Breaking the taboo, Indians suggest Kashmir plebiscite

Cutting the Kashmir melon

Khushwant Singh

August 15, 2008

The sudden explosion of violence in Jammu & Kashmir over the trivial matter of some 40 hectares of forest land clearly shows a deep communal divide that has its roots in history. The state, as we know it, comprises of three regions, which we have treated as one administered from Srinagar and Jammu. This is entirely because ever since the annexation of Punjab by the British in 1849 and its sale to Maharajah Gulab Singh, it has been treated by his descendants as a Dogra fiefdom till India attained its independence in 1947. It is time we took a good look at the ground realities, however unpalatable they be, and found a solution that will be acceptable to all three regions as well as to India and Pakistan.

J&K: Tricolour at 8am, flags of separatists at 4pm

16 Aug 2008, 0006 hrs IST, Avijit Ghosh,TNN

SRINAGAR: At exactly 8am, CRPF hoisted the Indian Tricolour at Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar on Independence Day. At 3.45pm, Lal Chowk wore a totally different look. Hundreds of slogan-shouting protesters swarmed the area and at 4pm and planted the flags of Jamaat-e-Islami (which looks like the Pakistani flag) and the terrorist outfit, Hizb-ul Mujahideen, on top of the same tower where the Indian flag had been hoisted.

If one were to go by the symbolism of the spectacle at Lal Chowk, the valley’s alienation from the Indian Union seemed complete. One of the slogans of the protesters drove the message home — Jiyo, jiyo Pakistan, hum hain Pakistani . Other slogans included Islam Zindabad , Lad ke lenge azadi and Allah-u-Akbar .

Think the Unthinkable

Counterpoint | Vir Sanghvi

August 16, 2008

Have you been reading the news coming out of Kashmir with a mounting sense of despair? I know I have. It’s clear now that the optimism of the last few months — all those articles telling us that normalcy had returned to Kashmir — was misplaced. Nothing has really changed since the 1990s. A single spark — such as the dispute over Amarnath land — can set the whole valley on fire, so deep is the resentment, anger and the extent of secessionist feeling. Indian forces are treated as an army of occupation. New Delhi is seen as the oppressor. There is no engagement with the Indian mainstream. And even the major political parties do not hesitate to play the Pakistan card — Mehbooba Mufti is quite willing to march to the Line of Control.

The three Jammu-Kashmirs

David Devadas

August 16, 2008

For David Devadas, author of In Search of A Future: The Story of Kashmir, the latest land dispute in Jammu and Kashmir is yet another case of three parties seeing three completely different things in what is one entity: J&K. Here he looks at the three extreme views: in Jammu, in Kashmir and in New Delhi

SWAMINOMICS Independence Day for Kashmir

17 Aug 2008, 0338 hrs IST, Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar

On August 15, India celebrated independence from the British Raj. But Kashmiris staged a bandh demanding independence from India. A day symbolising the end of colonialism in India became a day symbolising Indian colonialism in the Valley.

As a liberal, i dislike ruling people against their will. True, nation-building is a difficult and complex exercise, and initial resistance can give way to the integration of regional aspirations into a larger national identity — the end of Tamil secessionism was a classical example of this.

CONFESSION

An Indian author seeking Apology to Kashmiris on her country's behalf

I’m an Indian and I apologize for what India is doing in Kashmir, writes Rashmi Sehgal.

Current situation in J&K reminds me of a famous story of a child and his mother. When the child asks his mother for the moon, the witty mother, to please her sweetheart fetches a bowl of water and keeps it in front of the child. Seeing the reflection of the moon, the child’s happiness knows no bounds. Same is the situation in India these days, with the government and media floating many self-fulfilling prophecies to keep the public in good mood. It is perhaps the time India realized the difference between fact and fiction. Being a research scholar on Kashmir problem it many times becomes difficult for me to keep a track of the unabated killings in Kashmir. The never-ending massacres by Indian army are next to impossible to sum up in one page. It wrenches one’s heart when we see mothers coming on roads, rallying and shouting against Indian army or precisely against whole of India now. Even the people who used to have most balanced views regarding the situation in Kashmir that: “it is a political game” now have started hating Indians. Perhaps it is not their mistake; anyone can turn irrational at the sight of mutilated dead bodies of their innocent friends and family.

J-K crisis: Is it time to listen to Kashmir?

CNN-IBN

After days of unrest, Jammu and Kashmir was peaceful on Tuesday. But the peace is deceptive. For the first time in over a decade, separatist slogans are being openly shouted out in Srinagar.

"Jeeve Jeeve Pakistan. Bharat teri maut aye," ("Long live Pakistan, death to India,") ranted over five lakh people who marched to the United Nations office in Srinagar and shouted these slogans.

In Kashmir, there's azadi in air
17 Aug 2008, 0247 hrs IST, Avijit Ghosh,TNN

PAMPORE: About 8km south of Srinagar, the road seems to end. Hundreds of trucks, cars and motorbikes block the path. The men shout "azadi" and "Allah-u-Akbar" (God is great) in collective frenzy. They are all heading to Pampore, about 15 km from Srinagar, for the Hurriyat leader Shiekh Abdul Aziz's memorial service.

Valley on the edge
17 Aug 2008, 0850 hrs IST, Subodh Ghildiyal,TNN

Bandhs and protests. Firings and deaths. Jackboots and fanatics. The Kashmir valley has lived with these for decades. So what's new now? Squeezing time out from his preparation for the Friday prayers at Jamia Mosque, Mirwaiz Omer Farooq offers an answer. "There's a big change from then and now," he says. "The change is that there is no militancy this time."

What he means is that classical militancy — marked by killing of innocents and ambushing security personnel — is no longer as relevant. You see this on the ground. On August 15, when the CRPF commander hoisted the Tricolour at Srinagar's heart — Lal Chowk — the officers and jawans showed little apprehension. Within two hours, the flag was folded and kept away, the precautionary deployment withdrawn, and Lal Chowk was soon taken over by a crowd baying for azadi. There was a protest blackout in the evening too, but none of the booming guns and Mujahideen statements, that had been the staple for I-Days until now.

Kashmir needs freedom from India: Arundhati Roy
19 Aug 2008, 0147 hrs IST, Avijit Ghosh ,TNN

SRINAGAR: Activist and author Arundhati Roy, who was present at the massive Monday rally, said that the people of Kashmir have made themselves abundantly clear. ( Watch )

“And if no one is listening then it is because they don't want to hear. Because this is a referendum. People don't need anyone to represent them; they are representing themselves. As somebody who has followed people's movements and who has been in rallies and at the heart or the edge of things, I don't think you can dispute what you see here,” she told TOI .

A ray of hope news
20 August 2008

If the centre does not demonstrably break the blockade imposed by Jamu against Kashmir, then India will forever forfeit its claim to the allegiance of the Kashmiris. By Prem Shankar Jha

Something historic happened in Kashmir between 16 August and 18 August. Huge numbers of Kashmiris came out on the streets of Pampore (city of Lotuses) a small town near Srinagar, and then in the very heart of official Srinagar, to chant slogans, burn effigies, wave banners, plant green and black flags, demand azadi, and urge India to get out of Kashmir.

India minus K-word
20 Aug 2008, 0000 hrs IST, Jug Suraiya

Is it time the K-word got out of India, and India out of the K-word? Even as Pakistanis in Pakistan celebrated the departure of their erstwhile dictator, Pervez Musharraf, 'Pakistanis' in Kashmir agitated for the long overdue exit of an equally, if not more, oppressive dictator: India.

The Amarnath dispute and the alleged 'economic blockade' have sparked an unprecedented pro-Pakistani sentiment in the Valley, shown by the open display of the crescent flag and the massive anti-India rallies in Srinagar and Pampore. Separatism is no longer driven by fear of militant guns; today separatism is spearheaded by a far more serious threat: that of the popular will.

It’s the Revolution, Stupid!

And it’s more than a tempest in a teacup, writes Carin Jodha Fischer

History sometimes draws parallels from the strangest of places. As I am sitting here still trying to digest the magnitude of lakhs of people peacefully gathering near the Srinagar Tourist Reception Centre to once again demand their right to freedom and self-determination, I can’t help but think of the similarity of circumstances having led to the Boston Tea Party and later the infamous “shot that changed the world.” Peacenik that I am, I hesitate to tap into the spirit of the American revolutionary war, having left that country convinced that its post-9/11 actions effectively rendered useless most democratic principles its founding fathers had embraced. Yet, today I can’t help but reflect on other significant outpours of the will of the people and the momentous effect they had on their nations’ course of history. I so hope that the world will finally take more informed notice of a massive and peaceful movement for change that cannot and should not be quelled in its present form.

Breaking the taboo, Indian op-eds suggest Kashmir plebiscite
Posted by: Myra MacDonald

The last time I visited Kashmir, in November, I was struck by an apparent contradiction: it was more peaceful than it had been in years, at least in the capital Srinagar, and yet the overwhelming mood was one of gloom. With the peace process between India and Pakistan going nowhere, there was a sense that thousands of people had died for nothing in the violence that had convulsed the region since a separatist revolt erupted in 1989. Although the soldiers had disappeared from the streets of Srinagar, and tourists were flocking back, it retained the some of the same tinderbox atmosphere that I had known at the height of the violence. One spark, people told me, could ignite it again.