[Reader-list] "Kashmir Discourse" at Jantar Mantar Delhi

[Inder Salim]

Kashmir Discourse at Jantar Mantar Delhi:



“Luk yud chanaen lotvai lotvai KANAEN  sannan, maney kaah gov, naag vuzan
sahravan manz” . ( if people take STONES seriously, meaning is nothing,
springs would erupt in deserts ). A parody of famous song, original written
by Rafiq Raaz and sung by Vijay Malla.  I have merely replaced the word
Kathan (discourses ) with Kanaen ( Stones ). I guess, it is a matter of time
when Kanean would return back to Kathan. The stones in the valley have
already replaced the gun culture. The Protagonist of Kashmiri poetry is
usually feminine, and the recent street action by Kashmiri common women by
pelting stones against  excesses of  security forces has perhaps come to a
full circle. This is all about thinking also, I guess.



I don’t how many were “thinking people” at yesterday’s Jantar Mantar Protest
organized by Kashmiris living in Delhi, but when Sanjay Kak, the noted film
maker and activist,  spoke about how “Kashmir Discourse”  is picking up its
tortoise like pace at various forums in Indian Civil Society, almost
everybody believed him.  He said in response to the comparing  man Mr SAR
Geelani who openly criticized the silence of entire Indian civil society for
not reflecting the painful situation in Kashmir. There is no reason to
highlight ‘victim hood’ as it may distract the deeper meaning of Azadi (
freedom ), Sanjay added. This line although was not picked by many
sentimental speakers who jumped on to the mike, but one long bearded traders
raised a slogan that Kashmiris are not Aatankvadis ( Terrorists ) which
everybody responded back forcefully. This bearded man said with clarity that
we ought not communalize the situation here because the format for protest
is about the innocent killings, and not the Kashmir Issue, which we need to
sort out in the valley itself. This space is for protest only.  He looked
wiser in comparison to the lot of other young boys who raised religious
slogans every now and then.   This reminded me “Aasi gay saeri Dasshat
garad, tem gaey saeri Ahinsa Parast” by Rahman Rahi, ( we all terrorist, and
they all are peace lovers )



I was delighted today that empty Jantar Mantar looked a charged space ,
since it has almost lost its sheen, perhaps, because of the obsolete nature
of political protests, and the fact that mere slogans don’t bring a
revolution nowadays. In fact the age of revolutions ( inqlaab ) are passe.
Something has to happen at grass root level. So,  inside the valley there is
has to be some thinking about how to sustain the issue without being too
sentimental. Perhaps the issue of freedom needs to come closer with other
issues of trauma and deep study about how “everybody is Kashmir “  as a CPI
(M) representative said in his Lal Salam address to the audience. What does
it mean to talk about Kashmir, not only its politics but Women’s  issues and
other Environmental issues at the same time is perhaps what we mean by “
Kashmir Discourse “.  A return to simple kashmir style living can be a world
wide movement for a just freedom of human being.



Many kashmiris would not like to see the one line Kashmir dispute mixed with
other issues, but I believe if they let it happen there would be enormous
support from thinking people all over the world. Violent methodology would
only give excuse  to men in power who want to to control Kashmir, by hook or
by crook. True, without emotions the struggle wont be sustained, but there
has to more stronger non-violent movement in Kashmir. For the first time SAS
Geelani  looks like Gandhi of Indian Independence movement.



Anyway, when a student girl from Kashmir stood up at Jantar Manter, who
travelled 2 days back to Delhi from Srinagar  passionately revealed her
anguish of living a fretful life back in the valley, it was moment to see
how sincerity speaks fearlessly.  She almost verified the fact that she is
alive and wanted to tell about the people who are enduring a terrible
situation in Kashmir. She said how she feels like mother whose womb is
ripped when she hears the news that a young boy is shot dead by security
forces. There was no slogan in her short narration and yet it was the most
moving moment in the entire protest.  Such was her sincere way of uttering
the words that I forgot to switch on the small handy cam.



Mr. Geelani reminded the audience about the fact that today’s audience
comprises Hindus, including few Kashmiri Pandits and some Sikhs even, so we
need to restraint the sentiments, but the religious slogans kept on emerging
spontaneously, which unnerved a lady with bindi on her forehead standing
next to me.  She said we are equally disturbed by Shiv Sena slogans and they
look similar.  But, I explained her that the format indeed was not for such
slogans,  it is just going out of control.



This all happened after  Kashmiri Pandits protested against the protest.
Some ten odd young Kashmiri Pandits suddenly stood in a line in front of the
protest group sitting on the ground.  Mr. Geelani said to them that we share
the pain of their losses in the valley, and they too should sit in the
audience in solidarity with them about the issue of innocent killings in the
valley



 This actually intensified the Mazhabi Narey bazi (religious sloganeering)
which obviously rendered some Sikhs from Punjab sitting in the crowd a
little out of place.  Kashmiri Pandits looked  unimaginative as usual, but
made the young Muslim boys to forget the real issue  of protest and think
about Nare-Takbeer Allah-o-Akbar …kind of things instead. There is indeed
some opium in the nature of these slogans which  nevertheless binds all very
tightly, even for a momentary frenzy.  Anyway, ours is a religious society,
be it Hindu, Sikh or Muslim, who am I to poke my agnostic nose in all this,
I thought.



But, I always wondered why Kashmiri Pandits are more loyal than the King
when it comes to Indian Nationalism which is not exclusive ‘Hindu’ if we
give some damn to  its secular constitution even. They always voted Congress
party in the Valley but were betrayed in 1986 communal riots by  Mufti Mohd
Syed, the congress chief then. They were badly mistaken that ‘Congress’ is
merely a ‘party’ and not ‘India’.  If pandits in Valley had trusted Sheikh,
I guess the migration might not have taken place. But the gap between
Kashmir Pandits and Kashmir Muslims has widened since...



Anyway, as long as I was there in solidarity with the protestors, I did not
hear much mention of recent phenomenon of ‘ Kane  Jung’  (Stone
pelting )  which
has radically replaced the gun culture in the valley. The success of this
tool can be measured by the fact that almost everybody is taken aback here
in India by the overwhelming nature of this unique way of fighting war on
the streets on daily basis. There are instance when stones are stored and
transported and placed at strategic place on the roads in advance. This
results in the continuity of the stone-war in Kashmir.



 Well, no more  Jantar Mantar reportage, but what made me conscious today is
the fact when somebody on the mike mentioned the date 13th of July 1931. The
date when scores of unarmed kashmiri men were gunned down by the Maharaja (
king ) in Srinagar.  I instantly thought of a Hindu king, and the fact that
India came into existence after acceptance of ‘two nation theory’ based on
different nation hood for Hindus and Muslims of this subcontinent. So, no
wonder that Muslims in the valley take on to the religious slogans on and
off during any political protest. This is time tested methodology in the
valley. History has indeed merged the ways of protesting and religious
identity in the valley. People have internalized this over the years. But
the credit goes to Sheikh Mohd Abudllah who never gave any political space
to M.A Jinnah  to implement ‘ Two Nation Theory ‘ in the valley.  Credit
goes to sheikh that no Kashmiri Pandit was killed in 1947 in the valley when
Gandhi’s free India witnessed a whole scale blood bath. Sheikh was like sun
in the valley, but India humiliated him, and the Indian formula to buy
kashmiris with money since then is only Indian policy of Kashmir, which has
come to a stand still because of ‘Kane Jung’. Many Kashmiris at Jantar
Mantar voiced deep anger against this formula.



It is high time that Kashmir Discourse is taken seriously by the thinking
man in India , and inside Kashmir as well, and work out some solution to get
rid of this daily ritual of innocent killings by security forces. Better if
all the bourgeois thinking people too take note of…



Love

Inder Salim




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