Saturday , August 16, 2008 at 22 : 02
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All that an average Kashmiri has to say!
In the past few weeks I found a plethora of blogs and articles on the web dissecting the present unrest in Jammu and Kashmir. While the content is always detailed and vivid, I fail to understand how people so miserably uniformed about the ground reality manage to write at length about it, drawing conclusions and inferences that digress from the reality by vast multitudes.
We take up information from media and mouths around us (if at all we can call it information) and we build castles around it, without even bothering to ascertain the credibility of it all. What we come up with, more often than not, is something that is a far cry from what is expected of us. The irony lies in the fact that we ourselves don't realize how digressed from the truth we become.
We blabber about secularism all the time, but do we know its essence? Secularism is out there for a reason; to maintain communal harmony, to prevent human lives. If human welfare is the idea, secularism is a way to get to it. But what do we do? We continue killing people and claim to be secular. We plunder the goal but we continue to tread on the path that leads to it! Long before we become secular we have to become human. In the past two weeks dozens have been killed in Kashmir. When I say dozens, it is no exaggeration; 31 to be precise. When I say killed, I mean shot cold bloodedly at point blank; injuries sustained in the upper parts of the body. It is not a newspaper headline or a breaking news; it is a harsh bitter reality that serves as a curtain to the gory scenes, filled with blood, trauma and anger. When someone's loved one is 'killed', believe me, he does not give a damn about politics, or secularism or India or Pakistan. All he screams for is justice. These are the screams that are reverberating in Kashmir, since a good part of the last 20 years; screams that politicians have used so brazenly to gain their coveted grounds. And what do we do as common people? Instead of showing empathy to the ones in pain, we listen to what our politicians say. Instead of raising our voices against the killings of innocent people, we choose to talk about India and Pakistan, Hindus and Muslims.
I repeat, in the last two weeks in Kashmir, 31 living souls - young men, having desires and aspirations, plans and ambitions - have been inhumanely killed! But nobody seems to be bothered. Our highway has been blocked for the past 40 days. Our hospitals are running short of essential drugs. Our trade is choked. Thousands of fruit-laden trucks have been made to rot. Our drivers plying in parts of Jammu and beyond have been attacked and even killed. Our consignments held up at Lakhanpur (Punjab) have been plundered. Kashmiris have been made to evacuate Jammu, by force. And when we protest all this, we get shot; shot in the head. Our houses are intruded and our families are beaten. Even journalists are not spared. And yet nobody is bothered. I say, a life is a life and whoever takes an innocent life is a terrorist irrespective of the quarter he comes from. We choose to talk about secularism and we post blogs and articles discussing trivial Hindu-Muslim issues, instead of discussing a way to stop the incessant injustice in Kashmir. Why? Only because we are unaware. What our fathers have to say about the situation in Kashmir or what our favorite news channel dishes out is not necessarily what the situation in Kashmir is like. Let us try to find the truth before we let our ideas flow. If we write let us make sure that we write what is unbiased and what is true. If not, it is much better that we don't write at all!
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CRIME OF A KASHMIRI
I am a Muslim kill me and call it a
"COLLATERAL DAMAGE"
Imprison me and call it
"SECURITY MEASURES"
Exile my people and masses and call it
"NEW MIDDLE EAST"
Rob my resources, invade my land, Alter my leadership and call it
"DEMOCRACY"
I deserve to be humiliated. I deserve to be harassed. I deserve to be mauled. I deserve to be killed. Just because
"I AM A KASHMIRI"
I demand my right IT IS MY CRIME.
I demand my dignity IT IS MY CRIME I demand life IT IS MY CRIME
I am a KASHMIRI IT IS MY CRIME
But I am proud of committing "THIS CRIME"
I WANT TO LIVE, BUT A LIVING LIFE.
NOT A DEAD MAN'S LIFE.
I CAN DIE STRUGGLING FOR FREEDOM
RATHER THAN GIVING IT UP AND LIVING.
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Posted by azharm27
Their is no doubt about the fact that it is important to be secular but my dear friend, it is sad that some people are trying to give the concerns in Kashmir a communcal route while others without giving a rational thought are getting influenced by it. That is why blogs like this come up. It is sad what has happened in Kashmir but I am sorry to say that your blog is putting only one side of the story. I get a feeling that you yourself are not very close to the ground realities in Kashmir or any other part of the country. You seem to be an educated youth, so my request would be not to get too prejudiced about the whole secular and kashmir issue. you are right in saying that justice has not been done but then politics never brings justice to anyone. It is we the people of this country who shall have to get up and come up with a solution. Why cant we people collect money and move towards Kashmir with the essentials required. maybe then the politicians shall feel ashamed of their doings, maybe then we can show to all that we care and enough is enough... maybe.... maybe.... something positive will come out... i am equally emotional about the whole issue brother ...
Posted by mittalaman2002
Mr Singh,
what made you to say that kashmiris are taking money from your pocket and then they are pissing your head.Do you know the reason why you are floating money in kashmir.dear singh when people fail on every front to keep someone under their rule or to keep some one with them....then they use such petty or i would say cheap tactics.Here you got a point.....if kashmir is a part of inida,then why you need to pump millions and millions ruppes into it.BIG WHY..Just to hear from their mouth that they are indians.or you want to hear from people of kashmir slogans like Bharat Mata ki jai...etc....Listen brother they might say those kind of slogans for a while but believe me money can,t buy you what you are expecting from kashmiris.Instead of spending money for nothing why you guys don,t adresse their basic problems.From last 15 years i have been hearing or may be you as well that centre is ready to talk to anyone for kashmir to bring peace to the subcontinent .Did they ever talked ?Was centre ever sincere to resolve this issue? NO. AS As soon as they (goverment)used to see pressure from within or from international quarters they used to annouce that GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IS READY FOR TALKS WITH PAKISTAN AND AS WELL AS KASHMIRIS and as soon as things were calming down they used to claim that kashmir is coming back to normalcy and people are living in peace...
so Mr singh...tell me please what is truth and what should we not write.i advise you that u better go and live a month or two in kashmir then only you will have feeling of the pain and suffering of kashmiri people.
God bless us all ...
Posted by khanasir
Dear,
It is clear that you don't know the facts, Kashmiri pandits left valley as per the instructions of Government. No. of kashmiri pandits are still in valley no body harm them. Kashmiri sikhs are in valley, why not any kashmiri thrown them out. Most famous book shops in main lal-chowk are non-muslims, why not kashmiri kill them or throw them out, even kashmiri help them in voilance.
As per the government plan, they have to kill kashmiri muslims and repeat jaliana-wala bagh and they did it. Kashmiri pandits save themselves and took shelter in jammu and other places of country.
Where you people raise this land issue, when yatra is going smoothly since last 40 yrs, and kashmiri muslims help you on all the routes since binging and you are using land not only in baltal, also at pahalgaam, special arrangements made for yatra.
Just think in real sense there is no land issue, I think you belong to hindu community and you must aware of that, if you want complete blessings from yatra, baltal is not proper route to the cave, as per your lord shiva told paarvati.VHP and BJP uses jammu for its political issue and create its vote bank. But we don%u2019t want jammu with us, they are communals. They block national highway and kashmiri are suffering for daily accommodities and patients are suffering without medicines.
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Posted by emran1
Basim I think you write really well and write from the heart. You must continue to write and express yourself. As far as the posts are concerned, take the good and the bad, but continue to write. You raise some very important questions,questions that are important to all of us, across the world regarding secularism, justice, politics. It is important for us all to continually seek answers to these questions. And yes, most importantly believe each other's humanity. ...
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