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

[Aditya Raj Baul]

If that means you're accusing me of being Shivam, you're wrong. I'm
Aditya Raj Baul.

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com> wrote:
> Shivam  .... I miss your name ....
>
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 3:57 PM, SJabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
>> And you, who cowers behind a false name are still free to judge me, my
>> intentions and my deepest feelings, sir/madam.
>>
>> We are still unsure whether the 7 year-old was victim of a stampede or was
>> indeed brutally beaten. There are lots of people who gleefully dance on the
>> graves of 7 year olds and wait for the next victim so that they can howl
>> with righteous anger. I condemn all 64 deaths of civilians whether they were
>> accidental or intentional but I am not about to join a hysterical chorus to
>> prove I stand on some moral high ground.
>>
>> On 31/08/10 1:57 PM, "Aditya Raj Baul" <adityarajbaul at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Perhaps she's dependent on cyber-cafes?
>>
>> Stuff like this doesn't move Sonia
>>> Jabbar: "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."
>>
>> You are
>>> more concerned about blaming the strikes, protests and stone-pelting.
>>
>> You
>>> show your true colours again and again, Ms Jabbar. You change them
>> frequently
>>> but the true colours come out pretty often.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 1:42 PM,
>>> SJabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> This may come as a churlish response
>>> to what is obviously an unfeigned cri
>>> de coeur, but I find it difficult to
>>> let it pass without comment.
>>> With her very first sentence Ms. Violante
>>> condemns herself to hyperbole. She
>>> writes: " This is the first time in weeks
>>> I have had access to the
>>> internet."
>>>
>>> Why, where does she live?  I have
>>> been in touch with friends every single
>>> day over the net and when I was in
>>> Kashmir in the first week of August when
>>> violence had peaked, there was no
>>> question of being cut off from the rest of
>>> the world.
>>>
>>> To suggest that
>>> people are on the street because they are "famished
>>> rioters," and that the
>>> shutdowns over the past 2 months have nothing to do
>>> with the hartaal
>>> calendars and stone pelters and everything to do with
>>> curfew is not even
>>> something that those on the street demanding azadi would
>>> declare.
>>>
>>> The
>>> Indian army whom she accuses of all kinds of excesses these past 2
>>> months
>>> have held aloof from the present troubles.  Not one of the 64 deaths
>>> have
>>> been ascribed to them, but to the J&K Police and the CRPF.  Even a
>>> Kashmiri
>>> child knows the difference and if a foreigner doesn't, well, at
>>> least she
>>> can read the newspapers before attempting a hysterical analysis of
>>> a
>>> situation that needs no more hysteria.
>>>
>>> And 'Muslim' hospitality? As
>>> opposed to 'Hindu' security forces?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 30/08/10 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
>>>
>>> -------------------------
>>>
>>> India¹s
>>>> 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
>>> ŒAZADI AZADI
>>> AZADI¹ (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 house¹s 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
>>>> ŒAzadi¹
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> ŒI went to get
>>> medicine¹ he said, Œand the army caught me¹. I smiled
>>>>
>>> and said, ŒOh you
>>> people are always getting caught on the way to get
>>>>
>>> medicine. Rubbish it
>>> was medicine. You went to get biscuits.¹
>>>
>>> ŒAren¹t
>>>> biscuits medicine?¹ 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
>>> doesn¹t 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 person¹s 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:
>>>
>>> ³Hey you,
>>> America! Why aren¹t you helping us? You do
>>>> something.²
>>>
>>> ³What can I do?²
>>> I reply, ³I¹m neither a politician nor a
>>>> journalist.
>>> I¹m just trapped
>>> here like you.²
>>>
>>> ³But you¹re 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 aren¹t
>>>> helping us.²
>>>
>>>
>>> ³It¹s your own fault,² I reply. ³Why should we bother saving
>>>> your
>>> country
>>> when its got no natural resources worth raping? All you¹ve
>>>>
>>> got is apples,
>>> goats and saffron. You¹re doomed.²
>>>
>>> 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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