[Reader-list] Massacres - Part 3

[Inder Salim]

Whenever i happen to visit some old heritage site, i  move my hands on
the texture of its stones more intimately than i see its form. I do it
so effortlessly, but i also love to see its damaged portions, some
plants coming out and birds living inside
i guess, to  contemplate on form only,  beyond a point , is always
misleading, i believe...

The form, perhaps, tells me its religion , but texture tells me the
pain and death of the ordinary people who were used to build it.

So, reading history too suggests me something different, always. The
words which are not there, is perhaps the texture which we often miss
out as and when we see a monument.

perhaps, the words which could not make it while history was being
written would always contain the overwhelming part of the pain and
sadness of that past, i believe....

so, i guess, any history, which we happen to read has a space for that
hidden to surface on the layers of meaning if we let some other
readings of history  to interfere with our conventional ways of
reading history. i am vague , i know...but not out of place...

To those who are angry because of a thousand year old insult  to their
predecessors is something very absurd here, because the reading of
text was direct.  Perhaps, we need to marry each word of history to
sleep with our respective sceptic inward before a meaning is
extracted: a love child if we are not direct

to cut short,  i remember, even Lord Krishana, who benefited much from
Kurukshtera of Mahabarata, sternly admonished Droupdi ( the wife of 5
pandava princes ) for pushing the idea of war to settle scores with
Kauravas for her personal revenge, which he said was wrong in any case

Krishna reminded her that War is too painful a thing and will drown
her open protest hair in the river of blood. That indeed happened and
there was more pain in revenge than in the forgetting the bad reading
of history, say personal


with love
is


On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 4:35 PM, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Shuddha,
>
> I agree that all bitter things must come to an end . However my
> intention is not to let things remain bitter for ever.
>
> I am just educating the members about History , since Kashmir has been
> something which has been very passionately discussed in this forum.
>
> Orzuv
>
> Pawan
>
> On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 12:31 PM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
>> Pawan,
>> For every one instance of assaults on Hindus by Muslims that you post,
>> someone else may be able to find one, two, three, four instances of assaults
>> on Muslims by Hindus. And none would be false, neither your claims, nor
>> theirs. And then you would find more, and then they would find more, and
>> life on this list would continue to spiral on to a vulgar exhibitionism of
>> everybody's agony and mutual hatred. We've been down that road before. Who,
>> after all, has not had a hard time in the twentieth century? Which identity
>> cannot claim for itself the mantle of the victim?
>> All this would only demonstrate what we know only too well, that human
>> beings are vile, that religions (all religions, without exception, and
>> modern ideologies, offer rationalizations for gratuitous acts of violence).
>> So, what does that achieve ? I think nothing.
>> Can we move on from this, and explore things that are new, that are
>> surprising, that are discoveries, that extend our appreciation of our
>> histories instead of trading the same monotonous charges, can we sometimes
>> locate the occasional highlights that still continue to shine in the fragile
>> house of the human spirit?
>> Or must we remain forever trapped in this cycle of proving who had a worse
>> twentieth century than whom? Speaking for myself, I have better things to do
>> than be caught being a spectator to this kind of sado-masochism of the
>> spirit. I hope I am not the only one who feels this way.
>> Shuddha
>> On 27-May-09, at 10:07 AM, Pawan Durani wrote:
>>
>> Sanity and Madness on 13th July, 1931
>> The communal pogrom against Kashmiri Hindus and Khatri traders was a
>> pre-planned move by the leaders of 13th July agitation and their
>> sponsors - the British Political Department.
>> Hindus became victims of the mad frenzy in Vicharnag, Maharajganj,
>> Khankah Mohalla, in Srinagar city and at Shopian and Anantnag towns.
>> The events which took place in Khankah mohalla reveal an interesting
>> pattern. While the members of the majority community displayed strong
>> communal passions when they came to attack Pandits, the immediate
>> neighbours played a positive role.
>> Five Pandit families lived in Khankah mohalla, opposite the Kali
>> Shrine. These families included three families of Kouls - Ram Nath,
>> Nilakanth and Rughnath. They were all cousins. The other two families
>> - Niranjan Nath Wali and Dina Nath Wali lived jointly.
>> Soon after looting Khatri shops in Maharajgunj the big mob turned to
>> Khankah Mohalla to attack Kashmiri Hindus. The neighbours of the
>> Pandit families - Gh. Mohammad Qalinbaf and Ahad Sakka (water carrier)
>> rose to the occasion and decided not to betray their neighbours with
>> whom they had been living through generations. At the suggestion of
>> these neighbours the Kouls hid themselves in attic storey (Brer Kani)
>> of the house. Sakka had asked Kouls to throw some household refuse on
>> the verandah and keep windows and doors open to mislead the rioters.
>> The Pandits, on hearing about the atrocities in other parts of the
>> city were gripped with fear. Ram Nath recalls, "we tied our womenfolk
>> with rope lest they escape out of fear. We had also decided to poison
>> them to death in case an eventuality of kidnapping/molestation arose".
>> When looters came, the families of Ahad Sakka and Qalinbaff told them
>> that Pandits fled from their home on learning that the mob was on way
>> to attack them. To keep rioters in good humour, Sakka and Qalinbaff
>> mockingly abused Pandits and succeeded in turning the mob away. The
>> mob stood for 25-30 minutes at Kaul's house.
>> Neighbours of Walis also tried to save Walis but the mob had its way.
>> Niranjan Nath Wali was an affluent person. Some people in the mob owed
>> him money. They succeeded in instigating the frenzied mob to attack
>> Niranjan and loot his property.
>> After the looters left, Kouls shifted to the house of Ahad Sakka and
>> stayed there for three days. This was the fortnight when Hindus
>> observe shraddas of their departed near and dear ones. Members of the
>> Koul family would stealthily during the night go to their home,
>> prepare food and come back. At Sakka's home they took only pears and
>> water.
>> 3 days later Kouls shifted to Chinkral mohalla first and later to
>> Sathu Barbarshah where Ramnath's aunt lived. Nilakanth Koul served in
>> Police Department.
>> He shifted his family to police lines. Such was the terror that
>> Ramnath's family was brought back to Chinkral Mohalla in a special
>> police van, nicknamed by locals as 'Rat Trap'. The Kouls never went
>> back to live in the Mohalla where they had lived for centuries. They
>> sold their house to Gh. Mohammad Qalinbaf in 1932. This in itself is
>> an indicator of the terror created by the events of 13th July. Kashmir
>> Sentinel
>> _________________________________________
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>>
>> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
>> The Sarai Programme at CSDS
>> Raqs Media Collective
>> shuddha at sarai.net
>> www.sarai.net
>> www.raqsmediacollective.net
>>
>>
> _________________________________________
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