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

[Lalit Ambardar]

'Lies' can'nt be termed analogous with 'unfeigned cri de coeur'. Is this  'Stockholm  syndrome' ?

Next we should be watching the  Ms parroting on NDTV .

Rgds

LA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:42:58 +0530
> From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com
> To: shuddha at sarai.net; reader-list at sarai.net
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Kashmir as Living Hell by Giogiana Violante
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> _____
> > ____________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on
> > media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to
> > reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header.
> To
> > unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive:
> > <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> 
> 
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>