In Search of My Identity

‘He has got Indian passport but he does not look like an Indian.’

It was August 26, when I first arrived in Beijing. Beijing was busy welcoming guests from across the globe. Beijing was blooming and there was no reason why it should not have been, as China was hosting 2008 Olympic Games. Thousands of ordinary people thronged to Beijing to watch historic Olympic Games. One could see volunteers – trained and acclimatized with the foreign cultures – everywhere including airports, railway stations, highways, at all most all the commercial and tourist places - to help and do the interpretation for visitors. What added color to the Olympics in Beijing and made China proudest host was when their athletes won most of the gold medals. If 2001 formally opened China to the world market, 2008 opened gates of Chinese culture to the world culture and vice-versa.
When I arrived in Beijing, before I could come out of the airport, I faced a hard but truthful reality. At the immigration check despite the clearance, they asked me to wait. As Chinese was indeed alien for me till that time, I knew only one Chinese word Ni hao (hello), I could not understood the reason they stopped me. After waiting for 20 minutes, I started looking for an interpreter who could help me, what they are looking for, but I could not find one. All I could see, they were calling some people on the phone that made me scared. I thought they will arrest me for the reason I don’t know, or I will never know. Coming from the conflict hit Kashmir region, I could only imagine how people were arrested, killed, or disappeared during nineties, so I was just preparing my self for the same experience. I had a sigh of relief when I saw an Indian man talking to them and after waiting impatiently again for 20 minutes, they let me go. Though I got a bit of relief, but felt very perturbed why did they halt me here? So what was it; they were looking for? Why did they allow everybody to go and kept me waiting? What was the problem? These questions were hammering my mind, I rushed to see that an Indian man, to find out what were these officials looking for, after some minutes of search I could find him and ask him; can you please tell me: Why didn’t they allow me to go first? Why they asked me to wait for more than half an hour? What is the problem? … He smiled and said: they didn’t believe you are an Indian. They said, ‘he has got an Indian passport, but does not look like an Indian.’ This puzzled me and was the starting point when I realized that it is not only me, but people outside Indian boundaries too don’t accept me as an Indian. I remember when I was questioned at Amsterdam Airport in 2006 for the same reason. This was the time again I was forced to think ‘who am I? What is my identity?’ My passport calls me an Indian, but despite having Indian passport people don’t accept me as an Indian. From my classmates to other acquaintances from around the world, everybody know me as a Kashmiri, why so? It is not me only who would proudly love to be called as Kashmiri than Indian, but the people around me don’t accept me as an Indian either.
Chinese being predominantly Han ethnic group have little knowledge about religions. Yes, there is no doubt they know the major religions of the world, like: Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam. Christianity because of Christmas celebrations, which most of the Chinese love to celebrate, though most of them don’t know why they do so. Buddhism had an amicable impact on Chinese society, and Islam, as Muslims are the second largest minority here in China. There are around two hundred thousand Muslims living in China. Though the state does not recognize any religion, but I have not seen any restrictions on the practice of any religion here. Unlike most of the democratic countries, all most all the universities have separate restaurants for Muslim students, which offer Halhal and subsidized food. Finding Halhal food outside the universities is not difficult, either. Besides a number of Muslim restaurants, one can find packed Halhal food with Islamic organization stamp on it, in almost all the supermarkets in Beijing, and other cities of China.
When I arrived in Tsinghua University, the university I had never heard of before I applied for it .Tsinghua is among the top fifty universities in the world, with more than 30,000 undergrad and grad students, and around 5000 Ph. D. scholars indeed was unimaginable for me. It takes 30 minutes by bicycle to shutter from one department to other, and hard to explore whole campus even you spend whole day walking or riding bicycle. Joining (MID) Program in The School of Public Policy, which has 42 students from 32 nationalities; Teachers who been teaching or taught around the globe; The School where from Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair Bush, Sonia Gandhi, and Hillary Clinton, to the noble prize winners like Al Gore and Joseph Stieglitz have delivered lectures, has fascinated me in every respect.
Studying in Tsinghua is not only challenging for me in academic respect, but it also became more challenging for me owing to my Muslim identity. I have to answer questions posed by my fellow students and people around me on the issues related to Muslim world. Whether there is attack in Islamabad in Pakistan, or it is a discussion of American aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, or be politics, economy and social system in Muslim world. The most frequently of them asked is: Why Muslims become terrorists? Why women are not treated well in Muslims countries. These very questions forced me to read more about my religion, and Muslim world. Then came a unique, yet surprising and challenging opportunity for me, which nobody had got so for in post Cultural Revolution in China. I was asked to give presentation on Islam in the Tsinghua University, for which school provided official funds for arrangements. I couldn’t believe it, as if it was a dream. How can they allow me to do presentation on Islam? State does not recognize any religion here. Just I could not believe, nor did my friends. Then came the time to do presentation, I could see posters pasted on the school wall, presentation on Islam, teachers and students from other departments have been invited too to join the presentation. I was nervous and there was reason to be, as I had to do presentation on the most discussed religion in the world. When I did my presentation on Islam, it was again dominated by questions like, Terrorism, women’s rights in Islam, and problems faced by Muslim world. The important and relevant example of present Muslim world I could quote was Kashmir’s transition from armed moment to the non-violent moment. I was surprised, when one of my classmate from United Kingdom, during the question answer session stood up and said, ‘I am shameful for whatever is happening in Kashmir, as it is the creation of my country, UK.’
Over the last six months in Beijing I have faced very harsh realities of identity, am I an Indian, or a Kashmiri, if I am Muslim, I should be then a terrorist, an orthodox or an illiterate. What not. I don’t go to discos or bars, yet I know the history and culture of western world, I can speak in their language; I am as modern as they are, I speak more against terrorism than any non-Muslim. Yet they know ‘he is a Muslim; a threat for the world.’ This is not what they say me; this is what I always feel.
I was astonished to see Beijing as a clean city despite so populated and congested. When I was in Sweden in 2006, I was amazed to see the cleanliness there but when I came to China, I realized keeping Uppsala or Stockholm clean is not a difficult task, as the population of these Scandinavian cities is proportionately very less as compared to Beijing. From Starbucks to MacDonald, and jazz music Beijing has everything to offer. (Even) as a Muslim, it paved me chance to visit Chinas first and one of the world’s oldest mosque, Niujie Mosque, built in 996 AD. Masjids are a connecting force for people of the faith. It is Hidian Mosque, not far from Peking, and Tsinghua universities, which helps me to meet Muslim students from around the globe. But more impotently Hidian Mosque provided me the chance to meet cream of Pakistani scholars, who pursue their Ph.D. degrees in different universities in Beijing. Interacting and meeting with this influential Pakistani intelligentsia is something enriching. There are more than 30 Pakistani scholars pursuing PhD in Beijing, on HEC (higher education commission) scholarship of Pakistan. But recently a friend who belongs to other part of Kashmir told me that scholarship program has been now closed by the new government, which he perceived as a blow to the education system in Pakistan. After interacting with most of the Pakistani students, I realized none of them is in favor of independence of Kashmir. Yes all of them are against gun culture, they call it terrorism. I wonder when the same people are sent to Kashmir, how they become Mujahids. I was told a sizable number of them were criminals and thugs from many other countries, who had been given choice either to go jail, or Kashmir.
Amidst this networking, studying, and playing in a foreign country, I feel very safe, as safe as I have never been in my whole life. Here I don’t have to show my identity card, unlike my own land, where I cannot step out of my home without it. But here too the question of identity haunts me.
….Ends….

 
 
 
 

Muslims need ''Knowledge capital''; West understanding and tolerance

“Read! Recite! Proclaim! In the name of thy Lord and cherisher who created - created the human, out of a congealed clot of blood (a leach-like substance). Read and thy Lord is Most Bountiful. He who taught (the use of) the Pen- taught man that which he knew not (Holley Quran 96: 1-5).


The first revelation to the Prophet of Islam revealed by God was ‘to read’. God didn’t say fight, be clean, do charity, pray, but he said ‘read’. With the passage of time Mohammad (peace be upon him) stressed his followers to gain knowledge, he says “seek knowledge even unto China”. The importance of china in my understanding was in two contexts, one Chinese language was alien to Arabs and other Islamic world at that time besides being very far off place to the Arab world. And second was the knowledge capital of china that would have made it focus of Prophet, as China was advanced, even than western world, in knowledge at that time. The emphasis given on knowledge by Prophet of Islam motivated most of the Muslims to seek knowledge and to transfer this knowledge from generation to generation. Within the hundred years after the emergence of Islam, Muslims proved to be very educative and innovative.

The non-commercialization of education in Islamic world and the zeal to propagate this knowledge made Islamic world front runner and torch bearer of knowledge. When whole of the west was in Dark period, Islamic world was blooming with knowledge and prosperity. Muslim scholars contributed in almost all major fields of knowledge and innovations. The thirst of knowledge in the Muslim world gave birth to scholars like Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina, known as Avicinna, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, Al-Idrisi, Ibn al-Baitars who immensely contributed in the field of medicine and science, besides these scholars Muslim world created scholars like; Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, Ghiyath al-Din al Kashani, Umar Khayyam, Abu al-Hassan al Haitham and many others. They too proved to be masters and architects of the modern scientific fields of medicine, astronomy, physics, mathematics and social sciences like Sociology and History, of which example of Ibn khaldun is a ready reminder to everybody. Unfortunately we can not find names of these people anymore in our academic books and papers, as there legacy was not continued and their innovations were not patented, when Intellectual property law IPR was implemented. With the result western scholars adopted their innovation and patented them in their own name, as they did with the number of Chinese innovations like gun powder, printing press etc.

The knowledge capital of Muslim world could not sustain long, as the coming generation failed to preserve and work with it with the changing times. With the result after 13th century, influence of Muslim world in the field of knowledge and innovation started declining. Though the influence and contribution of Muslim scholars to this legacy remained for one more century, but after fifteenth century we could not see such innovations and rapid application of knowledge in the Islamic world. Despite the fact that in the medieval period three greatest Muslim Empires came to existence- Ottaman in Turkey, Safavid In Iran, and Mughal in Indian subcontinent. Still in modern time, we could not see much contribution in scientific knowledge by Islamic world. Why the greed of seeking and imparting knowledge declined in Muslim world? Why Muslim countries are far behind than non-Muslim countries in education, technology, and economic development? Why Muslim women are less educated than the non-Muslim women? Despite the fact, Islam gives equal rights to both male and female to seek education /knowledge. According to (Al-Bayhaqi), the Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) says, “It is obligatory for every Muslim – male or female – to acquire knowledge.” If Islam would not have allowed women to seek knowledge we would not have seen the wife of Prophet Mohammad (PBuh) - Aisha bente Abu Bakir, who had gained a tremendous knowledge of law, religion, literature and even medicine - guiding many sahaabi’s (companions of prophet Mohammad) after the death of Prophet Mohammad. But present day Muslim world has forgotten this.

The recent ban on girl education and demolition of Schools in the picturesque Swat valley in NWFP (North-Western Frontier Province) in Pakistan by Taliban is a new challenge which Muslim world is facing by its own people. Though national assembly of Pakistan later rejected the ban, Taliban’s second in command Mula Shah Duran ordered prohibition of girl’s education Calling it un-Islamic. One fails to understand which Islam he is talking of. As we have already seen din-i-illahi, din-i- Qadyani , and now we have dine–i-Talibani, which does everything except the things which Islam teaches. According to Washington Times, dated January 5, 2009, “Three years ago, more than 120,000 girls attended schools and colleges in the region (NWFP), which has a population of 1.8 million. Now only about 40,000 are enrolled”. The enrolment has effected because of the speeches of so called local religious demagogues against girl education. If the situation continues time is not far when we will find no girls in schools, and boys either in opium cultivation or in jihadi camps. If we go by Taliban means of education, then we have to confine girls inside homes and teach them to read Quran. What should these girls do, just to recite Quran-- which they don’t even understand as most of us in south Asia do-- is not enough to progress. If learning means to learn to read Quran only, than Prophet Mohammad (Pbuh) would not have asked his people seek knowledge even if you have to go China.

Muslims in the present world feel helplessness, vulnerability, frustration and reaction to their every action, whether sane or insane, with the result they either go for Jihad or come to the streets to protest. That only alienates them from the rest of the world. On the other hand America and other western countries that feel Muslim as the biggest threat, with the result they have been using force to eliminate a section of people who oppose American/western hegemony. The antagonism and hatred by western countries for Muslim world, going on from many centuries, is a creation of Christian Church who felt threat of Islam. This creation of hatred is still going on in western world despite their liberal education and thinking. Thanks to the American and western culture and so called modernism that has trapped and jaundiced their vision. If they would have kept, otherwise, eye on their history that could have led them to learn the truth about their past.

The second biggest challenge now, west and America feels, is ideological challenge. All the ideologies vanished, because of the influence of western ideology. Hindus, Buddhists, Communists, and other sects fell into the lap of west. Even the most politically and culturally rigid country; China follows all the footsteps of West. The culture, way of living, eating habits, and dressing in China goes western way; thus on cultural sector even China has fallen into their lap. Then ,there remains only one ideology which challenges western ideology, i.e Islamic ideology .this is the ideology which challenges western ideology and goes against the western way of life style. This way, it is Muslim world that become only challenging force for the western world. So there remain only two prominent ideologies: western ideology and Muslim ideology. Parallel force is always, and has been always, challenge unless it bows down its head and accepts the supremacy of the other. If you are not with us, you are against us. And the one who is against us has to accept our hegemony or face the music, that is the direct and indirect message of American and western world to the Muslim world.

At this important point of time, when a black African becomes president of USA, Taliban forces in Afghanistan are able to gain control, and America is loosing their “war on terror”. The humiliation of Bush in Iraq where he was given farewell with shoes, the Israeli attack on Palestine that lead to death of thousands of people and further strengthened the Hamas, one wonders where the world is heading. In one hand America and its allies have realized that they cannot defeat Muslim world with force, they need to negotiate and find a different strategy. One the other hand Muslim world is getting ray of hope after America’s shameful exist form Iraq, and their helplessness in Afghanistan. But what is Muslim world doing? Excluding one or two Muslims nations, USA and other Western countries control all most all the Muslim nations. That starts from the nuclear power Pakistan to the natural resource rich countries of Middle East. But, despite America’s indirect control on these governments, it could not control the emotion and loyalty of the people of these countries, who have started hating America and western world because of its anti-Muslim policies.

Despite having enough economic resources Muslim world could not establish a single world class university. This had a direct impact on the knowledge capital of Muslim world. Why can’t Muslims produce ibn Sina, and Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi like people now? Muslims in the world have enough resources, access to technology and knowledge; why still they are behind the west. If Muslims were masters of knowledge, why are they most illiterate and ignorant at this point? This ignorance and lack of knowledge keeps Muslims behind the world, especially the West. Why a community of 14 million Jews can maneuver things in the world, why not Muslims with more the 1 billion population. Muslims world need brains, not countless heads. Muslim uma in general and Ulemas in particular need to come out of there stereotypic notions about science, and encourage young generation -boys –girls to seek more and more scientific knowledge. If Muslims can not speed up and work in the field of knowledge which is imperative for the success of a nation, state, village and for the growth of an individual; they will remain where they are. On the other hand, if the west and America will not take Muslims seriously, the word of ‘jihad’ which has now become a household discussion may have an impact on every household.

Why People Defied Election Boycott Call In Jammu And Kashmir

By Ghulam Nabi

28 January, 2009
Countercurrents.org

Elections were held, voter turnout was exceptional, and the government is now formed. But the big question remained unanswered why did people vote this time. The large scale turnout surprised the pro-freedom leadership and pro-Indian parties as well as the state of Pakistan, and India. While the Indian state project the voter turnout in favor of Indian state, and the Kashmir based political parties including the ruling party believes this vote is for development, not for the resolution of Kashmir. New Delhi based news channels and news papers forgot their journalistic ethics which they often do, when it comes to the matter of projecting India as a biggest democracy, and Kashmir as an integral part of India. While some news papers and news channels projected the voter turn out as the defeat of separatist sentiment in Kashmir, while the others wrote Pakistan should stop now taking about Kashmir, as the kashmiris have shown faith on Indian democracy. Indian president in her address to the Nation on the eve of 60th Republic day of India also projected elections in Kashmir as the Kashmiri people’s faith on Indian polity. One wonders how she could forget the protests of hundreds of thousands of people in recent Amarnath controversy when people marched to the streets of Kashmir to demand for Aazadi (independence). On the other hand this was again the time when separatist like Mirvaiz Umar Farooq, first time confessed that the governance and resolution are two separate issues ,alas had separatist leadership realized it earlier we would not have lost hundreds of lives which were killed because they either contested election or casted their vote .

Unlike this election, Elections in Kashmir were either rigged like 1987, or people were forced to vote like 1996, 2002. But amidst this rigging and coercion we could not see a large voter turn out, than this election, why? I believe the resilience of militants not to use gun against the contestants and voters is the biggest reason for large scale voter turn out , as National conference president Farooq Abdullah said in a public debate on NDTV , that if Pakistan and militants had not restrained from attacking we would not have seen this large scale turn out . But at the same time we have seen people from Srinagar, and some other small towns observing complete boycott of elections. So does this mean only people from Srinagar and other small town which observed boycott want aazadi and rest don’t? I would argue with a big No, those who voted do not want to be part of India, as the ones who did not vote; their ends are same, but the means to reach that destination can be different. If we look at the press briefings and speeches of all mainstream parties during their election campaign, either they disassociate themselves with the resolution of Kashmir conflict, and fought the election on the name of governance or they projected themselves as the facilitators for the resolution of Kashmir dispute. In both ways mainstream parties tried their best to disassociate themselves from projecting the so called glory of Indian democracy which has been very much understood by Kashmiri people from last sixty years. However at the same time, regional/religious centric parties like BJP in Jammu and PDP in Kashmir managed to win more seats on the name of religion and region, thus lays the foundation of communal politics in Kashmir, which had failed so far to take its organized form.

History is witness to the fact that Kashmiris have fought against those who went against their wishes .be it towering leader of Kashmir; sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who was highly praised and respected by the people of Jammu and Kashmir, unlike any of the separatist or mainstream leader of present time, but when people understood he has compromised on Kashmir cause, they went to the extent of dig his corpse out of his grave in 1990’s. The 1990 arms movement created a new leadership who started ruling people, and some times went to the extent of giving judgments on family /community disputes. A section of this community later become part of Hurriyat conference, which virtually started ruling Kashmir. Hurriyat become biggest force after 1990. But the state elections in 1996 when National conference rule was enthroned on Kashmiri people, NC workers started reaching out to people, but Hurriyat’s power did not vanish with it, it played its role and become a parallel force till august 2008, when it again got a control on the mass movement. Thanks to the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir sate S .K Sinha who forced Aazad lead Congress and PDP coalition government to transfer land to the Amarnath shrine Board, which provoked kashmiris to fight back and get land allotment order revoked. Hurriyat tried to exploit this sentiment, and convert it into mass movement for independence, but the internal politics in both the sections of Hurriyat conference disappointed people and we lost the opportunity to negotiate with India. This was the second chance when India was ready to discuss any solution after 1990, and this time we had gained support from some sections of Indian civil society. Then came the election period, not only two factions of Hurriyat but Yaseen malik , and Sajad Lone who was earlier delinking elections in J&K with the resolution of Kashmir , lost his sanity and was swayed by August protests decided to launch anti election campaign. But they got in response what they had sown. This time they could not lure people for there false claims of bringing independence overnight. So the question arises, why people voted, if they were protesting against India and for aazadi just three months back? The answer is failure of institutionalization of movement.

Almost everybody in Kashmir knows, millions were being donated by people for the Kashmir cause, but the money went to the pockets of our separatist leader’s .For twenty years of resistance they failed to create even a single school, college, library, or hospital. Families of militants and other poor people always remained at the mercy of pro India parties. Even the deceased of august 2008 protests did not receive any monitory support from Hurriyat, except some meager amount of money and award from JKLF to some of the martyrs who were killed in Police firing. With the absence of alternative support, failure of Hurriyat and pro-freedom leadership to support needy ones, people chose what they felt is better for them. They voted, but not compromised their mission to fight for aazadi, thus they proved to be masters of negotiation, unlike our Hurriyat leaders who failed to understand the ground situation. History is testimony to the fact, that those people, who vote, are the same people who were part of 1990 and august 2008 mass movements. They are the people who face the brunt of army, police, and some times the harassments by militants. They fought for independence at every point, but they have been betrayed and disappointed at every time by our separatist leadership, yet they say they vote for development, not for India. At the same time mainstream parties succeeded in delinking elections with the resolution of Kashmir, and thus projected elections for the development and solution for local problems. Thus they succeeded in bringing people out to vote. This is the lesson for Hurriyat and pro-freedom leadership, they need to do introspection and chalk out a proper strategy to lead this movement to the logical conclusion. If they are not able to do it, it is better for them to get out of the way.

Sahibnabi@yahoo.co.in

Authorities relax curfew in Indian Kashmir: International Herald Tribune

By Sheikh Mushtaq Reuters
Published: August 28, 2008

SRINAGAR, India: Authorities tentatively relaxed a four-day curfew in Indian Kashmir on Thursday to allow people to buy essentials as residents ran short of food during massive protests against Indian rule.

At least 30 protesters have been killed by government forces over the past three weeks in some of the biggest pro-independence demonstrations since a revolt against New Delhi's rule broke out in Kashmir in 1989. More than 600 have been injured.

In Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, people swarmed grocery shops as authorities relaxed a curfew for more than an hour. The curfew was briefly relaxed at different times in different areas across much of the Kashmir Valley.

The latest deaths occurred on Wednesday, when troops shot protesters who police said defied a curfew and shouted pro-independence slogans. Two protesters were killed and more than a dozen wounded.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on Wednesday for the India government to show restraint and called for a probe into the recent killings.


"OHCHR calls on the Indian authorities and in particular security forces to respect the right to freedom of assembly and expression, and comply with international human rights principles in controlling the demonstrators," the OHCHR said in a statement.

First sparked by a land row over a Hindu shrine, the protests quickly transformed into rallies that galvanised pro-separatist groups after years of relative calm in the region.

The crisis has strained relations between India and Pakistan, which both claim the region in full but rule in parts, damaging a tentative peace process and raising fears Kashmir could again become a hotspot between the two nuclear rivals.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir since the armed revolt against New Delhi's rule broke out, but levels of violence had been falling in the past few years after the tentative peace process between India and Pakistan.

The conflict over the land also sparked large protests in the Hindu-majority region of Jammu, sparking fears of communal conflict gripping parts of the state of more than 10 million people previously less affected by violence.

"EXCESSIVE FORCE"

Indian troops have been criticised by Kashmiris and human rights groups for using excessive force, with reports that they have attacked journalists and ambulance drivers.

Authorities have blocked four local television news channels from broadcasting since Sunday and none of more than a dozen local newspapers have been able to publish for the past five days.

"They have stopped newspapers, local television and starved us," Mukhtar Ahmad, a carpet trader said. "They can't hold us at gun point for long."

Police have also detained four senior separatist leaders since Monday to defuse protests and raided the homes of dozens of others.

"Already reeling under the impact of an economic blockade the curfew has further accentuated the conditions and a humanitarian disaster is staring at our faces," Sajad Lone, a separatist leader, said in a statement.

The crisis began after the Kashmir government promised to give forest land to a Hindu trust that runs Amarnath, a cave shrine visited by Hindu pilgrims. Many Muslims were enraged.

The government then rescinded its decision, which in turn angered Hindus in Jammu who attacked lorries carrying supplies to the largely Muslim Kashmir Valley and blocked the region's highway, the only surface link with the rest of India.

Challenging the blockade, Kashmiris took to the streets.

In Jammu, mainly Hindu protest groups were due to hold talks with state government officials on Thursday evening.

"We are hopeful now," said Narinder Singh, a protest leader in Jammu, when asked about the chances of agreement with the state government over the land row.

Three suspected Muslim militants who slipped across the border from Pakistan into Indian Kashmir were shot dead by security forces after they killed six people in the Hindu-majority region of Jammu on Wednesday, police said.

(Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Alex Richardson)

Kashmir Rumbles, Rattling Old Rivals:The Newyork Times

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: August 21, 2008

SRINAGAR, Kashmir — Born and reared during the bloodiest years of insurgency and counterinsurgency, inheritors of rage, a new generation of young Kashmiris poured into the streets by the tens of thousands over the past several weeks, with stones in their fists and an old slogan on their lips: “Azadi,” or freedom, from India.

Kashmiri Muslims headed to a United Nations office in Srinagar on Monday to press their cause.

Their protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir were part of an unexpected outburst of discontent set off by a dispute over a 99-acre piece of land, which has for more than two months been stoked by both separatist leaders in Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hindu nationalists elsewhere in India.

Overnight, the unrest has threatened to breathe new life into the old and treacherous dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which is claimed by both nations and lies at the heart of 60 years of bitterness between them, including two wars.

Disastrously for the Indian government, Kashmir has burst onto center stage at a time of growing turmoil in the region — with the resignation this week of Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, who had sought to temper his country’s backing for anti-Indian militancy here.

Even though the two countries have been engaged in four years of peace talks, India has grown nervous that the disarray in Pakistan has left it with no negotiating partner. From New Delhi’s perspective, that power vacuum has allowed anti-Indian elements in Pakistan’s intelligence services and the militant groups they employ to pursue their agenda with renewed vigor.

Relations between the countries have become newly embittered as Indian and Pakistani forces have engaged in skirmishes across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between them for the first time in years.

Not least, India has blamed the Pakistani intelligence services for playing a hidden role in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan last month, a charge that Pakistan vehemently denies.

The latest unrest here has only added to the difficulties of renewed dialogue.

How long this agitation will continue depends on both India’s capacity to assuage Kashmiri separatist leaders, and their ability in turn to control the sudden eruption of rage among the young.

The largest, most intense demonstration in years took place on Monday, as tens of thousands of Kashmiris, mostly men, streamed into an open area in the city center to demand independence from India. They came in motorcycle cavalcades, and on the backs of trucks and buses.

A few waved Pakistani flags. Some shouted praise for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned Pakistan-based militant organization that India blames for a series of terrorist attacks in recent years. “India, your death will come,” they chanted. “Lashkar will come. Lashkar will come.”

By Tuesday, traffic had returned to the city, as the separatists called for a three-day suspension of the strike. Shops and cafes reopened. The pro-Pakistan graffiti had been covered up, as though it were again an ordinary day.

Another mass gathering, however, is planned for Friday at the martyrs’ cemetery, where two generations of those killed in the conflict are buried, with all the potential to become yet another flash point of conflict.

Again and again, Kashmiris from across the political spectrum said these scenes reminded them of the peak of the anti-Indian rebellion in the early 1990s, except at that time, separatist guerrillas, aided by Pakistan, openly roamed the streets with guns.

Nineteen years after that rebellion kicked off, the current demonstrations have pierced what seemed, perhaps deceptively to the Indian government, like a return of the ordinary here.

Earlier this year, tourists were flocking to Dal Lake in Kashmir. Buses were running twice monthly so that Kashmiris could visit their relatives across the de facto border in the Pakistan-controlled region of Kashmir. A bookshop opened for the first time in nearly two decades.

“Before the storm, there is always a calm,” a Kashmiri woman, Assabah Khan, 34, declared. “The uprising we see now is the latent anger against the Indian state that has erupted again.”

Narendra Nath Vohra, the governor of the Indian-controlled Kashmir state, compared life in Srinagar today to darkness at noon.

In the last few weeks, tourists all but disappeared. Schools and offices closed. The main city hospital was filled with Kashmiris shot and wounded by Indian security forces.

Mehmeet Syed, who only a few months ago could sing her heart out on stage with her five-piece rock band, remained caged in her home, as her city erupted in a series of fiery protests and strikes. On the road leading to the Syed family home, children guarded a homemade roadblock the other day, clutching stones.
On Monday, on the edges of an open field where tens of thousands had gathered to vent their anger at Indian rule, Abdul Gani Mir, 62, marveled at a young man who had scaled a chinar tree to plant a green Islamic flag.
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The New York Times

Amarnath, a Hindu shrine, figures in Kashmir’s unrest.
Related
Times Topics: Kashmir

Mr. Mir said being here filled him with hope. “We succumbed, but I don’t think this generation will,” he said, and then he chuckled. “I wish I were young.”

His niece was among 20 unarmed Kashmiri protesters killed by Indian security forces last week, as they set off on a march to Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Sheik Yasir Rouf, 27, said he had never before taken part in a demonstration so large, so intense. He was a child in the early 1990s, when the anti-Indian rebellion was at its peak. “This feeling was always there,” he said. “We are fighting for our one right to be free.”

“Sooner or later, this had to be,” insisted his friend, Shahid Rasool, also 27.

Mr. Rouf said he had spent 15 days in jail during his senior year in high school, accused of harboring militants. Mr. Rasool was picked up by security forces and interrogated all night; he was 16 years old.

The trouble in the valley began two months ago, quite unexpectedly, over 99 acres of state government land that, for decades, had been used by Hindu pilgrims on the route to a Himalayan shrine called Amarnath.

In May, the authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir authorized the panel that runs the pilgrimage site to put up “prefabricated structures” for pilgrims. The order enraged Muslims.

With state elections scheduled for this year, some politicians and separatist leaders pounced on the decision and declared it a bid to re-engineer the demography of Kashmir. Hard-line Islamists compared it to the Israeli occupation of Muslim holy lands.

The government soon rescinded the order, but nothing, as Governor Vohra pointed out, actually changed — Hindu pilgrims still used the land, and they still came this year in record numbers.

Nevertheless, the retraction of the original order enraged people in the Hindu-majority plains of Jammu, which is part of the same state. They, too, began agitating by the tens of thousands. And they, too, were goaded by politicians and hard-line leaders.

All told over the past two months, the protests here in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and counterprotests led by Hindu groups in the plains below, have left a death toll of nearly 40 in clashes with security forces.

The two sides remain at each other’s throats. Muslims in the valley allege that Indian troops have been quick to halt their protests, while letting Hindus in the plains carry on their agitation.

Hindu leaders in the plains were outraged that the government allowed anti-Indian separatists to march through the valley carrying Pakistani flags.

Many Indians regard the rebellious tableau in the valley as an unexpected affront. Kanwal Sibal, a retired diplomat, suggested in a livid column on Tuesday in Mail Today, an English-language newspaper, that unlike China with its Tibet policy, India has never sought to alter Kashmir’s Muslim-majority demography.

The latest fury, he suggested, “shows the failure, and perhaps the futility, of efforts to win the hearts and minds of the valley Kashmiris.”

Kashmiri public opinion is hardly uniformly anti-Indian, and the pro-Pakistan current is one among many. But distrust runs deep. Rumors travel and harden equally fast.

Muslims here complain that Indian security forces roam the streets, and they can recount at least one memory, usually more, of humiliation and fear.

“It is a volcano that has erupted,” Shad Salim Akhtar, 54, a doctor, said of the latest agitation.

That volcano kept Ms. Syed, the Kashmiri singer, at home. She had a video shoot scheduled for her new solo album; it has been postponed. Her father, Ahmad, a doctor was considering running in the elections this fall, but he is no longer sure.

Dr. Syed, 46, said he had just been getting used to the sense of the ordinary returning to his city. The guards at checkpoints were less aggressive than before. He did not worry much about his daughter’s concerts. “Three, four months ago, we thought, ‘It’s all over now, nothing to worry about,’ ” Dr. Syed said.

That is all over now, his daughter lamented. “Will that day come when we can move around freely?” she asked. “It is a dream.”

Amit Wanchoo, a Kashmiri Hindu and the leader of her band, Imersion, was also mostly staying home, leaving plenty of time to write new songs. One was dedicated to those killed last week.

“The sky is saying something, the air is saying something,” the lyrics went. “Where are my people, whom I met here?”

Yusuf Jameel contributed reporting.

Kisse Vakil Karen Kis se Munsifi Chahen :Greater kashmir

ALEE ANDRABI


Srinagar, Aug 18: The ‘discrimination’ debate has come to the fore, yet again. Taking the centre-stage in Jammu along with the Amarnath agitation, its misrepresented and clichéd tagline of ‘second class citizens’ has not only been restricted to the slogans of resurrected right wing netas and newsprint in Jammu but has found its way into the newsrooms of National media, gaining undue mileage across Bharat.
We are making an attempt to remove some mist around this discrimination debate. However, Greater Kashmir does not want to contribute to the agenda of hate, discord and divisive politics being run across Chenab. We just want to put the record straight and remove the myths of regional disparity. This is the first of a series of articles on the subject.
We start with the Judiciary. First things first, though. The Sachar Committee report on the Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India, commissioned by the Prime Minister, reveals important figures and information which would somewhat help in dispelling the distorted facts around discrimination in Jammu and Kashmir. We take the representation of Muslims in West Bengal Judiciary as an analogy to the judicial composition in our state. This makes sense because the composition of population in West Bengal is roughly opposite to that of Jammu & Kashmir. West Bengal has a population of 72.5 percent Hindus and 25.2 percent Muslims, whereas Jammu & Kashmir has 67 percent Muslim population and about 29.6 percent Hindus. In West Bengal judiciary the share of Muslims is 4.8 percent at the level of Sessions Judge and 3.2 per cent at the levels of Munsif. A comparison of these numbers with the Muslim representation in our judiciary will prick the bubble of the discrimination bogey.
Muslims and Kashmiris are hugely outnumbered in the superior and lower judiciary of Jammu and Kashmir, the only ‘Muslim majority’ state in India. Contrary to the bogus claims emanating from different quarters, the figures are surprising. Grave, on second thoughts. We have 10 High Court Judges. Only 3 happen to be Kashmiri Muslims. One a Kashmiri Pandit. Amongst the rest, 3 are Jammu Hindus and 3 outsiders, Hindu again. Well then, discrimination? Of course. But the other way around. Muslims with more than double the population of Hindus have been ‘made to’ stand on equal ground in the superior judiciary. Blatant discrimination. Exploitation. I hope these figures address the concerns of the self proclaimed ‘second class citizens’ up in arms against Kashmiri Muslims and gives them an ego boost. A much needed one.
Moving on to the Sessions Judges. 8 Kashmiri Pandits, 4 Jammu Muslims, 28 Jammu Non Muslims and 24 Kashmiri Muslims. The representation of Jammuites works out to 50 per cent. Compare that with the representation of West Bengal Muslims quoted above. With these figures, I can only be shocked as to how this blatant myth of discrimination of the Jammu population has been kept alive for so long and even gets coverage and endorsement across the ‘Breaking News’ bandwagon of modern day India. A commendable feat indeed. And to add to these disturbing figures, sixteen of the twenty four Muslim Judges of Kashmir are retiring in two years. It is all yours to play Jammuites!
Thanks to the recruitment during the past twenty years the lion’s share will literally belong to the ‘second class citizens’. Have a look at these staggering figures. In all there are 110 Sub Judges/ Munsifs out of which 79 are from Jammu, with 19 Muslims and 60 Non Muslims. This works out to 72 percent, compared to the 3.2 percent Muslim Munsifs in West Bengal! The participation of Kashmiris in the most vital judiciary is of course a pittance. Only 29 Kashmiri Muslim Sub Judges and 2 Kashmiri Pandits. This is not even discrimination, it looks like ethnic cleansing.
There is no doubt in my mind that Kashmiris got only what they deserved on the basis of comparative merit. But they don’t complain. Look who does!