[Reader-list] Kashmir Comes to Jantar Mantar

[shuddha at sarai.net]

Dear Rakesh, 

many thanks for your response, and for your queries, which I take very
seriously, and will try and answer, sincerely, to the best of my ability. I am
as pained as you are by all that happens in Kashmir, and it is always my hope
that this list, can remain one of the places (where despite the din and the
acrimony) we can sometimes have a considered, thoughtful discussion on issues
like kashmir (and not only on Kashmir). So thank you. 

I will take each of your questions in turn. 

q i) When people are throwing stones, and there is even burning of police
vehicles and stations, leading to damage of public property, is there a logical
course of action to achieve peace? If yes, what can it be? In other words, what
can be the steps to break the cycle of violence and counter-violence?

a i) Well, the first thing is, do you respond to this situation by sending more
troops, as the government has done, or, do you say, that yes, people have a
legitimate grievance and an anger about the loss of the lives of young people,
and that they have the right to mourn and protest in a peaceful manner.
Remember, the stone pelting began when characteristically, people were not
allowed to mourn in public. And each stone pelting incident produced its own
'martyrs', who then, were again not allowed to be mourned. So, from the very
beginning of this cycle of violence, there has been a gross mistake. The least
that the Omar Abdullah government can do is to render a public apology for its
misgovernance. the next thing it can do is to state that no police or
paramilitary will shoot to kill at any crowd, provided they are not attacked
with lethal weapons. the third thing they can do is to allow for public
mourning to take place. The fourth thing they can ensure is that an independent
enquiry into encounter killings takes place The fifth thing that they can do is
to come clean on the mass graves that have been unearthed in Kashmir in the
last two years, and tender public apologies for these heinous crimes. The list
is long. None of these require either the state government or the central
government to depart from their positions on the constitutionali position of
Kashmir, but at least they will indicate that even if they oppose the partisans
of 'azaadi' they at least are ready to admit to their own wrong-doing. A lot can
happen, after this. Then of course the next logical step is to remove the AFSPA,
which is a very serious deterrent to the possibility of peace in Kashmir. 

q ii) What steps can one take, at least as a beginner, to ensure that such
events are not repeated and we can actually get back to a situation where the
stakeholders involved are genuinely interested in maintaining a modicum of
peace and tranquility (this includes Indian state, Pakistani state and those
entities in Kashmir which may be bent on indulging in violence)?

a ii) I think it is cheap to ask those who need to mourn to practice
tranquility. 45 lives lost in police firing on unarmed or stone pelting mobs is
an abnormal situation. We cannot ask an angry people to suddenly forsake their
anger. To do so is to insult them. Why can we not demand that the state not act
violently first? I see the Pakistani state as being just as venal as the Indian
state, but I am reasonably certain that it has no role to play in the current
wave of mass protests in Kashmir. Even those who are its clients in Kashmir
have been silenced, and are in retreat, in Kashmir. The crowds have spared no
one, not even the worthies of the Hurriyat conference, and even separatist
leaders on occasion have not been allowed to speak or take 'advantage' of
occasions of the mass expression of popular despair. 

q iii) Most importantly, what are the constraints on arriving at a solution for
the stakeholders involved in the process? For example, what stops the Indian
state from making Kashmir independent or even say remove AFSPA (if that is a
positive step in solving this problem)? What stops the Pakistani state from
making positive assertions in this problem? What about the Kashmiris in this
regard?

a iii) I think that the AFSPA must go. From Kashmir and from the North East.
India's claim to be a democracy is a sham as long as the AFSPA remains in
operation. We have to accept that there is a vested interest within sections of
the military and security establishment in keeping instruments like the AFSPA
alive, because it allows them to act with impunity. We have to demand that they
be exposed. Pakistan has no role to play, as far as I am concerned. It (the
Pakistani state) oppresses people as violently in Balochistan as the Indian
state does in Kashmir, and the Pakistani establishment's statments about
Kashmir is in my view, crocodile tears. They too want to keep the dispute
alive, as it suits their militarist agendas exactly as much as it does that of
their peers in India. As for the Kashmiri people, I think it is interesting to
see what a 'leaderless' political movement is like. I think it can set an
example. I find people like Shabnam Lone, and others, the bloggers and facebook
enthusiasts of Kashmir - interesting voices. I think we need to listen to them,
to create spaces where they can speak and debate freely. 

Secondly, all that India and Pakistan need to do is to abide by the UN
resolutions on Kashmir, Let there be an internationally supervised plebiscite,
let people determine their own futures. Why are we so hung up about the
framework of the Indian constitution? Constitutions are documents written by
human beings, not by divine agency. And if they become obstacles to the
ascertainment of the popular will, then there is no reason why we have to be
hidebound to them. 

It has been done, in Northern Ireland, in East Timor, in Kosovo, why can it not
be done in Kashmir. If the governments of India and Pakistan are serious about
Kashmir, they must realize and admit to the fact that the most important
interlocutors are the Kashmiri people themselves. Remember, even the British
colonial powers talked to Indian nationalists, on occasion, without conditions.
Why must the Indian government, simply undertake to do the same. If it does,
surely, the pro independence parties in Kashmir will also have to go the extra
mile to talk sensibly. 

q iv) What does the word 'azadi' actually mean, in your view? (Kashmiris who
are on this forum as also others, I would appreciate if you could put across
the answer to this question). And how is this 'azadi' different from the
current scenario, or from what the Indian republic currently ensures or has
to ensure at least constitutionally?

a iv) The word 'Azaadi' means different things, in a negative (I dont mean
negative in a pejorative sense, simply as 'negation') and in a positive sense.
In a negative sense it simply means 'freedom from the occupation' the desire to
see the last bunker taken down, the last soldier leave, the barbed wires pulled
down, the end of curfew, flag marches, identification parades, disappearances,
deaths and the million daily humiliations that the occupation entails. I
totally endorse this sentiment. If you talk to anyone who has grown up in
Kashmir in the last twenty years, you get a very different picture of what life
is like from anyone of us who has grown up say in Delhi, Bombay or Bangalore of
Calcutta or Madras. In that sense, 'Azaadi' is simply a desire for a normal,
boring life, and unfortunately, today, this normalcy can be guaranteed, only
when the Indian state leaves. The Indian state is the abnormal intrusion in
Kashmir, it has become intrusion through its own acts of commission and
omission over the last sixty years. In the interests of the continued
friendship between Indian and Kashmiri people, the Indian state has to step out
of the picture. 

As far as the 'positive' content of Azaadi is concerned, I am less clear. I
have time and again said (including on this list) to my friends in Kashmir,
that they have to work hard to produce a freedom charter, a vision of what an
'Azaad Kashmir' a secular, democratic, tolerant, open, non militarized space
can be like. I have been disappointed that this vision has never made it from
private discussions to public fora. But I am still hopeful that the generation
that is on the streets of Kashmir today, will actually inscribe this vision
with content and reality. I still wait for that to happen. I know it can, but
it can only happen, in a space of at least limited openness. We all have to try
and see that the AFSPA goes as soon as possible, so that beginnings in this
direction can be made, in earnest and seriousness 

I hope I have been able to do justice to your questions

thanks and regards

Shuddha


On Sun, 8 Aug 2010 21:14:45 +0530 Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote

> Dear Shuddha
> 
> While I do understand that loss of lives is a despicable thing and we should
> criticize it, I would also like to ask you these things (and please, don't
> consider me to be on any side when I ask them, except that of being curious
> and pained at the whole list of events) :
>