Who Wants Autonomy?

Guest Post By: Zahir-u-Din

Kashmir is a place where `separatrism' still sells. Even senior Congress leaders have admitted this harsh reality. The mainstream parties in the state have to pursue a `separatist’ agenda in Kashmir because it sells here

Who wants autonomy in Jammu Kashmir? The people of Jammu hate it, Ladakh has already got it and in Kashmir it is a non-Issue. And, is New Delhi interested in restoring autonomy to the state?

History is witness to the fact that the Jammu people hated autonomy. They launched an agitation seeking Eak Nishaan, Eak Pradan and Eak Vidaan (One flag, one prime minister and one legislature).

The Bhartaya Janata Party (BJP) and Panthers Party (PP) MLAs registered strong protest on March 17 this year over intended change of nomenclature of the top posts in the state. They warned against any compromise on the unity and integrity of the country. There is no denying the fact that the National Conference believes that autonomy was the best solution to the vexed problem. How to achieve the goal? Can it be granted by the prime minister and his cabinet? According to constitutional experts, the government has to go to the Parliament and amend the constitution, or re-induct the omitted articles that spoke about autonomy of the state. This also is not possible. The government lacks the numbers required for passing such amendments. The opposition shall oppose such move tooth and nail for obvious reasons.

There is no denying the fact that the population of Jammu division is heterogeneous. A good number of people identify with the Valley. To put it plainly they are interested in Azadi and not autonomy.

The people of Ladakh stand for total merger with India. Of course some voices of dissent have been heard here and there in the cold desert but such feeble voices hardly make any difference. They want to get rid of what they call Kashmir hegemony. The civic body created a political storm in the state by adapting a new symbol and abandoning the use of state flag. While the commoner in Kashmir and Jammu remained indifferent to the issue, the main opposition party of the state, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took a serious note of the development. The PDP president, Mahbooba Mufti said it was an act to dilute the special status of the state. "Any act aimed at diluting our special status shall be vehemently opposed", she said. Political circles equated it to the beginning of trifurcation of the state. "The LAHDC has taken a decision which the Legislative Assembly cannot afford to take", said a Srinagar based lawyer. The chief minister, however, played cool. "The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) is as good as a municipality and like Srinagar Municipality it has a right to have its own logo and flag. The chief minister further said that he was watching the developments. "I am watching the developments. A final decision shall be taken after ascertaining the facts", he said. The chief minister’s `casual’ comments evoked some sarcastic remarks.

"Yes, Srinagar Municipality has its own symbol but it does not take political decisions", said an agitated University teacher. According to him, the Srinagar and Jammu municipalities are even scared of poisoning the stray dogs. The Srinagar Municipality had procured poison worth Rs 15 lakh a few years ago but it could not be administered to the canines for fear of the animal rights defenders. Almost seven months have passed since the LAHDC adapted the new symbol. The chief minister has not taken any action. According to informed sources, the chief minister does not want to add to his woes by annoying the Leh people at this juncture. The State flag, it may be mentioned, has been evoking heated discussions for the past few years. While LAHDC has taken the bold decision, the people of Jammu have always resented the state flag. They want Eak Nishaan, Eak Pradhan and Eak Vidhaan.

Restoring autonomy, political experts believe, is simply impossible for New Delhi at this point of time. According to them, "Jammu Kashmir is a very sensitive issue. The gullible people in India believe that Jammu Kashmir binds them to the Indian union. Therefore, developments in the state are viewed with extreme caution and interest. Scores of states in India are up in arms against New Delhi. Some demand absolute sovereignty and some are unhappy with the system. Granting autonomy to Jammu Kashmir, therefore, will have a serious bearing on government of India. It may end up in a change in the pattern of governance. Is India prepared for a federal system of governance? This perhaps is the reason that the BJP government did not consider National Conference’s autonomy document."

And in contemporary Kashmir, it is a non-issue. Barring a few National Conference leaders nobody is interested in autonomy in Kashmir. It (Kashmir) is a place where `separatrism' still sells. Even senior Congress leaders have admitted this harsh reality. The pro-Indian parties have to pursue a `separatist’ agenda in Kashmir because `separatism’ sells in Kashmir. This is a harsh reality and the pro-Indian groups have understood it.

On May 10 last year, veteran Congress leader, Ghulam Rasool Kar while addressing a convention at Sopore made a landmark statement. He said: "Every Kashmiri is emotionally attached to Pakistan whether they are in Congress or National Conference", he said. He also said that every heart in Kashmir (including his) beats for Pakistan.
Kar made this statement as senior Congress leaders watched helplessly. He urged the Congress leadership to accept this harsh reality. "Congress should have cordial relations with Pakistan. The party must strive for resolution of all disputes with Pakistan especially the dispute on Kashmir", he suggested.

He also urged the government of India to start a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan. He said: "I am an Indian but I am pained to see Pakistan in trouble. When a Pakistani gets killed in a bomb blast, my eyes get moistened automatically. This is how every Kashmiri feels."

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been accused of nurturing `separatist’ tendencies from the very beginning. The PDP Chief Mahbooba Mufti emerged more `separatist’ than the `separatists’ at times.
The National Conference also played the separatist card last year. Unnerved by the agitation, the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah caused a political storm in the subcontinent by challenging the totality of accession during his address in the Legislative Assembly.

Omar was accused of failure to deliver. Even New Delhi talked about `trust deficit’ and `governance deficit’. During the agitation, a harsh reality dawned on Omar Abdullah. ` You have to pursue a separatist agenda in Kashmir’. And that is exactly what Omar did.

He is the first Chief Minister who rejected totality of accession on the floor of the house. He even went to the extent of saying that Jammu Kashmir was an issue with international dimensions. "Jammu Kashmir has not merged into India. The accession is temporary and conditional", he said.

Community First "Falahudarien"

Baramulla’s unique charitable organization has made a name for itself. Inam Ul Haq reports on the men behind the mission.

On a chilly afternoon in 1999, perhaps around the beginning of Chilaikalaan, a few likeminded friends from Baramulla, distressed by ‘social evils and degrading values’ met in a dilapidated room to find a way out.

These ten men in their mid 20s decided to provide moral and religious teachings to young men and women of their town. But soon, they realized that only “preaching” isn’t enough.

“There are widows with small kids with no means to feed them. How can we preach morality when people have empty stomachs? These people get forced into different kind of evils and wrongdoings. So we decided to contribute from our own pockets and help them first,” said Suhail Ahmad Kar.

These thoughts eventually led Kar and his friends to form The Idarah Falahudarien with the aim to build an ideal Islamic society – honest and charactered – in Baramulla.

“Our community has appreciated us for this small effort of ours, and youth have especially been volunteering themselves for this benevolent cause,” said Kar, who is a founding member of the organization and a government employee by profession.

With more than 200 volunteers, Falahudarien now distributes more than 5 million rupees per year to the needy and destitute of Baramulla town.

Presently, Falahudarien is providing financial assistance to more than 250 families per month; helping unemployed youth setup their own income generating units and provide basic housing facilities for the houseless families of the town. The organisation also generates awareness about the menace of drug addiction and provides helping hand to the poor parents in marrying their daughters.

Falahudarien, a social and welfare organisation, has a different modus operandi, which is not just providing money or one time support to a destitute family. Idarah does not even run an orphanage, rather it provides need based support, said Fayaz Ahmad Mir, president of the organisation. It has a wing of Mawneen (supporters). Each Mawin, assigned to a Mohallah, goes to each needy family, discuss with them and assess the need of the every month and provide help accordingly.

“It is a sustained effort. We help orphans or poor children for their complete schooling even until they reach university level,” said Mir. “Their tuition fees, books, uniform or any other expenditure is provided until they need it. We have some students who qualified state competitive exams, NET (National Eligibility Test) and JRF (Junior Research Fellowship).”

Some of the students whom Idarah supported are now working at good positions and are now giving back to the organisation. “They volunteer, and some have even become monthly contributors, making Idarah feel proud,” said Mir.

The organisation has laid down strict principles for raising funds and utilising them. “We do not accept any aid from government, NGO or any other body,” said Zahoor Ahmad Dar, who heads the social work wing. “Our all income is based on the donations of the people of the town who want to help the poor and needy. But all the expenses needed on managing the office, its rent and other expenses related to office and volunteers is paid by the volunteers from their own pocket and not a single penny from donors money is spend on that. No office bearer is paid all people work on voluntary basis.”

To maintain the transparency and accountability, organisation audits the accounts by a charted accountant every year. Besides all the monthly income and expenditure are put on the organisation’s website: www.falahudarian.org.

Though describing Falahudarien as an Islamic center, Mir said, the help provided is purely on humanitarian basis without taking religion into consideration. “We help any person of the town in the need, whether he be a Muslim, Sikh, Hindu or a Christian. And we do not have any missionary motives,” he added.

To eradicate the menace of drug addiction, Falahudarien is holding regular awareness campaigns. Identifies drug addicts and provide them counselling. “We have registered more than 400 drug addicts. We provide them counselling and medicine and take them to district de-addiction center. At least100 people have left using drugs with our help,” said a volunteer, Iqbal Hafiz Ganai, who is doing his Ph.D. at SKUAST.

Ganai said that organisation also organises blood donation camps, provides career counselling to students and conducts general knowledge test every year. Besides a yearly Seerat conference, Falahudarien conduct many conferences to discuss modern day problems and issues. It also publishes a bi-monthly magazine, Tazkeer, to impart moral and religious education among youngsters.

The next goal for the organisation is to establish a state of art Islamic Research Center to conduct research on complicated issues in Islam surfaced due to modernity and technology. Land for that has been already acquired and construction of the building is going on.

Earlier Published On : Kashmir Life

Making A Mark Online

Kashmiris are going online to express and establish themselves. Syed Asma surveys some Kashmiri websites that emerged in 2011.

Amidst the bans and restrictions on mainstream media in Kashmir, youth in the valley are finding alternative spaces to share stories—by starting their own websites.

“We have a passion for writing and it would do no good if it’s not used to tell the stories of Kashmir, for Kashmir holds a galaxy of untold stories,” says Samreen Mushtaq, a part of the three-month-old website Kashmir Currents. It was Samreen’s idea to start a website but she credits her team for making it a reality. Samreen is a presently pursuing her Masters’ in political science from Jamia Millia Islamia.

One day Samreen and her friends visited a woman in Kupwara who had

lost her four sons to the conflict, but had received no media coverage. It was then that Samreen and her friends decided to provide a platform for such unreported stories. “We wanted these untold, unheard stories to be told and re-told. Media [mainstream] often fails to follow up few stories,” says Samreen.

Fahad Shah seconds her view. He has turned his blog into a full-fledged website called The Kashmir Walla. He says organisations have their own pressures to handle but alternate media is the medium for the people and of people. “It reports what mainstream media cann

ot report because of its limitation.”

Fahad’s blog, set up in 2009, came from a need to write about Kashmir for his non Kashmiri friends who did not know much about Kashmir and the conflict.

Online enthusiasts in Kashmir say it is the global reach of the internet that plays a part in them turning to the web for highlighting conflict stories.

Sheikh Saaliq says online media is the main media source in today’s world. He believes repeatedly reporting on Kashmiri suffering to Kashmiris does not make much sense now, and that it is time to highlight these issues on a wider platform so it reaches the larger global community. He considers Internet to be the best medium for this.

Saaliq runs a website called The Vox Kashmir, meaning ‘voice of Kashmir.’ It started as a blog in early 2009.

“My website’s second issue had 15,000 hits in the first three hours of being uploaded, of which only 4,000 where from Kashmir, which suggested people outside are reading Kashmir,” says Saaliq.

The Kashmir Walla’s mention in Sunday Guardian, Indian Express, Mint Lounge, NDTV and Al Jazeera speak volumes about its readership in just the second year of its existence.

Kashmir Currents, The Vox Kashmir, The Kashmir Walla, The Parallel Post and other websites owned by Kashmiri youth came into existence after the recent unrest from 2008-2010. Limits on media during this time compelled them to create their own spaces for expression, they say.

At first, they turned to social networking sites such as Orkut, where they discussed issues with friends and refined their ways of expression. Then they started blogging and eventually turning to sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Each online outlet helped the young generation of Kashmir move one step closer to discovering and developing themselves in the virtual world—and gradually led to independent websites—designed and operated by Kashmir youth.

“We are all Orkut immigrants,” says Saaliq. “These social networking sites encourage us to use them to tell our stories. We have now moved on to more formal and authentic media, e-magazines and websites,” he says.

In addition to giving a voice to unheard stories of Kashmir, these websites have provided an opportunity to many individuals, and given them the chance to show their skills. Each website’s team includes trained journalists, passionate writers, graphic designers, and IT enthusiasts.

“The idea is to encourage new writers who are not established or who are amateur writers. We aim to encourage people beyond their social, intellectual, cultural and political existence,” says Anees Zargar.

Anees is a part of Kashmir’s online magazine, The Parallel Post.

“The Parallel Post also aims to help youth develop skills in various fields like filmmaking, writing and photography,” he adds.

Most of the youth running these websites are passionate to the extent that they sustain the websites with their own pocket money.

Saaliq says, “Tying up with other organisations means that they too will have a say in the content. It increases the tendency of outsider’s interference and may lead to some compromises as well. So, this makes us hesitant of trusting anyone.”

The enthusiastic young website owners say they may suffering on the financial grounds but are not ready to compromise in their content.

PUBLISHED ON KASHMIR LIFE

Forgotten Prisoners

GUEST POST BY FRONTLINE KASHMIR FAN

In the dark cells do we hang around and wait,
To hear the news about the world we hate.
What’s the current situation of the Muslim nation?
Are they soldiers of Allah, or guards at the police station?

Restlessly walking around the tiny mole holes.
Asking Allah to forgive us and protect our souls,
Quiet it is every day and every night
Where are your letters that you used to write?

Life in the cells is indeed cold and grim
Our hearts cry out loud, deep down from within
Why are my brothers and sisters so quiet all the time?

Do you not see these chains around his legs and mine?
Yes we are the forgotten prisoners of today.
All day do we wait to read what you have to say,
The kaafir next door has no trouble at all
His nation never forget him, sending him many letters for sure.
We do not ask for the world, sun or moon,
Only duaas written on paper, that we are released soon.

Paper and pen is all it takes my dear brothers
Do you have no time for those who left their mothers?
Plain are our walls, with only a written Du’aa or two
From our mothers, wives, children, nieces and nephews.
If only the walls were covered with the words which are great.

Indeed when I see the walls, do I shudder in disgrace
What a time I am in, where I must beg for support
It hardly comes willingly – though I wish it would
I cry and I weep, every night and everyday.
Remember me in your du’aas, write to me today.

An ummah of 1.5 billion is just a figure of no use
You enjoy your life as you watch us tortured and abused.
Our situation is no movie, why do you not understand?
Please, write to us – Let us see the words of your hand.
Lonely we are in the cold cells deep
Days and nights are horrid, we can hardly sleep.
Forgotten prisoners we are, our loved ones have all gone.

Though our Lord is always besides us, He is the only One!!

Living in despair, Kashmir half widows hopes still alive

Guest Post By: Yasir Ashraf

Today Javaid would have been celebrating his 37th birthday, if ‘security’ forces had not picked up him 21 years ago. On August 18, 1990 Javaid was taken away for never to return.

During the first years of militancy in Kashmir sixteen year old Javaid Ahmad Ahangar, class 11thcommerce student, was staying at his uncle’s house for the night when he was picked up by the ‘security’ forces and bundled into a vehicle. Till now his whereabouts are unknown.

Parveena Ahangar along with prominent human rights activists founded an organization in 1994(split into two organizations in 2006) Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons to know the whereabouts of their dear ones. Parveena told Agence India Press that, her son was taken mistakenly. “The security forces had come to arrest Javaid Ahmad Bhat, a JKLF militant in neighborhood, but instead picked up my son Javaid Ahmad Ahangar,” remembers Ahangar.

Every month she organizes a sit in protest with others like her whose dear ones are missing. Ahangar says that we are one family: “They are my family, their sufferings are mine, and we fight for same cause. The search of our dear ones,” says Ahangar.

Mothers, sisters, and wives of the disappeared have organized under the association of parents of disappeared persons (APDP) towards bringing justice.

Today they are protesting against the enforced disappearances of their relatives, and one among them is Naseema Bano. Naseema is sitting silently on a road here with a candle in her right hand and wearing black pheran (a long cloak to cover body) to mark the International human rights (December 10) day as black day. She is a ‘half widow’.

Women whose husbands have been subjected to enforced ‘disappearances’ but not yet been declared deceased are often called ‘half widows’.

By conservative estimates there are 1,500 widows in Kashmir.

Indian forces have been accused of human rights abuses against civilians since 1989. By conservative estimates, 22 years of strife have left more than 70,000 dead and more than 8,000 disappeared.

Such disappearances have been carried out by government forces—police, paramilitary, or military—or by militants. However, the number of the disappeared carried out by militants is significantly lower than government forces.

The British Raj, which once controlled Kashmir, a Muslim majority princely Kingdom ruled by a Hindu monarch Maharaja Hari Singh. End of British rule in sub-continent or independence in 1947 split this sub-continent into two sovereign states of India and Pakistan. The two nations have paid with strife and bloodshed to establish their conflicting claims over the disputed region.

Kashmir has signified a major source of tension between India and Pakistan since their birth, 1947, and has seen armed conflict since 1989.

Currently, 4000,000 to 750,000 (the exact number remains unknown and disputed) Indian military and paramilitary remain in Kashmir, making this one of the world’s most militarized regions. The Indian government has passed security legislation—such as the Disturbed Areas Act, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, and the Public Safety Act—giving military and police forces special powers to suppress insurgency and maintain a fortified presence in the region.

Naseema’s husband, a painter, left for work on 21 July, 2000, never to return. She lives in a rented one-room apartment with no curtains and scraps of calendar and news papers over the walls and the ceiling, as if hiding their poverty. She lives with her brother-in-law, her mother-in-law, and her 11- year-old daughter Shazia. Naseema, herself about 27-years-old, is effectively the breadwinner of the family.

She was married to Anwar Shah in 1998; she belongs to south Kashmir’s Islamabad district. They were living happily after their marriage, but their happy life lasted only for two years. Anwar went missing as if he never existed. He vanished as thousands of others like him vanished in Kashmir and get the term ‘disappeared’. She has no clue about what happened to her husband.

Anwar’s disappearance was the beginning of the family’s sufferings. Mushtaq and his Mother, Haseena Bano, who went looking for their loved one, are sent from one military base to another, one jail to another, each suggesting some clue at the next.

They went from pillar to post in order to register a missing report, but the police officials refused to file any report.

Mushtaq along with his mother appeared in the year 2006 to the district magistrate Srinagar with an application for filing a missing report. Again the applicant has filed an application to the District magistrate 16-06-2007. Finally, it was 11 February, 2008 an FIR was lodged in the police post Bona Mohallah, Fateh Kadal on the directions of Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar. The irony of the officials and the judiciary did not stop here, the orders were wrong instead the officials filed a wrong date of the missing, as the orders were given by the CJM himself to lodge a missing report in 2002. But Anwar went missing in 2000.A question mark on the judiciary and casts a shadow over its verdicts so far.

The family felt relieved to get a copy of FIR but the irony of the justice is that they ordered a wrong date of the missing report. “We get copy of an FIR, so we thought it will be alright. As an uneducated how could we see such details? And our lawyer also did not speak about it,” laments Mushtaq.

The family has received no compensation for the disappearance. Naseema’s brother-in-law and mother-in-law made several trips to the District Commissioner’s office, all unsuccessful bear no fruits.

The family has a copy of a confidential report by the Special Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) report from October 2009 that states:

"...as per reports the subject has not come to averse notice prior to his missing."

That is, the CID affirmed that Naseema’s husband was not part of the militancy and is thus not believed, even by the CID, to have potentially left with a militant group or gone to Pakistan.

Naseema no longer hears from her natal family. While her parents are long deceased, her siblings refuse to help her unless she re-marries.

Only a small fraction of half widows choose to remarry. Many half widows do not contemplate re-marriage, believing they will eventually receive some information about their husbands. Even more give up the option of remarriage on account of their children; there is a deeply held fear that a stepfather will never accept his wife’s children or give them his best. And for those who want to remarry, social stigmas around remarriage remain strong, while religious interpretations of the rules around remarriage remain contested, says a report titled Half widow, Half wife? Compiled by Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS).

A well known Kashmiri Sociologist, Prof Bashir Ahmad Dabla, carried out a survey in which he says that one of the tragic consequences armed conflict has been experienced in terms of emergence of huge widows and orphans, 16,000 widows in 2000, their estimated number has increased to 32,400 with 97,000 orphans in 2008.

The research says, having the provision for re-marriage in Islam, only 8.66 percent had remarried. "Rest doesn’t want remarry because they wanted to devote themselves for the development of children of the dead husband."

"89 percent had not married till date and had no intention to marry again because children emerged as the crucial problem,” adds study.

The social taboos around remarriage are cultural rather than religious. Islam encourages widow remarriage.

In Islamic law, Shariah, there is no consensus around the marriage of women who are half widows, because there is no special provision for the phenomenon of enforced disappearances. All major schools of Islamic thought provide different guidance about re-marriage.

However, the concept of ‘Ijtehad’ provides for scholars to extrapolate an opinion regarding any topical issue that has no instance in Islamic jurisprudence, if done in accordance with the context and urgency of the issue and without violating basic Shariah. Thus, though the Hanafi School has declared that a woman has to wait 90 years after her husband’s disappearance but, Maliki School says that a woman either wait four or seven years, and if husband remains missing, without information about his whereabouts even after proper investigation the marriage is deemed to have been dissolved.

“If I get married, my daughter’s life will be ruined. If it was a son, it would still be fine, but she is a girl, what will she do without me?”asks Naseema.

The absence of husbands renders women economically vulnerable. In already socioeconomically weak families, this is the status of most families that have suffered disappearances, such vulnerability leads to destitution.

Generally, the husband is the sole breadwinner in the family and his disappearance results in an abrupt paucity of income.

Naseema works in neighborhood homes, cooking and cleaning and doing domestic chores as required. The money fluctuates and everything she makes is spent on food for the four family members, her daughter’s school supplies, and medicines for her mother-in-law. Her brother-in-law, Mushtaq Ahmed, has a disability since birth and walks with difficulty. He cannot earn for the family.

They believe she is squandering her energy taking care of an ailing old mother-in-law, a brother-in-law with debilitating disability, and a young girl. Mushtaq says that if this family have nothing to eat in the house, but they will never beg.

The half widow is mostly not equipped, educationally or socially, to begin earning for her family. As a result she, as well as any children she has, become dependent on others, most often the husband’s family (given the cultural context where parents live in a joint family with their sons and daughters-in-law, not with their married daughters). In the in-laws’ family, relationships often sour after the disappearance.

“I have no mother, no father, and my husband is lost. Where shall I go leaving all of them?”Says Naseema.

In their desperation, many half widows visit pirs, fakirs, darweshs (‘holy men’), make offerings at Sufi shrines, and some even patronize fortune tellers.

“I have also visited Shrines and pirs to get a clue about him, maybe someday he will be back to his home,” says Naseema.

Amidst this socioeconomic insecurity, women battle their emotional traumas while struggling as single mothers, many of whose children also often show manifestations of trauma.

The various socio-economic pressures together have psychological effects on half widows that largely go unaddressed.

Most half widows report anxiety (often described in terms of “speeding up” or palpitations), sleep disorders, and lack of interest in everyday activities. Many half widows exhibit Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); anxiety attacks may be triggered by memories of the disappearance or the disappeared.

The Government Psychiatric Diseases Hospital in Srinagar continues to receive 200 patients a day in its Out Patients’ Department. However, doctors there report not seeing half widows or other family members of the disappeared come in for treatment very often; the families continue to harbor hope without recognizing that retaining such hope has taken its toll on their own mental well-being. Half widows are known to self-medicate, consuming easily available antidepressants, resulting in further health issues. In a vicious cycle, the worsening mental and physical health has adverse effects on their economic situation, which further worsens their social standing and vulnerability, entrenches their isolation and suffering, further compromising.

Valley’s well known psychiatrist Mushtaq Margoob told Agence India Press that most of the half widows have insecurity and uncertainty. “They are always in a state of turbulence, because they are over burned with responsibilities of their children,” says Margoob.“Their whole world changes, their entire life, suffering a perpetual trauma and having extreme psychological agony. Which many times magnified, after months or years, because of their loneliness. They have also hope at the same time. They think Creator’s powers are not limited, it would create a miracle and finally their husband will come back,” elaborates Margoob.

“He always come in my dreams and says he will be back soon,” says Naseema with a hope in her words.

“Agar hai su aeshaa yem maslie ma gasheen” (if he, Anwar, would have been here, there would have been no problems), says Mushtaq in a broken voice.

“I am living on a hope that he will knock at the door and declare I am back,” says Naseema finally.

Z for Zalim: Semiotics and the Occupation of Kashmir

By: Shivam Vij

A for Apple and Z for Zebra. Children are taught the alphabet with the help of images. And the association of images with sound. It helps them associate the sound of A with the sound of Apple, and associate that in turn with the image of an apple. The alphabet book depend

s on images that may be familiar to children. The word Apple is a signifier, and the apple itself is the signified. This is, most simply, what semiotics or the study of signs and sign processes.

In a future world, if there are no zebras, alphabet books may have to replace the last entry with something else. What could it be? Zebra crossing? Zimbabwe?

Last week, the Jammu and Kashmir Police registered a case of sedition, defamation and criminal conspiracy against six officials of BoSE, the government’s very own Board of School Education, for this:

This is a page from a book called Baharistaan-e-Urdu. This attempt to teach Kashmiri children the Urdu alphabet (note to self: this is what I need to learn Nastaliq!) makes them say, “Zoi se Zalim,” Z for Zalim, meaning cruel. That is only one of four examples. The other two are: zaroof (utensils), zahir (visible) and zareef (humorist).

The maker of the textbook no doubt wanted to used such signifiers and signified images that Kashmiri children can relate to. So just as you could say P for Pheran and a child would know what that is, you could say Z for Zalim and refer to the security forces, because a child in Kashmir hears them be called that all the time. It is time for scholars of semiotics to study the Kashmir conflict, but it needs no scholar to tell you how this incident is illustrative of what the people of Kashmir, whom Indians say are fellow Indians, fell about the security forces Indians say provide security to the people of Kashmir.

It would be ridiculous to suggest that the maker of this textbook was not being political, or that the political import of this act is unintentional. Such is the repression in Kashmir that everyone is deeply aware, and in fact over-cautious about acts of speech. Who should this be said to, how should I frame it, should I keep my counsel? No, no, I don’t want azadi. Come tomorrow and I’ll want it.

The textbook image resembles a private security guard and not a policeman, but it is obvious that a “security” person is being used to stand-in for much more than, say, an ATM security guard. It is certainly not the image of a “hooligan” as the BoSE chairman would have us believe. That the textbook writer did not place a police, paramilitary or army person there is practical: the book wouldn’t have escaped attention on its way to the printing press. The clever toning down again suggests s/he was aware of how political his/her small act was. S/he knew it would go much farther in fostering dissent against the state than a post in a blog an op-ed in a newspaper.

The incident shows how easily, in the smallest of ways, the Indian state’s claims of Peace and Normalcy in Kashmir crumble! India and its Kashmir spokespersons and experts and defenders on Kashmir have been telling the whole world about how this was a Peaceful Year in Kashmir, because, well, the security forces were not asked to kill any stone-pelters by shooting into their skulls!

What a peaceful year it has been in the beautiful valley of Kashmir, indeed, a year so peaceful when a textbook published by the state was teaching Z for Zalim about people who provided this peace and security! What an ungrateful people indeed!

Writing in the Economic Times, Najeeb Mubarki is confused. He writes, “It is a truth often verified that school textbooks across south Asia are filled with hilarities and downright stupid mistakes. An exercise in seeking something to be offended by would probably throw up umpteen examples. That, in general, is a sad commentary on the primary school systems in the region.” And then he further writes: “…in its harsh suppression of dissent and opposition within Kashmir, in its seeking to blatantly —and, one might add, arguably illegally too — criminalise extant political realities in Kashmir, the administration often works and functions like a police state.” The state can’t possibly be crushing dissent and opposition here because according to Mubarki, there was no dissent in the textbook writer’s act, it was only a “downright stupid mistake,” a “hilarity” like the rest of her/his South Asian counterparts!

Mubarki wonders why the state police wastes time trawling through textbooks – but in fact, the book had been in circulation for a year. It could just have been that a police officer sat down to teach his child and was embarrassed to see this. (I wonder why Kashmiris sometimes try to suggest that state repression in Kashmir is mindless. See for instance this article by Burhan Qureshi that recollects memories of repression but not the revolt that the repression was responding to.)

Mubarki’s piece has an excellent title though: Where the state charges itself with sedition. It must be sad for the BoSE chief, Sheikh Bashir, to be accused of sedition. For those who don’t know, Bashir is one of the most patriotic Indians in Kashmir. Bashir is such an Indian nationalist that he even paid from his own pocket to be honoured with the Bharat Gaurav Award The award was ‘given’ by a certain NRI organisation called the India International Friendship Society. So happy was the BoSE Chairman about being called the Pride of India that he decided to use tax-payers’ money to issue advertisements in newspapers congratulating himself on being ‘awarded’ the Bharat Gaurav Award. Bashir is the sort of ‘Indian’ who is singled out in Kashmir for outsiders to be shown – look, he’s Kashmiri and a patriotic Indian! For all such patriots the Indian government should institute a special award so they don’t have to buy it any more.

News of this funny incident has been reported all over the world, thus once again giving away the bad planning of the Indian version of How to Have an Occupation and Pretend it Ain’t One. Perhaps the Home Ministry’s Kashmir Division should learn from the Kashmiris themselves; for instance, from this comment by a Kashmiri on Facebook:

"The emperor hereby orders deletion of the letter zoi alphabet from Urdu, Kashmiri, Gojri, Pahari, Sheena and Balti languages of his colony. Thus words like zaalim and zulm naturally stand obliterated from the lexicon.

The subjects are hereby directed to unlearn zoi and any word beginning with zoi. In addition, by the same decree, mazloom is also designated as a forbidden word from these languages unless used by the authorities in their official pursuits. Anybody found using zoi or its derivatives will be punishable with minimum 14 years of imprisonment by the newly promulgated Indic Alphabetica Act.

The order is implemented with immediate effect."

Appeared Earlier On: kafila