Kashmir is remembering Maqbool Bhat, the founding leader of the Kashmir Movement who was hanged by Indian authorities in Tihar Jail, under controversial circumstances on 11 February 1984 and buried there only. Ever since people of Kashmir have been demanding the return of the mortal remains of their Leader but Indian authorities seem to be so afraid of what Bhat stood for that they can't even afford his dead body to leave Tihar Jail, thus making him an eternal prisoner of Indian Democracy.
Kashmir has transformed from a solvable dispute into a sort of Hilbert's Problem. For the achievement of this feat the credit must be given to the Leaders (Indian, Pakistani & Kashmiri). The dilemma of the forgotten conflict ( Kashmir) is that it is one of the least represented conflicts and yet every Tom, Dick, Harry presents himself as the well wisher of the godforsaken people of Kashmir. With time the three parties of the conflict have added many sub groups and each group having its own point of view of the conflict. Thus there no more are only three parties to conflict (in a micro sense), this has only complicated the issue.
From time to time, need for unification of Kashmiri Leadership has been felt. And on days like today (Maqbool Bhat Day) the topic of Kashmiri Leadership becomes talk of the town. People of Kashmir know the importance and value of leadership, but still Kashmir is divided, Kashmiri Leadership is divided. After Shaikh Abdullah Kashmir has not seen a Leader who could unify people behind him like he did, people followed him with an unwavering belief (what he did with that belief, lets not discuss it right now). Since then Kashmir is waiting for its leader.
Why has the wait been eternal? For that, in addition to socio-political, the mental (Psychological) status of Kashmiri's needs to be into account. The people of Kashmir have seen some great betrayals. Many a times the hopes of the people have been raised sky high only to be smashed. These betrayals have made people apprehensive of the every person who presents himself as their Savior. Kashmiri's have evolved to believe that for them to survive they have to trust none. Such an environment put extra pressure on the genuine people and at times the pressure & scrutiny is so intense that people find it feasible to bail out mid way rather than carry on. Public seems to be only waiting for any flimsy issue to raise it head and it is good enough reason for them declare him/her a traitor. So under such condition; where people are afraid of another betrayal, another sellout, the wait is meant to be eternal unless for any divine intervention!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Kashmir A Fire Ball In The Making!
From time to time in history there has been a call raised by people who cared (or seemed to care) for Culture, Architecture, Language and even Religion. The call has always been, “back to basics”. This call can be heard in Kashmir these day’s, in fact the tone of the call is too aggressive to qualify to be called a “Call”.
Kashmir has always presented itself as a place where religious tolerance is taken seriously, even Mahatma Gandhi accepted this when during partition riots he said that he saw the only ray of hope coming from Kashmir.
During Ramadan this year I was in Kashmir after a long duration of almost five years. When Iftar time (time for breaking fast) came I realized a lot had changed since the last time I was here during Ramadan. I was confused about when I was supposed to break my fast, on hearing which azaan (call for prayer) was I supposed to allow my lips to touch first drops of water for the day. Later I was to discover that this was just the tip of the ice-berg. The whole Kashmiri society was subtly in conflict with itself or to put it more appropriately, it is in conflict with a younger self (the generation-next, mostly).
Kashmir has been centre or hub of Suffism for centuries (most refer to suffism as the moderate form of Islam), it has had its effects on how the people of the valley perceive & practice Islam. There are certain practices [like Duaye Subuh; special morning prayer supplement etc.] prevalent in Kashmir which can not be found in any part of the world. All (majority of) such practices can be traced to some suffi saint. Now the new generation (a sizeable number & growing continuously) with all the worldly knowledge at its fingertips, thanks to internet and other technologies, is kind of rebelling against all these practices and are even declaring these un-Islamic. This has created kind of rift among the old and young. Old people are of the opinion that the younger generation doesn’t respect them or the suffi saints and the younger generation feels that the older generations were sheer ignorant with little or no religious knowledge, what ever they had been practicing for ages is un-Islamic. Thus leading a call for back to basics from these energetic young people, so as to correct all that has been going wrong.
People who are well versed with Islamic history know that this is not something absolutely new, from time to time there have been similar calls but the only thing that seems to have changed are the people and their way of approach. The religious scholars of the earlier times would bring the conflicting parties together at a single platform and try to discuss the problem, if possible hammer out a compromise (that is how the Sunni's became the largest firqa/ sect amongst Muslims). currently in Kashmir with this conflict raging on subtly (for now), are there any scholars or intellectuals of such intellect and caliber who can facilitate this discussion in a proper and appropriate way, so as to stop the intoxication of young minds with hatred against fellow Muslim brothers and avoid a blood bath in future (as we are seeing happening in Pakistan on daily basis; bombings of mosques and other religious places).
With no one seemingly concerned about this, thus avoiding acceptance of existence of a problem in society, the future doesn’t seem to be too bright. We can only hope that the scholars and intellectuals realize the gravity of the situation and decide to address it other wise the ray of hope which had given Ghandi hope, may be soon turned in to a big fire ball!!!!
Kashmir has always presented itself as a place where religious tolerance is taken seriously, even Mahatma Gandhi accepted this when during partition riots he said that he saw the only ray of hope coming from Kashmir.
During Ramadan this year I was in Kashmir after a long duration of almost five years. When Iftar time (time for breaking fast) came I realized a lot had changed since the last time I was here during Ramadan. I was confused about when I was supposed to break my fast, on hearing which azaan (call for prayer) was I supposed to allow my lips to touch first drops of water for the day. Later I was to discover that this was just the tip of the ice-berg. The whole Kashmiri society was subtly in conflict with itself or to put it more appropriately, it is in conflict with a younger self (the generation-next, mostly).
Kashmir has been centre or hub of Suffism for centuries (most refer to suffism as the moderate form of Islam), it has had its effects on how the people of the valley perceive & practice Islam. There are certain practices [like Duaye Subuh; special morning prayer supplement etc.] prevalent in Kashmir which can not be found in any part of the world. All (majority of) such practices can be traced to some suffi saint. Now the new generation (a sizeable number & growing continuously) with all the worldly knowledge at its fingertips, thanks to internet and other technologies, is kind of rebelling against all these practices and are even declaring these un-Islamic. This has created kind of rift among the old and young. Old people are of the opinion that the younger generation doesn’t respect them or the suffi saints and the younger generation feels that the older generations were sheer ignorant with little or no religious knowledge, what ever they had been practicing for ages is un-Islamic. Thus leading a call for back to basics from these energetic young people, so as to correct all that has been going wrong.
People who are well versed with Islamic history know that this is not something absolutely new, from time to time there have been similar calls but the only thing that seems to have changed are the people and their way of approach. The religious scholars of the earlier times would bring the conflicting parties together at a single platform and try to discuss the problem, if possible hammer out a compromise (that is how the Sunni's became the largest firqa/ sect amongst Muslims). currently in Kashmir with this conflict raging on subtly (for now), are there any scholars or intellectuals of such intellect and caliber who can facilitate this discussion in a proper and appropriate way, so as to stop the intoxication of young minds with hatred against fellow Muslim brothers and avoid a blood bath in future (as we are seeing happening in Pakistan on daily basis; bombings of mosques and other religious places).
With no one seemingly concerned about this, thus avoiding acceptance of existence of a problem in society, the future doesn’t seem to be too bright. We can only hope that the scholars and intellectuals realize the gravity of the situation and decide to address it other wise the ray of hope which had given Ghandi hope, may be soon turned in to a big fire ball!!!!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
A Country where Chetan Bhagat is known as a writer
Strange how in a country there are people who consider Chetan Bhagat (1) an extremely good writer and at the same time there are others who wouldn’t even trust him with dictation. Such is the country and such are its extremes.
The country boasts of its diversity. Diversity in weather, which goes from freezing cold (almost -50 degrees) to frying heat (above 50 degrees)! Diversity in topography & geography (has Deserts, green meadows & even snow clad mountains). It has Diversity in Culture, Diversity in language, and diversity of Religion. The diversities are so intense and diverse that if you travel in any direction, it seems as if you are watching a non stop marathon show, with artists wearing colorful dresses, speaking varied array of languages. In short I can say you are in for an entertaining and enthralling ride.
But still it is the same country where Minorities are confused whether they are followers of an independent and unique religion or their religion is just an offshoot of what the majority follows, thus they end doing what every body else is doing & celebrating what every one else is celebrating (2). Recently a leader of a political party publicly called for Muslims to be made to proudly pronounce their Hindu linage otherwise not to be allowed to vote in elections! (3) It is country which is a regional (somewhat international) economic power & strong contender for permanent seat at UN security council and at the same time the condition of women is appalling, second only to Afghanistan! (4) The country has more than couple of people who figure in the list of worlds richest people and still we find farmers who can not make ends meet and thus are forced to put an end to their lives only. It is country with Freedom of speech as one of the six fundamentals rights granted by constitution, countless news channels and news papers seem to validate this and still it is the same country where a whole region is blocked unlawfully for more than 100 days and no one bother to report (5). It is country where a newly born baby girl in the family of super stars (Actors) makes headlines and trends on twitter but discovery of mass graves in a disputed part of the country doesn’t raise any eyebrows forget about getting covered in mainstream media (6).
What else do I need to say than that it is a country where Chetan Bhagat is known as a writer and it is the same country where another writer raises her voice against government and its modus operandi she is declared a traitor and ant-national(7). Once it was this country only that lead the Non-Alignment movement and now its foreign policy lacks vision and spine. That is India shining for you my dear friends and sold to you as Incredible India.
___________________________________________________________________
Note:-
1. Would like to clarify that I am not trying to pass any judgment regarding the writing skills of Chetan Bhagat, in fact have never read him. Used him as an example only due to the extremely different (apposite) emotions that mere mention of his name induces people to express.
2. Until Chandragupta’s reign (of Gupta dynasty) Hinduism (religion of majority) did not have idol worship. One more thing to take notice of is that during that period the more favored religions where Buddhism & Jainism and these continued to grow stronger and stronger because of their simple teachings. So as to counter this growth Chandragupta introduced idol worshiped and many scripture (which Hindus hold pious) were written or edited. Both the founders of Buddhism and Jainism wanted to take their followers as away from Hinduism as possible so the question of these being two religions being off shoots of Hinduism doesn’t arise. Same applies to Sikhism.
3. Dr.Subramanian Swamy (the party president of Janta Party) had made these comments in a very inflammatory write-up an open-ed in DNA news paper, which even made minority commission to send him a notice. The write-up was so inflammatory that Harvard chose not to renew his contract as visiting faculty.
4. A recent report on woman welfare ranked India just above Afghanistan.
5. The state of Manipur had to face road blockage for more than 100 days which led to commodities prices sky rocketing, shortage of essential supplies thus endangering lives.
6. In Jammu & Kashmir recently about 3000 mass graves were found and there is certainty that these number are going to increase, Human Rights groups are calling for international impartial probe but the government is hiding behind one after other smokescreens. What was more appalling was the way the media took the whole incident, as if nothing had happened. And the same media went gung ho over the coverage of birth of Abishek & Ashwariya Bachan’s daughter.
7. Miss Arundhati Roy was poster lady of India till she began asking uncomfortable questions and thus became anti-national
The country boasts of its diversity. Diversity in weather, which goes from freezing cold (almost -50 degrees) to frying heat (above 50 degrees)! Diversity in topography & geography (has Deserts, green meadows & even snow clad mountains). It has Diversity in Culture, Diversity in language, and diversity of Religion. The diversities are so intense and diverse that if you travel in any direction, it seems as if you are watching a non stop marathon show, with artists wearing colorful dresses, speaking varied array of languages. In short I can say you are in for an entertaining and enthralling ride.
But still it is the same country where Minorities are confused whether they are followers of an independent and unique religion or their religion is just an offshoot of what the majority follows, thus they end doing what every body else is doing & celebrating what every one else is celebrating (2). Recently a leader of a political party publicly called for Muslims to be made to proudly pronounce their Hindu linage otherwise not to be allowed to vote in elections! (3) It is country which is a regional (somewhat international) economic power & strong contender for permanent seat at UN security council and at the same time the condition of women is appalling, second only to Afghanistan! (4) The country has more than couple of people who figure in the list of worlds richest people and still we find farmers who can not make ends meet and thus are forced to put an end to their lives only. It is country with Freedom of speech as one of the six fundamentals rights granted by constitution, countless news channels and news papers seem to validate this and still it is the same country where a whole region is blocked unlawfully for more than 100 days and no one bother to report (5). It is country where a newly born baby girl in the family of super stars (Actors) makes headlines and trends on twitter but discovery of mass graves in a disputed part of the country doesn’t raise any eyebrows forget about getting covered in mainstream media (6).
What else do I need to say than that it is a country where Chetan Bhagat is known as a writer and it is the same country where another writer raises her voice against government and its modus operandi she is declared a traitor and ant-national(7). Once it was this country only that lead the Non-Alignment movement and now its foreign policy lacks vision and spine. That is India shining for you my dear friends and sold to you as Incredible India.
___________________________________________________________________
Note:-
1. Would like to clarify that I am not trying to pass any judgment regarding the writing skills of Chetan Bhagat, in fact have never read him. Used him as an example only due to the extremely different (apposite) emotions that mere mention of his name induces people to express.
2. Until Chandragupta’s reign (of Gupta dynasty) Hinduism (religion of majority) did not have idol worship. One more thing to take notice of is that during that period the more favored religions where Buddhism & Jainism and these continued to grow stronger and stronger because of their simple teachings. So as to counter this growth Chandragupta introduced idol worshiped and many scripture (which Hindus hold pious) were written or edited. Both the founders of Buddhism and Jainism wanted to take their followers as away from Hinduism as possible so the question of these being two religions being off shoots of Hinduism doesn’t arise. Same applies to Sikhism.
3. Dr.Subramanian Swamy (the party president of Janta Party) had made these comments in a very inflammatory write-up an open-ed in DNA news paper, which even made minority commission to send him a notice. The write-up was so inflammatory that Harvard chose not to renew his contract as visiting faculty.
4. A recent report on woman welfare ranked India just above Afghanistan.
5. The state of Manipur had to face road blockage for more than 100 days which led to commodities prices sky rocketing, shortage of essential supplies thus endangering lives.
6. In Jammu & Kashmir recently about 3000 mass graves were found and there is certainty that these number are going to increase, Human Rights groups are calling for international impartial probe but the government is hiding behind one after other smokescreens. What was more appalling was the way the media took the whole incident, as if nothing had happened. And the same media went gung ho over the coverage of birth of Abishek & Ashwariya Bachan’s daughter.
7. Miss Arundhati Roy was poster lady of India till she began asking uncomfortable questions and thus became anti-national
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