A Country That Is Torn By It’s Own Ethic War

Replace the word Islam with the word Hindutva,replace the word Pakistan with Hindustan,replace the sea of green flags with saffron ones and you have BJP's nightmare vision of an ideal India.Everywhere there were Pakistani flags,everywhere the cry,"Pakistan se rishta kya?La ilaha illa llah".What is our bond with Pakistan?There is no God but Allah."Azadi ka matlab kya? La ilaha illa llah".What does Freedom mean? There is no God but Allah.For somebody like myself,who is not muslim,that interpretation of freedom is hard – if not impossible – to understand.I asked a young woman whether freedom for Kashmir would not mean less freedom for her,as a woman.She shrugged and said,"What kind of freedom do we have now?The freedom to be raped by Indian soldiers?"Her reply silenced me.It's impossible to even doubt or ignore the deep Islamic uprising in the valley when one stands in the TRC grounds and sees the sea of green flags swarming in front of you.

As the crowd swelled and great number of supporters join in,one can stand there quietly and listen to the slogans,often rhetoric which clarify things and give us a deeper understanding.Here are some…………"Kashmir Ki Mandi! Rawalpindi!"(Kashmir's market-place – Rawalpindi), another was "Khooni Lakir Tod Do,Aar Par Jod Do"(Break The Blood-Soaked Line Of Control,let Kashmir be united again).There were plenty of insults and humiliation for India: "Ay jabiron ay zalimon,Kashmir hamara chhod do"(Oh oppressors,Oh wicked ones,get out of our Kashmir). "Jis Kashmir ko khoon se seencha,who Kashmir hamara hai" (The Kashmir we have irrigated with our blood,that Kashmir is ours!). But the slogan which can cut through any Indian like a knife was this one: "Nanga bhooka Hindustan,jaan se pyaara Pakistan".(Naked,starving India,More precious than life itself – Pakistan). Why is it so galling,so painful to listen to this?Maybe of three main reasons: Firstly,we know that part of the slogan is embarrassing and unadorned truth about India,which is an emerging superpower.Secondly,the Indians,who are not nanga or bhooka have been complicit in the complex and historical ways with the cruel cultural and economic systems which makes the whole system so unequal.And Thirdly,because it was painful to listen to people who have suffered so much themselves,mock others who suffer in different ways,but no less intensely,under the same oppressor.In that slogan I saw the seeds of how easily victims can become perpetrators.

Azadi!!!!!!!!!!: It’s The Only Thing Kashmiri Wants.Denial Is Delusion

It’s The Only Thing Kashmiri Wants.Denial Is Delusion

The well-endowed peace industry,speaking on people's behalf say "Kashmiris are tired of violence & want peace".What kind of peace they are willing to settle for was never clarified.Over the last two months,the carefully confected picture of an innocent people trapped between "two guns",both equally hated,has,pardon the pun,been shot to hell.A sudden twist of fate,an ill-conceived move over the transfer of 100 acres of state forest land to the Amaranth Shrine Board(which manages the annual hindu pilgrimage to a cave deep in the Kashmir Himalayas)suddenly became the equivalent of tossing a lit match into a barrel of petrol.Rightly or wrongly,the land transfer was viewed as the thin edge of the wedge.It triggered an apprehension that it was the beginning of an elaborate plan to build Israeli style settlements,and change the demography of the Valley.Days of massive protest forced the valley to shut down completely.

Eventually,taken completely by surprise at the ferocity of the response,the government revoked the land transfer. But,by then the land transfer had become what senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani called a "non-issue".Now,massive protests erupted in Jammu & it snowballed into something bigger.Hindus began to raise issues of neglect & discrimination which led to more protests & eventually led to the blockading of the Jammu-Srinagar Highway,the only link between Kashmir & India.yhe real blockade waxactually a psychological one.The last fragile link between India and Kashmir was all but snapped.And,to expect matters to end there was of course absurd.Hadn't anybody noticed that in Kashmir,even minor protests about civic issues like water and electricity inevitably turned into demands for azadi?To threaten them with mass starvation amounted to political suicide.

Raised in a playground of army camps,checkposts and bunkers, with screams from torture chambers for a soundtrack,the young generation has suddenly discovered the power of mass protest,and above all,the dignity of being able to straighten their shoulders and speak for themselves,represent themselves.The circumstances in Kashmir is hard for the spin doctors to fall back on the same old claim that it's the work of the Pakistan's Intelligence agency the "ISI".Well,I don't think it's the ISI this time.The one question which should be emphasized is "who is actually responsible for creating such a situation that it brings back memories of the partition of India,when millions lost their lives." Is it the Pakistani ISI, or the Al-Qaeda, or the Hurriyat leaders, or is it the Indian Government itself ????

"Freedom Rights" -Aren't These Words Too Stereotypic

Iam an Indian.Infact,a more sensitive indian who knows no caste,creed,or religion.I take India to be one country,but still we can hear cries in the valley of a state in India which had been oppressed under the military rule ,where people were killed mercilessly,women raped by the soldiers,a region which always faced political instability...........but still we call it "The Most Beautiful Place On Earth" ------- KASHMIR............Now,the country is facing a technical glitch which it had only imagined,never realising that some day the same would happen........................a MASS MOVEMENT in Kashmir.After 18 years of administering a military occupation,the Indian government's worst nightmare has come true.