A hundred and twelve lives, most of them young, some very young, were lost in Kashmir when the army, paramilitaries and police forces opened fire on several occasions from June to September in 2010. That was only six years ago. The latest reports indicate that around twenty three lives have already been lost in the last two days alone, in the aftermath of state troopers, soldiers and paramilitaries firing at funeral protests, after Burhan Wani, a twenty two year old insurgent, who had acquired the aura of a folk hero in Kashmir, was killed in an ‘encounter’, along with two of his associates, on Friday morning in a village in Kokernag.
Several more people have sustained serious injuries. The body count is likely to rise. Curfews have returned, phone and internet links are suspended, but nothing seems to keep people from spilling out onto the streets, and unlike previous instances, the communications ban seems to be unworkable. No one can pretend that Kashmir is not in crisis, again, today.
The people in power, at the state and the centre, were different in 2010. Omar Abdullah, then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, was offering mealy mouthed rationalizations for killing kids then, while Mehbooba Mufti, was weeping crocodile tears. It is the other way round right now. Omar is being ‘sensitive’, Mehbooba, who the roll of the dice has placed in the position of chief minister now, is ’sullenly’ presiding over a badly timed by-election victory. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was silent then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is playing percussion instruments in Africa now. If Nero played the harp while Rome burnt, Modi beats drums while Kashmir goes up in flames.
In other words, the Indian occupation of Kashmir was business as usual then, it is business as usual now. Its only the body count that might distinguish one episode of the venality of the occupation from another. At the moment, we can only hope that the number of young people being killed will remain within two digits. But this is highly unlikely. The spiral of funerals, shootings, funerals and more shootings is unlikely to wind down too soon. This nightmare has only just begun.
As far as India’s assault on the people of Kashmir is concerned, the more things change, the more they seem to remain the same. ‘Confidence Building Measures’ rise and fall, The principal parts and their players change, governments come and go, parties change shape, size and color, coalitions are done up and undone, the one thing that remains the same is the fact that the occupation of Kashmir by the military forces of the Indian Republic stays founded on a basic and fundamental immorality – the lack of consent. The ‘largest democracy in the world’ is afraid to confront the ‘will of the people’ in what it considers to be its crown. India’s pretence at being the ‘largest democracy in the world’ will ring hollow as long as it keeps the people of Kashmir ‘integrated’ into coffins with bombs and bullets.
A friend, who happens to be Kashmiri, reflecting on the events of the past few days, posted on her Facebook wall – the cryptic, yet crystal clear comment – riffing off the psychopath’s anthem from the film Darr – “Tu Han Kar, Ya Na Kar, to Hai Meri – K, K, K, K” – meaning, regardless of “whether you say you yes, or no, you, K, K, K, K, are mine”.
Like any ordinary, garden variety, obsessive psychopath, the Indian nation state’s possessiveness about Kashmir has nothing to do with the ‘yes’, or ‘no’ of its people. The love that Indian nationalists have for Kashmir, like the love that the character played by Shahrukh Khan for his K-K-K-Kkiran, is a lethal embrace. It doesn’t care for how suffocating a stranglehold that passion can be. Had it been any different, then the decades of denying the right to a promised plebiscite would not have produced so many Burhan Wanis in so many coffins in so many villages, towns and cities of Kashmir.
The killings of 2010 did not stop time,just as the killings of the 1990s did not, although their intensity should have made even time hesitate. The hours and days should have stopped in their tracks. Clocks and calendars should have gone on strike, but they did not. Summer gave way to autumn, which gave way to winter. Several winters passed. Elections, a deluge, and the daily humiliations of cordon operations, searches, checkpoints and the casual violence born of the highest military-to-civilian ratio in the world produced its own casualties.
In October 2010, Burhan Wani, then sixteen years old, was on a motorcycle, with his brother Khalid Wani, and a friend. They were out on a bike ride, through Tral, the area that they had grown up in, as teenage boys do, anywhere. They were stopped at a Special Operations Group Picket of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and ordered to get cigarettes for the troopers. Khalid went and got the cigarettes, Burhan and the friend waited. After the transaction, for no apparent reason, the troopers pounced on the boys, beat them up severely, damaged the bike, which had been Khalid’s pride and joy. Khalid lost consciousness. But perhaps it was Burhan who suffered the greatest injury, and that injury, an invisible one, was what any self respecting young person with a sense of dignity might feel when beaten for no reason other than the fact that he is there to be beaten.
The foundation for this casual violence meted out by people in uniform on people who do not wear uniforms lies in the circumstances and history of a violent occupation. When power rests on nothing other than the fear and injury that it perpetuatess in the minds of a population then its violence becomes a banal habit. Burhan Wani had seen six cousins turn up at doorstep in coffins as a child. His brother Khalid, who had never been a militant, was killed recently, for no identifiable reason – other than that he had been to see Burhan in his forest hideout. In Kashmir, a young man does not have to die for a reason. One might as well ask the question the other way round. What circumstances have continued to let a young man live, without a pellet in his eye, without a bullet in his spine, without crutches and wheelchairs and bouts of intense psychological trauma? Death requires no reason in Kashmir, it is life that demands an explanation.
Four months of killings on the streets produced an ideal atmosphere for the maintenance of the Indian Republic’s peace in Kashmir in the autumn of 2010. Policemen stopped some teenagers, cocked their loaded guns at them, demanded cigarettes, beat them to pulp. Business as usual.
It is possible that Burhan the teenager died that day when his brother’s motorcycle was stopped so casually, so callously. It is possible that Burhan the ‘militant’, who grew to be ‘militant commander’ was born that very same day.
Within a few weeks Burhan disappeared into the mists of the forests of South Kashmir. He emanated, over the years, in the form of videos shared over social media, playing cricket, listening to songs through his headphones by a campfire, posing, like a slightly silly macho young man with guns that he should never have had to feel the need for, that were thrust on him by the fact that ‘men with guns’ is the most important face of itself that the Indian state shows to Kashmiris. The militancy that is generated is the mirror of the occupation’s protocols. Armed men beget armed men. Commander Burhan Wani was produced and destroyed by the Indian state, which made it impossible for a young, intelligent, charismatic man like Burhan to salvage his dignity by any means other than that of being an armed combatant.
In Burhan’s last video, he speaks of targeting soldiers and policemen, those who represent the armed might of the Indian state. As far as statements go, this video is by not very different in spirit from an Indian solider saying that he would target an armed insurgent, in Kashmir, or any other enemy. This is the kind of dull propagandist machismo that is a routine feature of the communiques of an armed conflict. In war, (and Kashmir is a battlefield, which is proven simply by the overwhelming presence of the Indian army and paramilitaries on Kashmiri territory) those who take on themselves the mantle of being soldiers, fight their adversaries, and often feel the need to say that they will. The Indian army does it as much as the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
But there are a few other things that Burhan Wani says. He says he and his fellow fighters will not touch Hindu pilgrims on the Amaranth Pilgrimage in Kashmir. He says that the pilgrimage is their right, and nothing should prevent them from undertaking their religious duties. He also says that they will not hurt Kashmiri policemen who do not hurt them. He appeals to Kashmiri Pundits to return and live again as neighbors with Kashmiri Muslims, but says that any efforts to make what he calls ‘Israeli’ style ‘settlements’ (referring here to the the armed and fortified Israeli settler enclaves within West-Bank-Palestine) will be resisted. The video is in fact a list of the people Burhan Wani says he will fight, together with a list of the people he says that he will not harm. The second category outweighs the first.
The conduct that the Indian state has demonstrated in response to the crowds that gathered at the protests to mark Burhan Wani’s death show us that the standard operating procedure, at least as of now, for the Indian state represents a spirit opposite to that of Burhan Wani’s declaration. At least as far as honour is concerned, Burhan won, the Indian state lost. Unlike Burhan and his band, the armed might of the Indian occupation is making no bones about the fact that it is out to get unarmed civilians. They are shooting at young people, boys, girls, old women, at anyone who comes in their way. They are attacking ambulances carrying injured people. They are entering hospitals, attacking doctors and nurses, and lobbing tear gas shells into intensive care units, suffocating patients with respiratory diseases. They are breaking every single code that governs the conduct of what might be thought of as an ‘honourable’ war.
It is under these circumstances that the client politicians of the occupation make appeals to parents to keep children indoors, so that they do not come in the way of soldiers bullets. This indicates the extent to which the occupation understands, and has internalized, its own savagery. The officials and politicians of the occupation are not making an appeal to soldiers not to aim at the bodies of young people, because they know that such appeals will be meaningless. The chief spokesman of the Jammu and Kashmir Government walks out of a press conference when pressed for answers about why so many people are being killed. There is a rare candour in this breakdown of a ‘press conference’.
The newsrooms of Delhi and Mumbai are already full of people volubly gloating as the body count rises. Editors of respectable newspapers are calling the fallen Burhan Wani, a ‘pig’. News anchors are demanding to know why the insurgent and those being killed by troopers should be given the dignity of a burial, why, instead, their bodies should not be burnt and have their ashes scattered instead. This is how India is taking back Kashmir. This is how India is losing Kashmiris.
At least in this instance, the Indian state and its disgusting clients in the media and political class have not had the courage to demonstrate the promise of a soldierly compassion that Burhan Wani had held out, that no violence would be done unto unarmed civilians, whatever be the conditions of battle.
I would have liked to have met Burhan Wani. We would probably have, (in fact I am sure that we would have) had a lot of disagreements, serious disagreements. About nationalism, about what he might hold out as the goal of national-liberation, which I would only see as illusion. About means and ends in politics. About faith, certainty, and doubt, about how the calcification of identities imprison political imaginations, about the eternal difference between war and revolution. But for that to have happened he needed to have lived and played some more cricket, or even faced the consequences of an arrest, and a trial, if charges more substantial than the making of internet videos and wearing costumes could have been proven against him. Given his charisma, his intelligence, his youth, and his obvious following, he might have been able to play a part in the scenarios necessary for finding peace and freedom in Kashmir. He might have been able to be a part of the future, not the past, of Kashmir.
Every young person who is dying or injured in Kashmir today could have been a part of that conversation. Every fatality is a cancelled conversation. Perhaps even a difficult cancelled conversation. Whatever else may or many not happen over the next days, weeks, months, we can say one thing with certainty. Without that conversation there will be no peace, no freedom, in Kashmir, or in India.
For that conversation to occur, we need to arrive at a situation where the casual violence of an occupation does not kill a teenager’s spirit, repeatedly. That requires a much greater courage than even the fighting spirit that can be mustered by an occupying army.
For that to happen, India needs to become what it takes to be a peaceful and friendly neighbour, not a violent occupier, of Kashmir.
I know that in my life-time, despite what the idiots who are in power think, that day will come.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
If it was an “extra judicial” killing of the “pig” , why would the Indian security forces take bullets on themselves ? He lived by the sword and died by it. And he wasn’t allowing the Hindus to come back and settle in the state on equal terms and numbers, just under the auspices of an Islamic state.While you get yourselves in a hysterical twist, you might think about that as well. One day I would like to meet you and explain these facts , face to face,but do not think I can stand half an hour of contact with the Indian secular liberal. At least the terrorists can be identified as such , but the vipers that your class are conceal the poison very deeply.
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Please stop seeing Kashmir through the narrow lens of Kashmiri Muslims only. Jammu Hindus, Muslims, Kashmiri Pandits and the Buddhists want to be with India.
Kashmiri Muslims initially started their struggle by driving the Pandits out of the valley in the heydays of Mujahedeen rush. When the tables turned, they turned “Secular”. Even though their constituents don’t want it.
Their Secular façade gets ripped every time when they take out funeral procession like this. They pelted stones at the Pandits’ colony. They have been intimidating the Pandits ever since they were just being rehabilitated.
Please look at the YouTube video of the News laundry on Kashmiri struggle. You would appreciate the Islamist supremacist agenda very clearly.
The resistance doesn’t pass the muster of “self determination” on many counts. Apart from the diversity angle that I brought in, India and for that matter any country will not compromise with its territorial integrity especially when it knows that by doing so it will bring the Islamist agenda closer to its borders.
Kashmir has a lot of autonomy. The Indian state and the Kashmiri people should strive for protecting the autonomy and develop within it. No Kashmiri leader has their offsprings pushed into their revolution. They are just playing power games with commoners as the pawns.
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If Hindus and Muslims in Jammu, and Buddhists in Ladakh, and let’s say Shias in Kargil, do want to stay with India, then that would be clear in a plebiscite. If the majority of the inhabitants of the valley of Kashmir, want separation from India, or independence, then holding the majority of those six point nine million inhabitants (which amounts, say, to roughly two million people more than the population of a country like Lebanon, or a million more than the population of say, Finland) by force cannot be considered a ‘democratic’ exercise. Imagine what the world would say if Finland were to be occupied today by the Russian army, because, once upon a time, it was a part of the Russian empire, until the Bolshevik revolution enabled Finns to exercise their ‘right to self determination’. Its interesting that the world does not see India’s continuing occupation of Kashmir, or for that matter, Pakistan’s continuing occupation of Baluchistan for what they are. Simple exercises in brute force.
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Good Suddhabrata,
Let’s extend this logic a little further. If only Kashmiri Muslims want to separate, then why should the plebiscite happen for the entire geography? Why not keep constituency wise plebiscite so that the constituency that wants to separate beyond the cutoff (this is again a political issue) should be allowed to separate? Then what happens to the minorities (relatively easy to tackle)
Second, the UN charter clearly states full demilitarisation of Kashmir for the plebiscite to happen. PoK is not demilitarised.
Plebiscite to happen with full return of Kashmiri Pandits.
Latest political science researchers have found holes in the plebiscite/ self determination debate. I can forward you some. Please send me your email address at sandeepanb2005@gmail.com
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About this limited point of self-determination, the plebiscite is supposed to apply to *all* of Maharaja Hari Singh’s princely kingdom. The UN Resolution states clearly that first Pakistan has to withdraw all of its armed forces from the areas it occupied before anything else can happen. That is not likely to happen anytime soon nor the Chinese return of the territory it took, in order for said plebiscite to happen. Despite everything, wishing J&K to follow at least some democratic process, Indian J&K already had its constituent assembly election in 1954 that ratified the state’s accession to India with Art. 370, etc. This may not have been recognized by China or Pakistan but it did give the people a say in the process. Given the circumstances – ones that are not likely to change with China and Pakistan’s foreign policy stances being what they are – this is the best plebiscite that Jammu and Kashmir can hope for and has already had. Unless the international situation changes they are not likely to get anything more. In any case it was not until after the Afghan war ended in 1989 that the Pak-trained mujahideen turned to the question of “azaadi”, helped it is true by corrupt and inefficient state administrations that alienated the people. The Hizb ul-Mujahideen is a terrorist organization and must not be glorified. But, it is also true that the space created by armed forces’ pressure on the terrorists needs to be exploited by skilful policymakers and civilian administrators all of whom seem sadly lacking. This situation needs to be sorted out quickly because, frankly, why should Jammu and Ladakh have to go where they do not wish to just because the little patch of the Valley (have you seen a map of the state?) is going through its irrational Brexit moment?
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Mr Sen Gupta come to the point directly. As you are saying state troopers, soldiers and paramilitaries firing at funeral protests, after Burhan Wani, a twenty two year old insurgent.
Oh so true, Indian forces firing for nothing on Kashmiris. And the protesters showering flower on security forces. Poor Kashmirs victim of brute force. Mr Gupta you wanted to meet Burhan but our forces didn’t allow him to live. In fact he didn’t deserve to live. To fulfill your dream of meeting Burhan, he must have been alive. Being alive he would have killed many security persons. But that won’t bother you. They are the paid filthy Indian forces. They are being paid to die. So their lives doesn’t matter to be discussed in these vip column of yours. You wanted Burhan to survive, kill as many as security persons possible, Then you would have interviewed him and known him revolutionary ideas of liberating mankind of Kashmiris.
Mr sen gupta I can see the contempt you have for the state of India. You say our security forces are an occupying power in Kashmir. Had they been not occupying the area, the nib of your pen has been broken from the very forces you are advocating for.
You say doesn’t kill a teenager’s spirit. Who is this teenager? Who depict me as an Indian as Kafir. Who enjoyed killing our forces. And you want that valley villain to live !. That shall never be allowed to happen. You know Mr sengupta A layman doesn’t understand much of logic. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari India is our motherland. And a Kashmiri has as much right on this land as we have. But the time he dreams of breaking India, he is my enemy no one. Be it Burhan or Furkan. You may consider my emotions as joker. But remember, these raw emotions rules the nation.
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No, you are not a Joker. To call you a Joker will be disrespect to the Jokers of the world. Let me tell you what you are, You are a True ‘Bhakt’.
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Stumbled on to this article.. Agree with u..I think..what also needs to be taken into account is that all sympathy is only for the ppl ‘of’ Kashmir whose lives have been disrupted by persecution earlier n militancy later. PoK is not protected in Pakistan like we do with article 377, infiltration to destabilize n propagate terrorism in the valley n India as a whole has been a continuation till date.. conclusions..Whom do u believe or sympathise with..? Do we really need to? (Humanity/hypocrisy?!)
377 n Kashmiri pundits’ persecution earlier don’t really allow it for me.. probably karma?! Quran or sm shit.. One must feel for the lost beauty n harmony there, the reason ppl actually think about Kashmir in the first place.
Pakistan’s a failed state n will hold onto any bother it can be to it’s neighbors as we have seen with Afghanistan too.. brainwashed militants is what they turn ppl into.. so this was bound to happen.. it’s for the better this time probably.. no sympathy for the likes of them.. just pity for their fate.. #2cents
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@vikram Singh, Your comment is a very apt example of the problem we (kashmiris) have with how rest of the India understands Kashmir issue i.e. ‘Little knowledge’ of Indians about Kashmir. It’s article 370 my dear not 377.
Seems like you were still stumbling when you wrote it.
Don’t act like an expert on Kashmir issue when you know nothing about it.
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I realised the error after posting.. didn’t think it would be a point of interest.. I support their cause too. Rest of the India thinks Kashmir as a part of India I would think.. with article ‘370’ being the dividing factor.. not saying u should think so too.. stumbling or not.. one only hopes for peace for the valley.
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Regarding being an expert I didn’t get any reply from u, other than a supposedly intelligent comment over a no., when u should have been interested in smthing else..a solution?! I know enough to have an informed perspective.. can’t say the same of you.. I guess you would want this great issue to play out in your home for another decade.. we (Sane minded ppl wanting peace)don’t have patience for the likes of seperatists or freedom fighters who would prefer taking the issue another 50 years to resolve..
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Read my other comments on this article, you will see that I have in fact mentioned a solution for Kashmir issue more than once.
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Thank you Shuddhabrata, for your powerful account of the horror and for tempering it with reason and dark humour that reveals shadows and seeks solutions. I am left pondering if an individual, on either side, can be whole anymore. Between inflicting terror and bearing extreme loss. Amidst this relentless suffocation of all that is human. Can an individual be allowed to become humane again? To exercise ethics, care, discretion and kindness? Can fissures that fragment reparate fear into care?
As a mere bystander reading an account, I still ask the perpetrators, what may be the point of this war on wards? What is heroic about destroying children? What is superior about exercising power on the disempowered? Within a liminal state, amidst traumas seen and inflicted, can one choose to stop more violence, to walk away from wreaking more pain? Is not the self, the other and the future that is being crippled?
Can violence morph its anger into saving a child, a teenager, a parent, a woman, a man, an elder? To keep rivers from churning in a beautiful land shadowed relentlessly, as perhaps the land too, has had enough?
Can we ask, can we pray for the collective to become individual, to please find light, on both sides, today? To be a caring neighbour, neither oppressed or an oppresor?
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Nor an oppresor?
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Sick thinking like this is making kashmiri Muslims a scapegoat. They are being brainwashed to support terrorism . This article also does the same. If a pig ready to harm the society is killed then his supporters are not innocent people. Let them all to be killed who are opposing the killing of terrorist. Nothing wrong in it and it has been the untold law of every government across the world.
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Even if we are to look at not black or white but gray side of the issues,under considerable circumstances I wonder what is the middle way out, what if plebiscite works out as an immediate solution but cause more burns in long time just as in Iraq or in Egypt where revolution gave way to more chaos. ‘Khalistan’ was once an burning issue and each state would love to have its own freedom and autonomy in that aspect of fraudulent governance.
We all should as liberals support Kashmir but also remember to question “where are weapons coming from?”
North east is also under similar circumstances but why it is not so vocal? May be because China does not support it….
Thereby I thing that as a rational Indian we should reconsider not only of separation but other way out.
I understand that this comment might be a baffled assortment of thought but then so is this issue. Thereby I guess an innovative approach is required than just getting rid of Kashmir by plebiscite.
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Many yeears indian republic was youn g having got its independence just afew years before. one person having seen indian nationalism described it in terms that no one can do better. he called it apassion driven love bite of asnake. love bite of no animal that has suckled on warm milk of its mother can produce this kind of passion. indian have amply proved nirad chowdhury right
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i always ask nationalists particularly deshbakt kind. did your clonial masters ever kill any one in fake encounter. i wish they had given dose of medicine to patel et all that desh bakts prescribe for kashmir
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Strange are the leftists of India. No mention of the Bangladeshi qoran inspired massacre. But all guns blaring when islamo fascists terrorists of Kashmir are victims.
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It is difficult to say how many Kashmiri are on the side of India. If persons from Pakistan enter and create problems, they must be treated as enemies and eliminated. This will also include Kashmiris supporting them. We can not be lenient about national security. Let us not about humanity. Where is humanity when soldiers are killed ?
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your point of view. india is just maintaining law and order. If these terrorist sit quietly quitting their bombs and guns all the deaths will be stopped. But these terrorists will not do that.
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We (Kashmiris) are not terrorists, we believe in democracy and have been fighting for our democratic rights, be it during the Dogra rule or holding of plebiscite (which is again a democratic process) to end Indian Occupation. I don’t understand how Indians can take pride in being world’s largest democracy when the Indian Government does not have the guts to settle Kashmir issue democratically.
India and Indians should stop playing big brother to Kashmir and Kashmiris, I am pretty sure that we can manage our state of affairs better being Independent than being a part of India. Frankly speaking, what happens to Kashmiris is of no concern to @Abhijeet or NaMo.
Trust me, Kashmiris can think unlike ‘Bhakts’. we do not Pakistan or ISI to ‘brainwash’ us about our democratic rights. We have our local heroes who are willing to die for democracy and democratic principles than to accept the military rule and thrashing by Cops.
We want plebiscite to be held in all parts of Kashmir under three countries, not only in Indian Kashmir valley.
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Malik,
What is your problem with a pluralistic state like India? I really wanted to understand that from a Kashmiri Muslim.
For the time being take out AFSPA out of the equation. Suppose the military were gone and you have free and fair election. You can have a proportionate say in the country’s affairs, a large market and stage, huge income opportunities, diversity unparalleled, kaleidoscope of cultures, unparalleled natural beauty (although it seems that we’re determined to erode it).
What is the problem? Other than your ego.
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@Sandeepanb2005, Kashmir issue is not about ego. It is about how India has betrayed Kashmiris, taken away the democratic right to decide our future. It is about our ‘Right to self Determination’. It is about the feeling that Kashmir is not being ruled by outsiders. The instrument of accession which State of Kashmir signed with India is conditional. India’s PM told UN that Kashmir’s future will be decided through plebiscite. I think it is time now that India should clean its image and do what a mature democracy ought to do.
To be honest, it is the other way round. It is because of India’s ego that it is not letting Kashmir go.
Food for thought! I think India and Indians had a much better future with England (income opportunities etc. that you mentioned above), was it about the ego of Indians and its freedom fighters that they wanted Independence?
Here is the shocker! If AFSPA and army are removed from Kashmir, everyone will be on the roads, protesting non-violently and asking for Independence. Is your Government willing to take that risk?
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@Malik Altaf, there were no conditionalities as per the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh. It was as per the same format as prescribed in the Government of India Act 1935, to be signed by all Princely State princes , to which British India exercised suzerainty. Only on the covering letter it was written that the will of Kaahmiri people to be sought. It was done when in 1954, JK assembly ratified the accession to India. And the accession is perpetual in validity. And you said people will democratically demand right to secede. Can you define people ? The Muslims still continued to live in India even after Pakistan was granted to them in 1947. While not conforming to complete population transfer. Firstpopulation transfer take place fully. Then we will give freedom to Kashmir valley once all 180 million muslims of india are resettled in Pakistan.
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One cannot ignore History and solve such problems. Kashmir itself is a Hindu name and was full of temples and a religious place of the Hindus. Hinduism is native to Kashmir. But what hapenened when an Islamic invader Sikander Butshikan came, he forcibily converted the people and destroyed all temples. We can see how Islam eliminates non muslims and also other Muslim sects even today imagine how terrible Islam was in 13th century. Today due to the internet people know the reality of intolerance of Islam. Islamophobia is there even in developed countries. What more proof is required from recent past Kashmiris Pandits were driven out and Pakistan minority population has been reduced to 1% .
India is ready to forgive the past and move ahead as secular nation. Only the Muslim part of Kashmir has the issue which is not surprising given intolerance & terrorism Muslims are world renowned for.
Hindus have learnt that islam makes humans into monsters and are not going to give up their land and it famous temples. Its your choice live together with all religions in peace and work on mutual prosperity or be prepared to meet the same fate as the TERRORIST Burhan.
India has not implemented Israeli type tactics but if Muslims cant listen to logic it wont be too long for Hindus to take what is their land and give you all terrorists 72 ugly piece of hell.
It was Pakistan which invaded Kashmir and UN resolution states Pakistan had to demilitarise before any plebiscite can be held. Its been 60 plus years and Paksitan has not demilitarised, not surprising given the arabic peice of garbage called islam has brainwashed them into terrorists.
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@malik altaf . You have to do better than say India was much better off under england. The british came from outside and colonised. The indian state is run by its people – and if you start talking about indians as outsiders , then the debate on original inhabitants can back to teh fact that original inhabitants were actually shaivites in teh 9th century , much before 13th century and the kashmiri pundits ahve been driven out of the valley – indians are not britishers – if kashmiri muslims have a claim, then so do hindus and lets not forget pakistan and india are based on lines drawn on maps by the british. Noone had self determination as an option anywhere – on what grounds do you claim this nation then ? You are neither the ancient inhabitants , nor do you have any other ethnicity to claim than a religious majoritarian identity . India is a secular country and as for anti-minority elements – we have a much better record than you guys in how we handle our minorities – atleast we havent forced an exodus to pakistan. What is the basis for your demand . We all know the holes in instrument of accession kind of an argument – read comments here on that – they maybe trolls but they also have a question and a counter narrative. The army has to go and so does the military occupation , but you better figure our the case for your seperate nation after that which is not based on a communal identity .
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@MalikAltaf please refer to Prof. Christine Fair as to why Jammu and Kashmir has not yet had its UN-supervised plebiscite.
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I was going to suggest those n other texts too.. but it wouldn’t be of use to made up minds.
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How can you put your claim on the land.Hindus have been living there since ancient times.The land belongs yo hindus also and not only you.THAT LAND IS OURS AND WE WILL DEFEND IT TILL OUR LAST BREATH.
BHARAT MATA KI JAI.
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There cannot be two types of democracy under the same constitution.
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Reblogged this on All Day Musings and commented:
This needs to be revisited, every now and then.
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Plebiscite in Kashmir! Why just because it is a Muslim Majority. What next plebiscites in Hyderabad, Kerala, Lucknow, Bijapur, Malegaon, Azamgarh just because they are Muslim dominated?
Muslims hate democracy is a well known fact. Tell me one Islamic state where there is democracy. Pakistan was created not on the basis of religion but was created only to give a sanctuary to the people who wanted to avoid being in a democratic setup. Just compare the democratic setup of India and Pakistan. Pakistan has been ruled by dictators for the majority of the time whereas elections have taken place in India at fixed times.
Under the Indian constitution Kashmir has been given special priveledges and enjoy equal rights as the fellow Indians. Indian Union has a federal structure and the Kashmiri leaders can contest elections and rule their own land. Who would dare oppose an elected government? If a person from Gujarat having only 26 Lok Sabha seats can become the PM, who knows someone from Kashmir might well become the PM of this country.
As regards oppression by army, its a case of misuse of power. There is a mechanism under Indian constitution to deal with and the guilty shall be punished. But nobody wants to explore this option just because someone is operating the remote control from across the border.
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@Theniftybull, stop raging and do some home work, read something about Kashmir first. Plebiscite in Kashmir not because it is a muslim majority state but because India promised that there will be one and on that condition, State of Kashmir joined union of India.
It is of nobody’s concern how we would run things in Kashmir. At least I am sure about one thing, it will be a better democracy than India claims it is, so stop patronizing Kashmiris.
You snatched power form Kashmir and Kashmiris and now you are talking about empowering us, a Kashmiri can become PM of this country, Ha Ha. This is called ‘Chutzpah’.
By the way, that will do no good to ordinary Kashmiris like Modi becoming PM did not do any good to the starving farmers of Gujarat.
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Chodiye Janab, What Plebiscite? Kahan Jana hai aapko? Naya mulk banaienge? ya pakistan se jaa milenge? Kashmir ka masla hal nahi hoga, ghar jaiye wazwan khahiye kahwa peejiye aur so jayiye…aur khuda ke liye jhooth bolna band kariye
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Bro,if kashmiris dont want tp live in India they are free to go to Pakistan,Canada,Germany,Saudia or anywhere they like.But the land will not go with them.Since times immemoriable,hindus have been living in that land.Muslims are a late arrival. If they think they can fight and take Kashmir from us then forget it.Kashmir is ours and muslims can go from there.
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What arrogance ? Whose land are you talking about ? Who gives you any right over it and anymore right over it than anyone of us ? Who are you ? How do we know somewhere in your lineage somebody didnt produce a child through a muslim ? who knows what blood runs in your veins? can you show us a certificate that you are hundred percent hindu since ancient times ? Also we north indian aryans were late arrivers over here – why dont we ask the dravidians – the original inhabitants of the land to drive all out of India first – they can also say they were here first , doesnt matter how many centuries? By the way we all originated in africa ,i hope you know about our forefathers for it does seem evolution has really passed by some people over here.
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Also most of the muslims in india once were hindus. By your logic what happens to the right to the land if someone changes religion. If changing religion makes one ineligible for his own land then 70% of the humanity has to leave earth and settle in moon
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Sanjay hindus i mean vedic aryans came from russia. This land was inhabitated by various tribes. Why not we all hindus leave india and go to russia. Lets leave the land to original inhabitants of india.
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Biswarup, hindus came from russia? what have you been smokin’ mate?
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Ancestor of Hindus i.e. Vedic Aryans came from Central Asia part of which is now currently southern Russia. Read some elementary history before commenting.
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That’s just a theory, first propagated by Max Mueller. Also, do all modern Hindus, forget Vedic Aryans, originally come from southern Russia?
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Its a theory accepted by huge majority of scholars in the field. The other theory do not enjoy any credence. I was just being sarcastic in reply to the above comment. Off course Vedic Aryans intermingled with local people and that is what our genes made of.
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In such critical situation why is it that our Hon PM is silent instead of foreign junkets why is he not concentrating on problems say serious problems ?
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The more I read this ….the more I realise….u should be sent across the border to be with ur kith and kin…..
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The Indian army men don’t stay in Kashmir out of their own will. Army is supposed to man the borders and defend the country from external threats. The army will be happy to walk out of Kashmir if given the option.
When you talk about the army it is a collection of human beings who donot have a perfect algorithm to identify a terrorist and neutralise him. Unlike the army the terrorists don’t don a certain uniform to make spotting them easier. Not sure if you have ever been to Kashmir but the locals are very supportive of the terrorists they see it as jihad the war for god. They have bunkers beneath their homes to hide terrorists they provide them with logistics support. And they use the locals as shield when they attack army. In retaliation some innocent do loose their lives but why only blame army isint the terrorist equally responsible? How do you identify a terrorist? Can you come up with a perfect way to do so? If yes I am sure Indian army will be more that happy to implement it.
As far as Indian occupation of Kashmir . The Independence of Kashmir is based on religion , they want independence because they are Muslim majority . Didn’t we divide the country twice already because of this? Does Kashmir belong only to Kashmiri Muslims and no ome else? Does the voice of other tribes or ethnic community doesn’t matter at all.
Next time you sympathise with a misguided youth who picked up a gun please give a thought to the army’s predicament .
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Kashmir deserves to burn. The mass killings and rapes of the kashmiri pundits are unforgivable crimes and kashmiri people will continue to pay the price the coming 10 generations.
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Question to this writer, who under the influence of Jihadi money failed to show the real picture.Good that his masters are happy.
1. Why we as Kashmiri pandits- original sons of the soil, where driven out?
2.Why in a political conflict Mosques shout Nara-E taqbeer Allah hu Akbar?
3.Why in a Political conflict mosques shout, Momeen bahar niklo, Kaffiron ko bhagana hai.You mean it is not an Islamic jihadi agenda?
4. As any Pakistani , you also failed to show us, you read the terms of UN resolution/
5.There is not even a single Hindu or non muslims in POK, parts of which have been annexed into Pakistan and leased to China
6. It was Pakistan that had attacked the state of J&K, and uprooted the Maharaja.Pakistan is an illegal occupier, and the main reason for this conflict.Where is all this simple plain history in your article.
A hindu suffering terror, pain of being migrants in own country,and uprooted from their base is of no importance, coz muslim pain sells and pays.
It is a bloody Communal agenda of Jihadi`s and a secular nation like India must deal with it with Iron fists.These Jihadis are bent upon committing suicide,be it suicide belts or bullets.
Lets top fooling people of this nation, and be loyal to the nation which feeds you.
If they could convert the valley to 100% muslim population in 1 year in India, Imagine how they would have butchered pandits if it went to Pakistan.. Shame on such idiotic disloyal writers
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