Guest post by ONAIZA DRABU
Dear India,
As you celebrate yet another year of the glorious independence; the independence that was the beginning of an era of doom for most of us here, I must inform you that I was unable to get my morning bread. Sixty Eight is a big number and I’m sure the proceedings will be aplenty and that and you have plenty of ‘ache din’. Somehow, I have my doubts but then again, I’m sure our definitions of good differ greatly. However it may be, I have one tiny request. Please let me eat my breakfast in peace.
It is still two days to go for the Independence Day Parade in Srinagar and I am one of the privileged few who live within a two-kilometer radius of the Bakshi Stadium, the place where the annual flag hoisting ceremony is held. Excess army is deployed all around and as in all such times, our local baker wasn’t allowed to open shop this morning.
As a child, I read your textbooks in school. I read about how Pinky and Shyam would go to their school for the flag hoisting on Independence Day and of course I’d wonder where this would happen. Independence day meant a crackdown or a curfew for all us kids here. Independence day meant that the morose army guy I hated to look at would stand at my gate, staring straight ahead with a blank, yet frightening constancy. Independence day meant my dedicated doctor of a mother had to walk to work for sometimes, they’d not even allow ambulances to ply.
The independence you celebrate to commemorate freedom has forever been associated with barbed wires on streets that restricted access to locations. It is ironical how roadblocks, surprise checks and general inconvenience is what I have forever associated with this independence. General inconvenience here also includes times where each one of the dozen, army-men on every street eyes you with contempt and suspicion. I snigger if you tell me we celebrate freedom on this day. To the many things that are already restricted here this day adds more.
This year, once again, Kashmiris will observe it as black day. Do not let that deter dampen your sprits though. My blessings are with you. I hope this year is good for you. I hope you find many more lovely destinations for yatras, in this valley. I hope many more tourists come with their bag and baggage in big buses spewing black smoke from cheap petrol and litter boxes of frooties carried all the way from across the Pir Panjal. I hope you bring in more buses of expressionless army men and all that you deem fit for us because frankly, we are apathetic now. We are so complacent that it won’t bother us because if it did, we probably do something to change it. Any promise for change here will get you one reaction; that of disbelief and skepticism.
I hope you have a good sixty eighth year of Independence and your flag flies high and the mighty saffron in it, a tad brighter than usual this year. All I ask for, is my poor morning tea to be had with fresh bread and butter.
With love,
From Kashmir
Onaiza Drabu is a graduate at from the Young India Fellowship and University of Delhi and currently works as a freelance writer and an illustrator.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Curse disguised as blessing! Wow!
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Is this the Independence we fought for?
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Everything is relative my friend Shashank Dhar is kashmiri and he is a proud indian. I can smell communalism from the writing of drabu. We never allowed our country to declare itself as Hindu Rashtra even though majority of hindus wil vote for it sans leftisit anti hindu our constitution heard only a minority voive and declare it as secular similalrly we will heard only minority voice from kashmir who are kashmiri brahmins and not muslims and our brahmin brothers have always supported india so kashmiri muslims cry as hard you can but we hear only minority voice
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” kashmiri muslims cry as hard you can but we hear only minority voice”.
We Kashmiris Muslims never were, are not and never want will be a part of India. We will continue to demand azaadi from India’s illegal occupation till Allah almighty grants it to us. The Kashmiri hindus can join us in our struggle if they want. But the fact remains that we Muslims are the majority… and in any democratic decision it is the MAJORITY who determines the outcome (NOT THE MINORITY). So inshallah when the plebiscite is held. Kashmiri Muslims will raise their voice, get azaadi from India and secede with our beloved Pakistan. Enough is enough of India’s disgusting and illegal occupation. Leave us alone. We don’t want to be part of you.
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India is just a union of states held together by a common idea .. Not by any one religion. The portion carved from Indian Union now wants to eat into the area of kashmir using the religion as tool. The powers that be( generals across the border) there want to enjoy among other things the ” kashmiri apples” .
See the state of affairs of the people there and the suffering.. By heeding and supporting to their machinations, see the state of affairs in our own Kashmir where now a generation of youth might have not reached their true potential. Dont allow anybody to decide your destiny… Kashmir is the jugular of India and it is therefore impossible for India to let it be at the mercy of its non-well wishers…
True independance will be the day when people will realize what is best for them and not any other factor…. let us not live in a fool’s paradise…
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I think your write-up doesn’t present the complete and unbiased picture.
Happy 68th Independence day…
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This “article” is juvenile – calling it nihilistic would be a complement.
I’d suggest you begin by taking into account that there are many Indians outside of Kashmir who have similar feelings. Kashmir is not the only problem India has, and as far as injustices go, it sadly doesn’t come close to the top of the list. That’s not to say what happens in Kashmir is good – it just goes to show you how unjust this country is. Please try to change that instead of simply venting. That’s what we have mainstream media for …
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The presence of army is virtually zero in Srinagar, in fact the army is deployed in the rural areas, not the large cities.
The security bandobast too is much lighter today than it was a few years back.
Above all, there won’t be any of the paraphernalia if there wasn’t the militancy!
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Its very easy to blame militancy. We in the north east also grown up with similar stories. Independence day means a day for us when we stay at home. The days preceding the independence day were difficult especially people from rural areas were looked with suspicion. Even when I was a class 8 student, was asked uncomfortable question. Militancy is a problem and smwhere a manifestation of anger. Violence cannot be justified. Not from the side of the militants and at the same time more from the state which is entrusted to safeguard its citizens. The citizens must feel a sense of belonging to its country, only then we can feel proud as an Indian.
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Somnath – Your ignorance compelled me to write a reply to you. When was the last time you visited Srinagar? I have felt the worst in the city. Army has total control of each and every part of the city and cordons off any area it wishes to. You can’t question them. Casual arrests and in some case firing too is a common sight.
Painful part of it is that most of this won’t find space in mainstream Delhi based media. They will keep harping hollow claims of peace in the valley.
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Abhishek
Where is Army in Srinagar outside badami bagh? The forces deployed are largely crpf. They can go too, as long as we are sure that we won’t see a sopore 1995 redux.
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Abhishek being an Army officer myself with a recent stint in the Valley , am amazed at your ignorance in distinguishing between an Army guy and those of CRPF. Srinagar has been handed over to CRPF about 15 years ago. The CRPF is a central police organisation and it’s use in mainting law and order as also fighting terrorism across the length and breadth of the country is frequent. Make yourself a little wiser. The Army has moved out from populated areas. Do not fall prey to the crocodile tears of people like the author . Has written how he feels when out of 365 days , Kashmir closes for 100 days on the strike call of Geelani and co . Doesn’t he feel any disturbance to his routine life. No cinemas , radicalization , rampant corruption , But nobody utters a single word but are quick to blame the security forces who have brought in a semblance of peace and sacrifice facing numerous odds and after numerous sacrifices.
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They won’t let you have your bread and butter in peace because the whole point of occupation is to rub it in. What is more, India has already abandoned its secular democratic mask and adopted an unabashed majoritarian one. It has nothing to defend.
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This is just a quick response to those who have written in, making fine distinctions between CRPF and the Indian Army when it comes to living in a militarized zone. These distinctions may score cheap debating points, but militarization has the same devastating impact on everyday life regardless of who’s holding the gun.
The more important point is that there is a fundamental difference between those of you who think of this militarization as something that “we” have a stake in, and try to normalize, and those of us who believe that “we” want no part of the brutal occupation regime by India, a state in which we live, and whose citizens we are, but every policy of whose state elites we deplore. Those state elites are not “us”.
When Somnath says “as long as we are sure that we won’t see a sopore 1995 redux”, I wonder who this arrogant “we” is.
Not In My Name, certainly, thank you very much. Please keep your “we” to yourself.
In this game played between state elites (which includes the shady role of the global arms industry) soldiers are quite literally cannon fodder, and this other “we”, are sadly aware of this. We are also aware that armed forces who have impunity will behave exactly like any other armed person with impunity.
Finally, those of us who “blame the security forces” are also those who wonder why the security forces are permanently stationed in so many parts of the “world’s largest democracy”. Political disputes should have political resolutions, and no freedom struggle has yet been exterminated by a state’s armed forces, however powerful that state thinks it is, and no matter how long the struggle goes on.
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And this is where we part ways from the organized or even ideological left – those of us socially liberal but hawkish on policy. To you this might seem like splitting hairs (“armed apparatus of the state” and all that) but the CRPF is *police*, a job quite different from soldiering although both policemen and soldiers wear uniform. Their presence indicates the presence of a state. Having seen what happened in Punjab in the 1980s (I lived in the state during the whole Bhindrawale build-up) I never endorse the withdrawal of the state from security obligations. Can police be trained to interact better with citizens? Sure. But it is only because the Valley is flooded with security personnel – police, to repeat – that Kashmir is spared an ISIS-like orgy of beheadings and savagery. The people of the Valley don’t know it yet, but they are lucky, very lucky. I am deliberately saying “Valley”: look up a map of Jammu and Kashmir, even the one on Wikipedia, and you will see that the Kashmir Valley is a tiny blurb on a large swathe of territory (Jammu and Ladakh) that is very agreeable to the idea of the Indian state and has no ongoing separatist movement. Most people on the outside hear “Kashmir” and think the whole state is up in arms. It isn’t.
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Sharmishtha (defending Indian military and police presence in Kashmir on the grounds of lucky Kashmiris’ own interests)
“…it is only because the Valley is flooded with security personnel – police, to repeat – that Kashmir is spared an ISIS-like orgy of beheadings and savagery. The people of the Valley don’t know it yet, but they are lucky, very lucky.”
Winston Churchill (defending British presence in India on grounds of lucky Indians’ own self interests)
“We are no more aliens in India than the Mohammedans or the Hindus themselves…Our Government is not an irresponsible Government. It is a Government responsible to the Crown and to Parliament. It is incomparably the best Government that India has ever seen or ever will see…
This protection and security cannot be removed from India. They have grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength. They will diminish with our diminution and decay with our decay, if I may paraphrase a famous sentence. In so far as they are withdrawn and this external aid withheld, India will descend, not quite into the perils of Europe but into the squalor and anarchy of India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.”
Winston Churchill’s Speech On The Second Reading Of The Government Of India Bill, February 11, 1935 [Parliamentary Debates, Official Report, Fifth Series, Volume 297 (House of Commons), columns 1640-1663]
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There’s really no point equating the post-Independence state of India with Winston Churchill’s British Empire. It just isn’t the same thing. Especially since Patel and Nehru went about crafting a strong state to fill the power vacuum. In fact your response further strengthens my belief in a strong state. Something that an independent “Valley” is not likely to have. Separation – well, if there was a way of keeping Jammu and Ladakh safe while handing over the Valley to Pakistan – because for sure there will be no azaadi no matter what the Valley Kashmiri professes – I would advocate that in a heartbeat. Sadly, there is no way the Ladakhis and Jammu-ites can be extracted safely from the whole mess and so the Valley stays, I guess .Valley Kashmiris can have whatever arrangement they like under the Constitution – any permutation and combination their elected leaders decide to have. Just not separation, not right now anyway.
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In a region where an armed insurgency is active (no matter how justified the insurgents and the majority local population feel the insurgency is), a lack of militarization can be as devastating as militarization. There are ample examples of this from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka to most recently Iraq. It is a fact that the Hindus of Kashmir have either left out of fear or driven away, and cannot return till the militancy is brought to an end. Kashmir Shia are also not looking forward to a Sunni Islamic state. There are no easy answers here.
There is almost no debate allowed on whether an armed rebellion was at all justified, it is simply the old ‘eye for an eye’ logic. Even if all the charges on the Indian state up to 1987 are taken to be true, an armed rebellion simply seems far too extreme of an option, and almost certainly a foolish one, let alone questions of morality.
I wish I had a response to Nivedita Menon’s point about “armed forces who have impunity will behave exactly like any other armed person with impunity” and could proudly so that no, the Indian armed forces operate under the Constitution and rule of law. However, the appalling injustices of Pathribal, the Masooda Parveen case and others show that we have no interest in justice. I wonder how we can celebrate Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti with the knowledge of such state and society sanctioned injustice.
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The whole episode of couch-sitting dialogs here seems to be biased on either side, in favor of militarization or non-militarization, but no one seems to have any interest in explaining the basic psychology on how militarization has had its effect on a number of generations of Kashmiri Muslims and why demilitarization is required. What do the Kashmiris want, do they all want to be separated? Not all of them will raise a dissent voice of course, but dissatisfaction prevails among them all because of the extreme militarization of the zone, be it for any reason…and it’s the same in other parts of India as well, such as Manipur and other North Eastern states, apart from post-ULFA Assam, where the folks can somehow identify themselves with the mainstream Hinduism-brewed politics owing to the common hatred against alleged Bangladeshi Muslims. These days, when there are insurgency issues everywhere in India, why only Kashmir and North East are over-militarized? If other states can be administered with only the aid of mainstream cops, why can’t be Kashmir too? Kashmiris may take time to forget the turbulent days, but if demilitarization happens, there may be a generation of Kashmiris who can think of being Indian as a virtue, which again may take time, but might be worth awaiting. We have failed so far to build a united India, thanks to the partisan and communal politics. How can we think of a over-militarized state to be part of our utopian unity?
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I only now read the comments on this article only to find a full blown debate on the presence and necessity of army on us ‘lucky’ Kashmiri’s and how we form the ‘jugular’ of India. After a lot of hate mail about having studied in India yet writing something like this I feel quite amused. This piece is just a person recounting how someone who has grown up in a conflict region interacts with the sovereignty celebrations of what was always known as the occupant state.
Most of you missed how it was completely shorn of any ideological rants; the strongest statement I probably made was ‘general inconvenience’ by the armed forces (sorry I hurt your CRPF sentiments, I was raised to view khaki with suspicion so never paid much attention). This is largely a personal account and it would be nice, if you could set aside your prejudices of me being a muslim and communal and ponder over it.
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I would stock for bread knowing that it happens every year… just saying for future, hope you have a better time next year.
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