[Reader-list] Gun Salutes for August 15

[S. Jabbar]

Dear Shuddha,

Four farmers who were protesting peacefully in Greater Noida the day before
were killed by the police in a morning. What does the arithmetic work out to
in this case?  This had nothing to do with nationalism or religion, but land
& resources & the State's response was brutal.

While police brutality in India is a given and no government has had the
vision or courage to actually institute much-needed police reforms ( which,
besides better training also means better pay and working conditions) so
that we can have effective policing without excessive force, what alarms me
is the way 'the people' increasingly choose to express bigotry, anger and
outrage in mobs that go about destroying property, looting shops, attacking
whomever they consider the 'other'.

I am not just referring to recent events in J&K, but also the so-called
sex-scandal in Kashmir 2 years ago, the Gujjar agitation the last couple of
years and the Gorkhaland agitation, both in the '80s and today. When
political parties piggyback on 'causes' like Amarnath they encourage and
legitimize this form of protest that only results in brinksmanship which is
then extremely difficult to undo.  I cannot call mobs that were lynching
policemen, destroying property, attacking the media in Jammu & Kashmir
peaceful just because they were not armed with guns & grenades.

It is not for nothing that the Mirwaiz pulled the CRPF men protecting his
house into the safety of his office.  Left to the rampaging mobs they would
have lynched them.  Can one even begin to compare, say, the Narmada
protestors, who for years have conducted themselves with restraint and
dignity with the mobs that were baying for blood and marching towards the
LoC?

 The agitation in Jammu over the revocation of the Amarnath land has been
deplorable.  What difference did it make if the land was not handed to the
SASB?  It is not as if the government is planning to renege on building the
promised huts or infrastructure for the next season.

It now turns out that the J&K Cabinet did not apply it's mind in the first
instance of handing  over the land to the SASB.  Of the 100 acres in
question,  only 5 acres belongs to the forest department and the rest is
private property belonging to several locals.  Even if there was a BJP
government they could not 'hand over' this land to the SASB (of course the
Communists could have managed something with the help of its cadres if it
were to become an SEZ). Besides, is the SASB Jammu's private property that
they are so incensed or is Sangharsh Samiti the sole custodian of the
Amarnath cave and the sole custodians of Hindu interests?  The Jammuites no
longer know what it is that they are up in arms about.  For some it is
'Bholey Nath ki zameen,' for others a move towards delimitation of electoral
seats, and for the rest the simmering anger against real and perceived
inequality between the two regions.

You have pointed to the difference in attitude of the police to Jammu
protestors and Kashmir protestors resulting in the far greater numbers being
killed in Kashmir than in Jammu.   While it is tempting to arrive at the
same conclusion,  I must point out that the J&K Police is not populated by
Bihari Hindus bent on massacring Kashmiri Muslims, but largely, Kashmiri
Muslims themselves.  There is also the difference between the situations on
the ground in Jammu and in Kashmir. At no point in Jammu did the police or
paramilitary forces ever have to face mobs over a couple of thousand.  On
the day of the Muzaffarabad march the mobs swelled to over 100,000.  While I
do not condone excessive force, I can only imagine the terror of  facing a
huge, uncontrollable mob.  It  cannot be easy, and under the circumstances
one can only be grateful that more people were not killed.

There are guidelines set down for the police & paramilitary in these
situations.  They are supposed to be accompanied by a District Magistrate.
The order to fire is supposed to be given in writing.  If and when peace
prevails it should be possible to ascertain why and under what circumstances
firing on mobs was allowed.  What  however, must be unambiguously condemned
are instances of gross vindictiveness where the CRPF stopped and attacked
ambulances in clear violation of all humanitarian laws.

As for the economic blockade it seems entirely mired in controversy.  I'm
still not clear how severe it really was and have been trying this whole
week to get to the bottom of it.  While it is undeniable that there have
been shortages of certain items in the valley I wonder whether the call to
Muzaffarabad was really necessary.  Everyone seems to be harping on the only
route to the valley being blocked by Jammu protestors, forgetting about the
route via the Zoji La, Leh and Manali.

This route has remained open the whole time.  Ladakh, host to thousands of
tourists in this season has remained unaffected through this entire period.
It is still jam packed with tourists. It receives its supplies mainly from
the Valley and friends tell me that apart from a very slight shortage of
mineral water and chicken everything else has been absolutely normal with
trucks plying the Srinagar-leh highway.  The same goes for Kargil.  Point is
that supplies can only reach Kargil and Ladakh when there is a surplus in
the Valley.  

My second point is that the Zoji La-Leh-Manali route, albeit longer, was
available to the apple growers to transport their produce to the markets in
Delhi.  While the Srinagar-Del route via Jammu takes 3 days, the route via
Leh would have added a maximum of 2-3 days.  If the apple growers and the
chambers of commerce had been serious they could have done this without fear
of violence or of their produce rotting en route.

The call 'Muzaffarabad chalo' is clearly a political one and I would not
unsympathetic to it had it been called in circumstances that were not
already so fraught.  After all, before 1947 the Srinagar-Rawalpindi route
was the easiest one to the Punjab, and there is no reason that the
India-Pakistan détente could not have included trade and tourism between PAK
and IAK as a priority.  Unfortunately, the collapse in Pakistan over the
last 3 years conspired with the normal reluctance of the bureaucracy of both
countries to stay on track.  New Delhi has even sent a list of goods to be
traded between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.  Islamabad has not responded.  The
general feeling in Pakistan is that opening of the routes to trade and the
uncontrolled movement of people would 'dilute' the 'Kashmir issue.'  They
are right.  It is not for nothing that Manmohan Singh called for borders to
become irrelevant.  He was merely following what peace activists in India
and Pakistan have been wanting and practicing for decades in their
people-to-people meetings.

The situation in Kashmir is extremely grim.  Separatists have called for
lakhs of people to march to Pampore tomorrow and to the UNMOGIP the day
after.  The CRPF has been demoralized with the transfer of the IGP and
threatens to stand down. The Army has not been given any orders as yet to
come out on the streets to control the mobs.  If things continue in this
manner and 500,000 people cross the LoC towards Muzaffarabad not the Indian
Army nor the Pakistani Rangers (who incidentally foiled 3 marches from
1992-99 by Amanullah Khan and the JKLF by shooting & killing several
activists)will be able to stop this rush.

While some may rejoice prematurely and call this a victory of the people of
Kashmir in their struggle against the Indian state, I see it as a pyrrhic
one.  When passions are enflamed the road ahead is blurred.  I congratulated
a Kashmiri friend this morning.  I said what the guns couldn't get you for
18 years it looks like you will have managed through sheer mob frenzy.  He
laughed.  But be careful, I said, you people better decide what this will
mean, whether this Azadi from India will mean an independent Kashmir, which
will be manipulated by the superpowers of the world or the accession to the
tottering, violence-ridden, state of Pakistan increasingly under the control
of mullahs and the military?  Whatever it is it will be unlikely that there
will be a unanimous decision and then a bloody civil war in Kashmir will
ensue. 

My thoughts and fears are also for the Muslims in Jammu who will no doubt be
subject to the worst kind of backlash.  And indeed today as I write I find
myself speaking from the place of an Indian Muslim, an identity which I have
never wholly occupied because of my Indian-ness.  I fear for the 133 million
Muslims of India who will once again be blamed for the Partition of this
country, for the action-reactions that will no doubt ensue and who will in
the 61st year of our hard-won independence have nothing but another
depressing 61 years of blame, guilt and suspicion to look forward to.

sj



On 8/15/08 2:51 AM, "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:

> 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. ³These are only reported
> incidents. Many
such incidents have taken place, which have not been
> reported so
far,² the officers told the team.

* 117 police personnel and 78
> civilians were injured including two
policemen who were lynched and are
> ³battling for life² 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
> twentynine 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



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