[Reader-list] see some meaning in Yasin Malik's choice

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Aditya

Thank you for your mail.

Let me begin by stating that at this moment I am not informed about the
intricate history of Kashmir and role of individuals in Kashmiri politics
hence I will not comment on the issue of Yasin Malick, however I want to
comment on two aspects in your response which I found intriguing.

The first relates to a 'charge' laid at Rakesh in the opening paragraph of
your response. It seems that you were trying to suggest something while
articulating about the set of notions encapsulated by the word  'Gandhian'.

In your view the word 'Gandhian' seems to ascribe to a value system which
was propagated and practiced by Gandhi. Anyone who practices such values can
lay claim to this word.Yasin Mallick, in your view, cannot call himself
Gandhian because he, according to you, 'was a street hooligan chasing girls
and left schooling at a primary age'. Don't you think that if we apply this
assumed set of notions to Mr. M.K. Gandhi himself, then even he might not
even qualify to become Gandhian because even he, in his younger days, slept
with commercial sex workers and he indulged in acts of stealing.

Please tell me can people not change or grow or acquire new value systems or
thought processes as they go along in life? Should they just cling on to a
set of ideas, which they were exposed to at a younger age? And if they have
changed then to what degree should we judge them by their past actions? For
instance, should we not listen to insightful and deeply moving words of
someone like Krishna because  when he was younger he was a makhan chor (that
was stealing was it not?) and even lied according to many a lore...mayya
more mai nahi makhan khayyo...

Imagine in 18th century England, children as young as eight or ten were
publicly hanged for stealing a piece of bread or a spoon, this was period
when laws around the idea of  property were getting crystallized, hence from
this perspective acts of Kanha could be termed as 'grave crime' which could
have resulted in capital hanging. Anyways.

In your view should we not read slokas of Valmiki because  in his youth he
was a bandit and a robber, who indulged in acts of murder of many innocents?

The second relates to the question of the validity of knowledge. I want to
ask you, Aditya, in your opinion which type of knowledge is more valid? You
seem to be averse to the idea of knowledge gleaned from wikipedia and there
seems to be greater validity to knowledge gained from experience. This leads
to my second question, why do you think that experiential knowledge is more
valid? or in other words why do think that being a Kashmiri, who has
udergone suffering and exile and pain makes your thought more weighty than
some one like Rakesh's?

Why cannot Rakesh's view be acknowledged as a perspective, like yours? And
responded accordingly.  What I do not understand is this constant recourse
to individual tagging, as a means of rhetorical response? Where is the need
here? Do you feel that any person who is not a Kashmiri like you, but is
sincere enough to invest, some years of her life to study all the relevant
literature pertaining to Kashmir, will not be able to articulate an informed
opinion? Why do you think people whose subjectivites are involved with a
space and its society are the best judge of any opinoin which relates to
that space and society?

Regards

Taha






On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Aditya Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear Rakesh,
>
> From Wikepedia knowledge you have now yet again moved to another part known
> as the propaganda of 'English media'. I wonder how much Yasin Malik can
> even
> read to have gained such drastic transformation that he is now being called
> the modern 'Gandhian'. It is quite amusing as in younger days he was a
> street hooligan chasing girls and left schooling at a primary age, later he
> climbed the barbed wires of the border to get arms training along with a
> few
> hundred others to initiate a bloody killing spree in the peaceful valley of
> Kashmir. Not that he cannot gain such transition, but that would be a
> miracle in all ways if it at all is true.
>
>