[Reader-list] reply to Rakesh Sharma., reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15

[radhikarajen at vsnl.net]

Dear Sir, 

  is the  film sponsored by any political party directly or indirectly with hatred and garnering votes as the motive. ?

 For , the other film Parzania was good one, depiction of saffron shawls on rioters  was condemnable, as rioters do not come with coloured shawls, be it muslims with green shawls or sikh riots sponsored by killers of tri-color shawls. ?It is indeed sad that goons in nandigram and singur also did not wear red shawls. ?

  For India we need leaders with vision for good governance sans religion and discriminations based on caste, if that is the motive, we shall be too glad to associate with your work, otherwise the NGOs like that of Teesta who sheltor, defend a section of the society for their fanatic crimes is not a welcome step for good democratic society, nor is the hindu fanatism.

  Regards.
  
 radhikarajen at vsnl.com  
----- Original Message -----
From: reader-list-request at sarai.net
Date: Friday, October 12, 2007 10:58 am
Subject: reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15
To: reader-list at sarai.net

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> Today's Topics:
> 
>   1. Fwd: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh	Sharma
>      (Anivar Aravind)
>   2. Re: Reply to Pawan (junaid)
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:08:47 +0530
> From: Anivar Aravind <anivar.aravind at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from
> 	Rakesh	Sharma
> To: reader-list at sarai.net,  commons-law at sarai.net, 	Greenyouth
> 	<greenyouth at googlegroups.com>
> Message-ID: <470E6DB7.1090700 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252"; format=flowed
> 
> 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh Sharma
> Date: 	Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:50:35 +0530
> From: 	Rakesh Sharma <rakeshfilm at gmail.com>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *Many people responded to the first mail with queries. This new, 
> revisedmailer incorporates the answers. Please forward this appeal 
> to other
> like-minded institutions, organisations and individuals as well. *
> 
> 
> 
> Over the last couple of years, some of you have spoken to me about
> revisiting Final Solution and making a new film – /*Gujarat*//*: 5 
> yearsafter the carnage*/. You'd be happy to know that I have been 
> filming in
> Gujarat for the last several months for the follow-up film. The 
> filminghas been done in Modasa, Idar, Kalol, Halol, Godhra, 
> Lunawada, Baroda,
> Chhota Udepur, Himmatnagar, Ahmedabad, Limdi, Bhavnagar, Amreli, 
> Rajkotetc. We've already done a bulk of our filming, though we 
> plan to
> continue filming till the election results are announced and the new
> Assembly is sworn in.
> 
> 
> 
> We hope to offer a comprehensive film sometime next year. However, all
> of us in the team also feel that we must release at least a short
> version of the film /pre-elections/ to enable activists, NGOs and 
> othersto intervene during the electoral process by holding 
> screenings and
> discussions.
> 
> 
> 
> We aim to finish these in mid October and make them available on VCD.
> These early versions would be available only in Gujarati as they are
> most likely to be used in Gujarat during November 2007.
> 
> 
> 
> I write to you to seek your assistance. While I have so far 
> managed all
> the filming and editing related expenses personally (thanks to a grant
> from the Singh Foundation and damages received from NYPD!), I'm now
> seeking completion funds to be able to release the version in October.
> Broadly speaking, we propose the following:
> 
> 
> 
> a.   To approach a broad network of individuals and like-minded
> organisations and individuals for funding assistance.
> 
> b.   To invite contributions not exceeding Rs 10,000 from a single
> organization and Rs 5,000 from an individual.
> 
> c.   Against the contribution, the individual/ organisation will 
> get a
> credit in the film. The title would normally read - " */Funding 
> supportfrom/*" followed by the full list.
> 
> d.   The individual/ organisation will also get VCD copies of the film
> against this contribution. The proposal is to offer
> 
> * Contribution (individuals only): Rs 2000; VCDs offered: 21
> 
> * Contribution (organizations/ individuals): Rs 5000; VCDs offered:51
> 
> * Contribution (organizations only): Rs 10000; VCDs offered: 120
> 
> 
> 
> Cheques (Indian and non-Indian) should be made payable at Mumbai to
> Rakesh Sharma. Send us an email to get the exact mailing address for
> sending your cheques.
> 
> 
> 
> We hope that these multiple copies would be distributed by the 
> concernedorganisation/ individual free to their activists, friends 
> and colleagues
> so they can be circulated and screened widely, especially in Gujarat
> before the forthcoming elections. The VCDs offered are total 
> number of
> discs - the first film is on 2 VCDs while the farmer film is on a 
> singleVCD (ie, each set is 3 VCDs).
> 
> 
> 
>  As the offer is to distribute/ circulate the copies only in 
> Gujarat, do
> let me know where in Gujarat to send the VCDs of the new film once 
> it is
> ready. For those who do not have any direct connections in 
> Gujarat, the
> option is to donate the copies to an activist organisation like Anhad
> for their ongoing campaigns or one of the grassroots groups 
> helping me
> film in Gujarat. We will send the VCDs directly to one of the 
> groups on
> your behalf. We propose to have these VCDs become a part of the
> Pirate-and-Circulate campaign in Gujarat
> (Get-a-copy-free-if-you-promise-to-pirate-and-distribute-5-free-
> copies!).We tried this strategy successfully in 2004 with Final 
> Solution - I urge
> you to support this piracy!
> 
> 
> 
> I request you to lend your support to the films under production.
> Details about the proposed films are enclosed below. Please write 
> to me
> personally at the earliest ( rakeshfilm at gmail.com
> <mailto:rakeshfilm at gmail.com> or PO Box 12023, Azad Nagar, Mumbai
> 400053). Please forward the mailer to your mailing list. I am hoping
> you'd persuade many others to support the film!
> 
> 
> 
> With Gratitude
> 
> 
> Rakesh Sharma
> 
> 
> website: www.rakeshfilm.com <http://www.rakeshfilm.com/>
> blog: rakeshindia.blogspot.com <http://rakeshindia.blogspot.com/>
> 
> 
> 
> ps: Please do not circulate to the Press - we'd like no 
> speculation or
> publicity till the films are formally released.
> 
> 
> 
> We are aiming to finish only a version in end October – the Gujarati
> version (no English subtitles). Please note that this offer is for the
> circulation/ screening of VCDs of this version in Gujarat only – we
> wouldn't be mailing any VCDs to anyone outside Gujarat. Post-
> elections,when we actually do a final version of Final Solution 
> revisited, we will
> make it available on DVD with English subtitles etc sometime in 
> mid 2008.
> 
> 
> 
> The films currently being edited for an October release deal broadly
> with the following:
> 
> * *
> 
> *After the Storm: *
> 
> 
> 
> Five years after the carnage, what is the state of Relief and
> Rehabilitation? The Supreme Court's intervention in carnage-related
> cases has dominated media headlines, but what really is the true story
> behind the victims' quest for Justice? Away from major cases like the
> Naroda Patiya massacre or Gulberg or Best Bakery and Pandarwada, 
> what is
> the fate of other FIRs and court cases filed by the victims?
> 
> 
> 
> The film goes beyond highlighting the plight of the Muslim 
> community in
> Gujarat. It probes other dimensions of the issue by specifically 
> lookingat the patterns of arrests and litigation. A majority of 
> those charged
> with rioting, arson, murder etc are either tribals or Dalits and OBCs.
> An analysis of those arrested from 32 police stations in Ahmedabad
> suggests that of the 1577 detainees, only 30-odd were upper caste! Are
> these footsoldiers victims too? Cynically recruited, then discarded,
> left to rot in jails, what do the 'perpetrators of the violence feel
> today about the VHP and the BJP?
> 
> 
> 
> The film is likely to be in two parts of approximately an hour each,
> both complete in themselves (to enable a separate showing of just one
> part, if necessary) and may possibly be split into two films.
> 
> 
> 
> *Seeds of Sorrow:*
> 
> 
> 
> Though the BJP romped home with a brute majority in the 2002 assembly
> elections, it suffered an electoral reverse during the 2004 Lok Sabha
> elections. The BJP managed to get 14 seats while the Congress won the
> other 12. The result is attributed in part to agitations by the 
> Sangh'sown Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, which was then agitating against 
> the power
> tariff hike. In many pockets, it even asked its members to abstain 
> fromvoting, which perhaps also explains the far lower turnout for 
> the Lok
> Sabha elections.
> 
> 
> 
> Over the last several months, we have been tracking what can only be
> termed as an unreported story - Farmer suicides in Gujarat . We have
> primarily been filming in the Saurashtra region, though suicides 
> are not
> confined to this belt. A few months ago, we got queries filed 
> under the
> RTI Act to dig up details of all suicides.   Though the government
> denied us the data initially, after appeals and hearings, some details
> have now been formally handed to us. While Modi recently told the
> Gujarat Assembly that only 148 farmers have committed suicide in
> Gujarat, the data handed to us is for 366 suicides! We have also 
> managedto dig up the data for all claims paid and denied under the 
> Kisan Bima
> Yojana that cover farmers' accidental deaths. Of the 1200-odd claims,
> several have been denied – we are now probing the grounds of 
> denial (eg,
> was it actually a suicide reported as an accident to help fudge the
> figures?)
> 
> 
> 
> This film would also deal with the issue of farmer debts, BT cotton
> cultivation, power tariff, irrigation (where is the promised Narmada
> water?) and the opposition to SEZs in Rajula and Jasapara.
> 
> 
> 
> (Apologies for any cross-posting)
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: 12 Oct 2007 05:25:03 -0000
> From: "junaid" <justjunaid at rediffmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan
> To: reader-list at sarai.net
> Message-ID: <20071012052503.3807.qmail at webmail62.rediffmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> 
> Pawan, 
> 
> Ranbir Singh wanted to make Jammu the second Benaras. At Purmandel 
> Dogras and their minions fell over each other to construct new 
> lavish temples. Money from which came from Kashmiri Muslim 
> peasantry, who in a few years after the Dogra rule was foisted on 
> them, began to totally give up cultivation. Obviously because it 
> was no longer valuable to pursue it, since most of their produce 
> was appropriated by the landlords. One of the bigger ones was 
> called Sut Ram Razdan. His tales of cruelty are legendary in the 
> place I come from. You only have to listen to some Bhand Pather to 
> understand how the technologies of expropriation were employed by 
> Dogras and their supporters, on peasants. 
> 
> It is a fact that most of the shrines that you have mentioned 
> complained to the spineless British that their funds were drying 
> up, while Hindu places of worship like Umanagri in Islamabad was 
> given huge land grants. The drain of hard-produced wealth by 
> Kashmiri Muslim peasants and artisans went to Jammmu and into the 
> hands of Kashmiri Pandits, most of whom did nothing productive. 
> 
> I can't go on spoon feeding you like this without you getting up 
> from your armchair, and deciding to read some more serious 
> literature than Organiser and Panchjanya. 
> 
> On "Takht-e-Sulaimani" and "Koh-i-Maran". You need to know the 
> difference between Persian and Arabic. These words are not Arabic. 
> That is why I am telling you, you need some self control. Think 
> before you stink. In any case, it was the Kashmiri Hindus who were 
> first to learn Persian to land jobs in Mughal and Afghan 
> adminstration. Well in any case Persion influence on Kashmiri 
> language had only little to do with religion. It had more to do 
> with the trajectory of cultural influence. But Hindus in Kashmir 
> brought in Sanskrit without any apparent reason, but purely 
> religious and opportunistic. This was not only an attempt to 
> assert dominance, over the majority community, as a religious 
> community which shared their religion with the ruler, but also to 
> liguistically lay sole claim to adminstrative employment.          
>  
> 
> Islamabad was established as a town by Mughal governor Islam Khan. 
> It had nothing to do with Islam, the religion. From a flourishing 
> town it saw much depredation. Dogras renamed it Anantnag--the land 
> of innumerable springs. The name was sanskritised, on advice of 
> Kashmiri Hindus for whom most of these springs had acquired a 
> religious value. Small little temples came up on the sides of 
> these springs over time. One such example is in Verinag--the fount 
> of river Jhelum--where a temple was placed within an enclosure 
> constructed by the Mughals. Despite much oppresion Islamabad's 
> residents continue to call it Islamabad. In early 1990's when 
> popular struggle for freedom started in Kashmir, Indian forces 
> would beat up and arrest shopkeepers who had Islamabad written on 
> their billboards. In a matter of few months thousands of them put 
> distinct colour patches on them to erase Islamabad and wrote 
> Anantnag over it. Some stubborn people, however, kept the original.
> 
> Jihad. Taliban. Say something substantial! It is all wind. Like 
> your name, Pawan. In Sanskrit. 
> 
> Junaid  
>   
>  
> Junaid,
> 
> A long mail from you , and I would like to few of your points only 
> for time
> being . As I have cant write that long for my life is not 
> dedicated to
> "Jihad" & "Libeartion" in the name of relegion.
> 
> I have learnt to live and behave in a multi religious & cultural 
> society. It
> may take "some" many ages and at the cost of millions of more 
> innocent lives
> to understand that.
> 
> During the land reform act in Kashmir The names of Hindu landlords 
> who were
> only two in number were frequently projected as the exploiters and
> blood-suckers to solidify the ranks of Muslims on religious 
> grounds for
> nefarious political objectives. Ahmad Mir and Musmat Ashraf Begum 
> possessing4,202 kanals of land and 3,915 kanals of land 
> respectively were never
> projected on the public mindscape because of the religion they 
> espoused. Two
> Muslim shrines of Baba Reshi and Dastagir Sahib had a land grant 
> of ten
> thousand kanals which are said to have been partially snatched 
> away perhaps
> again on religious considerations. Despite the Hindu ruler, there 
> was no
> Hindu shrine which had in its possession the same measure of land 
> to augment
> and supplement its resources.
> 
> Talking about current Islamisation of Kashmir , by changing the 
> names of
> places I would quote you few examples. You have call AnantNag as 
> Islamabadthough even the official name is AnantNag . I wish you 
> would accept the fact
> that this place AnantNag finds mention even in Bhagwad Gita , and 
> I am sure
> you knoe Bhagwad Gita existed much before even Islam came to India.
> 
> Again you have started calling the world famous Shankracharya Hill as
> Takht-E-Suleiman , though the temple was built on Gopadari hill in 
> BC age.
> 
> The hill whereShraika Temple is situated is aclled "hari Parbat" 
> which again
> you have started to call "Koh-i-maran" .
> 
> Junaid If you draw inspiration from Talibans....and still defend 
> the wrong
> .......there is hardly i can do anything to help you.
> 
> May God Bless you with Wisdom.
> 
> Pawan Durani
> 
> 
> 
> On 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000, junaid <justjunaid at rediffmail.com > 
> wrote:>
> >
> > Mr. Pawan Durrani,
> >
> > Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why 
> Dogra> rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans 
> could not be
> > described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims 
> who ruled.
> > (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came 
> to rule
> > Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on 
> the bases of
> > Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal 
> and spiritual
> > realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law 
> would be
> > quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious 
> scholars. This was
> > not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the
> > sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have 
> invoked Koran
> > and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local 
> needs than
> > religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as 
> saying Islamic
> > law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or 
> that Afghans
> > or Mughal rule was any benign.)
> >
> > For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an 
> opportunistic support
> > from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way 
> they> invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no 
> secret that poor
> > Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to 
> fund temple
> > constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. 
> The Dogras
> > restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), 
> originally invented
> > by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide 
> spread death and
> > destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth 
> perished carrying
> > load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And 
> while this
> > was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to
> > literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this 
> terrible rule
> > loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan 
> times, when
> > they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions).
> >
> > Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from 
> Kashmir's> poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, 
> despite verbal protests
> > from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in 
> their own
> > way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim 
> peasants. In
> > his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among 
> Muslims. The
> > Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of 
> some leftover
> > Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, 
> the Hindu
> > landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu 
> population, not
> > more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. 
> That too
> > brutally.
> >
> > Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his
> > forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those 
> millions of
> > rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants 
> who were not
> > only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a 
> sleight of hand,
> > and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an
> > overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a 
> Hindu ruler to
> > India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; 
> they realized
> > but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim 
> leaders were
> > forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands 
> of Muslims
> > from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred.
> >
> > A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response 
> from Pawan,
> > and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay 
> aau!" For
> > him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron 
> ribbon around
> > his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is 
> Bharat Mata's
> > secular poot.
> >
> > In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That 
> is why
> > they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus 
> were killed.
> > According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January 
> 1990, almost
> > 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were 
> highly> influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other 
> minority left.
> > Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, 
> we should
> > know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored 
> exodus one and a
> > half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other 
> Indian> cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over 
> as governor, and
> > promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after 
> many Hindus
> > left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's 
> Muslims. Dozens
> > of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw 
> Kadal, just
> > being one example.
> >
> > In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been 
> killed in
> > 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri 
> Muslims> have been killed over these years (some believe that even 
> the 10000 odd
> > disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it 
> open. It
> > states how the actual number is widely conflicted.
> >
> > It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give 
> examples> if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, 
> and India which
> > sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name 
> Islamabad to
> > an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny 
> Kashmir's> ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the 
> existence of
> > Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its 
> miniscule Hindus.
> > It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. 
> As if death,
> > destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue 
> that merits
> > world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims.
> >
> > Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons 
> have been
> > made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have 
> lamented that
> > world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries,
> > reservations in education and tremendous material support and 
> publicity. It
> > is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried 
> in fake
> > encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories 
> to unsettle
> > the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies.
> >
> > Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it 
> wherever it
> > goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and 
> hatred.>
> > Mohamad Junaid
> >
> >
> >
> > Pawan Durrani wrote:
> >
> > Dear All:
> > On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi 
> (yajynya> has
> > become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of 
> the Yale
> > University. Rajni Ji  and I attended the screening.
> >
> > The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor
> > mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu 
> Rulers, Muslim
> >
> > Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently 
> this book was
> >
> > part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. 
> Given below
> > in
> > parenthesis is her back ground.
> >
> > (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant 
> professor.> She
> > was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical 
> Studies at
> > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, 
> where she
> > received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research
> > focused
> > on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest 
> in modern
> >
> > Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated 
> in her
> > book,
> > Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of 
> Kashmir> < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai-
> hindu.html> .
> > Professor
> > Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the
> > relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as 
> they evolved
> > from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial)
> >
> > There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That 
> included> Mr.
> > Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the 
> South Asian
> > stud
> > department of Indian origin. There was one or  two students of 
> Pakistani> origin and may be two or three of American and European 
> descent.>
> > The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The 
> thrust of
> >
> > the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire 
> for the
> > freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie 
> touches upon
> > the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to 
> note the
> > wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak 
> introduced>
> > the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He 
> also stated
> > the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to 
> describe> the
> > 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans,
> > Mughals,
> > and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In 
> that one
> > sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers 
> as the
> > sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period 
> 100%> Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the 
> population was
> > presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir 
> can not be
> >
> > conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of
> > Kashmiri
> > Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were 
> the rulers
> > under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and 
> forced out
> >
> > of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and 
> Kashmiri> of
> > Gujarat)  and converted to Islam is completely presented as the 
> sufferings> of the Muslims.
> >
> > That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments 
> were formed
> > by
> > the  National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and 
> the people
> > at
> > the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the 
> colonization by
> > the
> > Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the 
> Hindus of
> > Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any 
> landed> property with out compensation (there by violating the 
> property rights of
> > a
> > minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. 
> The sole
> >
> > livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied 
=3E and they
> > were
> > forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed 
> to have
> > happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 
> incursions of
> > Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with 
> support from
> > Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even 
> though the
> > mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir 
> but it is
> > portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where 
> as presence
> >
> > of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the 
> yoke on the
> > local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope 
> of the
> > Gulmarg.)
> >
> > The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the 
> Shahaadat )
> > and
> > the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the 
> fighters of the
> > faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again 
> portrayal of
> > the
> > "Muslim Cemeteries"  and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable 
> but their
> > killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and 
> Muslims) is
> > accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi.
> > Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers 
> with the
> > small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only 
> one year
> > numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says 
> 60,000 total
> > dead
> > or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the 
> balance in his
> > approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist.
> >
> > Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one 
> to raise
> > hand for questions.  We turned toward the audience and 
> challenged the very
> > notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that 
> this is
> > movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out 
> the 500
> > years
> > of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in 
> which our
> > population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu 
> tragedies> which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We 
> pointed out that
> > the
> > first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred 
> thousand> Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own 
> country. If it was a
> >
> > Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim 
> minorities.> That scenario fits the Islamization movement better.  
> We asked, why would
> > all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the
> > Islamic
> > categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri 
> language? Why
> > would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to 
> Arabacized and
> > Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would
> > non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create 
> havoc in
> > Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved?
> >
> > Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the 
> Islamic> language as the normal use of religion in freedom 
> movements. But I asked
> > why
> > was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence?
> > Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation 
> created> for
> > Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley.    Eventually I was 
> asked to
> > allow
> > others to ask questions. But there were only two other people 
> who asked
> > one
> > question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a 
> Pakistani,> gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan.
> >
> > We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to 
> occupy Mr.
> > Kak's
> > and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the 
> Kashmir> issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of  
> Ashokji Pandits
> > Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the 
> attendees and
> >
> > requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students.
> >
> > That is the story from Yale...
> >
> > Thanks
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
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> End of reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15
> *******************************************
>