kashmir myths – indians in illusion
A letter
written by an Indian student
is being used to say to the world that if
“an Indian Who Lived In Illusion” then so must the rest of the country.
Its heartening to see that some Indians
are not blinding themselves either to the bitter truth
about Kashmir or the lies that blindia is feeding them.
It says that
“Gyatri – (was) a member of a group of ‘adventure junkies,’
who traveled across Kashmir and interacted with students and people”.
The reality is this is a subjective opinion of a single person,
who was visiting Kashmiri students of the University.
Gyatri writes:
I had raw exposure to your lives, much troubled lives.I shall never possess such
lack of faith in my protectors, lawmakers and administrators.
I will never understand the terror
that grips you, even in the shelter of your humble abodes.
I will never be able to comperehend
the torture you face, the wars you wage every day and night –
I will never realise how it feels
to be questioned at every breath taken, dictated at every step taken.
How can she?
(I presume,
by her name that she is a lady)
She lives in
a democracy
a secular state
she is not forced to hide her face
she is not forced indoors by religious laws
she can choose her government, or topple them when she has the reason,
she has the freedom of expression that lets her write what ever her thoughts be.
She has not mentioned which religious groups she spoke to.
She has not mentioned how freely her interviewees could speak.
She has not mentioned if she crossed the LOC to speak to the people
on the other side, now under Pakistan’s control,
under a military dictator in
an Islamic state.
Did she explore the history of this conflict?
Did she know Kashmir once indeed was a paradise?
Did she know that Kashmir was once a truly secular state?
Did she hear the voices of the minority that too have been terrorised?
How could she have heard the voices of the minority that have long fled in fear?
Did she find out what went wrong? when? and who are responsible?
Let me quote Margaret Bourke-White’s eyewitness report
in her book; Halfway to Freedom: A report on the New India
These were her own words, a neutral observer under no “illusions”.
She describes the plunder by the raiders as…
“Their buses and trucks, loaded with booty,
arrived every other day and took more Pathans to Kashmir.
Ostensibly they want to liberate their Kashmiri Muslim brothers,
but their primary objective was riot and loot.
In this they made no distinction between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims”.“The raiders advanced into Baramulla,
the biggest commercial centre of the region with a population then of 11,000, until they were only an hour away from Srinagar.
For the next three days they were engaged in massive plunder, rioting and rape. No one was spared. Even members of the St. Joseph’s Mission Hospital were brutally massacred.”
…and that was just the beginning. There was, and is, more to come.
Did the writer realise
when posting her letter on the world wide web
how it could be used so conveniently as a tool for propaganda? You be the judge.
history
Kashmir
India
insurgency
human rights
propaganda
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To all bloggers
who disagree with my opinion on this issue,
please voice your opinion, your contradictions on your own blogspage.
Arguing on a comments section simply becomes lost from most readers view.
Any question that you raise, any points you challange, I will answer through future blogs.
In a sequence of my choice and writing convenience. Thank you.
S said this on July 13th, 2007 at 04:16
Very valid reasoning! am getting drawn into this through your series here.
I will read M.J.Akbar as you suggested. Thanks
little indian said this on July 13th, 2007 at 07:41
Thanks S,
I intend to write a few more.
I need to get my thoughhts organised
and compile all the evidence that I have.
Thanks for stopping by
Mine is a humble little site.
But please feel free to share your thoughts here.
Karan Pradhan said this on July 13th, 2007 at 17:17
Interesting response to what was originally a fairly naive little letter from a person upon whom realisation of a different reality was slowly dawning. Admittedly, it may have been naive, perhaps a tad glib. But, it’s a damn slight more than one can expect from a large majority of people.
And as I said, it’s a slow awakening and further research will create a greater understanding. However, it must be kept in mind that it was a simple and perhaps, child-like letter and not an encyclopedic article. So how does it really matter what religious groups were interviewed? Or whether the writer knew the entire convoluted history of Kashmir? Or whether she is forced to cover her face? Or whether she enjoys falooda more or ice-cream more?
There is absolutely no reason to turn into an elitist, especially when someone is finally waking up. Feel free to disagree with my views, but do try to respect someone waking to a cause that you seem so passionate about.
Have a nice day!
Riya Kartha said this on July 13th, 2007 at 17:39
There are more important things than researching about facts and figures and conducting interviews with different people.
When you feel as strongly as some of us felt on that trip to Kashmir,you will realize that feeling is what matters more. The fact that you are able to feel for someone who lives a completely different life is way more important than being politically correct.
I was on that trip too, and just so you know, we have spoken and had intense discussions with varied groups- Kashmiri pandits, people from the army, Kashmiri students and teachers…It was only a gist of things. None of us would ever see what they have had to, or live in a situation like that, but we understood and put ourselves in their shoes. And we are not completely unaware of the situation in Kashmir or its strife-torn past.
The realization that as Indians we are so casually ignorant about Kashmiris and their problems is what Gyatri was trying to highlight.
Please do make sure that you understand where the person is coming from, and where his or her emotions stem from.
Personally, your post seems like you’re trying to rip up a perfectly valid opinion to highlight your own.
Thank you for reading this.
little indian said this on July 13th, 2007 at 18:19
@ Karan Pradhan,
Thanks for your comment.
And thanks for proving so convincingly the points I have made; proving how biased the reporting on Kashmir may have been.
You ask “how does it really matter what religious groups were interviewed”? Do you understand the meaning of words such as ‘unbiased’ and/or a ‘balanced view’?
The conflict in Kashmir is based on lines of religion, it is distortion of truth to claim that only one side is to blame. There are many individuals of the religious minority who have fled from fear of communal violence, who has spoken to the letter writer on their behalf?
You talk of “dawning of reality” in a person who in your own words may not have known the “the entire convoluted history of Kashmir”. That is waking up to a knowledge based on partial truths or untruths. A distorted reality, a lie. That is worse than not waking up at all.
You called the letter, “naive”, “tad glib”, “simple” and “child-like”. Then to use such a letter to call the citizens of a country illuded is a propaganda. That is my other point you have just confirmed.
No, I cannot have respect for anyone who can make such an important statement without a fair and balanced assessment or judgement of facts and the truth. Her letter insults not only Indians but also the many Kashmiris who have tried and died fighting to keep Kashmir secular. Any person who puts up such statements on the net, should know the responsibilities that go with it, and accept any legitimate criticism that it may generate.
I am not denying any Kashmiri their freedom of expression (which I believe they can exercise only in the ‘Indian Kashmir’), likewise I have my rights to express my opinion, which I am, and will be, doing here with evidence. Feel free to prove my evidence as untrue, but do not criticise me for expressing my opinion on any matter, however trivial it maybe.
I let my readers to judge for themselves.
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Am I to presume you are blogger ‘K’ from the blogsite Kashmir?
If yes,
I would like to remind you that you did not publish my comments on your site.
I reserve the right to refuse to publish yours here in future.
little indian said this on July 13th, 2007 at 19:25
@ Riya Kartha,
Please tell me what can be “more important” than facts and the truth?
You say feeling matters more than the truth! Even if that emotion is provoked by deception and untruths? I can’t believe I am reading this.
When feelings matters more than the facts, figures, statements, testimonies, the truth and logic, PROPAGANDA HAS TRIUMPHED.
You may have spoken to many people who were there, but you couldn’t have spoken to the ones who have been killed or fled from fear for their lives, cleansed out of their ‘homeland’.
You say Indians’ are casually ignorant. That is your assumption, and that is an unfair generalisation. You can only speak on behalf of those who were in the group or the people you personally know. But there are many Indians like myself, who over the years have made the effort to learn of the events in Kashmir, the facts and the figures, who resents your comments.
You may have been casually ignorant, I am not. I would hate to know, that someone somewhere is laughing at me, for being naive and gullible to fall for their biased propaganda. You may not.
I am sorry, on issues of importance of such severe magnitude, where thousands have been killed, or raped or ethnically cleansed, I do not let emotions cloud my judgement, and I will not even consider “…where the person is coming from, and where his or her emotions stem from”.
You say, “Personally, your post seems like you’re trying to rip up a perfectly valid opinion to highlight your own”. If you and your friends have a perfectly valid opinion, you should not have any reasons to worry. I am expressing my opinion, it can only rip apart else’s opinion if that opinion is weak and ‘rippable’.
As I have written above, it is my right to be able to express my opinion. It is for my readers to decide what is right.
Riya Kartha said this on July 25th, 2007 at 07:00
If you have a right to express an opinion, so does everyone else. And though you may disagree, you needn’t rip someone else’s apart. There are ways to say you do not agree or share the same wavelength.
I find it a bit hypocritical that you say to Karan…
“Feel free to prove my evidence as untrue, but do not criticise me for expressing my opinion on any matter, however trivial it maybe.”
..and yet when you reply to me you say…
“I am expressing my opinion, it can only rip apart else’s opinion if that opinion is weak and ‘rippable’”
So you have to be given right of way to say that your opinion may be trivial but no one should criticise it, and yet when you think someone else’s opinion is trivial, you take full pleasure in ripping it apart?!
In spite of all that you say here, you make your own generalisations about people. You went on a tirade about Gyatri’s post without your facts straight.
“She has not mentioned which religious groups she spoke to.
She has not mentioned how freely her interviewees could speak.
Did she explore the history of this conflict?
Did she know Kashmir once indeed was a paradise?
Did she know that Kashmir was once a truly secular state?
Did she hear the voices of the minority that too have been terrorised?
How could she have heard the voices of the minority that have long fled in fear?
Did she find out what went wrong? when? and who are responsible?”
Did you bother to find out if all this was true? If you had asked her, you would know for a fact that the answer to all these questions is a Yes. For one, her post was not one that was stating facts and answering random questions. She wrote from her heart, about what she felt about her experience, and if you could only have checked your facts before ranting about what she didn’t do, you would have known that she had seen more than you thought she had. If facts and figures were what she wanted to write about, she would have done just that. She didn’t, and so there is no need to ask why there aren’t any in her post.
I understand that you have taken it personally when I said that most Indians are casually ignorant when it comes to Kashmir. And though you may think it is a generalisation, I think it is a valid one. Tell me, in a country of one billion people, do you think that the majority is literate about Kashmir’s issues?
I happen to think you are doing a wonderful job of tracking events and happenings, facts and figures about Kashmir, and I am proud that there are some Indians who may be doing the same. But the majority have no idea about what is happening, and don’t bother to keep themselves clued in. This is not a personal affront against you, and I am not casting any aspersions of ignorance on you, so kindly do not take it personally.
“You say feeling matters more than the truth! Even if that emotion is provoked by deception and untruths? I can’t believe I am reading this.”
I have not said anywhere that feelings matter more than the truth.
This, however, is what I did say…
“There are more important things than researching about facts and figures and conducting interviews with different people”
I still believe that no matter how many facts and figures you see, there are different realities for different people. And you have to put yourself in their shoes. For your information, we have spoken to people who have been victims of injustice at the hands of the State machinery for years, and they have spoken under no duress whatsoever. Once again, you make your own assumption about who we have or haven’t spoken to.
And you say…
“I am sorry, on issues of importance of such severe magnitude, where thousands have been killed, or raped or ethnically cleansed, I do not let emotions cloud my judgement, and I will not even consider “…where the person is coming from, and where his or her emotions stem from”.”
So what is it you look for when you speak to the brother of a Muslim rape victim then? Do you say, ” Oh no, more Hindu women have been raped than Muslim women, so he must surely be lying, because, after all, facts and figures don’t add up…”
But what you will never understand unless you connect with that person on an emotional level, is that there is nothing more important for him that the fact that his sister was raped. Period. And even if you do not buy into propaganda, you can still empathise with another human being.
Kindly do not, under any circumstances twist my words around to make it suit your warped logic. Please. I am not one to stand for propaganda, and all said and done, you have no idea who I am and what I stand for, so do not cast that particular aspersion on me.
I will put this up on my blogspace as well. And I don’t care what anyone who reads my blog will think, I don’t write to impress ‘readers’, and I don’t let them judge my posts to see what is right and what is wrong. I will say what I have to, regardless of who reads it and why.
little indian said this on July 25th, 2007 at 08:50
@ Riya Kartha,
I will not even try to answer this.
What you write here proves the power of good propaganda.
You will never see the truth, for you will never seek the truth you will only believe what you have been told to believe and will not independantly explore the facts and events of history to form an INFORMED OPINION.
No I don’t. Is it not you who is being presumptive?
I accept atrocities has been committed against BOTH religious groups, hindus and muslims.
Hindus on muslims and muslims on hindus and muslims. (This is where facts become important.)
On 15th August 1947, Kashmir wished to stay INDEPENDANT and SECULAR.
Without Pakistan (islamic) led atrocities from the NorthWest, it probably would have stayed that way.
So I will explore the reasons why that piece of land has today become what it is; a paradise fragmented. And why does Indian security forces have to be in Kashmir.
And opine on an outcome that benefits all groups, hindus buddhist and muslims for Kashmir never was and should never be home ONLY to the Muslims. That in my opinion is not an option.
You can stay blinded by propaganda, your choice.
You believe only you and a handful of your friends know more about the Kashmir issue than anyone else in “a country of one billion people”.
Like your little pathetic poem, you can in your own words “write from the heart” whatever you want, wherever you wish, it will not change an iota of the truth.
When the truth and facts becomes insignificant to emotional garbage, to feelings and to “writings from the heart” there is not point in continuing.
little indian said this on July 25th, 2007 at 12:04
Further to my statement in the original post (as quoted below).
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This topic is now closed to further comments.
kashmir myths - abuses only by indian forces « “me no big chief… said this on July 27th, 2007 at 00:55
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an update - this ends here and now « “me no big chief… said this on August 25th, 2007 at 15:48
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