[Reader-list] Let Truth Prevail

[rashneek kher]

Dear Wali,

here I am,I stand for an independent,pluralastic Kashmir.
Please answer the following and let us have a discussion.
1.If the independence movement was essentially secular why was the
slogan"AAZADI KA MATLAB KYA LA-ILLAH ILLAHLAH"
2.Even if let us say for arguments sake,Pandits were Indians or so they were
perceived what was the reason for burning their houses,destroying their
temples and defiling their women.
3.Whats the reason for changing names of the places after Pandits have
left.Anantnag is now called Islamabad,the sacred hill of Sharika(the very
root of History of Kashmir) is now called Kohi-Maran(the mound of dead) and
Shankarachrya hill now called Sulaiman Teng.

Wali bhai I have written in favour of an independent Kashmir.It should be
independent.I am sticking my neck out,I know my community wont like it.But I
dont want a Kashmir where I will be told by Sallaudhin's of this world as to
what I am to wear,speak(actually not speak,do and not do.
They cannot enforce their narrow understanding of Islam on me.If I have to
live in Kashmir with a Muslim majority I would rather live under someone
like Zainaulabidin or Badshah as he is popularly called in Kashmir.I hope
any Muslim would like to live in India with somelike Gandhi as a head.

Incidentally may I ask you why no one asks any Islamic nations to go secular
and treat non-muslims as equal citizens(leve Turkey and Indonesia)one
sparrow does not make a spring.

As for Pandits left in the valley,we know how they slowly they are losing
their identity.We ahve alll learnt from experinces and dwindling numbers of
minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Regards

Rashneek


On 9/3/07, Wali Arifi <waliarifi3 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
>
>
> Tarun Bhartiya's post has essentially demonstrated that punctuation marks
> in
> histories cannot be read as the history. The discussion (by a few at
> least)
> on this list has so far been trying to wrap an entire stretch of J&K
> history
> in an extremely inadequate punctuation mark. What Tarun brings up by
> advancing the conversation is that it unravels how an average Indian
> citizen
> got introduced to the Kashmir conflict in early 1990's. Secondly, it
> examines the claims of "holocaust of a minority". Third, it attempts to
> interrogate the "number game" that generates an argument of victimhood out
> of the punctuation narratives. Fourth, it raises questions about the
> flight
> of Kashmiri Pandits in the light of their unshaken faith in the Indian
> state, and, very importantly, informs the questions more as to the
> Kashmiri
> movement and why the minority felt 'unsafe'.
>
>
>
> It's very important to understand the status of Kashmiri Pandits in the
> Indian power structure.
>
>
>
> Post 1947, majority of people in Kashmir never accepted India as their
> country. New Delhi desperately needed its constituency, a trusted brigade,
> in the Valley. Hand picked politicians filled the gap but the control over
> public opinion and information flow came from the only trusted Pandit
> minority. Subsequently, Kashmiri Pandits not only became eyes and ears for
> India in Kashmir but also came very close to the power structure in New
> Delhi. They assumed the centre stage and became a 'lever' vis-à-vis policy
> on Kashmir.
>
>
>
> The Pakistani politicians and junta too had a handy issue in Kashmir for
> their rabble-rousing. In fact, Kashmir became the only issue where
> Islamabad's
> establishment and its public had a meeting point, and the issue was
> conveniently used to subvert the internal dissent in that country.
>
>
>
> The year 1990 saw a mass uprising in Kashmir, a revolution if you will.
> Kashmiri Pandits had to migrate/were made to migrate/chose to migrate!
> Contesting claims, yet to be interrogated dispassionately…
>
>
>
> But the important question is who benefited from this flight of the Hindu
> minority? I suppose, as is evident from most of the post 1990 writings on
> Kashmir and the movement there (including mainstream media), it has been
> the
> Indian state.
>
>
>
> Indian state found a very politically motivated and crafted argument in
> the
> shape of the Kashmiri Pandit exodus, allowing it to brand the movement for
> right to self determination in Kashmir as "Islamic terrorism". The book
> "My
> frozen turbulence in Kashmir" by one of the most famous, or should it be
> infamous, Governor in Kashmir (read ruler), Jagmohan, is testimony to
> this.
>
>
>
> There is no doubt that the Kashmir's movement has been greatly influenced
> by
> Islam. But, New Delhi has all along used, and sometimes successfully, the
> exodus of Kashmiri Hindus as a tool to strip off the Kashmir movement its
> political content.
>
>
>
> So in essence, Kashmiri Pandits, as a community, has been used as a
> political tool against another community – Kashmiri Muslims. Let's say it:
> some among them have conveniently agreed to be used and some have
> unwittingly been used.
>
>
>
> I believe the silent majority of Pandits do not approve the methods of
> A.R.K.P. brigade. Or, at least are lukewarm to this approach.
>
>
>
> In my cumulative understanding so far, it appears that the exodus of
> Kashmir's
> Hindu minority was a result of the movement for political rights in the
> state attempting to achieve democratization of power within its
> population.
> I believe it later got reversed by the use of Indian forces through
> impunity
> and imposition of black laws that suspend rule of law. So finally, the
> Pandit exodus as it exists so far in the mainstream political discourse,
> scuttled efforts at real democratization. In this background it is very
> important to bring in the narrative of those Kashmiri Pandits in their
> thousands who continue to live inside the valley.
>
>
>
> The Pandits were complicit in this contextual murder of the larger truth
> perhaps because they for the first time felt like a minority in Kashmir.
> The
> continued trumped up association of the likes of A.R.K.P. with the Hindu
> majority of a state of a billion people is a testimony, and goes against
> the
> grain of being a Kashmiri citizen.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
>
>
> Wali
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-- 
Rashneek Kher
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com