[Reader-list] Of kangris and shoes!

[Aditya Raj Baul]

Of kangris and shoes!
Kangri is a traditional Kashmiri weapon commonly used in winter while
the shoe is a symbol of disgrace in local parlance

M Ashraf
http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/of-kangris-and-shoes-537.aspx

Recently a senior columnist while commenting on the Independence Day
shoe-gate in Kashmir related the story of the throwing of a Kangri
(wicker covered earthen pot filled with burning charcoal traditionally
used in winter under the locally worn robe for warming) in 1963 on a
political leader which resulted in a major change in the political set
up of the state in mid sixties.

The incident had virtually wiped out a dynasty from the political
scene. The prominent members of the clan went into hiding for quite
sometime. The upheaval had resulted from the removal of the holy relic
from its place in the Hazratbal shrine. The eleven year long
suppression under Bakshi’s rule found a readymade outlet through the
holy relic agitation. The upsurge was spontaneous and throughout the
valley. The kangri incident on the old Amira Kadal Bridge resulted in
the burning down of the vehicle of Rashid Bakshi, a cousin of Bakshi
Ghulam Mohammad. The vehicle was thrown into the river Jhelum. Same
day Radio Station, Regal Cinema, and a number of other vehicles were
burnt down by the mobs. However, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ordered that
the peoples’ fury should not be restricted and they should be allowed
to vent their emotions through processions and public meetings. People
sat down in almost all major road crossings and lit huge log fires to
escape the winter chill. They were round the clock reciting holy
Quran. Community kitchens were set up and everybody was getting meals
on the roadside. The agitation continued almost for a month till the
holy relic was mysteriously placed back in its original location. The
loss and recovery of the holy relic is probably the biggest mystery of
the twentieth century? The movement kick started by the loss of holy
relic was very intelligently channelled by Lal Bahadur Shastri, who
had been deputed by Panditji to handle it, in collaboration with
Maulana Masoodi towards the demand for the release of Sheikh Abdullah
and the restoration of the right of self-determination. The movement
also threw up Moulvi Farooq as a new leader heading the Action
Committee. A new youth leadership was also thrown up due to the
participation of a large number of students. This leadership was
subsequently decimated by Sheikh Abdullah by labelling them as
Intelligence Bureau agents! He was scared of losing his hold on the
masses. The State got a new political set up headed by G M Sadiq, an
honest, upright politician with strong communist leanings. It was
probably the only clean government Kashmir has seen in the recent
history? He was totally liberal and progressive and very much
respected the educated and the intellectuals. Pandit Nehru had also
realised his mistake of betraying his friend Sheikh Abdullah and sent
him as an emissary to meet General Ayub Khan the then President of
Pakistan to work out a settlement of the Kashmir problem.
Unfortunately, Panditji’s demise disrupted the initiative. Pakistan
tried to take advantage of the mass upsurge in Kashmir and sent its
commandos to start an armed uprising. This venture failed as Kashmiris
were not mentally prepared for an armed struggle. The infiltration
resulted in an all out war. However, Kashmir tangle after a
destructive war still remained unresolved! Kangri which had been used
in this agitation has remained a weapon of choice for Kashmiri
agitators in winter. It is an equivalent of a Molotov cocktail easily
hidden under pheran (Kashmir robe)!

In contrast to Kangri, which according to the senior columnist is a
Kashmiri WMD, Shoe is symbolic of all types of disgrace in Kashmiri
parlance. Shoe called Pozar in Kashmiri is associated with the worst
form of insult and rebuke. Pozar wassin or pozar wallin in Kashmiri
means to be disgraced or to disgrace. If a person wants to disgrace
someone, he picks up a shoe and thrashes him with it. This method is
used often to express anger against someone by disgracing him with a
lowly shoe and is not meant so much to give physical harm. It is more
symbolic than substantive. In the present case of the shoe hurling on
the chief minister during the Indian Independence Day parade it was
not so much to insult and disgrace the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
but has been an attempt to highlight the mass unrest against India.
There could not have been a better opportunity than this to project
the event worldwide through the electronic media. In fact, that is
exactly what happened. The most important annual address of the prime
minister from the ramparts of the Red Fort went into background and
the shoe hurling on Omar Abdullah by a policeman shouting slogans for
freedom grabbed all the headlines. The event was more significant as
it represented a peaceful attempt to highlight the plight of Kashmiris
than some earlier attempts during the peak of militancy when rockets
were regularly fired against the parade from the neighbouring houses
and lanes into the stadium. Those incidents represented the militant
phase of the Kashmir’s uprising and the shoe hurling, which was in a
lighter vein praised by the chief minister himself, symbolises the new
form of peaceful protest. However, keeping in view some personal
qualities of Omar Abdullah one feels that he did not deserve to be
disgraced. Anger is right and one could direct it against him but not
disgrace! He had started with a clean slate as a young, upright, and
honest leader. People had great expectations from him. He had made
many promises during the election campaign. But he failed to fulfil
most of those promises especially the ones regarding the harrowing
behaviour of the security forces. He seemed to be caught in the
cobwebs of a coterie of mafia dons and his advisors did not give him
the correct advice! Delhi very cleverly used him to face all the brunt
which was actually directed against it. There is a difference in the
kangri hurling of early sixties and the shoe hurling of August 15 this
year. In the earlier case, the person concerned was a bully and
totally uncouth. The kangri was hurled at the start of the revolution
and swept away the whole lot. In the present shoe hurling, the person
is not so bad but what he has come to represent is reprehensible to
the common Kashmiri! Again the shoe was hurled in the present case
when the revolution is already at its peak and the government has
already been in a literal sense swept away and exists in name only!
There is an astonishing aspect. One is at a loss to differentiate
between the person who had an emotional outburst in the assembly
merely on a moral allegation and the present one coming on TV off and
on during the ongoing massacre of the Kashmiri youth. Are these two
faces of the same person? Difficult to imagine!