[Reader-list] In Valley, gunmen take to moral policing: ‘enforce hijab in college’
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
shuddha at sarai.net
Mon Aug 31 13:51:01 IST 2009
Dear all,
I did not find the names of Sikandar Butshikan and Syed Hamadani in
the sentence from my posting quoted so kindly by Rashneek Kher in
support of his argument.
"It is necessary to remember that Kashmir is a part of South Asia
where the rise of Islam
> did not accompany a military invasion, but occurred largely due to the
> example set by missionaries and religious divines."
If anyone does find them I would be grateful if they could help me
locate them.
Nor do i find it necessary to digress too far in pointing out that
the meaning of the word 'divines' as used here (indicating religious
adepts) is quite different from the sense of anything being 'divinely
ordained' (or commanded by god). Whosoever should wish to educate
themselves on the semantic distinction between these two instances of
usage could consult a standard dictionary of the English language.
But let us leave that aside for now.
I find Rashneek's second assertion that 'even a kid in Kashmir' would
know that the process of bringing Islam to Kashmir was spearheaded by
Sikandar 'Butshikan' and Syed Hamadani entertaining. And this is
where the meat of his contention lies.
Because, 'every kid' in Kashmir, and a few adults elsewhere, would
also know that these two names were not the only ones on whose backs
Islam came to Kashmir. Islam came to Kashmir from diverse sources,
and if we do not want to dissimulate, we must remember that some of
these sources were different from, and contrary to those represented
by Sikandar 'Butshikan' and even, Syed Hamadani. Some of these
strains were distinctly heterodox, for instance, Sheikh Yaqub of the
Kubrawi order, also credited with the spread of Islam in Kashmir, was
often disparaged as a 'but-parast' (and idol lover) and he in fact
challenged the ulema of his time to find fault with this finding
truth in the altars of icons. The history of Islam in Kashmir, as
'every child' knows, is a testament to its doctrinal diversity.
How else do we account for figures like Bulbul Shah (who is said to
have carried out the first conversions) Sheikh Nooruddin Wali (or
Nund Rishi - of the entirely Kashmiri indigenous sufi order of the
'Rishis'). Apart from the inflence of the entirely local 'Rishi'
order, the rise of early Islam in Kashmir was marked by the
influences of the Nakshbandi, Suhrawardy, and heterodox Qadiri and
Kubrawi orders, besides several different strains of Shia Islam, and
of course the presence of canonical, orthodox Sunni Islam. To say
that this variety of beliefs and practices amounted to one thing is
to be totally oblivious to the enormous variety in the cultural and
religious landscape of early Islam in Kashmir
Here, for instance is one of Nooruddin Wali/Nund Rishi's 'vaks'/
utterances. Incidentally, Nooruddin is affectionately referred to as
the 'Alamdar-e-Kashmir' or the 'standard bearer'. This is what he has
to say.
"We belong to the same parents.
Then why this difference?
Let Hindus and Muslims(together)
Worship God alone.
We came to this world like partners.
We should have shared our joys
and sorrows together."
This was written in the explicit context of the persecution of non
muslims and dissenting muslims that Sheikh Nooruddin was witness to
in the reign of Sultan Sikandar and some of his immediate successors.
This clearly demonstrates that there were competing strains of
tolerance and intolerance within Islam in Kashmir. This is normal, it
happens in the history of every religious tradition in the world. To
claim that intolerance alone marks the history of any religious
tradition, anywhere, is to pander to prejudice.
The trouble is, I think that someone like Rashneek knows exactly what
I am talking about. He is not, in my opinion, unlike many others, a
hysterical bigot. He knows that the history of Islam in Kashmir is
not marked by hatred of other ways of life or intolerance alone, but,
and this is what is most disturbing, he still chooses to present a
one-sided picture to score a cheap polemical point. The knowing
dissimulator, in my opinion. is far more disturbing than the ignorant
bigot.
best
Shuddha
On 31-Aug-09, at 9:40 AM, rashneek kher wrote:
> dear all,
>
> i just hope Shudda's gives the right links,however i dont think
> even this forum can teach him that,otherwise he would have learnt
> it by now
>
> https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-November/011033.html
>
> I will not let the readers have the trouble of clicking the
> link.Here is what our friend Shuddha writes.
>
> "It is necessary to remember that Kashmir is a part of South Asia
> where the rise of Islam
> did not accompany a military invasion, but occurred largely due to the
> example set by missionaries and religious divines."
>
> and who were these people who spearheaded the conversion of Kashmir
> or let us say "rise of islam"(even a kid in Kashmir will us these
> two names-Butshikan and Syed hamdani),and what were the examples of
> these "missionaries and religous divines"...
>
> Iconoclasm and imposition of "true" Sharia through all
> means...which are enumerated here
>
> https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-December/014758.html
>
>
> So here we are.....Shudda's shoots himself in the foot again....
>
> Best Regards
>
> Rashneek
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Rashneek says - "there is a history on this network here is a
> history on this
>> network where people have called barbarians like Sikander
>> Butshikan and Syed
>> mohd.Hamdani divinely ordained dervishes and incidentally these
>> are people
>> who claim to have Marxist if not Moaist ideologies."
>
> This is a very interesting statement. I am not a Maoist (I consider
> Maoism to be yet another variety of degenerate third worldist
> nationalism - ) but I am persuaded by critical strains within
> Marxism, (among other things) and have never concealed that fact.
> I also happen to have mentioned Sikandar 'Butshikan' and Hamadani
> in one of my set of postings -
>
> https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-November/011030.html
> Annotations to the History of Iconoclasm in Kashmir - I (posted on
> November 9, 2007) written, incidentally in response to Rashneek
> Kher's postings on the subject of iconoclasm.
>
> I have trawled through the Reader List archives, and the only
> reference to Hamadani that I could find made by anyone who could
> even remotely be described as a 'Marxist' (even by a stretch of
> imagination) occurs in this posting. So, I take it, that the
> gesture is made in my general direction. Hence this clarification.
>
> Nowhere in this posting do I deny that either Sikandar 'Butshikan'
> or Hamadani were not in fact iconoclasts. I merely make the point
> that the history of iconoclasm in Kashmir does not have a solely
> 'Islamic' provenance. And that just as there were many non-muslim
> iconcolastic rulers in pre-Islamicate Kashmir, there were also
> several muslim rulers in Kashmir who protected non-muslim places of
> worship.
>
> More importantly, never, in any posting, have I characterized
> either Sikandar 'Butshikan' or Hamadani as 'divinely ordained
> dervishes'. Shah Sikandar is a king, and that is how I have
> described him, and Hamadani is a religious leader, which is exactly
> what I have called him. Neither of these two descriptions amounts
> to what it means when one says 'divinely ordained'. For that to
> obtain, I would have first of all to believe in the notion of a
> 'divnity' which I don't. And secondly, believe that such a
> 'divinity' ordains the destruction of architecture and images,
> which, logically, following from the first, i don't either. I have
> viewed all acts of iconoclasm in the history of Kashmir, regardless
> of who caused them to occur, as acts of violence. And have never
> said any thing that can be read to the contrary.
>
> I think, yet again, Rashneek, in his haste to score a weak point,
> has been a little too generous in his interpretation of the textual
> substance of the archive of this list. As always, I would urge him,
> and everyone else to buttress their easily brandished opinions with
> a modicum of evidence. The point I made about Nadeem Paracha's
> loosely articulated polemic against Roy, which inititated this
> exchange, seems, to me to be strengthened by this. I do however,
> remain hopeful, that this list will eventually teach Rashneek to be
> more careful with his words.
>
> best
>
> Shuddha
>
> I
> On 28-Aug-09, at 12:40 PM, rashneek kher wrote:
>
>> Dear Anupam,
>>
>> Well I am not confusing anything with anything.There is a history
>> on this
>> network where people have called barbarians like Sikander
>> Butshikan and Syed
>> mohd.Hamdani divinely ordained dervishes and incidentally these
>> are people
>> who claim to have Marxist if not Moaist ideologies.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Rashneek
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 12:07 PM, anupam chakravartty
>> <c.anupam at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Rashneek,
>>> "They would cleanse the society by imposing purity on the
>>> inhabitants and
>>> the sly shadows of Mao would cheer them and call them dervishes oops
>>> divinely ordained dervishes."
>>>
>>> I think you are confusing Talibanisation with Marxism and Maoism.
>>> If the
>>> so-called "armed" gunmen threatened the college principal, as the
>>> reports
>>> stated, to which he opposed and said: "he would not be cowed by
>>> the threat
>>> and would continue to do his work at the college" and also the
>>> fact he is a
>>> specialist in greatest Islamic revivalist of our times, Sayyid
>>> Qutb (who
>>> the
>>> neo-liberal sorts think that because of his criticism of the
>>> American way
>>> of
>>> life has helped in shaping of al-qaeda) then there is an inherent
>>> contradiction in your claims about dervishes. here we have
>>> someone who is
>>> specialist, who is opposed to imposition of hijab. i think i would
>>> appreciate the principal's stand.
>>> - thanks
>>> anupam
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 9:26 AM, rashneek kher
>>> <rashneek at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear All,
>>>>
>>>> A story done by Indian Express on the Islamist Icons(Robin Hoods
>>>> of our
>>>> friends) imposing Hijab and threating Prinicipals of Colleges by
>>>> burning
>>>> their cars.
>>>> How I wonder would Taliban control the land that once infidelds
>>>> lived
>>>> in.They would cleanse the society by imposing purity on the
>>>> inhabitants
>>> and
>>>> the sly shadows of Mao would cheer them and call them dervishes
>>>> oops
>>>> divinely ordained dervishes.Their divine powers derived from
>>>> mediveal
>>>> obscrutanist religiou practices-soon flogging,killing in
>>>> football grounds
>>>> and burning of girls schools would be the order of day.And our
>>>> Marxist
>>>> demi-icons would sing paeans to the piety of the new age dervishes.
>>>> It may also be worthwhile to mention that the leaders of the
>>>> "azadi"
>>> today
>>>> have done exactly this when they "were a part of the armed
>>>> struggle".For
>>>> the
>>>> proponents of jihad and their supporters...from Riyaz Wani
>>>>
>>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> In Valley, gunmen take to moral policing: ‘enforce hijab in
>>>> college’
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> In the first such incident in the Valley since the decline of
>>>> militancy
>>>> started two years ago, masked gunmen waylaid the principal of a
>>>> North
>>>> Kashmir college, destroyed his car, and gave him a three-day
>>>> ultimatum to
>>>> ensure the 3,000 girl students in his institution began wearing the
>>> hijab.
>>>>
>>>> The principal, Muhammad Ashraf, a respected Islamic scholar,
>>>> told The
>>>> Indian Express today that he would not be cowed by the threat
>>>> and would
>>>> continue to do his work at the college.
>>>>
>>>> Ashraf said seven men stopped his car — in which he was riding
>>>> with his
>>>> son
>>>> and a local acquaintance — near his village at Dangiwacha, and
>>> commandeered
>>>> the vehicle over a dirt track into a thicket of bushes. “They
>>>> wore masks
>>>> and
>>>> dark glasses and were heavily armed with Kalashnikovs, pistols and
>>>> grenades,” Ashraf said.
>>>>
>>>> According to the principal, the men appeared to know a lot
>>>> about him:
>>> that
>>>> he was a specialist on Sayyid Qutb — the Egyptian Islamist
>>>> political
>>>> theorist and leading intellectual of the Muslim Brotherhood in
>>>> the 50s
>>> and
>>>> 60s who is thought to be one of the philosophical progenitors of
>>>> Al Qaeda
>>> —
>>>> and that he had been trying to enforce discipline in his college.
>>>>
>>>> “You have taken some really good steps in the college like banning
>>> smoking
>>>> and cellphones. Now, you must do something that we want you to do.
>>> Enforce
>>>> an Islamic dress code for girl students,” Ashraf said the men
>>>> told him.
>>>> They
>>>> gave him three days to carry out their diktat, failing which
>>>> they would
>>>> “act”, they said.
>>>>
>>>> Ashraf’s college, Degree College, Sopore, has around 7,000
>>>> students on
>>> its
>>>> rolls, 3,000 of whom are girls. It is among the largest colleges
>>>> in the
>>>> state.
>>>>
>>>> “They told me that they had picked me to send a message to all
>>>> other
>>>> schools
>>>> and colleges in the Valley in which girls study,” Ashraf said.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps to rattle the principal and send the message that they
>>>> meant
>>>> business, the gunmen set his vehicle on fire. Ashraf and his
>>>> companions
>>>> were
>>>> released after about two hours in captivity.
>>>>
>>>> The Dangiwacha police have filed a case, and are looking at all
>>>> angles,
>>>> including one unrelated to militancy. “We are exploring the
>>>> possible
>>>> dimension of college rivalry,” said a senior officer who did not
>>>> want to
>>> be
>>>> named.
>>>>
>>>> No militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the incident. The
>>>> separatists too have been silent, and are perhaps trying to
>>>> ascertain if
>>>> militant groups were involved.
>>>>
>>>> Senior Superintendent of Police Viplav Kumar said a hunt was on
>>>> for the
>>>> gunmen. “We are trying our best. Hopefully, we will crack the
>>>> case soon,”
>>>> he
>>>> said.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-valley-gunmen-take-to-moral-
>>> policing-enforce-hijab-in-college/507208/0
>>>>
>>>> best
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Rashneek Kher
>>>> http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
>>>> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
>>>> _________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Rashneek Kher
>> http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
>> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
>> _________________________________________
>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> Critiques & Collaborations
>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
>> subscribe in the subject header.
>> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> The Sarai Programme at CSDS
> Raqs Media Collective
> shuddha at sarai.net
> www.sarai.net
> www.raqsmediacollective.net
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Rashneek Kher
> http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net
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