[Reader-list] Half stories, half truths about Kashmir: Pradeep Magazine

[Aditya Raj Baul]

Half stories, half truths about Kashmir

by Pradeep Magazine

Hindustan Times
October 27, 2010
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Half-stories-half-truths-about-Kashmir/Article1-618673.aspx



Sanjay Kak is a Kashmiri Pandit who has made an evocative documentary,
Jashn-e-Azadi, which captures various forms of protests in the Valley
and traces the deep sense of alienation of Muslims. The word azadi, in
that film, acquires a meaning far deeper than just freedom or
secession. The concept of azadi is so entrenched in the Kashmiri
Muslim consciousness that neither State largesse nor repression can
restore peace to the valley, if their struggle isn’t understood in
human terms.

Kak’s documentary also brings out the angst of Kashmiri Pandits, their
longing for a home from which they’ve been uprooted. A few years ago,
I watched this disturbing human drama and, as a Pandit myself, admired
Kak’s courage in confronting vested interests, including his own
community. As we came out of the theatre, a relative of mine lamented,
“I feel guilty".

This guilt did not arise, as mine did, from the realisation that the
Kashmir issue is not a religious-fundamentalist movement, as the
Indian state portrays. He, instead, felt that “by watching the film he
was endorsing the outrageous, misleading propaganda his own community
member (Kak) was spreading.” Kashmiri Pandit activists have prevented
the screening of Kak’s film in Delhi through protests you can’t call
peaceful.

This preamble is to put in perspective the story about last week’s
seminar, ‘Azadi, the only way’, which has spawned many versions, each
wildly different in its perception of what transpired. Syed Ali Shah
Geelani’s call for azadi there has outraged Indians; they want him and
Arundhati Roy — whom the middle class hates as much as V P Singh for
his Mandal experiment — to be tried for sedition.

As a witness to the event, I must admit that the 400-strong audience,
comprising mostly young Kashmiris, erupted in frenzied applause every
time a speaker referred to the oppression by the Indian state in
Kashmir. There were speakers from the ultra left too, who underlined
the brutal suppression of just mass struggles across India. Their
speeches were equally anti-State, but they weren’t hate speeches nor
did they advocate violence.

In this charged atmosphere, the problem began when Roy began to speak.
She was heckled, for ignoring the injustices against Kashmiri Hindus,
as she blasted the Indian State. The taunts of the hecklers, numbering
just a dozen, were drowned in the thunderous applause of the majority,
which wanted the seminar to continue.

A brief pause later, Roy raised some pertinent points for the
separatists to ponder. She argued that the Kashmiris should join
protest movements against injustices all across India and not care
only about their own cause. She also demanded to know what kind of
state the separatists envisage — whether the minorities, like the
Pandits, would have equal rights and made to feel a sense of belonging
in Kashmir, unlike now.

As the crowd lapped up each word Roy spoke, I felt proud that our
democracy has become mature enough to allow leaders of radical
movements to express themselves in the very heart of India. But my
pride ebbed when Geelani began to speak — a handful of protesters
began to raise cries of Bharat Mata ki jai, unfurl the tricolour and
make threatening advances towards the stage. They were asked to listen
peacefully or leave. Ultimately, the police escorted them out.

Geelani, the ‘incorrigible hawk’, appealed to India to talk to
Kashmiris in the language of insaniyat. Responding to Roy’s query, he
said an independent Kashmir will grant equal rights to all. He
reiterated his demand for a referendum in the undivided J&K, promising
to abide by the verdict, even if it went in India’s favour. He
expressed hope of India becoming a superpower, outstripping even the
US and China.

This was what I heard and saw. But the story in the media was quiet
different — there was only the heckling and humiliation of Geelani and
Arundhati Roy.

That the Kashmir story has an alternative narrative, which Kak’s
Jashn-e-Azadi depicts and the seminar in Delhi fleetingly touched
upon, needs to be told to India’s masses without hecklers hijacking
the agenda.