Aarti Tikoo Singh: I'm no more an outsider in Kashmir // Whats just and unjust?
NB: I post here two viewpoints on Kashmir from persons I know. The first is an opinion piece; the second by a student, whose permission I have to post his letter to me. DS
Like most Hindu and
Muslim shrine-goers in Kashmir, mother believed it. Every Thursday evening, she
would take us to the shrine, lift my sister and me in her arms so that our
hands could reach the shut window. As children, we gleefully knocked.
That was during and till the early 1980s when Kashmiris - Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs - prayed and lived peacefully in shared spaces. My father and his Muslim friends grew up at each other’s homes in the 1950s and 1960s. After my grandparents and parents, aapa and abbu, who performed namaz five times a day, were my guardians.
By the end of 1989, all of it had unraveled - the Pandit community’s most prolific writer and lawyer in the small town where we lived was shot dead; more than 20 Pandits were killed by the Pakistan-backed Islamist insurgents in Kashmir in a month. Muslims, especially girls from the community, were ordered to follow Islamic dress code. On the morning of the New Year 1990, the decree on our banishment from the Kashmir Valley was issued by JKLF on its letterhead and pasted on our gate.
That was during and till the early 1980s when Kashmiris - Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs - prayed and lived peacefully in shared spaces. My father and his Muslim friends grew up at each other’s homes in the 1950s and 1960s. After my grandparents and parents, aapa and abbu, who performed namaz five times a day, were my guardians.
By the end of 1989, all of it had unraveled - the Pandit community’s most prolific writer and lawyer in the small town where we lived was shot dead; more than 20 Pandits were killed by the Pakistan-backed Islamist insurgents in Kashmir in a month. Muslims, especially girls from the community, were ordered to follow Islamic dress code. On the morning of the New Year 1990, the decree on our banishment from the Kashmir Valley was issued by JKLF on its letterhead and pasted on our gate.
On January 19, 1990, hordes of separatists in mosques and streets blared communal slogans while evoking “Nizam-e-Mustafa”, “Pakistan” and “azadi” (from India)...Read more at:
RSS organisations in Dehradun force two colleges to say they won’t admit Kashmiris
What is to be Undone
Whats just and unjust? (A letter from a student)
Dear Sir,
I hope you are doing well. I am writing to you in the time of a great ongoing political turmoil which has in a way also generated an inner turmoil in me. I am currently home in Hyderabad, away from all my 'liberal' colleagues, spending time with my family which celebrates every sneeze Modi and Amit Shah make.
The 'constitutional' yet undemocratic means in which the annexation of Kashmir has happened, has left me distressed and thinking, unable to understand and take a stand as to what is just and unjust. Many of my friends, who in solidarity with our Kashmiri friends are raging with political opinions on social media. Parallels of "Israel-Palestine", "concentration camps", "mass genocide", are being seen in the social media circles of the Left. Our former VC's article called 'Blood and Betrayal' in The Indian Express also seems strongly-worded.
While display pictures in "blood red" with hashtags "Kashmir bleeds" have been going viral since the past two days before any violence has taken place, I cannot help but wonder as to what constitutes the people of Kashmir, who are "the people" which I am asked to stand for by showing my protest and solidarity? Needless to say, my thoughts and prayers are with all the civic life in the region which has been left dark and out of communication, and I hope that the play of violence is as minimal as possible.
But I can't seem to ignore few other Kashmiri Pandit friends who are jubilant and in overwhelming tears. In fact, even a distant friend in Ladakh has expressed great joy over their region becoming a UT. My grandfather's generation tells me stories of how they had seen the Razakars of Nizam loot their villages, molested women and children long before Hyderabad was annexed by the Indian State.
My mother's generation tells me of how Hyderabad has always seen communal sparks throughout its history while yet they have largely managed to live in harmony with Marwadis, Telugus, and Muslims. While I was in my junior college, I remember during the time of Telangana bifurcation, ABVP would come into our classrooms breaking tables, chairs, and tube lights calling off bandh. It was for 2 months that my college remained either closed or dysfunctional. Section 144 was imposed for many days during the riots. I say this is not to compare the issues and horrors which Kashmir has seen. But I believe fortunately or unfortunately, by some means, I have been exposed to many multiple realities.
While one side of my family, friends, and acquaintances are greatly overwhelmed at the revoking of Article 370 through unjust means, many of my 'liberal' colleagues, friends and acquaintances have taken to social media in identifying with a protest supporting the "Kashmiris". I am torn between the two and I can't seem to understand what they mean when people use the words "We" and "us" as "Kashmiris". Is there one definition of Kashmiri?
The solidarity which is running for the "Kashmiris" I feel is very narrow and not holistic, each posing itself as a Grand narrative of all Kashmiris. I am reminded of what you once said in the class regarding self-determination: "The idea of democracy is linked to the concept of identity. Demos is the term used for "the people". The slogan of self-determination carries the implicit presupposition that we know who the people are before we speak of their right to self-determination."
I believe to have taken extensive effort to read the complex history, politics, and philosophies associated with this issue, and I still can't seem to arrive at a judgment as to what is just and unjust. While I wish to communicate that any 'nationalism' or 'anti-nationalism' today only demands responsibility and empathy, I am unable to speak as the tyranny of being politically correct seems to me more totalitarian. Nietzsche once remarked that "All truths are bloody truths", I guess it is true. The truth I wish to speak today itself deceives me into standing on both the just and the unjust at the same time...
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