Burning Kashmir : When The State Goes Against The Masses

This is an article that I had been asked to submit for an independent activists association based in Kolkata.The entire paper consisting of four other articles each by a different activist will be up on the blog soon.

In his well known essay 'What is a Nation?' that was written with the then arousing French nationalism at its core,Ernest Renan was perhaps one of the first philosophers to come up with a convincing definition of a nation and the grave errors one can create while demarcating a country and a nation.He was one of the first to perceive that a nation is not demarcated with barbed wire but an incandescent warmth that one feels while being able to constitute unity.A nation is not merely a subject of administration and jurisdiction.A nation,very often,is anti-monarchy,it's a body consisting of the flora and fauna,all that there is in a geopolitical territory,bound at heart because the population is willing,at the first place.


A nation is but a culmination of ideas of the individual as well as that of the collective unit that consists of the individual.A nation comes to be a nation while fighting obnoxious forces that suppresses its culture,its people and thus - its life.A nation is the art of belonging to and belonging with merged all along.The moment the culture is anti-cultured,the moment the people strewn and dispersed,the nation looses its existence.


As Amir Khusrao had put it - “Agar firdous baroye zameen ast, hami asto, hami asto hami ast” ; "If there has to be heaven on earth,then it is here,it's here and only here."In the eternal realm of beauty exists the elegance of Kashmir - ornamented by the Himalayas and embellished with the amazing landscape of lakes and snow-covered valleys that regain there greenery faithfully every spring,Kashmir has to be entitled heaven on earth.Kashmir is blessed with the geographical ability of producing the best quality Cashmere and Saffron and a marvelous landscaping capable enough  of attracting millions of tourists every year.But appearances can then again,be far more real than apparent perception and thus deceptive.

The problem began as the British started occupying the country (i.e.,the nation that was still being developed back then).Kashmir was a Muslim dominated area with a Hindu king,Raja Hari Singh - who refused to form any other coalition and wanted to emerge as an independent ruler.But that only instigated tribal attacks by the then Pakistan side,clearly denoting foreign exploitation over indigenous exploitation of the indigenous Muslims who are and have always been the real inhabitants of Kashmir.The first overtly enthusiastic Prime Minister of India was bubbling with energy to accelerate the process of intertwining the states of India into liquid utopia of a dreamy fairyland.That as expected,did never materialise.Gradually,as Raja Hari Singh lost power and was dethroned despite his claims of being "a nationalist first and then a Maharaja",Nehru began vesting interests in his then political mate,Sheikh Abdullah,the emerging leader in Kashmir with a large following amidst the core of the Muslim indigenous population.But over time,when even Abdullah started preparing for a new,independent Kashmir,Nehru jailed him,turned down chances of any possibilities of holding a plebiscite and went to the UN.The dreamer who rested in the energetic soul of the first prime minister of India nonetheless began exhibiting uncanny interests in conforming to imperialism.The result,of course,is the price that the innocent civilians are paying now - in blood and bone marrow.The blindfold being religion,the truth is hidden in Potassium Nitrate and the White House.


And ammending the old saying to a limited,licit extent - the twenty first century is ready to explain to you how very viable everything is in war (often viability coinciding with possibility).What cop brutality is in the States today is what AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Power Act ; enacted and readily put to (ab)use in 1958)  stands for in India,especially in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states.On top of the dangerous game of death that one has to consider a random choice,for which he insures with the ransom of his own life follows the brutal torture than AFSPA has continued for nearly six decades now.Despite the huge number of rape,other forms of sexual torture,arrest and subsequent torment without a proper warrant or even complaint,the Indian government is busy ratifying in the minds of the Hindu majority the idea of a nation - a pro-Hindu,pro-violence,pro-religion,pro-antifeminism,pro-capitalist nation ; all of which has been strengthened by the coming into power of BJP,backed up by one of the most fundamental religious parties of the country - the father of BJP,RSS. Though the INC has not been much of a failure in terms of running a very non-transparent,nearly opaque,corrupt reign for several decades,the BJP has to be crowned the best in this aspect.What is awfully shocking but expected indeed is that AFSPA has been receiving funds sirectly from the US state departments.The last link in the bibliography section,which is a Wikileaks document that contains data in a digital microfilm (the reason why you can access only the metatype version) clearly reveals that the reimbursement of the AFSPA in 1974 was funded by the state machinery.On one hand,supplying arms on a large scale to Pakistan and also to Kashmir and keeping the violence alive in order to exploit whatever is left to be exploited from India is a masterclass propaganda,almost exempt of loopholes.


The Kashmiri people (including Kashmiri Pandits) do not hold a very peachy relationship with the Indian military.The training procedure that those entitled to work for AFSPA have to go through is very questionable.In fact,the military themselves act somewhat cynical in these states.The Psy Ops was never meant to teach you Renaissance and Poetry but the military is not similarly brutal in most of the other states across the country.Also,it is a tough task to call India a nation - the bond has been murdered since the very first rays of sunlight penetrated the earth's enthrallment on 15th August,1947.In a country with differences in culture and lingual attributes every 15 kms,it's a next to impossible task to establish nationalism unless an imperial power is engaging into direct torture.In fact,the shrewdness of the INC for all these years (and now the BJP) are the two sides of the same coin.India is a state now,and as tortuous as states are across the globe.The frequent lathi charge,mutilation,bombing,sexual torment is not something people have the ability to tolerate for too long.Both India and Pakistan want the land - and for very political and subsequently econo-political perspectives.The political consists of the ego and the tactics,the blindfold as said,being religion.The Kashmiri Pandits are not much bothered by the presence of the Muslims,in fact they are not a pro-Hindu group at all! The Indian army has no mercy for the civilians of Kashmir,irrespective of their religious differences.A considerable part of Kashmiri civilians,irrespective of religion,are thus joining hands with the militants.

While all the countries,including China helping Pakistan (and thus indirectly United States of  America) out,the day is not very far when the indigenous Kashmiri population begins armed revolt against the government.And once that happens,the rest is very very unpredictable.Kashmir is not confined as a mere national issue anymore,it is and has been international since the formation of the UN in 1950 and now it's rolling down only towards what's worse.


Who owns people?Who is the master?He who is the painter is not the cartographer anymore.He who burns and burns,is.










Bibliography


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2 Comments

  1. A nation is a collection of states, each state a collection of smaller areas of land, yet central to each area is the population residing there.

    Consider what binds all these people residing together, common interests, and what hinders, or damages beliefs of togetherness.


    Who owns the people ?

    People are owned by who-ever they surrender personal control of their actions and thinking to.

    To surrender control of their actions requires surrender of thinking, is this to avoid internal confusion, or avoid demand for personal effort a struggle for acceptance of personal responsibility may create ?

    Fear of challenge makes it harder to awaken each morning.


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    1. It's hard to incorporate this in Kashmir.The revolutionaries have a legitimate take on freedom.They really have been captivated for centuries.

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