[Reader-list] Kashmir as Living Hell by Giogiana Violante

[Pawan Durani]

Dear Rashneek ,

You are asking too much .

Have you forgotten that the post is shared on SARAI by Shuddha . He
definition of liberal and peace loving is yet to be incorporated in
Websters.

He does find time to be part of those meetings and shows , where
sedation & Islamist slogans are voiced [ nothing new for him ] .Recall
one recently at Jantar Mantar.

I do not recall him being a part of those Hindu minority of Kashmir
which have been protesting in Delhi since last 21 years .

He doesn't find anything wrong being part of those rallies , which
have large presence of JLKF foot soldiers.

For those who dont know JKLF ,  JKLF has done every trade in the book
which a terrorist organisation does.....right from hijacking of plane
, organizing training camps for budding terrorists , smuggling deadly
weapons into India , kidnapping and killing of civilians.

But then since it is Shuddha who has posted it , we must hail him for
a worthy article he has posted.

Hail Shuddha , .....Lage raho

Pawan

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 8:43 AM, rashneek kher <rashneek at gmail.com> wrote:
> Can someone educate her a little that there once lived half a million kafirs
> who were thrown out......by the peace loving oppressed masses and 20 years
> back there were no policemen here forget army and paramilitary...
> Ignorance is bliss
>
> On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 9:51 PM, Aditya Raj Baul <adityarajbaul at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Thank you for sharing this account. It makes you want to sing Sahir
>> Ludhianvi's words from the rooftops:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tH32hZxyfk
>>
>> http://www.hungamaforums.com/5189-jinhein-naaz-hai.html#post13472
>>
>> best,
>> Aditya Raj Baul
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 8:54 PM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta
>> <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
>> > Dear All,
>> >
>> > Here is an account of daily life nowadays,  in Srinagar, Kashmir, through
>> > the eyes of a woman student (a westerner) currently resident in Kashmir
>> > University.
>> >
>> > best
>> >
>> > Shuddha
>> >
>> > -------------------------
>> >
>> > India’s brutality has turned Kashmir into a living hell
>> >
>> >
>> http://www.thecommentfactory.com/indias-brutality-has-turned-kashmir-into-a-living-hell-3472/
>> >
>> > By Giogiana Violante
>> >
>> >
>> > This is the first time in weeks I have had access to the internet. I have
>> > not been allowed to receive or send text messages for three months. Just
>> > like all Kashmiris my telephone has been barred from such contact. The
>> local
>> > news channels have been banned. India controls everything here. And then
>> > kills it. The situation is horrific. Over these months of food rationing
>> and
>> > persistent curfew whereby all is closed and the streets totally deserted
>> in
>> > utter silence, suddenly a protest arises and then spreads throughout the
>> > whole city in a surge of frustrated and famished rioters shouting ‘AZADI
>> > AZADI AZADI’ (freedom) until it dissipates suddenly into a cacophony of
>> > gunshots and clouds of teargas.
>> >
>> > I observe all this going on at a  safe remove of only one metre by a big
>> > thick brick wall interrupted by the Mevlana Rumi gate to Kashmir
>> University,
>> > where I am residing. I see through the iron bars hordes upon hordes of
>> > protesters being shot at randomly, and I stand there repellently
>> incapable
>> > of doing anything. An endless cycle of silence and violence. The Indian
>> army
>> > own total control and freedom to shoot at will, to shoot to kill, anyone
>> > whom they choose to.
>> >
>> > Last week a seven year old child was beaten to death. You cannot
>> > accidentally beat a seven year old to death. It is not like a bullet that
>> > goes astray. I cannot see how a stone thrown by a seven year old child
>> can
>> > do sufficient damage to any man to warrant his being beaten to death.
>> > Children in this part of the world are tiny. A seven-year-old is the size
>> of
>> > a three year old westerner. So what kind of person beats a tiny child to
>> > death when his stone throw must carry so little force that it barely
>> > deserves a shrug? This is such a common occurrence here.
>> >
>> > The other day I left the university grounds to visit a professor only one
>> > minute away. True there is curfew but his house is in a private road
>> > attached to the university so I thought I would risk it. When I returned
>> a
>> > roofless sumo vehicle full of ten Indian army thugs laughing and shouting
>> > came charging through the street waving their batons and guns. They
>> headed
>> > for an old man and tried to hit him and then they knocked a 4-year-old
>> boy
>> > off his tricycle. For fun. He was only 50 centimetres outside his house’s
>> > garden so that hardly counts as disobeying the curfew and yet they
>> charged
>> > at him on purpose. They knocked him off the tricycle and then headed for
>> me,
>> > which as a western woman I did not expect.
>> >
>> > I am living here within the deserted university grounds, alone with the
>> > security guards and a few random professors and clerks. The university
>> was
>> > evacuated three months ago when the troubles commenced and the students
>> and
>> > school children all over the valley have experienced, as they always do,
>> a
>> > great void in their education.
>> >
>> > The Indian army gun down eleven-year-old girls banging on the doors of
>> > pharmacists when it is clear that their disobedience of the curfew is
>> purely
>> > out of desperation. How can a full grown man gun down and kill an
>> > eleven-yea- old girl banging on a pharmacy door in an empty street? A
>> woman
>> > kneeling on the pavement covering her face with her hands had her hands
>> > beaten to a pulp and they had to be amputated. Two weeks ago, on a
>> Friday, I
>> > heard the usual impassioned pleads for freedom hailing from Hazratbal
>> > Mosque, which is just outside the university. For an hour the calls of
>> > ‘Azadi’ escalated and escalated until suddenly I heard a spray of
>> gunshots.
>> > The shots continued sporadically over the next hour. I later found out
>> that
>> > the mosque was raided by the army and people were beaten severely. Some
>> > died, of course.
>> >
>> > The Indian army have the right and the freedom to behave like this,
>> invading
>> > places of worship simply because of impassioned calls for freedom by a
>> > people who are being totally crushed and obliterated. This sort of thing
>> > happens every day. Total abuse of power by the occupying forces. But the
>> > people of Kashmir have no right to retaliate. Nor the freedom to even
>> leave
>> > their homes. I cannot bear my complete and utter uselessness in this
>> > situation. As a rich westerner even I cannot get food. The other day
>> myself
>> > and seven boys shared two carrots between us and a handful of rice.
>> >
>> > So how can these Kashmiris be managing when they have not been able to
>> open
>> > their businesses for three months? How can they even have the money to
>> > afford food, even if there WAS food to be had from somewhere? You risk
>> your
>> > life in order to get food. How can you get food without leaving home?
>> > Yesterday a young boy working as a clerk in the university showed me his
>> > mauled arms and the gash in his thigh. His arms were black and purple
>> with
>> > crusted blood from last week. His legs were obscene. Flesh made hell.
>> >
>> > ‘I went to get medicine’ he said, ‘and the army caught me’. I smiled and
>> > said, ‘Oh you people are always getting caught on the way to get
>> medicine.
>> > Rubbish it was medicine. You went to get biscuits.’
>> >
>> > ‘Aren’t biscuits medicine?’ he replied, smiling the same smile as mine.
>> >
>> > Lat week as I circled the admittedly beautiful university grounds, a
>> forest
>> > of chinar trees and endless rows of roses in full bloom, moghul gardens
>> > outside every department (Why are these gardens perfectly tendered? Given
>> > the situation outside how do these people have the strength and hope to
>> even
>> > care to tend their gardens? Everything here is death and hopelessness. I
>> > would have expected the gardens to have been left to run to desolation),
>> I
>> > saw a thin little old man with a cotton bag full of lumps. Usually one
>> > doesn’t see bags. Certainly not ones with lumps in them. Not in these
>> > conditions. My mind viciously wondered how he got the food? Who he got it
>> > from? Had he bribed one of the army pigs at the university gates? I
>> suddenly
>> > realised I was frowning and in a very ugly-minded manner. The ugly things
>> > hunger does to a person’s mind is shocking. His bag was probably full of
>> > dirty laundry.
>> >
>> > Sometimes someone will address me angrily as I pass by, something along
>> the
>> > lines of:
>> >
>> > “Hey you, America! Why aren’t you helping us? You do something.”
>> >
>> > “What can I do?” I reply, “I’m neither a politician nor a journalist. I’m
>> > just trapped here like you.”
>> >
>> > “But you’re a Westener. You see how things are here. We have been living
>> > like this for twenty years. When you go back to your country you tell
>> them.
>> > You ask them why they aren’t helping us.”
>> >
>> > “It’s your own fault,” I reply. “Why should we bother saving your country
>> > when its got no natural resources worth raping? All you’ve got is apples,
>> > goats and saffron. You’re doomed.”
>> >
>> > A few seconds of silence will be followed by a warm invitation to tea.
>> > Muslim hospitality. At this time when every tea leaf is precious these
>> > people will share even their last few crumbs of powdered milk with you.
>> And
>> > you sit there sipping the tea wondering how and where they managed to
>> > procure it and how much it cost them in beatings.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Shuddhabrata Sengupta
>> > The Sarai Programme at CSDS
>> > Raqs Media Collective
>> > shuddha at sarai.net
>> > www.sarai.net
>> > www.raqsmediacollective.net
>> >
>> >
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>
>
>
> --
> Rashneek Kher
> http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
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