[Reader-list] Gun Salutes for August 15

[S. Jabbar]

Hi Shuddha,

A quick & hopefully short reply to some of the points you have raised.  You
may not have named it as such but the feeling in the valley is very much
about a Hindu state resorting to greater violence against Muslim Kashmir
than Hindu Jammu. While it is easy to arrive at this conclusion given
India¹s history of communal violence, I was merely trying to point out that
in Kashmir the situation was slightly different, and obviously not to accuse
you of communal thinking.

I read with some surprise your taking issue with my use of the phrase,
Œbaying for blood¹ and your accompanying list of slogans used during the
protests.  It is incomplete and I could add a few more but I really don¹t
want to vitiate and already horrible situation.  I¹m sure you remember 1989
and the slogan ŒJai Sri Ram.¹  Advani had used a similar argument when
challenged.  He said something like, what is communal or provocative about
taking God¹s name?  What, indeed, except when there is a thousand strong mob
screaming God¹s name and marching towards Muslim localities as they did in
Œ92 and Œ93.  I would describe that as baying for blood.

Incidentally, here¹s a report in the HT on the Police vs. CRPF culpability:
-----------------------------------------------
THE KASHMIR situation has taken a new turn with police becoming the main
target of protesters.
There have also been calls for their social boycott.

The local population is angry for the police's "brutal conduct against their
own people".

State police has been active alongside the CRPF to crush protests in Kashmir
over the past four days, which left 23 dead and around 200 injured.
Incidentally, the contingent that fired on the "cross-LOC" marchers in Uri
on August 10 was led by a local Khursheed Khan, station house officer of
Sheeri police station. Senior Hurriyat leader Shaikh Aziz and two others
were killed in the incident. Mirwaiz Ummer Faroog said "it was a target
killing".

Hundreds of people attacked Khan's residence in Baramullah and torched it.
They also torched Sheeri police station. Several such incidents have been
reported across the Valley People at Handwara have called for a social
boycott of cops and their relatives. Residents of Srinagar's Raj Bagh
locality took out a protest march on Wednesday, asking the police "whether
they stand for India or for their people in Kashmir". This is in stark
contrast to 1990, when militancy erupted. Police then were seen as
"friendly". Hundreds of cops had resigned and joined militancy.

--------------------------------------

On the tearing down of bunkers etc., :you are right. These are visible
symbols of oppression and one can even be indulgent when an impassioned mob
tears them down, but where does one draw the line then?  What when the same
mob goes and torches a government building or a politician¹s house as has
been the case?  Even Moulvi Abbas Ansari, poor man, the Shi¹a leader in the
Mirwaiz¹s Hurriyat Conference, had the honour of having his home ransacked
by a mob a few days ago. Two years ago, during the so-called sex scandal,
Œthe people¹ razed the home of Sabina, the sex-worker, to the ground.  Does
one extend the same understanding to these mobs, Œof disarming the
infrastructure of oppression¹?  I can only conjecture that some participants
believed they were responding to historic wrongs of the Shi¹as, as others,
in the case of Sabina, felt morally justified in taking the law into their
hands against a woman they believed was the source of all corruption.

I can¹t help hearing the ringing similarity between Œinfrastructure of
oppression¹ and the chilling phrase we used to hear pre-1992, Œdisputed
structure,¹ Œsymbol of Hindu oppression.¹  Do you remember Naipaul¹s defence
of Hindutva and why the tearing down of the Babri Masjid was but natural for
a people who had been oppressed by Muslim rulers for 500 years?  The point
I¹m trying to make is that once you give a group a carte blanche to do as
they please, to destroy what they consider symbols of oppression, you have
very little ground to stand on when others whom you may not agree with
politically do the same.  That is why laws exist and ought to be followed.

You argue: 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. 

You are right.  I never did! It would have been absurd of me to suggest that
we evaluate the police firing in the light of the decision not to take the
Leh-Manali route.  I was merely pointing out that the decision to march to
Muzaffarabad need not have been taken, given an alternative existed.

Re. the 100 acres of land & its distribution: this fact came to light only
about 10 days ago when the land records were pulled out and examined and was
not the spark that lit the agitation in Kashmir, sadly.  What did was the
canard that the SASB acquiring 100 acres was the first step towards Hindus
settling in the valley by a government that was intent on demographic
change. Communal? Maybe, maybe not. Xenophobic,yes. Justified, not
justified: I don¹t care. It¹s just plain silly and tragic to have such a
brouhaha with people being killed about something that¹s a bare-faced lie!

The issue of agricultural land being occupied by the forces: absolutely
right, they shouldn¹t be there and were not there before 1989.  One can only
urge all concerned to stay on track with the peace process between India &
Pakistan so that agreements can be inked once and for all & that J&K can be
dimilitarized.


May peace prevail.

Best
sj


On 8/15/08 9:39 PM, "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:

> 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 forces¹
> 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 Army¹s 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 Œland
> grab¹. 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 ³with distressŠ
> 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.² The resolution also says
> that ³many institutional buildings including hospitals and schools have been
> occupied by the armed forces.² 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 Œerrors¹, 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 people¹s 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 anymore¹ 
> 
> 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 didn¹t 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 hill¹s 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 ³there is no
> question of
> 
> surrendering our land so long as we are alive².
> 
> 
> 
> ³I will slit their throats if they come to take possession of my land. It is
> my only source of livelihood,² 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
> area¹s only graduate institution, the Radha Krishna Inter College, a canal and
> about a dozen link roads are also falling prey to the acquisition. ³Where will
> our children study after these schools have been closed,² asks Dasai Gond of
> Dumri village.
> 
> 
> 
> Significantly, a few Buddhist monks are also lending silent support to the
> farmers¹ cause. ³The 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,² 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
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
>