[Reader-list] Kashmir Comes to Jantar Mantar

[Inder Salim]

a poem by Yirvun Kreel (a small insect drifting on water )

We might begin by recalling
In terms of the formless dream
Breezing soundlessly in the dry reeds
Of the exegesis of existence
That freedom is the oldest habit
Today like always
There are no gods in the heaven on earth
Floating like henna-rimmed clouds
Who are not ratified by this primeval habit

On the surface we have open books
With invisible hieroglyphics
Hiding inside their very transparency
Like an iota of predetermined rights
Or a quota of predefined justice
Books which also hold some closed chapters
Within the bosom of self-generating confusion
Self-degenerating
Instruments of Accession
Contracts of oppression
Proofs only they can manufacture
Truth again a metaphor for lies

On the same page is restraint and severed limbs
Official denials and headless corpses
On the same page
On the same page is fear and vice
Raped women and naked lies
On the same page
On the same page is dialogue and fear
Holding hands and helping knives
On the same page
On the same page is impunity and love
Our life and their obfuscations
On the same page
On the same page is integral part and solidarity
Territoriality and inheritable humanity
On the same page
On the same page is loss and gain
Their impunity and our pain
On the same page
On the same page is brutality and legitimacy
Injustice and resistance, occupation and peace
On the same page

These are not our pages
The blood of our pens never ran into them
These are not our chapters
We never choose to close them
These are not our books
We never authored them
So we burn them as incense
Offered to the gods of our own imagination
The fire is the fuel
Which feeds our conscience
We sharpen the pencils with our memories
Of restrained limbs and severed lies
Of naked women and raped truth
Of everything we have been made to face
And everything denied to our face
We again know to choose our gods
In the heaven or earth
For the freedom they will provide us
We learn to give shape
To the formless dream
Colour it with history and feeling
Sound it with experience and love
>From the debris of the discourse
Of the shredded pages of their books
We pick up our cautions
To know that killing others
Attempting to kill others
People, dreams, ideas, truth
Is not murder but suicide

No more patronizing attitude
Helplessness and self-pity no more
No more lies and deceit
Tyranny and oppression no more
No more humiliation
Injustice and fear no more
No more, no more, no more
We have had enough, no more

We decide that we are going to win

This exegesis on our existence
We might end by remembering
That freedom is the oldest habit.


On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 2:09 PM, Lalit Ambardar <lalitambardar at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> ‘Truth’ appears to be the sole prerogative of those who promote & support
> the proponents of Azadi- Bara –e- Islam (freedom through Islam) in Kashmir.
> ‘Agent provocateurs’ can only prolong the agony of Kashmiris by their
> continued condoning of the extremist religious fervour that inspires the
> separatism in Kashmir. For them  reports of calls for jihad in Kashmir are
> just ‘lies’ while the jihadi ranting  at Jantar Mantar right in the heart of
> the capital of India is only an ‘aberration’. The visible contempt in the
> propaganda ‘report’ on the ‘Jeshn’ at Jantar Mantar for a ‘small group’ of
> protesting Kashmir Hindu Pandits rendered refugees in their own country post
> their ethnic cleansing in Kashmir at the hands of kashmiri pan Islamists two
> decades ago speaks it all about the ‘truthfulness’ of the ‘sympathisers’.
> Let it be known, Kashmiri Hindu Pandits who have suffered persecution ever
> since the advent of Islam in Kashmir in middle ages resulting in their
> numbers having been reduced from a majority to an ‘insignificant’ (in
> numbers) minority in their very place of origin, will never have a common
> cause with those who want to resurrect brute medievalism in Kashmir that was
> once regarded as the vale of ‘rishis’-the saints.
>
> On the one hand you run the propaganda campaigns through films like ‘Jashne
> Azadi’ to project the leadership of the Kashmiri Jihadists including those
> terror commanders who deserve to be tried for crimes against humanity &
> whose political makeover was facilitated by the ‘sympathisers’ & on the
> other you want to tell the world that the current turmoil is lead by none.
> Agreed, as usual the ‘leaders’ get themselves detained to enjoy the state
> hospitality while the gullible Kashmiris are exhorted to defy the very state
> & die in the name of religion. Sixty Kashmiris got killed two years ago when
> the storms was raised over building of temporary facilities for Amarnath
> pilgrims. The exhortation then was that the ‘demography’ of Kashmir was
> being planned by creating ‘Hindu habitations’ over those inhabitable
> Himalayan heights. Battle for leadership amongst the Jihadists was played in
> full view of public the streets of Kashmir then.
> Who is calling the shots amongst the separatists in Kashmir today-the grand
> old patriarch of Azadi- Bara –e- Islam (freedom through Islam)-final call
> came & stone pelting has stopped at least for a while. But unfortunately
> only after scores of young were made to lose their lives. It is a shame that
> young children & ladies are used as ‘human shields’ by the anarchists. It is
> a shame that the sympathies are garnered at the cost of young lives lost.
> But then who cares for the blood of an ordinary Kashmiri.
> Talking about plebiscite, UNO itself considers it outdated now. Yet the UN
> precondition for that being that Pakistan has to first withdraw its
> occupying forces from POK ( yes, it may be shocking but UN regards Pakistan
> & not India as the ‘occupier’),yet we never heard about  AK47 wielding
> zealots marauding in POK nor do we know about any stone pelting in the
> streets of Muzafrabad.
> Pakistan will continue to use Kashmiris in the name of religious
> ‘brotherhood’ through its cronies in Kashmir in its proxy war against India
> to bleed it.
>
> Rgds all
> LA
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> > Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2010 08:46:14 +0530
> > From: rashneek at gmail.com
> > To: shuddha at sarai.net
> > CC: reader-list at sarai.net
> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Kashmir Comes to Jantar Mantar
> >
> > Jadoo Hai ya tilism timhare zuban main
> > tum jhooth kyeh rahe the mujhe aaetbaar tha
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 3:02 PM, shuddha at sarai.net <shuddha at sarai.net>
> wrote:
> >
> > > Kashmir Comes to Jantar Mantar
> > >
> > > Last evening I went to Jantar Mantar after many years. It is a road I
> pass
> > > often, looking at the sad and melancholic little protests that line the
> > > kerb,
> > > whispering to an indifferent Capital the million mutinies of our banana
> > > plantation republic.
> > >
> > > Last evening was different. There were perhaps four to five hundred
> people,
> > > many, but not all Kashmiri, men and women, who had gathered to protest
> > > against
> > > the wanton destruction of life in the Kashmir valley by the security
> > > apparatus
> > > of the Indian state in the last few weeks and months. 45 civilian
> deaths in
> > > 8
> > > weeks signals a state losing its head. Especially when the deaths occur
> > > when
> > > the police and paramilitaries fire live bullets on unarmed or stone
> pelting
> > > mobs. When stones, or unarmed bodies are met with ammunition, you know
> that
> > > the
> > > state has no respect whatsoever for bare life. That this should happen
> in a
> > > state that calls itself a democracy should make all of us who are its
> > > citizens
> > > reflect on how hollow 'democracy' feels to the mother or friend of a
> young
> > > boy
> > > or girl who is felled by a 'democratic' bullet.
> > >
> > > Protests in Delhi often have a routine, scripted quality. But this one
> was
> > > different. Professor S.A.R Geelani was level headed and dignified, as
> he
> > > spoke
> > > to the assembled, visibly upset young men and women, introduced each
> > > speaker in
> > > turn and appealed to people to stay calm, and not get provoked.
> > >
> > > I don't think that there has been a public gathering of young people
> from
> > > Kashmir in such numbers in Delhi, and the occasion had a cathartic,
> almost
> > > therapeutic character, as if the acknowledgment of each others presence
> > > could
> > > also make it possible for many amongst those gathered to say what
> needed to
> > > be
> > > said, loud and clear, in public, what they had only kept as a secret in
> > > their
> > > hearts.
> > >
> > > As a citizen of the Indian republic, I can only hang my head in shame
> at
> > > the
> > > venality of the state, and at how it openly sanctions the murder of
> > > Kashmiri
> > > men, women and children on the streets of the valley. Even a leading
> member
> > > of
> > > the Israeli military establishment (not known for their kindness
> towards
> > > occupied Palestinians) has recently admonished India's hard-line
> militarist
> > > mandarins in Kashmir on the appalling conditions that they administer
> in
> > > Kashmir.
> > >
> > > I stood in silence at the meeting. Listened to the slogans, the
> chanting,
> > > the
> > > statements, some made by friends like Sanjay Kak, others by people I do
> not
> > > know personally, but whose work and politics I have an interest in,
> even if
> > > I
> > > do not agree with, such as the poet and ex-political prisoner Varavara
> Rao.
> > > I
> > > met some old friends, talked quietly to strangers, and felt a momentary
> > > twinge
> > > of pride in Delhi, at least about the fact that so many of us were
> > > reclaiming a
> > > space on Jantar Mantar, for once to break the enormously deafening
> silence
> > > about
> > > Kashmir in a public and peaceful manner.
> > >
> > > There were different kinds of slogans that were heard. Some stressed
> the
> > > unity
> > > of all Kashmiris - be they Pandit, Muslim or Sikh. Occasionally, the
> air
> > > did
> > > reverberate with slogans that some might interpret as having a more
> > > secterian
> > > tinge - the 'Nara e Taqbeer - Allah o Akbar'.
> > >
> > > Many speakers, including Professor Geelani, and men and women people
> from
> > > the
> > > crowd, repeatedly made appeals not to 'communalize' the issue, and the
> same
> > > people who said, 'Allah o Akbar' also immediately switched to slogans
> > > emphasizing Kashmir's secular fabric, and called for Pandit-Muslim-Sikh
> > > unity
> > > in Kashmir.
> > >
> > > I did not feel perturbed by the airing of the 'Allah o Akbar' slogan,
> as I
> > > am
> > > not when I hear people say 'Vande Mataram' or indeed, 'Jai Shree Ram'.
> I am
> > > not
> > > a believer, and the fervent expression of belief on the part of those
> who
> > > do
> > > believe, neither enthuses, nor disturbs me. In each case, I am more
> > > interested
> > > in what lies behind the passion. And I believed that what lay behind
> the
> > > passion last evening, despite the anxiety on some of the faces in the
> > > crowd,
> > > was an appeal to the divine as the final arbiter of justice and peace
> in a
> > > deeply violent and unjust world. I can understand what motivates people
> to
> > > make
> > > that claim, even if I cannot make it myself, especially in a situation,
> > > where
> > > all appeals to mundane, worldly power, seem to have exhausted
> themselves. A
> > > situation where stones are met with bullets and grenades can make even
> the
> > > most
> > > sceptical of us lose faith in the grace of the mortals who rule,
> > > ultimately,
> > > only with the force of arms.
> > >
> > > Perhaps, not airing such slogans would have been tactically more
> > > intelligent.
> > > But I did not get the sense that those who had gathered in Jantar
> Mantar
> > > last
> > > evening had come to score intelligent and sophisticated political
> points.
> > > They
> > > had come to express their anger and their sadness, they had come to
> cease,
> > > for
> > > a brief moment, to be the anonymous, anxious Kashmiri in Delhi who is
> > > always
> > > worried about being labelled a 'terrorist' by a prejudiced neighbour, a
> > > callous
> > > policeman or a random stranger. They had come to be themselves, to
> mourn,
> > > and to
> > > tell the world of their mourning. I can only feel grateful that they
> could
> > > gather the courage to do this. There is an urgency, as Sanjay Kak
> reminded
> > > the
> > > gathering for forging an intelligent politics in response to what is
> going
> > > on
> > > in Kashmir, and that politics must not only rest on the engine of pain
> and
> > > anger. I totally agree with this, at the same time, I also know, that
> > > without
> > > an occasion like what we witnessed yesterday, when Kashmiris can openly
> > > express
> > > their anguish in the heart of India, it will not happen. I remain
> hopeful
> > > that
> > > it will.
> > >
> > > Some speakers, including Varavara Rao, Mohan Jha (from Delhi
> University, I
> > > hope I got his name right), Sanjay Kak, and a sikh gentleman from
> Amritsar
> > > whose name escapes me, spoke of the fact that there was a great deal of
> > > solidarity in India for the just demands of the Kashmiri people. The
> > > occasion
> > > did not, at any instance, degenerate into a vulgar clash of competing
> > > nationalisms.
> > >
> > > Outside the perimter of this protest, stood another - a small group of
> > > people
> > > associated with organizations that claim to represent the Kashmiri
> Pandit
> > > Diaspora, who were 'protesting' against the protest. I recognized a
> face in
> > > this crowd, I follow his self-righteous online outpourings quite
> regularly.
> > > Some of the speakers, including Mr. Geelani, alluded to them, saying
> that
> > > they
> > > shared in their pain, and even invited them to come and address the
> > > gathering.
> > > They however, remained aloof. Holding their placards, with their claim
> to
> > > monopoly of the pain and anguish of Kashmir. Ther stirred to life, when
> > > Sanjay
> > > Kak, spoke, heckling him, in a now familiar and churlish manner. I felt
> sad
> > > to
> > > see them, because they could make claim to suffering only as a means to
> > > divide
> > > people, not bring people together in solidarity.
> > >
> > > Just before I left, a young woman who had recently come to Delhi to
> study,
> > > spoke eloquently about what it means to have lost a childhood in
> Kashmir,
> > > to
> > > have seen brothers and friends shot. I do not know who she is, and I
> could
> > > not
> > > catch her name, perhaps it was 'Arshi', but I wished I could apologize
> to
> > > her
> > > personally, because I know that her childhood has been robbed by people
> > > speaking in the name of the state that claims my fealty.
> > >
> > > The occupation of Kashmir by India and Pakistan is an immoral and evil
> fact
> > > of
> > > our times. The sooner it ends, the better will it be for all of us in
> South
> > > Asia. True 'Azaadi' in Kashmir, for all its inhabitants, and for all
> those
> > > who
> > > have been displaced by more than twenty years of violence, can only
> help us
> > > all, in Srinagar, in Delhi, and elsewhere, to breathe more freely.
> > >
> > >
> > > _________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Rashneek Kher
> > http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
> > http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
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> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
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>
> _________________________________________
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