhi. The movie director being
> a respected man, I had no doubts that he had got them from GoI. When I asked
> him what's the source of his figures, one hundred thousand killed in
> Kashmirsince 1990, he strangely had no GoI statistics to support his
> figures. Who
> believes GoI anyway? I have received a reply to an RTI saying only 16455
> civilians have been killed in Kashmir since 1990.Now who would believe that.
> If GoI would have been sacred as Kak wants us to selectively believe, we
> wouldn't have the movie in the first place.
>
>
>
> We have Yasin Malik as a lead character in the movie, someone around whom
> the movie revolves,(a savior, a Gandhian ,an ex-terrorist in new attire all
> rolled into one),giving us sermons, telling us how he treads the path of
> non-violence. There are flashes of Azam Inquilabi and Syed Ali Shah Geelani
> (as patriarchs) but it conveniently skirts other separatist leaders, leading
> anyone to speculate whether the self styled Che Guvera's of today (based in
> Delhi) are keen to project Yasin Malik alone as a leader of the masses or is
> there more to it. His presence at the first screening raised a lot of
> eye-brows and the discussions revolved more around Yasin Malik than the
> movie itself, with heckled audience putting him in a fix over his past but
> then as they say " Every saint has a past, every thief a future". The lead
> character says India wants to impose Brahmanical Imperialism in Kashmir.
> Does our lead character even know the meaning of the term "Brahman" or was
> that a borrowed metaphor from Arundhati Roy, which he did not understand but
> knew how to use.
>
>
>
> One of the flashes in the movie says "Kashmir is the most militarized region
> in the valley" Maybe it is. I remember as a kid once we saw a Policeman in
> our village. We literally walked around him to see what he looks like. For
> all of us he was an alien who had somehow fallen off his spaceship and
> landed at our village. It was a quite a sight for all of us and some fun
> too. What then explains the presence of army and para-military forces in the
> same village when till 1989 it hadn't even seen a proper policeman. The
> movie does not mention why the army had to be placed there after
> 1989.Isntit imperative for a film maker to show a complete picture and
> not half
> truths.
>
>
>
> While I was almost sobbing at the images of graveyards, I was reminded of
> Abdul Sattar Ranjoor who was not allowed to be buried in the village
> graveyard by Sanjay Kak's Robin Hoods'. The movie once again fails to
> present a balanced point of view and seems more like a mouth piece or
> propaganda machinery at work. It simply fails to take into account any
> divergent view from the agenda that the director (or whoever influences him)
> had set to. How else does one explain that no other point of view is
> reflected in the movie. Who can argue against the fact that a large section
> of the masses want Aazadi but it would be equally foolish to believe that no
> other point of view exists. Again half truths come to fore with consummate
> ease.
>
>
>
> This wasn't a movie on Pandits that's what Sanjay Kak wrote to me. We can
> understand that, knowing well what and whom it is about. Wouldn't it have
> been better if Pandits were simply not mentioned in the movie than have a
> falsified and intentionally biased version of Pandits' pain and sufferings
> through a minute and a half screen appearance of their abandoned
> houses.Itseemed like intentionally rubbing salt to their wounds. What
> also comes to
> fore is the lack of knowledge about the issue on which he has made the
> movie. His self hatred is clearly visible in the movie, he believes that
> Pandits have been unfair to Muslims during the Dogra rule. Maybe it is not
> entirely incorrect, but when I confronted him on his knowledge of Medieval
> Kashmir (when Hindus were persecuted), the same was found wanting. I cannot
> imagine writing a column without delving deep into the subject, but then
> Sanjay Kak is a different person, he can make a movie on Kashmir without
> even reading basic texts. A good documentary does not take sides, it simply
> documents and presents facts as they are, the director is never seen to be
> either endorsing or negating what he shows. When Sanjay Kak explains the
> meaning and essence of the term Shahadat, the swell of adrenalin is clearly
> audible in his voice, that's when he moves from being a film director to an
> invisible but strong spokesperson of his concept of what constitutes the
> celebration of Azadi. To prove his point of view he has even borrowed
> footages which make it look exactly like the sexed up Power Point
> presentation that USA made to UN as their premise for attacking Iraq.
>
>
>
> History is replete with neo converts going that extra mile to prove which
> side of their bread is buttered but I believe the Director wants to walk all
> through the Safar-e-Azadi(similar sounding names….wonder who directs whom)to
> prove his loyalty to the only leader of Kashmir, Yasin Malik.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Rashneek Kher
> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
>
>
>
>
>
> Try Yahoo! Mail now with Unlimited Storage and see the difference.
>
>
>      ___________________________________________________________
> Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it
> now.
> http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>



-- 

http://indersalim.livejournal.com