Blood, Censored: When Kashmiris Become the 'Enemy'

by Harsh Mander, Harsh Mander, Pamela Philipose & Tapan Bose Navsharan Singh

This is a book about the Kashmir valley—lacerated, wrathful, aflame. The authors travelled across it in the winter of 2016, during a journey undertaken in a spirit of solidarity with the people of the region. It is a disturbing account of children blinded by pellet guns, of a government in a bitter state of undeclared war with its own civilian populations, of the rage of stone-throwing youth and the hubris of military generals. The book also attempts a concise history of the conflict in the valley and makes a strong plea for humanity, for fairness, and for justice. The authors argue, there should be no denying a just peace to the embattled people of the valley. The concluding words of the book sum it up ‘We are told that a nation cannot be strong if it is ethical or compassionate; that these are despicable signs of weakness; that a strong state is a state that is without morality or mercy. Who will tell them how wrong they are? That it is only the weak who fell those who are weaker, whose hearts are empty of mercy, who celebrate the weeping of children. The truly strong are those who have the courage to be kind and just.’

134 pages, Paperback

Published September 13, 2018

Reviews

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

For almost every young Indian like me who grew up in the 1990s, Kashmir evokes the image of a “paradise lost.” It is a land of pristine beauty with snow-clad mountains, apple orchards and rosy-cheeked children. But juxtaposed against the natural splendour of this land are the horrific tales of violence, mass murders, bombings and rapes, with homes destroyed and families shattered. This conflict has afflicted the region for the past five decades. TV news and newspapers in India are dominated by discussion on the genesis of the Kashmir conflict and how Kashmir “rightfully” belongs to India. However, there is little dialogue on why the people of Kashmir feel so alienated and hostile towards the Indian state. Why has there been an increasingly loud cry for “Azadi” in the Kashmir valley? What do the people of Kashmir really aspire for?

This book raises these extremely pertinent issues related to the Kashmir conflict. It documents the authors’ journey on a “solidarity mission” undertaken between July-December 2016 in the aftermath of the Burhan Wani killing. Burhan Wani was a poster boy of militant, social-activism whose encounter killing shook the valley and became a trigger for the biggest upsurge in violence in the Kashmir valley. The authors provide an eyewitness account of the emotional dynamics of Kashmir during the past two years, in the wake of the unprecedented violence. The book is an attempt to sensitise Indian and global audiences towards the plight of the Kashmiris and the ordeals they face in their everyday life. A continuing theme, which emerges from this work, is that “India wants Kashmir, the land; but treats Kashmiris the people as enemy subjects.”

What makes this work unique from other research previously done on the subject is that it gives voice to Kashmiri people; whose perspective is often under-represented in mainstream debates. A large part of the book is devoted to capturing the horrors that Kashmiri men, women and children face in everyday lives. The authors have a lucid writing style and paint a heart-wrenching picture of what it is to live in the shadows of continued violence and how the dreams of an entire generation have been lost in this conflict. An underlying argument of this work is how the notion of “normalcy” is lost to young Kashmiris, who have seen nothing but violence and unrest while growing up. The work examines in great detail the psyche of the Kashmir youth, and why they are willing to sacrifice it all for a utopian dream of “Azadi.”

The book is divided into six chapters. The first two chapters provide a moving account of the brutal violence afflicted on the people of Kashmir in the aftermath of Burhan Wani’s killing. The authors make effective use of first person accounts and describe in great detail the brutish measures adopted by militia to quell the mass incidents of stone-throwing on army personnel by Kashmiris. Stone pelting is being increasingly employed by Kashmiris as a means to profess their anger against the Indian army. However, instead of engaging with the protestors, the Indian army is extensively using pellet guns to crush these protests. This has led to mass blinding of men, women and children and created an “epidemic of dead eyes” in the Kashmir valley. There is an excellent description of the varied forms of brutalisation and state repression including the ban on all forms of social/ mass media which have been unleashed on Kashmir by the Indian state since 2016. These brutal measures have been condoned by the highest institutional authorities in India, including the Supreme Court. There is a rich discussion on the state response to the Kashmir issue and highlights many new facets of the problem. However, the reader feels that the narrative could be made richer, had there been more direct quotes from Indian policymakers/ army. The Indian perspective on these violent incidents in Kashmir is only captured through newspaper reports. It leaves the reader wondering on what would be the response of the state authorities, if these tough questions were posed to them directly. Another aspect I found lacking in the chapters is that although there is an extensive analysis of the unrest in the Kashmir valley, post Burhan Wani’s killing, there is little background information on what Burhani Wani signified for the Kashmiris and how he came to be seen as an epitome of the Kashmiri resistance. This information would have made the narrative stronger.

In the other four chapters, the work goes back into the annals of history and traces the genesis of the crisis from 1947 onwards. This section provides extensive detail on how the Kashmir crisis originated, the response of international agencies on the issue and the position adopted by the Indian and Pakistani governments on this contested territory. This discussion contains an in depth analysis of the policy measures of the Indian government, including the draconian AFSPA act. There is also an in depth discussion of how the violence magnified in the post 1990 era. The section touches on a range of issues including the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir in the early 1990s, the Kunan Poshpara rapes, and the plight of the families of disappeared youth. The analysis draws extensively on previous studies and reports on the plight of the Kashmiris, which have seldom been discussed in the public domain. It also draws interesting parallels between the violence in Kashmir, the militancy in Punjab and the Naga uprising in the North East. This section is instructive for anyone who wants to understand the Kashmir problem in its entirety.

In the last section the work locates the Kashmir conflict within the contemporary trend of rising “Hindutva” in India. It compares and contrasts the stance adopted by the previous Congress government (who used military tactics along with the other means like dialogue and discussion) and the current regimen who have marked Kashmiri Muslims as the “other” and rely on brutal militarism to crush all forms of revolt and “tame” the protesting populace. Here, the authors have also reflected on a number of contemporary events and trajectories and their bearing on the Kashmir problem. These include university protests, marking of liberal intellectuals in India as “anti-nationals” and the increasing incidents of mob lynching against the Muslim people in India. In this section the authors make detailed arguments on how the branding of a certain section of the population as the “enemy” will lead to increasingly radicalisation and spur even more violence. They draw comparisons with means adopted to resolve issues in other conflict-laden regions of the world such as Ireland. The work concludes that it is only through continuous dialogue and engagement with all relevant stakeholders and an empathetic attitude towards the plight of the Kashmiris that this problem may be resolved. Brutal military force will only lead to a vicious cycle of violence and unrest, as is reflected in the experience of Kashmir in the last many decades.

To conclude, this work is an extremely important addition to the existing literature on the Kashmir conflict. It brings to the table Kashmiri perspective on this extremely complex, long-standing conflict. While there are no easy answers, the work’s plea for empathy and “taking everyone along” in conflict resolution certainly provide a way forward.

[Vandita Cecil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for fact collection.
Must explore the links provided.