[Reader-list] Gun Salutes for August 15

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear Aditya Raj Kaul, Dear Sonia Jabbar,

Many thanks for your responses to my post earlier today. And  
apologies in advance for what is going to be a longish posting. So  
those not interested in the Amarnath row, or Jammu and Kashmir, may  
please skip this post.

It is difficult to put all one's points across in a single posting,  
(without making it unwieldy) and so I am grateful that your responses  
have given me an opportunity to make some necessary elaborations.

First of all, let me categorically state that Sonia, by pointing  
towards the violence that farmers faced in Greater Noida yesterday,  
and by referring to the histories of the Narmada agitation, and the  
Nandigram issue has helped me clarify some of my own thinking.

This process of clarification does not require me to revise what I  
had written in relation to the current climate in the state of Jammu  
& Kashmir, on the contrary, it actually allows me to extend and  
develop my argument. I will come to this later, but first, there are  
some other issues that I need to deal with.

When I had referred to the two kinds of treatment meted out to two  
different kinds of protest, I had not in fact thought in 'Hindu' and  
'Muslim' terms, and after reading Sonia's response, I re-read my post  
carefully to see if there was any suggestion that I was referring to  
a difference in the state's response that could be attributed to the  
religious composition of the two different protesting crowds. I did  
not find the words 'Hindu' or 'Muslim' anywhere in my post. And while  
I do agree with Soina that when Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel  
open fire on protesting crowds in the Kashmir valley, what we witness  
is nominally 'Muslim' policemen, firing on nominally 'Muslim'  
protesters. The same Jammu and Kashmir police personnel firing on  
protesters in Jammu are likely to be a mix of nominally 'Hindu' and  
'Muslim' personnel firing on a similarly mixed crowd of protesters  
(if that is, we agree with the assertion that the SASS protests have  
featured the participation of 'Jammu Muslims'). This fact may or may  
not be true, but let us for the sake of the argument, assume that  
this is so.

Similarly, the caste/identity composition of western UP policemen is  
not likely to be very different from crowds of protesting western UP  
farmers in the unhappy place that is Greater Noida. It is a well  
known fact that the most brutal torture in the detention centres and  
interrogation centres in the Kashmir valley is meted out by STF  
(Special Task Force) personnel attatched to the state police. Almost  
invariably, these enforcers of the sharp edge of the Indian states  
marks on Kashmiri bodies tend to be Kashmiri, and Muslim.

One clarification here though, the bulk of firing in the Kashmir  
valley has been undertaken by CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force)  
personnel, and the bulk of public anger has been, in this case  
against, the CRPF bullets, and CRPF sticks that smashed so many  
windows last night in downtown Srinagar. Now, anyone who has been to  
Srinagar knows, that the scared and vulnerable and aggressive faces  
that man CRPF bunkers are not Kashmiri. Their bodies (more often than  
not) come from hotter places in the plains and plateaus of the Indian  
hearland. And I see their deplyoment in a war zone like Kashmir as  
unfortunate, as saddening

Sonia has referred to Kashmiri protesting crowds 'baying for blood'  
during the last few days during the mass gatherings that took place  
on the road to Muzaffarabad, and in Srinagar and other towns. I have  
been speaking to friends in the Kashmir valley today, and they told  
me that the slogans that were raised during the protests
on the road to Muzaffarabad were as follows (in order of frequency)

1. 'Hum Kya Chahtey, Azaadi' (What do we want, Freedom), The staple  
full throated cry that rings out, and has rung out in most protests  
in the Kashmir valley for the last two decades.

2. 'Fruit to bahaana hai, Muzaffarabad jaana hai' (Fruit is an  
excuse, we want to go to Muzaffarabad). This has been chanted, not by  
the truckers carrying fruit, but by the accompanying marchers.

3. 'Aadhi Roti Khayenge, Sar nahin Jhukayenge'. (We can eat half a  
piece of bread, but won't bow our heads')

3. 'Jeeve, Jeeve, Pakistan' (Long live, Long live, Pakistan)

Now, whatever these slognas may or may not imply, none of these  
slogans, bayed for anyone's blood. Not only did the marchers refrain  
from raising any slogans that can be construed as calls to violence,  
the 'separatist' political leadership that had aligned itself with  
the mass protests also repeatedly called for peaceful protests, using  
all available channels, including those afforded to them by the  
mainstream media. I have seen the Mirwaiz calling repeatedly for  
protests to be peaceful. If this leadership had wanted to queer the  
pitch by asking for violence, I am sure it would have been heeded by  
some sections in a very angry crowd. No such call was made, and no  
policeman, or paramilitary force personnel were attacked. In some  
instances, CRPF bunkers were torn down (and this happenned after the  
incidents of firing) but the demobilization of offensive  
fortifications on the street can be hardly called a violent act. In  
my book, it is an act of disarming the infrastructure of occupation,  
without causing any injury or violence to the occupiers themselves.

Once the bodies of people killed by the CRPF started to make  
themselves visible in funeral processions, many young people started  
shouting 'Khoon ke badle Khoon' (blood for blood). But this 'baying'  
if it can be called that, occurred once blood had been spilt, and  
not, as I may point out, by the bayers.

On the contrary, I have seen Dr. Praveen Togadia (who has endorsed  
the SASS agitation in Jammu by calling mass protests in other cities  
in India) declare on television 'agar maange nahin poori ki gayi to  
sangharsh aur bhi ugra roop lega' ('if the demands are not met, the  
agitation will take on even more extreme forms'). We have heard  
crowds in Jammu chant, 'Jaan denge, par baba Amarnath ki Zamin vapas  
lenge'  (we will give up our lives, but will not give up on  Baba  
Amarnath's land) and variations thereof. In fact, two 'jaans/lives'  
have been tragically offered as suicides. For me, this is just as  
shocking, just as violent, as any other kind of call to violence.  
These crowds have set Gujjar huts on fire. And setting shepherds huts  
on fire is not exactly the same thing as tearing down the sandbags of  
a CRPF bunker. So any attempt at 'equating' the degree of violence in  
these two instances needs to be read as disingenuous.

As for the fact that in one instance (in Jammu) the crowds carried  
the Indian flag, and shouted pro-India slogans, and that in the other  
instance (in Kashmir) the crowds carried Pakistani flags and that  
some (or many) shouted pro-Pakistan slogans does not say anything  
about the violent intentions or tenor of either of the two protesting  
crowds.

As someone who carries no brief, for any form of nationalism,  
(Indian, Pakistani or Kashmiri) I am not willing to judge a crowd on  
the basis of which kind of nationalism they choose to profess. What  
interests me is the fact that given two crowds, with two different  
kinds of behaviour, one of which carries an Indian flag, and another  
which carries a Pakistani flag, black flags, or no flags at all - the  
Indian state chooses to fire on the second crowd, even though the  
second crowd, which may be greater in numbers, is not indicating that  
it is anything but a peaceful assembly of people intent on going from  
'A' to 'B'. That they choose not to go to 'C' (the Srinagar-Leh- 
Manali road that Sonia refers to) cannot be a criterion on which we  
can evaluate the merits or demerits of the state's decision to fire  
into this amassed crowd.

Notwithstanding the multitude of links supplied by Aditya Raj Kaul in  
his response to my posting. Facts, remain, facts. Three casualties of  
police firing in one instance (in a very militant protest in Jammu)  
and now thirty casualties (and likely to mount) in police and CRPF  
firing in the other instance (in Kashmir) including instances where  
CRPF personnel fired on ambulances ferrying the wounded to hospital,  
and inside hospitals. These instances of violence against ambulances,  
the injured and doctors and nurses attending to them must go down in  
the history of the Indian state as examples of the very worst forms  
of state brutality.

For more details - see -

This needs to be seen also in the context of the fact that the  
opening of the "Srinagar-Muzaffarabad' road is a long standing demand  
of several sections of political opinion (not all of them separatist)  
and that in fact predates the current troubles in the valley (from  
1989) by several decades. It needs also to be seen in the light of  
the fact that what the people on the highways in the Kashmir valley  
were demanding had already been agreed to in principle by the  
governments of India and Pakistan. If anything, the current situation  
was an opportunity for the governments of the state of Jammu and  
Kashmir (currently represented by the Governor, a representative of  
the Union of India) and the Union of India to display a modicum of  
vision and sagacity by opening the line of control, especially when  
the people of the valley were voting with their feet, and their  
bodies for this to be done.

Even those who wish the Indian state well in its continuing  
occupation of the Kashmir valley would no doubt see this turn of  
events as a tragically wasted opportunity.

Let me now turn to the second important question that has arisen from  
this discussion. The question of what might enable us to think about  
the situations of the Greater Noida farmers and the protesting masses  
in the Kashmir valley (and elsewhere, in Nandigram, and in the  
Kashmir valley).

Sonia has pointed out in her posting that  as far as the transfer of  
land to the Amarnath Shrine Board is concerned, "Of the 100 acres in
question,  only 5 acres belongs to the forest department and the rest is
private property belonging to several locals."

If this is indeed the case, then the extent of the anger against the  
move to effect a  transfer of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board is  
all the more understandable. (I do not doubt that it would be  
understandable even if this were not the case, but that is another  
matter. )

Land is a highly emotive issue in all parts of South Asia, and in  
many parts of the world where it is tied to livelihood and to  
survival. The desire to acquire land (usually with the mediation of  
the state) for purposes other than those relevant to the livelihood  
and survival of the customary owners, users and custodians of land is  
what gives the common sharp edge to the question of the arbitrary  
acquisition of land by state or state backed agencies, whether in  
Kashmir, or in the Narmada valley, or in Nandigram is what is clearly  
evident. In Kashmir, (in the absence of any other viable form of  
sustainable economic activity, barring tourism, land is all that  
people can fall back on. And we need to remember that some of the  
capital that the National Conference still falls back on when its  
naked collusion with the occupation comes to the fore, is the vivid,  
yet fading memory of land reforms in the early fifties.

So, then, what is the story about land, in the Kashmir valley.

"In 2003 Abdul Rashid, Member of Parliament was told in Rajya Sabha  
that the army and the Central Para-Military Forces (CPMFs) have  
41,594.767 acres (332760 kanals) in J&K. This comes to about 170 sq  
kms for which records exist. But an equal amount, if not more, is  
under illegal occupation, according to The Economic Times [December  
6, 2006]. The most recent figures being circulated suggests that  
6,81,839 kanals are under the armed forces’ possession. Of this  
3,10,184 kanals is unauthorized possession. In Srinagar officially,  
the defence establishment have 45,080 kanals of land located at  
Badamibagh, Rangreth, Danodhar Karewa, Sharifabad, Tatoo and Militia  
Grounds. In 2006, it has been reported that the Indian Army’s  
Northern Command has acquired 8000 kanals in Awantipora. There have  
also been reports of Indian Air Force wanting land for a new air base  
in Mansbal and in the same area 3Rashtriya Rifles (RR) has submitted  
a request to acquire nearly 1500 kanals adjoining its garrison.  
Manasbal also highlights another feature of this ‘land grab’.  
Villagers complain that since the irrigation canal passes through  
land which the 3RR wants, thousands of kanals of land would be denied  
irrigation. So widespread is the concern in J&K over land under  
security forces occupation that even the pro-Indian Peoples  
Democratic Party, led by Mufti Mohammed Saeed, in a resolution  
adopted on February 11, 2007 states “with distress… that over the  
last 15 years thousands of acres of orchards and agricultural land  
have been acquired in the state particularly in Kashmir Valley,  
districts of Rajouri, Poonch and Doda by the Armed Forces.” The  
resolution also says that “many institutional buildings including  
hospitals and schools have been occupied by the armed forces.” A  
conservative estimate suggests that 35,000 ha of such land is under  
the control of the Indian Army alone.

Take deployment in just one tehsil; Pattan in Baramulla, to  
appreciate its significance. This tehsil has 92 villages. Amongst  
these 92 villages there are 4 army brigade headquarters and 12  
checkposts. Pattan plus Babateng also hosts camps of Central Reserve  
Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Special  
Operations Group (SOG).  There are three police stations in the  
tehsil; at Pattan, Mirgund and Kreeri. Each check post has anywhere  
between 100-150 soldiers although there are few which have much  
larger numbers in excess of 300. Thus roughly a cluster of nine  
villages come under one check post. And one brigade is available for  
operations covering 23 villages whereas one police station caters to  
30-31 villages. Thus all movement to and from the village to fields,  
market, town is monitored and accompanied by regular patrolling.  
Thus, the margin for normal human ‘errors’, such as stepping out for  
a smoke after dark, or a stroll can result in death. On top of this,  
the extent of deployment of troops and the land under their  
occupation acts as a brake on people’s own capacity to propel growth.  
It also results in difficulties in getting easy access to markets for  
commodity export because of delay in transportation due to security  
drills, slowdown on highways because of military convoys carrying  
troops, material and weaponry etc, and relatively higher fuel and  
labour costs due to all this."

Were this land to be freed of occupation it would contribute  
immensely to increasing agricultural/fruit production and generation  
of revenue and cut back on net outflow from J&K.

If this is true (and the statement recorded in the minutes of the  
Rajya Sabha do have official sanction) then, the armed forces and  
paramilitaries of the Indian state, together occupied 41,594.767  
acres, and since the majority of force deployment in J&K is in the  
Kashmir valley, then the majority of this land would logically be  
seen to lie in the Kashmir valley.

The net area under fruit cultivation in the State of J&K is  174,000  
ha are under fresh fruits (orchards). 174,000 ha is equal to 4,29,963  
acres. If we compare this figure against the reliable estimate of  
land under direct occupation my armed forces of the Indian state  
(41,594.767 acres) we get the following figures. The armed forces  
occupy land that is roughly equivalent to what would amount to 10 %  
of the land under fruit cultivation. In crude terms, one in every ten  
orchards is not an orchard, it is a fortress.

All figures are sourced from the Fifth Economic Census [published by  
the Central Statistical Organisation together with Directorate of  
Economics and Statistics J&K, 2005]  and  Economic Survey 2006-07 for  
Jammu & Kashmir (ES 2006-07) [The Directorate of Economics and  
Statistics, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, 2007]as cited in  
'Understanding the J&K Economy' by Gautam Navlakha, Kashmir Affairs,  
Volume 2, No.2, April-June 2007
http://www.kashmiraffairs.org
Gautam_Navlakha_understanding_J&K_economy.html

[And before anyone jumps on me for citing a source that comes by way  
of Gautam Navlakha, let me state that Navlakha may not have read the  
Rajtarangini with great care, but he certainly does take the time to  
read the Economic Survey 2006-2007 for J&K, and other official  
documents with a certain degree of care. And the figures under  
question here are not his opinions, but notes in these same official  
documents.]

In a situation of direct occupation of a resource as precious as land  
in Kashmir, the arbitrary decision to appropriate even just 100 more  
acres of land by an unrepresentative body (the office of the  
governor) for whatever purpose cannot but be seen as a deliberate  
affront to a population stretched to the very limits of its patience  
by the violence of a continuing occupation. I fail to see, why the  
anger of fruit growers, denied markets, smarting under the knowledge  
that their orchards have in many cases been taken over by the Indian  
state, should look upon any act of land acquisition with kindness.

Look for instance at a news item in the Kashmir Times of Friday,  
April 18, 2008

Rental hikes by Army may adversely affect fruit production in Jammu  
and kashmir
With fruit production in Kashmir static, the Kashmiri growers have  
asked the state and central government not to acquire horticulture  
land for any official purposes. They are also not satisfied with  
recent rent hike by the defence ministry.

The growers fear that acquiring of the horticulture land for official  
purposes will reduce the fruit production in the state. Jammu and  
Kashmir is the only state in India that has around 2.75 lakh hectares  
of land under the horticulture.The major portion of this land is used  
for the cultivation of fresh fruits especially apples.

President, Kashmir Fruit Growers and Dealers Association, Ghulam  
Rasool Bhat told Kashmir Times that, "The government should come up  
with a law for banning the use of horticulture land for any official  
purpose." He said that in Western countries, the government has  
already banned use of horticulture land for any official purposes, he  
said, adding similar ban should be imposed in Jammu Kashmir as well.  
"If steps are not taken, time will come when we will lose major  
portion of our orchards."

How deep this connection between orchards and armed bases runs is  
evident from another source, this time a more subjective account.  
Which bears being read through right to the end.

There are no Djinns in Anantnag, they don't scare us anymore’
http://bluekashmir.blogspot.com/
Uzma Mohsin
Originally published in the Personal Histories section of the Tehelka  
weekly; July 28, 2007 issue. I thank Uzma Mohsin for the sketch.

"...Relations between the townspeople and the army were tense. Early  
each morning, as the town came alive with the azaans from its many  
mosques, the army would switch on huge loudspeakers on three sides of  
the hill, and Hindi songs and bhajans would blare out of them for  
hours on end. It was some kind of a unilateral, undeclared war; we  
all lived in terror of the day this war would come down the slopes in  
heavy muddy boots and trample on us like ants. It stopped only in the  
late 90s, when I left Kashmir at age 16.

THE TOWN had become very gloomy — by six in the evening, the streets  
wore a deserted look. Lights were kept low, curtains were always  
drawn. People made guesses about the origins of distant gunshots.  
Scary stories for children no longer had any tasrupdars, djinns or  
haputs in them — there was no need for them, they didn’t scare us any  
more. Only the snow surprised us when, after a perfectly clear day,  
we would wake up to find bright snow covering everything open to the  
sky. In the distance, the snow-covered hill would merge with the  
whiteness of the surrounding town, and become almost invisible. These  
were perhaps the only happy moments for me at that time.

One apple season, many years later, we found the courage to go up the  
hill to pick apples. A new, utterly strange city had sprung to life  
on the flat plateau. It was such a contrast to the choked, dying town  
below. There was an elaborate army infrastructure, with its own  
buildings, streets, armoured vehicles and helicopters. There were  
families living there, families of army men. There were many shops  
too. Not many people in the town knew what was going on here, for it  
was happening on the hill’s invisible side.

To our dismay, we found many orchards had been torn down; our best  
apple trees were dying for want of care. The army, we heard, was  
planning to build an airstrip there. Years later, when I came to  
study in a northern Indian university, I realised that the army city  
on the hill that overlooked my town had a peculiarly North Indian  
town feel to it. I have been living away from home for the last nine  
years, as have so many of my other childhood friends. I hear stories  
from my parents about the killings and injuries of some friends who  
stayed behind..."

I could go on. But this has been a long enough post already. In the  
end, we need to look a little less at questions of faith and a little  
more at questions of land, and here we need to look at the question  
of what happened to the land left behind by Kashmiri Pandits, just as  
much as anything else. Some of this land was of course appropriated  
by greedy neighbours, some of it is in the occupation of the armed  
forces, which pay paltry rent (if they pay) and some of it is cared  
for by diligent neigbours who wait for the return of those who left.

We need to realize that when it comes to the alienation of land, we  
touch one of the most emotive chords there can be, and this is in the  
end about Kashmir, but it is about something much bigger than  
Kashmir. It is about connivance and corporate greed, wherever it occurs.

In a recent report by Sravan Sukla from Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh  
in the Tehelka of 9 August 2008, the correspondent draws a sadly  
familiar picture of arbitrary state action by the BSP government in  
Uttar Pradesh to arbitrarily grab land for a complex to host a  
grandiose statue of the Maitreya Buddha (the ostentation of which  
would have made the Buddha weep, not smile).

Will Buddha Smile over Ryots Tears
http://www.tehelka.org/story_main40.asp? 
filename=Ne090808willbuddha_smile.asp

It is interesting to read a quote from this article -

"Among others, around a hundred Dalit families have been affected by  
the land acquisition. Interestingly, a Dalit farmer is leading the  
agitation against Mayawati. Forty-five year old Govardhan Gond, a  
semi-literate Dalit farmer and president of the Bhoomi Bachao  
Sangharsh Samiti, says that “there is no question of
surrendering our land so long as we are alive”.

“I will slit their throats if they come to take possession of my  
land. It is my only source of livelihood,” declares Kamli Devi of  
Siswa village. A forty-year-old mother of six, she is leading a band  
of woman farmers against the acquisition to save her 50 bighas of land.

Apart from the land, about 400 houses, half a dozen schools,  
including the area’s only graduate institution, the Radha Krishna  
Inter College, a canal and about a dozen link roads are also falling  
prey to the acquisition. “Where will our children study after these  
schools have been closed,” asks Dasai Gond of Dumri village.

Significantly, a few Buddhist monks are also lending silent support  
to the farmers’ cause. “The government should try to refrain from  
displacing poor farmers for the project. Buddhism is based on non- 
violence and it does not allow causing pain to anyone. A project  
based on the woes of farmers will haunt us in future,” rues B.  
Gyaneshwar, the sangh nayak, or head, of the All-India Buddhist Monk  
Association."

It would have been equally interesting had those who are leading the  
agitation for the transfer of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board and  
their sympathisers displayed even a fraction of the sensitivity that  
has been deplayed by the head of the All India Buddhist Monk  
Association when it comes to the acquisition of land for apparently  
religious purposes.

Then, they (the partisans of the SASS agitation) would have matched  
the restraint and neighbourly feelings displayed by their Kashmiri  
counterparts towards the Amarnath pilgrims who have time and again  
stated that their fight is not against pilgrims or Hindus but against  
the move to acquire land.

In fact, this year has had a record number of pilgrims travel to  
Amarnath, both by new and old routes, and the pilgrimage has  
continued, peacefully.

Thank you all for the opportunity for this clarification, and  
apologies for what has been an overlong post,

regards

Shuddha