Last evening I went to Jantar Mantar after many years. It is a road I pass often, looking at the sad and melancholic little protests that line the kerb, whispering to an indifferent Capital the million mutinies of our banana plantation republic.
Last evening was different. There were perhaps four to five hundred people, many, but not all Kashmiri, men and women, who had gathered to protest against the wanton destruction of life in the Kashmir valley by the security apparatus of the Indian state in the last few weeks and months. 45 civilian deaths in 8 weeks signals a state losing its head. Especially when the deaths occur when the police and paramilitaries fire live bullets on unarmed or stone pelting mobs. When stones, or unarmed bodies are met with ammunition, you know that the state has no respect whatsoever for bare life. That this should happen in a state that calls itself a democracy should make all of us who are its citizens reflect on how hollow ‘democracy’ feels to the mother or friend of a young boy or girl who is felled by a ‘democratic’ bullet.
Protests in Delhi often have a routine, scripted quality. But this one was different. Professor S.A.R Geelani was level headed and dignified, as he spoke to the assembled, visibly upset young men and women, introduced each speaker in turn and appealed to people to stay calm, and not get provoked.
I don’t think that there has been a public gathering of young people from Kashmir in such numbers in Delhi, and the occasion had a cathartic, almost therapeutic character, as if the acknowledgment of each others presence could also make it possible for many amongst those gathered to say what needed to be said, loud and clear, in public, what they had only kept as a secret in their hearts.
As a citizen of the Indian republic, I can only hang my head in shame at the venality of the state, and at how it openly sanctions the murder of Kashmiri men, women and children on the streets of the valley. Even a leading member of the Israeli military establishment (not known for their kindness towards occupied Palestinians) has recently admonished India’s hard-line militarist mandarins in Kashmir on the appalling conditions that they administer in Kashmir.
I stood in silence at the meeting. Listened to the slogans, the chanting, the statements, some made by friends like Sanjay Kak, others by people I do not know personally, but whose work and politics I have an interest in, even if I do not agree with, such as the poet and ex-political prisoner Varavara Rao. I met some old friends, talked quietly to strangers, and felt a momentary twinge of pride in Delhi, at least about the fact that so many of us were reclaiming a space on Jantar Mantar, for once to break the enormously deafening silence about Kashmir in a public and peaceful manner.
There were different kinds of slogans that were heard. Most resonant of all was the slogan that has now become the signature of all protests in Kashmir, ‘Hum Kya Chahtey – Azaadi’ (‘What do we want – Freedom’) which speaks to the wide spectrum of sometimes disparate political currents and opinions which is together only because of one common objective – rightful anger at the continued occupation of Kashmir by the armed might of the Indian state. Some slogans stressed the unity of all Kashmiris – be they Pandit, Muslim or Sikh. Occasionally, the air did reverberate with slogans that some might interpret as having a more secterian tinge – the ‘Nara e Taqbeer – Allah o Akbar’. But the vast majority of slogans had simply one motif – ‘Azaadi’. Sometimes spoken with joy, sometimes with anger, sometimes as a lament, sometimes with hope – with the vowels elongated to mean a myriad complexities that are rendered unspoken by the simplifying violence of the occupation.
Many speakers, including Professor Geelani, and men and women people from the crowd, repeatedly made appeals not to ‘communalize’ the issue, and the same people who said, ‘Allah o Akbar’ also immediately switched to slogans emphasizing Kashmir’s secular fabric, and called for Pandit-Muslim-Sikh unity in Kashmir.
I did not feel perturbed by the airing of the ‘Allah o Akbar’ slogan, as I am not when I hear people say ‘Vande Mataram’ or indeed, ‘Jai Shree Ram’. I am not a believer, and the fervent expression of belief on the part of those who do believe, neither enthuses, nor disturbs me. In each case, I am more interested in what lies behind the passion. And I believed that what lay behind the passion last evening, despite the anxiety on some of the faces in the crowd, was an appeal to the divine as the final arbiter of justice and peace in a deeply violent and unjust world. I can understand what motivates people to make that claim, even if I cannot make it myself, especially in a situation, where all appeals to mundane, worldly power, seem to have exhausted themselves. A situation where stones are met with bullets and grenades can make even the most sceptical of us lose faith in the grace of the mortals who rule, ultimately, only with the force of arms.
Perhaps, not airing such slogans would have been tactically more intelligent. But I did not get the sense that those who had gathered in Jantar Mantar last evening had come to score intelligent and sophisticated political points. They had come to express their anger and their sadness, they had come to cease, for a brief moment, to be the anonymous, anxious Kashmiri in Delhi who is always worried about being labelled a ‘terrorist’ by a prejudiced neighbour, a callous policeman or a random stranger. They had come to be themselves, to mourn, and to tell the world of their mourning. I can only feel grateful that they could gather the courage to do this. There is an urgency, as Sanjay Kak reminded the gathering for forging an intelligent politics in response to what is going on in Kashmir, and that politics must not rest only on the engine of pain and anger. I totally agree with this, at the same time, I also know, that without an occasion like what we witnessed yesterday, when Kashmiris can openly express their desire for liberation and their anguish in the heart of India, in the vocabulary and language that has sustained their struggles over the past decades, it will not happen. I remain hopeful that it will.
Some speakers, including Varavara Rao, Mohan Jha (from Delhi University, I hope I got his name right), Sanjay Kak, and a sikh gentleman from Amritsar whose name escapes me, spoke of the fact that there was a great deal of solidarity in India for the just demands of the Kashmiri people. The occasion did not, at any instance, degenerate into a vulgar clash of competing nationalisms.
Outside the perimter of this protest, stood another – a small group of people associated with organizations that claim to represent the Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora, who were ‘protesting’ against the protest. I recognized a face in this crowd, I follow his self-righteous online outpourings quite regularly. Some of the speakers, including Mr. Geelani, alluded to them, saying that they shared in their pain, and even invited them to come and address the gathering. They however, remained aloof. Holding their placards, with their claim to monopoly of the pain and anguish of Kashmir. Ther stirred to life, when Sanjay Kak, spoke, heckling him, in a now familiar and churlish manner. I felt sad to see them, because they could make claim to suffering only as a means to divide people, not bring people together in solidarity.
Just before I left, a young woman who had recently come to Delhi to study, spoke eloquently about what it means to have lost a childhood in Kashmir, to have seen brothers and friends shot. I do not know who she is, and I could not catch her name, perhaps it was ‘Arshi’, but I wished I could apologize to her personally, because I know that her childhood has been robbed by people speaking in the name of the state that claims my fealty.
The occupation of Kashmir by India and Pakistan is an immoral and evil fact of our times. The sooner it ends, the better will it be for all of us in South Asia. True ‘Azaadi’ in Kashmir, for all its inhabitants, and for all those who have been displaced by more than twenty years of violence, can only help us all, in Delhi, and elsewhere, to breathe more freely.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Hi … have been following the ‘azaadi’ cause and it is really time India wakes up to the fact that we are an occupying force… it’s appalling how the unconcerned the rest of the country is . But the dilemma is: what if India withdraws… who will run the newly formed country? terrorists? coz the separatists are a divided force… they don’t seem to have one face who is uniting all factions and leading the movement… how will their economy run? can they survive on their own? will they anyway have to migrate to India/ Pakistan for livelihood… will the region turn into a talibanised hellhole? Will there be stability? Coz this region needs peace and stability more than anything…
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Chitrita,
As an epileptic patient, I too can wax eloquent about how unconcerned the rest of the country is about this problem…for instance, this is still considered a valid reason to annul marriages. And that is the least of the problems. We are light years from a country like the US where the Chief Justice (John Roberts) is epileptic but no questions are raised regarding his ability to discharge his duties.
I only mention this because in our country there is no shortage of issues which are “ignored” by everyone other than those directly concerned. That is no reason to stop fighting, of course, whether about epilepsy or Kashmir or anything else. Just that routine braying about the “unconcern” of the rest of the country is tiresome and gets us nowhere.
The rest of your comment is irrelevant. If Kashmir (whether the whole state or just the valley or just the Muslim areas) becomes independent, its fate will be decided by its citizens. If they opt to become a “talibanized hellhole” (your words), then that’s that. That is the whole point of independence. We forget our own history – and how quickly! During the Quit India movement, Gandhi, responding to similar sorts of concerns raised by the British (Hindu-Muslim conflicts and so on in the absence of British control) said “Leave India to God, and if that be too much, leave her to anarchy!” A Kashmiri might well say the same.
Certainly, there are issues to be dealt with — whether we (India) choose to give azaadi, or for that matter, deny it as we have done so far. But the issues you have raised are irrelevant.
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Great article but like most indians you are unaware of the ground realities of kashmir..they will still cry for the deaths which happened under the dogra kings but will shrug off the massacres of hindus and sikhs which forced the invasion of kashmir in the first place. What has happened in kashmir over the past 10 years cannot in any way be condoned, but giving them independence will just be suicide from a geo political view point. Neither does kashmir have the resources to sustain itself nor will its religion/leaders allow democracy to sustain itself and you can ask your KM friends whether they will ever return back to kashmir and give up their cushy lives in delhi?..the moment independence is given Hurriyat(G) and (M) will be at each others throats and not to mention the loss of water resources which will cripple punjab and haryana…water is the resource over which future wars will be fought..we will be simply postponing a war 10 years down the line..
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Nikhil, i’d give benefit of doubt to any oppressed minority community… if it was Jews in Nazi Germany or Palestinians today. Yes, if the Hindus/sikhs/Christians in Pakistan used slogans and rhetoric pertaining to their religious identity in their protests against the atrocities heaped upon them I wouldn’t automatically ascribe their protest to their being members of hindutva ‘brigade’. Nikhil, it takes guts to learn to take side of the oppressed people… no matter who they are in a given situation. snide remarks are in comparison easy to make.
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Excellent writeup! I was there too yesterday and you really have captured the spirit of the entire event. Like you Mr Sengupta I was there as an Indian who has been feeling ashamed for a long time for being a citizen of the state that has been perpetrating violence on the people of Kashmir for many decades. Especially in the last couple of months i’ve felt really bad as a social work educator when my friend Fahim (one of the organisers of this protest) told me that Kashmiris are really disappointed by the near total silence in the Indian civil society.
As a Muslim woman I heard the Nara-e-takbir and i also heard an upset Kashmiri woman appeal to the crowd to not ‘communalise’ the issue… she seemed visibly so upset that i wished to go upto her and assure her that it was okay…, that their cause was not being diluted by the cries of Allah is great. If only more of us were as empathetic as you… you rightly and sensitively read the sentiments of the young Kashmiris… the ‘secular’ state chose to close all doors of human interactions and an angry and sad people were invoking God. Even one of the speakers towards the end said that when he heard the cry of Allah-u-akbar he heard a slogan against imperialism. Some of my colleagues and friends from Dept of Social Work, DU picked up the nervous enery of the slogan and looking a bit uncomfortable asked me the meaning of the slogan. The translation seemed to ease them and I think everyone could understand.
Thanks for writing this post and the name of the speaker from Delhi University was Dr Manoj Jha.
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What else could Nizam-e-Mustapha mean? No matter what the educated liberals say in Jantar mantar or anywhere else, the bottomline is the same..take if from me I have lived around kashmiri muslims all my life. they reject secularism,reject democracy and wish to live a sunni islam verision of life because that is the only way which will get them petro dollars from the wahabs of Saudi and keep the uneducated public fired up against the rule of the kaffirs. Dont misguide urself, those who feel edgy around the naraas of Nara-e-taqbir have a good reason to do so…people like andrabi and co will call the shots once kashmir gets independent! I am not condoning the human rights abuses rather I am portraying the other side of kashmir..the side that doesnt get reported in the leftist media in the country and I’d like to ask you ONE question..had the demonstration been held by Hindus and had they shouted Jai shri ram or whichever god took their fancy at the moment..wouldn’t you and the rest of writers have named them as members of the Saffron brigade?
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“Many speakers, including Professor Geelani, and men and women people from the crowd, repeatedly made appeals not to ‘communalize’ the issue, and the same people who said, ‘Allah o Akbar’ also immediately switched to slogans emphasizing Kashmir’s secular fabric, and called for Pandit-Muslim-Sikh unity in Kashmir.”
So according to the writer, this call for Kashmiri “Azadi” is a secular moment. All – Pandits, Sikhs, Buddhists are included. Infact all those people opposed to Kashmiri “Azadi” are fascist hindooo bigots.
Okay.
Joseph Goebbels : “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Shuddhabrata Sengupta, you rock !!
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Hi Shuddhabrata,
Was it not a case of birds roosting. Sessionists of all hues and from all different areas of India, protesting aginst the thought called India. And look at the beauty of democracy you are allowed to do that right in the heart of the national capital.
Yes lets give azadi to those who want it, but it is not azadi that is being demanded. This is a furthering of Bhutto dream of breaking up this nation.
Not only Kashmiris but every citizen of Jammu and Kashmir is eligible for the right to self determination. To have self determination, let us put back J&K in the shape it was in 1947. Will Pakistan agree to that, will China hand back Aksai Chin? Whom are we kidding here?
Do you think every colony of Delhi that asks for it can be made a seperate state? What makes you think Kashmir should. Kargil which is Muslim majority has no sessionist demands, you know why? Because there are more Shias there than Sunnis. The ratio of Shia to Sunnis is reverse in the valley. Think about it :) .
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Hilal Mir’s brilliant piece on the stone throwers of Kashmir
http://www.hindustantimes.com/How-I-became-a-stone-thrower-for-a-day/Article1-583646.aspx
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Guys,you did a great job.Going for protests in delhi is a BIG thing u know….we are not been allowed here to protest peacefully…and u people protest there in the middle of the capital of so called BIGGEST DEMOCRACY IN WORLD.Hats off to all you guys there.
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Beautifully written. Thank you Shuddhabrata for covering this event.
A heartfelt piece by Basharat Peer below:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Kashmir-unrest-A-letter-to-unknown-Indian/articleshow/6278402.cms
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Pretty sensible piece coming from an Indian. Had we been de-colonised long back, had India n Pak behaved as good neighbours, things wouldn’t have come to such a pass. Look at how India wins hearts here: by killing people as if they r tossing toy soldiers off a chess board. Is this a thing to be swept under d carpet and treated as a thing of the past? What would work for India in Kashmir is to drop a nuclear bomb over it, kill all Kashmiris, come inhabit the land and laugh at each other!! HELL WITH THE LARGEST DEMOCRACY!
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नारा-ए-तक़बीर.. भारत में ही रहेगा कश्मीर
नारा-ए-रिसालत.. गिलानी पर लानत-मलानत
सेनगुप्ता जी. तुम जिसे मानवाधिकार हनन कह रहे हो.. वह अभी हुआ ही नहीं है। समस्या मुस्लिम बहुसंख्यकों में है जो किसी भी सेकुलर व्यवस्था का हिस्सा नहीं बने रह सकते।
तभी ऐसे नारे सुनने मिलते रहेंगे और तुम कमअक़्लों की तरह ये सोचोगे कि ये मानवाधिकार हनन की मुख़ालफ़त में जंतर मंतर पर बैठे थे।
तुम्हे हिन्दुत्व से प्रेम नहीं तो ना सही। कम अज़ कम भारत से प्रेम करो। वो भी नहीं कर सकते तो यक़ीन मानो कि तुम यूटोपिया मे जी रहे हो।
तुम्हारे पांव के नीचे ज़मीन नहीं
कमाल है कि तुम्हें फिर भी यक़ीन हीं।
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Thank you, Shuddhabrata. This is a good piece with a much-needed dose of sanity.
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Also saddened to see very distasteful protest against protest by ‘the other group’. I was there on Sunday evening and couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the point of being provocative was.
What was expected though is the lack of media coverage for this event. Bah humbug.
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“Also saddened to see very distasteful protest against protest by ‘the other group’.”
Ya. The “other group” have realized that your kind finds them “distasteful”.
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“…when Kashmiris can openly express their desire for liberation and their anguish in the heart of India..”
I hope the Kashmiri Pandits can express their grievences and anguish in the heart of Srinagar.
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I fail to understand why in the last 20 years you have not written a single line about the Kashmiri Hindus . They are refugees in their own country and the people who are crying in Delhi were responsible for their exodus . They were mute spectators of the Killings of Kashmiri Hindus.Thank God that you people are living in secular India that is why u r able to shout anti -India slogans. Imagine had it been Pakistan or even China you would have been crushed.
This protest and slogans reminds me of the the events of Kashmir valley 22 years back. We used to have such protests and at that time there was no CRPF or Army . I hope u understand that it were these very people who supported terrorists in 1988-90. KM’s are them selves responsible for the situation they are in. Had there been no terrorist activity what was the need to bring CRPF on the streets. Even today if they stop throwing stones why will police or CRPF fire. Please open your eyes do not get be fooled . It is Islamic terrorism and they are trying to give it a moderate face and you are supporting them in this endeavor.You did not quote the other slogan — Azaddi ka Matal — If you are true to your mother land India please see through the eyes of a patriotic Indian.
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“Many speakers, including Professor Geelani, and men and women people from the crowd, repeatedly made appeals not to ‘communalize’ the issue, and the same people who said, ‘Allah o Akbar’ also immediately switched to slogans emphasizing Kashmir’s secular fabric, and called for Pandit-Muslim-Sikh unity in Kashmir.”
So according to the writer, this call for Kashmiri “Azadi” is a secular moment. All – Pandits, Sikhs, Buddhists are included. Infact all those people opposed to Kashmiri “Azadi” are fascist hindooo bigots.
Okay.
Joseph Goebbels : “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Shuddhabrata Sengupta, you rock !!
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There is a case for much better crowd management, and 50 people killed in the process of riot-quelling is indeed unconsionable..However, this constant effort in left-liberal circles to somehow portray the so-called “kashmir azaadi” movement as some sort of secular nationalist uprising against the brutal Indian state is naive at best and delusional at worst..The parallels to Palestine drawn through selective portrayal of images of stone-pelting mobs forgets that the faces of the KAshmiri insurgency do not include a George Habash – it is dominated by the Syed Salahuddins and Hafiz Sayeeds..The touching pictures themselves almost deliberately hide similarly copious images of policemen being beaten up by the masked crowds, or that of an AK47-armed policeman assualted by a bunch of rioters with firebombs – and he steadfastly refusing to draw his weapon!
Dont the “Kashmiri muslims” demonstrating at jantar mantar realise the irony of their rhetoric against the “fascist Indian state”? Which fascist state allows a secessionist movement to find a platform in the heart of its capital? Last time someone tried, the state sent in tanks, at Tianenmen Square..And who leads these “kashmiri muslims”? Prof SAR Geelani? Someone who benefited from the “barbaric Indian system” by getting exonerated from terror charges on a technicality?
Shuddha’s naive (best case interpretation!) equalisation of “naraa e takbeer” and “vande mataram” is singularly symptomatic of the problems in the analysis…Vande Mataram (the evocation, not the poem) transcended the borders of religious divides as a legacy of the freedom movement – Ashfaquallah Khan and Bhagat Singh, no one’s case of hindu religious pieties, had that slogan on their lips, so did millions of others…Its status lies in the same domain as the festivals of Xmas and Holi (or Durga Puja in bengal) – the historical cultural vignettes of the festival(s) overwhelms the narrow religious ones, making it truly national..But “naraa e takbeer”? Its motivations are not any different from those looking to set up Islamic emirates around the world – historiccally it has been the case, and remains the case…
Do the agitating Kashmiri muslims have any concept of what “azaadi” means? Is it about not having CRPF barricading the towns? That will stop once the stone pelters go…Is it about having equal economic opportunity? Well, a Kashmiri muslim jut topped the civil services exam…Is it about having “free and fair” elections? No one can accuse a post-Seshan Election Commission to have not conducted one in J&K…Or is it about “autonomy”…Autnomy of what? Not having the jurisdiction of Supreme Court or Election Commission or CAG in J&K? Arent they better off with these instituions overseeing state instituions?
Or is it autonomy of setting up an Islamic Caliphate?
The last bit, I am afraid is the most relevant one, as of now..And that just cannot be allowed, can it?
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It is true that kashmiris are being crushed mercilessly today. but i seriously want to know what if they do get their azadi and kashmir becomes an independent islamic state? will they, can they guarantee that I as a hindu can live with peace and dignity? How can i be involved in asking for their azadi when my own is under doubt in their domain? It is easy to say sitting here, but not if you have to shift bag and baggage and live with them day in and day out. To go through daily humiliations and taunts about your religion and your practices- which is the least of what they will do, the most as we all know is simple and clear murder. If basharat peer cannot forget the murders, why should pandits forget theirs? Can he or any KM org guarantee, vow, collectively state that all minorities will be given equality, freedom to not just LIVE SAFELY..no no, but to live according to their CHOICE AND FREE WILL the way they want to???
If kashmiris were so innocent that they had no choice but to watch the murder of their bretheren- the pandits – what is the guarantee that they won’t ill treat minorities later- in fact there is more than enough evidence that they will. Leave any muslim country be and this will be the first thing they’ll do. They never allow people of other minorities to live peacefully with dignity anywhere in the world. That is a fact. From cohabitants of the valley we will become kafirs of the valley in the blink of an eye.
Now if you say, how does it matter to us what nation state kashmir becomes- then you are very irresponsible. aap to haath jhaadh kar aage badh jaoge, hamara kya?? you can be smug about how you were part of their tehreek, but what about part of our tragedy? What if there was a hindu majority state somewhere in another country and they had killed several hundreds and cleared the rest of the muslim population off the state with naaras of Jai Sia Ram or Jai Durge or Jai hind..? You would be shaking your head in disgust and thinking ten times before supporting their demand of secession. I know i would have. Especially if it was a poor country and that hindu state was the most prosperous one in it. If they have their own corrupt politicians they will still have them even after azadi. They have called this mayhem and violence- kashmir’s tragedy on themselves. And don’t even start on the history of cruel dogra rule – the islamic rule that butchered all pandit families and left only 9 is also part of the pandit legacy in kashmir.
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I would also like to add that in some articles we indians- civil society- are shown complicit in the sufferings of KMs in kashmir, at least their is huge amounts of discussion and debate and voices like yours to stop more atrocities. I believe you do take some amount of risk standing up to the might of the Indian State. Right?
Then might i ask what were my dear brothers and sisters in kashmir doing when pandits were not just killed, but brutally tortured, their bodies burnt, shot to smithereens, dragged and cut to pieces? Even if it was a few hundreds?
What were they doing? They were sheltering, feeding and beating their breasts at the funerals of our killers- the LET militants martyred. Why did they not oppose, throw stones or at the least take out peaceful protests to oppose the violence against us? Why did they not urge their community to not harbor militants that were butchering us?
Why? How can i ever forgive their silence? I will never forgive their silence.
On the other hand they say- ‘ Kashure Bate bhaag gaye’
They don’t even acknowledge it happened. Shameless. Unrepentant for decades. Perhaps now the new generation is different, but if their parents could watch and facilitate our genocide, why won’t they look away when more happens later?
please tell me, how do I become part of their suffering when they betrayed me?
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The issue is not of a “lost homeland” (a la Palestine – the only people who have lost their homes is the pandits), it isnt of economic backwardness (Kashmir’s development indicators are among the above-average in the country), the deficiency isnt about autonomy or democracy (Art 370 gives more to J&K than is afforded to any other state)..The issue is, as Yoginder Sikand comments here, is of competing narratives of “thought”..
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266629
Shorn of sophistry, it is the ideology that propagates that a “muslim majority” state not being compatible in a hindu-majority country…For the future of the Indian nation state, that ideology cannot be allowed to succeed…Because if it is sucessful, it will mark the end of India as we know (and most of us love) – a pluralist, open society…Tensions and issues, grave ones, notwithstanding, an India where an SRK and Aamir are teh biggest movie stars, an Azharuddin the longest-serving cricket captain, an Azim Premji the toast of the pink media, an AR Rahman the toast of the music-loving community, an APJ Abdul Kalam the guiding spirit of the strategic establishment, and above all, a Shah Faisal as the topper in the civil services exams…
In case the Kashmiri muslim narrative, for whatever reason (external provocation or internal factors) militates against the “India story”, tough luck to be honest to them…5 million kashmiri muslims cannot have the veto to the future of 1.2 billion Indians…
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I am responding to the quote from somnath
“Shuddha’s naive (best case interpretation!) equalisation of “naraa e takbeer” and “vande mataram” is singularly symptomatic of the problems in the analysis…Vande Mataram (the evocation, not the poem) transcended the borders of religious divides as a legacy of the freedom movement – Ashfaquallah Khan and Bhagat Singh, no one’s case of hindu religious pieties, had that slogan on their lips, so did millions of others…Its status lies in the same domain as the festivals of Xmas and Holi (or Durga Puja in bengal) – the historical cultural vignettes of the festival(s) overwhelms the narrow religious ones, making it truly national..But “naraa e takbeer”? Its motivations are not any different from those looking to set up Islamic emirates around the world – historiccally it has been the case, and remains the case…”
a little bit of a case of misinformation i am thinking. Have you read Bankim Chandra’s Anandamath? Put that, and the notions/ historical basis of evolving nation-identity together, and i think that you will feel that some rethink is needed on this claim. Its a very very problematic claim to make, and really should not be reduced to this level of generalization at all, even for the sake of polemic.
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