[Reader-list] Massacres - Part 3

Fri May 29 00:28:36 IST 2009

I agree....

But do you apply the same yardstick when you discuss Gujarat ?

Why does pain of hindu suffering in Kashmir from hand of Islamic
fanatics unneverve you ?

Are you one of those sickulars ?

Just a question ????????????????????

Warm regards

Pawan Durani

On 5/29/09, Inder Salim <indersalim at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
> >> _________________________________________
> >> 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: &lt;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
> >>
> >>
> > _________________________________________
> > 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: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
>
>
> --
>
> http://indersalim.livejournal.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: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>