[Reader-list] Clarifications/protestations

[S. Jabbar]

Dear Shuddha,

Finally got a chance to sit down and read your last mail to me and I think
again you have misunderstood.  I¹m sorry. Evidently it is not just you who
has misread my posts so it must be me at fault! I will try again so here
goes:

1. Pl see my first email on the subject where the Œbaying for blood¹ phrase
was used in the context of the police/CRPF having to face a mob, 100,000 +
strong.  I condemned the firing upon unarmed protestors but conjectured how
it must feel to confront a mob that size that is coming with aggressive
intent towards one.  In my second mail, in response to your taking issue
with my use of the phrase I compared your reasoning and justification of mob
violence with Advani¹s.  I am not equating the event of the march to the LoC
and Advani¹s wrath yatra or the Œ92 & Œ93 violence.  Do you see the
difference? 

2. Of course there is a difference between the attack on a 16th c. mosque
and a bunker!!  I¹m truly appalled that you of all people think you need to
point this out to someone who cut her teeth on the politics of Babri Masjid.
I was hardly equating the two.  You¹d need to feel some sympathy or
agreement with the mosque being perceived as a sign of oppression, and no,
let me categorically state that I don¹t and that I am fully aware of the
bunker being the potential locus where bullets are likely to be fired from.
I was merely trying to point out, and I quote: Œ...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.¹  It¹s got nothing to
do with whether I find justification or not in that perception.  That is why
I also used the examples of Sabina¹s house and the ransacking of Moulvi
Abbas Ansari¹s house.

Events have moved on since we had our last exchange.  The Hurriyat leaders
realized the potential danger in what I call violent assembly and you call
non-violent assembly.  They called for restraint because they knew that not
doing so would mean escalation of tempers and violence and death. (This was
what I was trying to point out in my earlier mails.)

In every single gathering since then the Kashmiris have been disciplined and
have won my admiration and I¹m sure the admiration of many around the world.
100,000 people gathered in Pampore and protested peacefully.  I must point
out that not a single bullet was fired by the CRPF or the police, because
despite similar numbers the mood was very different from the one that was
present on the march to the LoC.

There is a new feeling of great excitement within the people of Kashmir.
They can see for themselves what it means to be part of non-violent
movement, to form human chains around the police so that they would be safe
from the people, to protest peacefully.  They have demonstrated to the world
that the power of the people in a non-violent movement is far greater than
the firepower of the militants.  I hope that it is something that they will
hold on to because it is more valuable than anything that has happened in
the last two decades.

Having said that, I still don¹t agree with the politics.  I don¹t see how
this issue will be resolved since every single issue of J&K has been thrown
up in the churning: land & pilgrimage (the easiest to deal with), regional
imbalance and resentment on both sides, the Hindu-Muslim divide (all too
depressing) nationalism-sub-nationalisms, India-Pakistan... I think the
clock has been turned back and irreparable damage has been done to relations
between the people of Kashmir and Jammu.  And with the BJP taking this on as
a national issue I can only hope it¹s not the beginning of another Babri
Masjid.

With warmest regards,
Sonia.