Category Archives: Empire/ Imperialism

Bad ideas, Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Movements, Violence/Conflict

Kashmir: A “No-Peace” Political Initiative

26/10/2010 Shivam Vij 2 Comments

Guest post by ANGANA CHATTERJI

The 8-point Plan, New Delhi’s political initiative to address the crises in Kashmir, attests to the parallel and incommensurate realities of the sovereign and the subjugated, the Indian state and the Kashmiris.

The 8-point Plan renders obvious New Delhi’s limited comfort zone. The Plan is not an overture to healing the reality of suffering and outrage inside Kashmir. Rethinking militarization and military governance is not the priority. The ambition is to manage Kashmiris and to keep the disarray concealed from the international gaze.

New Delhi announced its 8-point Plan on September 25, 2010, following the visit to India-ruled Kashmir of a 39-member All Party Delegation from New Delhi led by Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, and parallel to the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York City. That Defence Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony did not accompany the All Party Delegation was indicative of New Delhi’s mood.

Continue reading Kashmir: A “No-Peace” Political Initiative →

Bad ideas, Empire/ Imperialism, Media politics, Mirror Worlds, Politics

WikiLeaks, Azadi and Arnab Goswami: Monobina Gupta

25/10/2010 Aditya Nigam 13 Comments

Guest post by MONOBINA GUPTA

This Friday Dean Baquet, Washington Bureau Chief of the New York Times defended his paper’s publishing of explosive information gathered by WikiLeaks, putting the US intelligence and the military establishment squarely in the dock for the Iraq war. The largest ever classified military leak in history, the WikiLeaks revelations have exposed the complicity of the US military and civil administration in whittling down the number of civilian deaths/casualties as well as ignoring hard information about the torture of US soldiers in the hands of Iraqi forces.

Baquet said that his paper worked on stories culled from nearly 4,00,0000 documents furnished by WikiLeaks as “it would any other journalistic project.” He also pointed out that it is not often that reporters get to scrutinize documents testifying to the largest US intelligence leak ever.

Continue reading WikiLeaks, Azadi and Arnab Goswami: Monobina Gupta →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Violence/Conflict

Let Delhi have its thali

25/10/2010 Shivam Vij 1 Comment

Guest post by HILAL MIR

During the convention, Azadi the only Way, at LTG auditorium on Thursday, a potbellied man was standing on the aisle, listening intently to the speech of professor of history at Jadavpur University Sugata Bhadra. The man, I reckon, might be easily burdening earth with nearly 130 kilograms of his fair, north Indian bulk. The professor was stripping the Indian state to its bare minimum and the audiences clapped. The man could stand it no more. I soon found out his voice was equally weighty, and gravelly—a cross between Shatrugan Sinha and Kulbushan Kharbanda. Quite audibly he said jis thali ma khatey hai usi main chaid kartey hain. In Bollywood films this saying condemning treachery is reserved for domestic helps who fall in love with the pretty daughters of their employers. Here, the context was different. A Maoist sympathizer was sharing the dais with a Kashmiri pro-freedom leader who was sharing the dais with a Sikh secessionist who was sharing the dais with a Naga human rights defender…A veritable thali of secessionism and dissent indeed. No wonder Arnab Goswami was hysterical. Continue reading Let Delhi have its thali →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Ecology/Environment, Empire/ Imperialism, Violence/Conflict

The Japanese are telling you something, MMS

25/10/2010 Shivam Vij Leave a comment

Manmohan Singh is in Tokyo, trying to conclude yet another nuclear deal with yet another country. As the deal is under a cloud, many Japanese citizens have written an open letter to him:

It is true, as India has repeatedly pointed out, that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is an unequal treaty. However, looking at India now, one cannot help thinking that India believes power and prestige derive from the possession of nuclear weapons. India might have adopted a nuclear no-first-use strategy, but seen from the perspective of the experience of the Hibakusha, the possession of nuclear weapons is by no means a source of power and prestige. Rather, it is the epitome of immorality.

India reaffirmed its moratorium on nuclear testing when the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) amended its guidelines to allow a special exemption permitting nuclear cooperation with India, which is not a member of the NPT. However, India has not promised never again to conduct a nuclear test. Nor has it agreed to IAEA safeguards that would prevent it from using domestically produced material to produce nuclear weapons. Under these circumstances, given that India has not promised not to produce nuclear weapons in future, if Japan were to proceed with cooperation on nuclear technology with India, this would be interpreted by other countries, including Pakistan and other Islamic countries, as meaning that Japan, the victim of nuclear weapons, is cooperating in India’s development of nuclear weapons. [Read the full letter]

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Movements, Violence/Conflict

Kashmir: A Time for Freedom

27/09/2010 Shivam Vij 3 Comments

Guest post by ANGANA CHATTERJI
First published on 25 September 2010 in Greater Kashmir

“Freedom” represents many things across rural and urban spaces in India-ruled Kashmir. These divergent meanings are steadfastly united in that freedom always signifies an end to India’s authoritarian governance.

In the administration of brutality, India, the postcolony, has proven itself coequal to its former colonial masters. Kashmir is not about “Kashmir.” Governing Kashmir is about India’s coming of age as a power, its ability to disburse violence, to manipulate and dominate. Kashmir is about nostalgia, about resources, and buffer zones. The possession of Kashmir by India renders an imaginary past real, emblematic of India’s triumphant unification as a nation-state. Controlling Kashmir requires that Kashmiri demands for justice be depicted as threatening to India’s integrity. India’s contrived enemy in Kashmir is a plausible one – the Muslim “Other,” India’s historically manufactured nemesis. Continue reading Kashmir: A Time for Freedom →

Bad ideas, Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Images, Media politics, Movements, Violence/Conflict

Kashmir, September 2010. The Reichstag Fire (dispersed) Redux ?

15/09/2010 Shuddhabrata Sengupta 16 Comments

(Apologies for cross posting on the Reader List)

As if by magic, those who had hidden themselves for the past few months in Kashmir are leading mobs and setting schools and public buildings on fire. And many more people have died tragic and unnecessary deaths. This time, unlike in the past, the blame must be squarely shared between those who fired the bullets, and some of those who led the incendiary crowds. Perhaps Kashmir has just entered a new and darker phase, brandishing a burning torch. This situation, in order not to be irreversible, needs the urgent and sane attention of Kashmiris themselves, and of all those who wish Kashmir and its people well.

We could do well by way of beginning by turning our attention to a surprising detail hidden within the reports of the recent events of arson. National Conference apparatchiks, who did not even dare appear in public till recently for fear of being attacked for their role in sustaining the occupation of Kashmir by India’s armed might, are now allegedly seen openly goading mobs of zealots to burn down a school in the name of the defence of religion. If this is true, the what we are witnessing is the realization by them of a wonderful opportunity to wear new costumes and speak new lines in the unfolding theatre of the moment.

Continue reading Kashmir, September 2010. The Reichstag Fire (dispersed) Redux ? →

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Government, Images, Violence/Conflict

Kashmir’s Abu Gharaib?

10/09/2010 Shuddhabrata Sengupta 42 Comments

Two days ago, I noticed a video posted by somebody on my facebook page. It was yet another video from Kashmir. It was tagged ‘brothers please watch, sisters please do not watch’. In later incarnations of the video, posted repeatedly on Facebook sites, Youtube channels and on blogs. it was tagged ‘Indian Security Forces Kashmiri Youth to Walk Naked on Road’ or ‘Kashmir – India’s Abu Gharib (sic)’.

The video was available on Youtube on the night of 8th/9th September, 2010, before being taken down.

Notwithstanding the misspelling of Abu Gharaib in these tags, there was something compellingly accurate in the designation. What I saw, and what i have seen unfold subsequently as a response by the Indian state to the circulation of this video, makes Abu Gharaib look like child’s play. Welcome to the virtual, viral, televisual reality of the nightmare of Kashmir.

For the past several weeks, I have been watching, and forwarding, several videos uploaded on to Youtube and facebook from Kashmir. Every video that I have seen contains evidence of the brutality of the Indian state’s footprint on the Kashmir valley, and of the steadfast yet resilient courage of its people, and of the innovative use they have been making of the internet to bear witness to their oppression.

See for instance – Innocent Man being Beaten in Kashmir.

I have seen paramilitary and police personnel open fire on unarmed or stone pelting crowds, mercilessly beat up young people and children, attack doctors, patients and nurses in hospitals, smash windows of homes, steal chickens and livestock and hurl the most vulgar invectives at ordinary people. I have watched the armed might of the Indian state retreat in the face of the moral courage of the opposition it encounters on the streets of Kashmir. It doesn’t take much to find these videos. Run a search with ‘Kashmir, Stone Pelting. indian Occupation’ on Youtube. Of follow the links and uploads on the growing cluster of Facebook pages from and about Kashmir. Continue reading Kashmir’s Abu Gharaib? →

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Identities, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

Why Kashmiris should speak to Indians, not India

26/08/2010 Shivam Vij 6 Comments

On 28 May this year, the Economic Times, India’s leading business daily, carried a story titled, ‘Kashmir survey finds no majority for independence’. That is a curious headline. What is ‘no majority’? Either there is majority or there is not. Robert Bradnock conducted this survey for Chatham House, a leading British think-tank, Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control. The survey was conducted in the autumn of 2009, and the copy mentioned that 44 percent in Azad Kashmir and 43 percent in Jammu & Kashmir favoured an independent Kashmiri nation state.

Similar was the reporting of the survey in other Indian papers. They omitted some details, though. They did not mention that the survey was conducted not just in Kashmir but also the Jammu and Ladakh regions. They did not mention that even after factoring in Jammu and Ladakh, the total support for India was 21 percent and for Pakistan 15 percent. So if there was a three-way poll, the whole region’s average figure of those supporting independence (43 percent) would win hands down. Most of the rest (14 percent) favoured making the LoC a permanent border, which means sealing the status quo, something India and Pakistan came very close to doing in 2007. This 14 percent comes only from Poonch (94 percent), Rajouri (100 percent) and Jammu (39 percent).

Further, they did not mention that in the district-wise results the greatest support for independence was in the Indian side of the Valley – an astounding 95 percent in Baramulla, 75 percent in Srinagar, 82 percent in Badgam, and 74 percent in Anantnag. Pulwama and Kupwara were not surveyed. The highest support for India was 80 percent in Kargil and 67 percent in Leh, 73 percent in Udhampur and 63 percent in Kathua. In Jammu district, it was 47 percent – ‘no majority’. In Azad Kashmir, 50 percent wanted to be with Pakistan.

Now read the ET headline again. ‘Kashmir survey finds no majority for independence’. The story does not tell us what they found a majority supporting. If we have to be polite, we can say that such manipulative reporting of a detailed survey amounts to the Indian media being in denial of the fact that Kashmiris don’t want to be with India. If we have to call a spade a spade, we can say that this amounts to telling us a lie. Read More

Bad ideas, Empire/ Imperialism, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Pushing the Kashmiri to the wall, again

29/07/2010 Shivam Vij 5 Comments

[An edited, shorter version of this article by me appeared last week in The Friday Times, Lahore.]

In the first week of June, I sat at a shopfront with a group of shopkeepers of Kalarus, a small town in Kupwara district in north Kashmir. In 1999, they collected money and bought land for a martyrs’ graveyard, one of many such in Kashmir. Whenever the Indian army killed militants trying to infiltrate from Pakistan to the Indian side of the Line of Control, they would hand over the bodies to the Kupwara police, who would give it to these people to bury after the autopsy.

“Look up at the mountain peak,” said one of them, “It is snow clad all twelve months. It is the LoC, 70 kms from here. Do you think anyone would cross that wearing the traditional Kashmiri Khan dress?” And yet, most of the hundred odd bodies in the graveyard had come wearing clothes unfit for snow. And, most of them had so many bullet marks on the face that they were unidentifiable. Continue reading Pushing the Kashmiri to the wall, again →

Bad ideas, Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Violence/Conflict

In Kashmir, everyone’s losing the plot: Peerzada Aashiq

12/07/2010 Shivam Vij 1 Comment

Guest post by PEERZADA AASHIQ

Everyone is losing its plot in Kashmir — be it separatists, mainstream political parties, New Delhi or Pakistan. The biggest losers in the unarmed but stone-laden street uprising are Pakistan and separatists.

The failure of Pakistan in shifting paradigm of new realities in Kashmir can be gauged from its dwindling influence over separatists’ spectrum. It failed to unite fractured separatists to its 1992-like unified forum politics despite placing in half-a-dozen interlocutors between warring factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference led by Sayed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

Its influence over separatists’ spectrum has been wavering and waning. It was after former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf pick-and-choose policy that saw separatists cocooning and ensconcing their politics as per the public mood in Kashmir. If Musharraf’s four-point formula convinced moderate Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, many hard-liners like Sayed Ali Shah Geelani and United Jehad Council chief Sayed Salahuddin rejected it. Continue reading In Kashmir, everyone’s losing the plot: Peerzada Aashiq →

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

Curbs continue on Kashmir media; is it martial law in Srinagar?

10/07/2010 Shivam Vij 45 Comments

photo_9_7_2010_154 — Media persons stage protest at Press Enclave in Srinagar against Government’s decision to gag media. Habib Naqash/GK

Update 2 on 11 July: As was being feared, the state has begun to crackdown on Facebook users for ‘anti-India activiies’. I can already spot one Facebook account missing. Very soon they will ban eating, drinking, breathing and shitting and offer curfew passes to some for these activities.

Update: Appeals to the Indian government by the Committee to Protect Journalists and IFJ.

In a clear signal that it continues to dictate what we get to know about the ground situation in Kashmir, curbs on the local media in the Valley continue despite government claims that they have been lifted. At the same time, Delhi journalists are able to freely move around and report in Srinagar. This is yet another blatant example of how the Indian state considers Kashmir its private property and the rights of its residents are secondary. As the Delhi media continues to do the bidding of the Home Ministry, the best sources of news on what’s happening on the ground remain Twitter and Facebook. Those updating their profiles and pages with information are doing so with the apprehension of censorship, state reprisal, blocking of these sites and suspension of internet services altogether in Kashmir. Continue reading Curbs continue on Kashmir media; is it martial law in Srinagar? →

Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

Kashmir, Lies and Audio Tape

09/07/2010 Shivam Vij 9 Comments

The disinformation war is underway. Kashmir’s local media has been BANNED (not censored but BANNED!) in the world’s largest democracy, and the Delhi media is being used to spread LIES.

Bad ideas, Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Frontiers, Violence/Conflict

But what is a flag march?

08/07/2010 Shivam Vij 7 Comments

So far in 2010, ‘security’ forces have killed 32 innocent Kashmiris, sometimes not even in a protest. Far from investigating these killings and promising justice, India has banned protest in Kashmir, which is what curfew amounts to, and even the media is not allowed to function. Curfew passes have been canceled even for journalists – there were no newspapers this morning. 12 photojournalists have been beaten up. Newspapers have been BANNED!

The Delhi media reports that the army has been brought into Srinagar for an indefinite period, and that the army staged a flag march. However, what is a flag march? It can’t be a security measure to deal with terrorists because there is complete curfew. The army has been asked to strictly impose the curfew. People are dying because they are not allowed to go to hospitals. After killing 32 innocent people what does “maximum crackdown” by 1,700 Indian troops in Srinagar mean? And if not even a bird is allowed on the streets, who or what is the flag march for? Continue reading But what is a flag march? →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Frontiers, Violence/Conflict

If you’re still wondering why Kashmir is protesting and demanding azadi…

08/07/2010 Shivam Vij 4 Comments

Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

A conversation in Sopore and other stories

30/06/2010 Shivam Vij 119 Comments

28472_1446559196720_1015368103_31307228_153367_n — The street that connects that Malaknag and Chheni Chowk areas of Islamabad/Anantnag in south Kashmir. Photo by Nasir Patigaru, via Facebook, posted on 27 June.

Which Indian has not heard of General Dyer? General Dyer opened fire on unarmed protesters. Hundreds died, the figures are disputed between Indian and British version to this day. A commission of enquiry was set up by the English. General Dyer told the Hunter Commission, “I think it quite possible that I could have dispersed the crowd without firing but they would have come back again and laughed, and I would have made, what I consider, a fool of myself.” Continue reading A conversation in Sopore and other stories →

Empire/ Imperialism, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Violence/Conflict

IPTK Statement on Military Governance in Indian-administered Kashmir

29/06/2010 Shivam Vij 4 Comments

Military Governance in Indian-administered Kashmir

STATEMENT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Srinagar, June 29, 2010

INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE’S TRIBUNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE IN INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR (IPTK) | www.kashmirprocess.org

The People’s Tribunal feels morally obligated to make this statement today. Sustained alliances between local communities and IPTK have enabled us to bear witness to the escalating conditions induced by militarized governance, and the severity of psychosocial dimensions of oppression in Indian-administered Kashmir. From our work since being instituted in April 2008, from the reports and briefs we have authored, investigations we have undertaken and are in the process of completing, we find it ethically imperative to comment on the direction in which the Governments of India and Jammu and Kashmir, and the Indian Armed Forces, appear to be headed, and the consequences they will likely effect. Continue reading IPTK Statement on Military Governance in Indian-administered Kashmir →

Empire/ Imperialism, Violence/Conflict

Kashmir: The Hidden Occupation

22/06/2010 Shivam Vij 24 Comments

Guest post by YASMIN QURESHI

Yasmin Qureshi grew up as a member of India’s Muslim minority before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a social justice activist who traveled to Palestine in 2007 and to Kashmir last year. This article is a reflection on her trip to Kashmir.

I wanted to go to Kashmir ever since I visited Palestine in 2007. There are many similarities in the nature of the occupation as well as the struggles, both being nearly 63 years old.

One difference is that while Israel is seen as an external occupying force in Palestine, the Kashmir issue is considered an “internal” matter or a conflict between Pakistan and India, and the voice of Kashmiris is often lost. As a result, there are fewer international organizations monitoring the region, and little information about the extent and impact of the occupation gets out.

A layoff from my company in August 2009 gave me the opportunity to visit the region, called “a paradise on earth” by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The unanimous message I heard as I traveled and spoke to journalists, taxi drivers, pony riders, waiters, students and teachers was that they want “azadi,” independence from the occupation by India. Continue reading Kashmir: The Hidden Occupation →

Frontiers, Debates, Identities, Violence/Conflict, Empire/ Imperialism, Politics

Mohamad Junaid: What Does the Chatham House Poll in Kashmir Tell Us?

13/06/2010 Shivam Vij 4 Comments

Guest post by MOHAMAD JUNAID

The Chatham House poll conducted in the autumn of 2009 in Jammu, Ladakh, Kashmir and Azad Kashmir has revealed an interesting pattern of opinions held across these regions on issues ranging from the perception of major problems people face to effective solutions to the Kashmir issue and the best means to achieve them. Robert Bradnock, under whose supervision the poll was conducted, however presented the results somewhat shoddily leading to confusion over the real import of the opinion poll. This confusion has prompted media in India and Pakistan to portray the polls selectively or in a self-serving manner, largely reflecting their nationalist stances on the Kashmir question. The poll, in reality, points to some interesting developments in Kashmir and indicates a way toward an eventual, mutually agreeable solution.

Consistent with every other poll on the issue, Chatham House poll has shown again that an overwhelming number of people (74—95 percent) in Kashmir region demand independence. This figure comes as no surprise because the support for independence for Kashmir over accession to Pakistan has been steadily growing over the last 20 years. This feeling is more concretely reflected in the fact that most Kashmiris (more than 90 percent) support withdrawal of Indian troops from Kashmir, while a similar figure (around 80 percent) want Pakistan to withdraw its troops from Azad Kashmir. Along with demilitarization, there is a clear demand for de-weaponization (more than 80 percent) and an end to militant violence (around 90 percent) in the Kashmir region. The Line of Control in its present form is uniformly rejected in both Kashmir and Azad Kashmir. Continue reading Mohamad Junaid: What Does the Chatham House Poll in Kashmir Tell Us? →

Bad ideas, Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Identities, Law

‘The Moral Obligation of Indian Civil and Political Society’: Rekha Chowdhary on Fake Encounters in Kashmir

13/06/2010 Shivam Vij 1 Comment

Guest post by REKHA CHOWDHARY

With another incident of fake encounters in Kashmir, it is a moment of introspection for the political and civil society of India. For all those who are proud of Indian democracy, it is a moment to reflect as to how this democracy fares for the people in Kashmir. It is important to note that democracy does not remain limited to the electoral choices and the extent and intensity of competition in the formation of government – it also involves the political and civil rights of people. Even when democracy has been restored in Kashmir in its procedural form and is kicking in the form of intensely competitive politics, its substantive effect is missing. The right to life is the minimum that is provided by any democracy, the range of rights however goes much beyond this and involves the basic civil liberties as well. However, the way the hapless innocent persons were cruelly murdered in Nadihal in north Kashmir and declared as militants – it is the denial of the minimum. It is not only the murder of three people, it is also the murder of Indian democracy! Continue reading ‘The Moral Obligation of Indian Civil and Political Society’: Rekha Chowdhary on Fake Encounters in Kashmir →

Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Identities

Beware Bigotry – Free Speech and the Zapiro Cartoons: Mahmood Mamdani

31/05/2010 Aditya Nigam 40 Comments

Text of talk on receiving an honorary doctorate at the University of Johannesburg, 25 May, 2010

MAHMOOD MAMDANI, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

This text was sent to us by Sujata Patel

It warms my heart to see these flowing gowns. I congratulate you on work accomplished! For over a millennium, these gowns have been a symbol of high learning from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Should anyone ask you where they came from, tell them that the early universities of Europe – Oxford, Cambridge, le Sorbonne – borrowed them from the Islamic madressa of the Middle East. If they should seem incredulous, tell them that the gown did not come by itself: because medieval European scholars borrowed from the madressa much of the curriculum, from Greek philosophy to Iranian astronomy to Arab medicine and Indian mathematics, they had little difficulty in accepting this flowing gown, modeled after the dress of the desert nomad, as the symbol of high learning. Should they still express surprise, ask them to take a second look at the gowns of the ayatollahs in Iran and Iraq and elsewhere and they will see the resemblance. Education has no boundaries. Neither does it have an end. As the Waswahili in East Africa, which is where I come from, say: elimu haina muisho. Continue reading Beware Bigotry – Free Speech and the Zapiro Cartoons: Mahmood Mamdani →