[Reader-list] Gun Salutes for August 15

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear all,

(apologies for cross posting on Kafila)

Anniversaries are good opportunities for reflection. I write this the  
early hours of 15th August, 2008, the 61st anniversary of Indian  
independence.

The events of the past few months, and the past few days, in the  
Indian adminsitered state of Jammu and Kashmir have demonstrated how  
well and how equally (or not) the police, paramilitaries and armed  
forces of the Indian Republic treat different kinds of protesting  
crowds. The facts that I am about to discuss are good measures with  
which to think about the relationship between acts of power,  
different kinds of people, sovereignty, life and death in the Indian  
nation state as it has evolved over the past 61 years.

The region of Jammu in the province of Jammu and Kashmir has been  
caught in the grip of a fierce agitation against the revocation of  
the land transfer to the Amarnath Shrine Board. We have all seen  
footage of angry SASS (Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti) activists  
brandishing trishuls, setting up roadblocks and burning tyres, the  
agitation has spread to different parts of India

As of August 10, the following has taken place (in Jammu)

"...* 18 cases have been registered in connection with communal  
violence in which 20 persons were injured, 72 Kulas (hutments) of  
Gujjars were burnt down, 22 vehicles damaged and several trucks  
carrying supplies looted. “These are only reported incidents. Many  
such incidents have taken place, which have not been reported so  
far,” the officers told the team.

* 117 police personnel and 78 civilians were injured including two  
policemen who were lynched and are “battling for life” in PGI  
Chandigarh while six civilians were killed, including three in police  
and Army action.

* 129 cases were registered against the rioters. A total of 1171  
arrests were made but most of them are now out on bail.

* 10, 513 protest demonstrations and 359 serious incidents of  
violence have taken place across Jammu in which 28 government  
buildings, 15 police vehicles and 118 private vehicles have been  
damaged..."

The information given above is quoted from - "Dangerous divide: Jammu  
officials put it in black and white"
by Muzamil Jaleel, Indian Express, August 10, 2008. Muzamil Jaleel  
culled this information from a briefing delivered by government  
officials in the Jammu region to a visiting 'all party delegation'
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/346889.html

As is clear, of the 6 reported deaths in the Jammu region, two are of  
policemen, who were attacked by the pro Amarnath Land Transfer  
agitationists. Two of these are suicides, both of whom have been  
hailed as 'martyrs' by the Shree Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti activists.  
Only two out of six deaths, in the past twenty or so days of  
relentless and violent agitation, which included intimidation of  
truckers on the Jammu Srinagar highway can be attributed to police or  
paramilitary action. Each of these deaths is unfortunate and deserves  
to be condemned.

In two further and separate incidents, the VHP, BJP, Shiv Sena  and  
Sangh Parivar and allied organizations 'Chakka Jam' that paralysed  
roads in major cities yesterday, two more people died, because they  
could not reach hospitals on time. These two people were the  
'collateral damage' of the upsurge of patriotic sentiment displayed  
by activists sympathetic to the SASS agitation in Jammu.

On the other hand, in the part of the Kashmir valley administered and  
occupied by India, in the past few days alone, in several instances  
of firing on unarmed mobs, have led to the deaths of 29 people. Many  
of these deaths occured when unarmed crowds tried to accompany trucks  
carrying fruit (which had earlier been prevented from proceeding  
towards markets on the Srinagar Jammu highway) towards Pakistan  
Occupied Kashmir. Fruit growers in Indian administered Kashmir were  
at the forefront of attempting to salvage precious stocks of produce  
by taking to the 'Muzafarabad Road'. Apart from the 29 confirmed  
dead, several more are in hospitals, injured in critical conditions,  
and there lives are endangered by the fact that life saving medicines  
are in short supply due to the economic blockade of the Kashmir  
valley. trying to reach across the line of control to Pakistan  
Occupied Kashmir.

The difference in treatment of two different kinds of crowds is easy  
to see. In one instance, more than twenty days of continuing, violent  
agitation result in two deaths by police firing. In another instance,  
less than a week's agitation results in 29 deaths. Clearly, the loss  
of lives in the Kashmir valley does not amount to much in the  
calculus of power. A rough arithmetic of sorts would indicate that a  
comparison of two casualties (in Jammu) to twenty nine casualties (in  
Kashmir) means that agitating Kashmiri lives are approximately fiteen  
times less significant (or more expendable) than agitating Jammu  
lives. The agitation in Jammu has harped often on how it is  
discriminated against in comparison to Kashmir. In one sense at least  
there is some truth in this charge. In the matter of the expenditure  
of bullets by the Indian state, there is no comparison at all between  
Jammu and Kashmir. When it comes to ammunition, way more bullets are  
spent in Kashmir than is the case in Jammu.

It is clear, that the Indian state's armed might does not confront  
rampaging Jammu mobs if they hold the tricolour and shout nationalist  
slogans, or slogans in favour of the Amarnath Shrine Board's desire  
for land in the Kashmir Valley, even if they sometimes lynch  
policemen. On the other hand, unarmed fruit growers and ordinary  
people on the streets of the Kashmir valley are sitting targets for  
trigger happy police, paramilitary and army personnel. Guns can be,  
and are being aimed at their heads.Unlike Jammu, no policemen or  
armed forces personnel have been killed, at least until now, in the  
course of the fruit growers agitation in the Kashmir valley.

As, independence day dawns, a clear pattern emerges. When push comes  
to shove, the Indian state has no hesitation in expending its bullets  
in some cases, and in showing exemplary restraint in others. Mowing  
down crowds that hold the tricolour flag aloft doesn't look good on  
TV. But, obviously, a little bloodletting in the streets of Srinagar  
on the eve of Independence day is good for 'national' morale.

Now, if, you were one of those who happens to be the kind of person  
who the state seems to be willing to favour with a  shower of bullets  
at any given opportunity, would you be celebrating 'Independence  
Day'? What would you be celebrating, - your freedom to fall to a  
policeman's gun?

No wonder they play national anthems with gun salutes. A hail of  
bullets makes for the most fitting percussive accompaniment to  
poignant displays of national pride in India today.


Shuddhabrata Sengupta