Better stones than bull

COUNTERPOINT
Better stones than bull
Hilal Ahmad reacts to We the primitive (Write Hand) by Ajaz ul Haque

For quite some time now, I have noticed Ajaz ul Haque’s writing on stone pelting, and several other contentious issues concerning Kashmiri society, suffused with a sort of mawkish sentimentality. Typical of that behaviour is that you often sweep a whole world of ideas and arguments, sometimes bizarre and irrational, but mostly unrelated to the issue in debate, to make a point. His first column was titled, in a Swiftseque manner, as “Stone Age… All Jammu Kashmir Stone Pelters Association.” Its plebeian play on words, however, brought a smile on my gloomy face. Though he advocates no further debate on the issue, funnily, he had a second take on stone pelting in his latest column We talk stones as world scales new highs! We talk stones because our world has been reduced to stones. I reckon 80000 or more gravestones are a lot of stones when you count them one by one in all the graveyards scattered across the state, in the marshes of Wullar and rocky mountains of Doda? And which world has scaled heights? The world that reduces to rubble in a few years an ancient civilization in Iraq on a flimsy suspicion, and leaves half a million dead, innocent children among them? These heights are too subjective for a ‘queer’ issue of throwing stones in downtown Srinagar, or rustic landscape of Bomai. These heights are better are left to those who have scaled them.
But I would heed to the advice he dispensed in the crispy staccato sentences of the Write Hand. He says we should not debate stone pelting at all, for even the discussion on the subject seems medieval and absurd. According to him throwing stones means destruction. And only the insane are insane enough to summon destruction upon themselves willfully. Stop. I would agree and let history decide if it was to fair for a people to throw stones at someone they believed had snatched their rights. The star intellectual of the Left, Tariq Ali, once famously remarked `if you have an ugly oppression, don’t expect a beautiful resistance’. Ali was, perhaps, talking about equivalence, not proportionality. Otherwise, the proportion with which you deal with a very sly and ugly usurpation would bring out `baddest’, maddest, and ugliest resistance from a completely dispossessed and enervated nation. And that would be its justification.
However, I don’t want to touch the religious or ‘common sensical’ aspects of the act of hurling a stone at a trooper who doesn’t allow you more ‘civilized’ form of resistance, that is, a demonstration. But I want to take issues with reasoning arrived at by Haque to pulverize stone throwing, stone throwers, supporters of stone throwing, and the imagined goblins-- the guides of stone throwers.
Haque brings in the subject of medieval thinkers. History tells us medieval thinkers were brought up, educated, and later nourished by the kings and commons for the sole purpose of discussing practical as well as abstract matters, the lawfulness of donkey flesh for example. It was probably because practical endeavors were left to practical men in a society highly stratified. A British character in a very popular movie tells his soldier friend that a British soldier wouldn’t die for the queen in the sweltering plains of India if he were to think on worthiness of the queen’s, and his own, life. Also, the medieval thinkers would not worry their ‘lazy and unfruitful minds’ about the war tactics of the crusaders who according to some intellectuals of those times comprised the entire brigandage of Europe assembled by the Pope. In return, the ordinary crusaders wouldn’t mind “open ended” hair splitting debates of the scholastic thinkers, if they were aware of such debates in the first place. The thinkers and the crusaders were unanimous about the need for confronting their Islamic enemies. For thinkers it was none of their goddamn business to discuss whether it was civilized or savage, biblical or heathenish, for besieged crusaders to hurl thousand pound rocks or barrels of scalding fuel on the soldiers of Salahuddin’s. It was the natural thing to do.
Growth of societies is an evolutionary process. Free societies now discuss whether they should elect a lesbian to rule a nation or not. Colonial societies, like Kashmir, on the other hand discuss whether they should throw stones at their tormentors or not. People aware of their colonial stranglehold wouldn’t have discussed it, had not the policemen and enlightened men thrust this discussion upon them. Thus it seems natural in the present scheme of things that some boys throw stones. If they use Kalashnikovs, they are branded as terrorists. You see people are never short of labels. Savage is one more term in this enlightened vocabulary. Although I believe savages would take great offense at the mention of this word, as they have tasted the encounter with the civilized world, which ravaged their lands with a gun in one hand and the bible in the other. Once free, and later ‘scaling a few heights’ the Lassas and Gullas of Nowhatta might in future discuss some delicate issues, like if it was fair---in ethical, moral, ideal, or intellectual sense---for some people to moonwalk as journalists while serving the government institutions.
Often it happens that when you run out of arguments, you turn to personalities. Shall one be branded as a police collaborator if his/her ideas on stone throwing perfectly gel with those of the city police chief who presided over shooting of dozens of boys in Srinagar last summer, while his counterpart in Jammu didn’t touch even those who waved communal flags from army trucks and set ablaze Kashmiri drivers? I would say, never. Similarly, when some people are arguing in favor of stone throwing how come they become the invisible monsters who, according to Haque, are “inciting ignorant” boys and keeping them in a state of darkness. Please refer to your own sermon in last Sunday’s column on how a newspaper is sanctified space for a healthy debate. If someone from London wants to refute the pronouncement of a cleric, why should he be invited to Kashmir for throwing stones to prove his sincerity?
It is again being highly presumptuous to label the stone throwing boys as a monolithic bunch of ignorant, illiterate, and uneducated creatures. I first threw stones at police when I was a 13 year old schoolboy. Though my reading those days was limited to a few borrowed Enid Blyton volumes, I was nevertheless preparing for a serious education. And I knew why I was throwing stones. My friends who have “scaled heights” in different fields in different parts of the world tried this “savagery” quite often in their lives before leaving this land. They don’t regret it. They merely think another generation is doing what it deems right. And these stone throwing boys would age like me, like my friends, and do whatever they are destined to do, except, perhaps, becoming pen pushers like me.
Further, if you read the statements of the police, they seem “concerned” that a sizable number of these boys were college going students who had parked their bikes on roadsides and then indulged in Kani Jang. When a 10-year old girl was raped by a soldier in Badarpayeen, Handwara some years back, Kashmir University students threw stones when they were not allowed to march peacefully beyond the gates of the University. Perhaps, they thought it natural to do so then, rather than writing an article in a newspaper with book-addled brains.
According to Haque’s interesting logic, the arguments of people who favor stone pelting might carry weight if they actually do what they preach. Means, thankfully, there is some scope for the “savages” to enter the world of the civilized. But if we look hard enough in the real world, rather than from the prism of half-learned, intellectual twaddle, we might actually find quite a number of people who have taught by example. Sheikh Aziz was shot near Chahal simply for requesting police and the CRPF troopers to allow the peaceful marchers to proceed ahead. I, and several other journalists who sometimes venture out of closets, were witness to the incident. Shakeel Bakshi was beaten blue for leading peaceful demonstrations. Nayeem Ahmad Khan was beaten in custody for the similar reasons. Geelani, emaciated by surgeries, led the demonstrations, urging the boys to maintain “Islamic decorum.” Masarat Alam, also a stone thrower in his youth and educated in the finest school of the Valley, has been jailed for as many times under the draconinan PSA as the number of articles-sans-substance written against stone throwing. What about Jalil Andrabi who tried to seek justice for his fellow people in the judiciary of those very people who pumped several bullets in his handsome body, and then dumped him in a dirty marsh? Look hard. You won’t have to ‘scale highs’ to find people who taught by example, and still are. Besides, it is a proposition fraught with danger of embarrassment. If Shakeel Bakshi does throw stones now, would Haque follow the suit?

Dooru votes for Geelani- stays away from polls.

SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 7

In Dooru village, there are no queues scaled outside the polling station, no buzz of the earlier phases is repeated. There are no election posters pasted on the walls, nor any banners hanging over the dusty streets. Men huddle outside shops, women gaze through windows and children run around with their faces flushed and eyes wet by the tear smoke only to see if someone today betrays ‘the sentiment’ or ‘the leader’ here. In this village in Sopore, where defiant Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani was born, no one even walked past the polling station today.

 

And at a time when Kashmir defied the separatist poll boycott, Dooru did not let down Geelani.  “We don’t want any roads, any jobs or any benefits. We only want Freedom,” says Sayeed Naseer, a 36 year old businessman. “The occupational force always tries to lure the victim with these luxuries but we will not succumb to them and forget our slain brothers.”

Pitched battles were fought all through the day between security forces and people. Four persons had been injured in the tear smoke shelling and baton charge by the forces. Youngsters carried stones in their hands fuming with anger over the high voter turnout in the neighboring village Dangarpora- the native village of Congress candidate Abdul Rashid Dar who won the 2002 polls from here.

“They have betrayed our cause, our dead, and our graveyards but we will never forget what we have suffered” says Naseer.

Naseer surrounded a dozen men gets up from a shop pavement ridiculing the election process and speaks in support of the boycott. His accent is slightly familiar, his words somewhat heard. Bilal Hassan, an engineering student, talks about graveyards and independence, properly punctuating the sentence. Even he talks in the same way. In Geelani’s village every one talks like him, uses the same set of words he has used over the past two decades, and even the Quranic references are from the same pages. Here, Geelani is followed and revered in style and ideology but the people are quick to add that that they do not chase Geelani. “Geelani comes second, first comes the sentiment for Azaadi. We support boycott because we believe in Tehreek (movement)” says Hassan.   

The 79 year old Hurriyat leader had once contested and won elections from Sopore before the armed rebellion started across the valley. But today, he is the fiercest opponent of elections are so are the people from his native village.  “We will now only vote under United Nation (UN) observers, not till then. We will decide our future by siding with independence, not petty candidates,” says Abdul Rashid Rishi, a college student. “Why is India afraid to do that if it is so sure that Kashmiris want to be with it? Let us vote freely, and then see what we vote for”.

Inside the polling booth, the presiding officer looks bored. “No one came to vote, nor do we expect anyone,” says the official. Outside, the people were getting ready, forming small groups to attack the security forces from different sides.

  

The Apple Princess

SRINAGAR, AUGUST 26 

While apple festival blossoms in Himachal Pradesh today, Ghulam Rasool walks over the rotten apples littered all across his orchard in Baramulla. In the peak fruit season in Kashmir, the apple orchards are as deserted as the streets. Kashmir sees one of its most discouraging fruit seasons after the economic blockade and the subsequent strict curfews.

“I have lost most of my fruit and what is left is all rotting. The economic blockade has brought us to dust”, says Ghulam Rasool Bhat, president of fruit growers association, Kashmir. We don’t have any interest in out fruits anymore when we see the losses we have incurred. We have lost 60 percent of our fruit already”.

The fruit industry in Kashmir is one of the major sources of livelihood for Kashmiris. More than 30 lakh people in the valley are directly dependent on the industry and 10 lakh more are indirectly dependent on it. They include the drivers who carry the fruit or the workers who load and unload fruits.

Nazir Ahmad Bhat, a fruit truck driver is one of the many who have been hit the worst. Nazir had brought the truck on loan and most of it still remains unpaid. “Now, I will beg the bankers to remit me the interest. I earned nothing this season, not enough to support my family.” His three daughters all aged below 9 are sharing their fathers misery. “We have no money to buy food or to anything. We don’t know what to do now”.

His truck (JK05-9318) was attacked and damaged near Samba on way from Jammu. Even though Nazir has a little to live on, he is too afraid to go resume his job. “I fear going out and drive the fruit trucks.  We can live on meager meals but my family doesn’t want me to be killed in Jammu”, says Nazir. “They pick up Kashmiri truck among 20 others and start bashing us. I dread the petrol bomb which is thrown at Kashmiri drivers”.

With the Kashmiri fruit rotting in the orchards, apples from Himachal Pradesh are fetching more money in the fruit market. “Earlier, Himachal apples would go at Rs 350 but now they are close to Rs 500 because Kashmiri apples are not in market. The Kashmiri fruit is nowhere around”, says Arjun Kumar, Commission agent in Delhi.

As ‘apple prince’ and ‘apple princess’ will be crowned in Himachal tomorrow, Nazir’s youngest daughter, Suman, sleeping next to the flaked green wall, cries for milk.  

Limping through the protests, old women walk to Eidgah.

SRINAGAR, AUGUST 12

After every slogan she utters a sigh. In the middle of a massive procession, Taja Begum slowly limps her way through the packed streets. The wrinkles on her face look deeper, the veins on her temples engorge with blood as she raises her fist in the air and shouts “we want freedom”. At 71, Taja with an ailing body has already walked six kilometers with the thousands of people. She too is one of the many thousands who defied curfew in Kashmir today.

“I am suffering with several ailments but no ailment can stop me today. I will walk till I fall down. And I will not fall down”, Taja says as another old woman holds her arm as she stumbles over one the numerous stones that the street is littered with.

Taja like hundreds of old women is a part of the procession on its way to Eidgah. People from all over Srinagar and neighboring towns were marching to join the funeral prayers and bury the Hurriyat leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz who was killed yesterday at Chehal village in police firing.

The women kept joining the protest at every neighborhood, every lane, and every by-lane. “I too like every Kashmiri have only one dream- freedom. We don’t believe in any Indian imposed curfew. We have shown that again today”, Noora Begum from Srinagar shouts amidst deafening slogans. Noora joined the procession at Shaheed Gunj coming out through a narrow alley with a dozen other women, most of them above 50.

With sticks in hand sometimes to lift up and most of the time to support their weak bodies, they keep muttering prayers for the safety of the people in the procession. “Enough Kashmiri blood has been spilled. We deserve freedom now. Help us”, says Rehat, another old lady, as she looks towards the smoke filled sky with her hand outstretched. Someone shouts a slogan and she joins in, her shrill voice and high pictch resonates around. A young boy holds her hand now. “My sons carried me on their shoulders when they felt I had exhausted my self. There are enough sons to carry me if my legs don’t support me”. 

As the dead body of a boy killed in Hyderpora passes in an ambulance, Taja begins to hit her chest slowly and slogans turn into suppressed sobs. Through the wrinkles on her face, the tears find their way quickly. Noora consoles her, first wiping her own moist eyes.

As the procession reaches Safakadal, Taja has slumped into the back rows moving feebly. Noora is nowhere in the people.

With a green cloth tied around her head, the veins of her temples engorged and a stick in hand, an old woman from Safakadal makes her way into Eidgah. “No curfew can keep us in homes now”, she says with the stick cutting across the air. 

Butt Clermont- A dream afloat on water...

It is a dream afloat on water. It is a reality, writ on fringes of a dream.

On a secluded bank of the mesmerizing Dal Lake, these carved wooden palaces have been the most sought after tourist destination in Kashmir. In the lap of the Zabarwan hills, canopied by blue skies and overwhelming Chinars, the Butt Clermont house boats are arguably the most scintillating homes on water.

Only eight kilometers from the city center, Lal Chowk, Clermont nestles quietly in the Naseem Bagh- the garden of breezes. It has played host to some of the most famous people to have visited Kashmir in the last half of the century. From celebrities to politicians, almost everyone who came to Kashmir has come here.

The photos of the guests in the reception room seem to shrink me as I begin to recognize them. My eyes are flickering across the frames searching for that one photo. Instead, I find Joan Fontain, the famous Hollywood actress, smiling seductively. A little away Neil Armstrong stares with his moony eyes.  I find American ex-Vice President Nelson Rockefeller standing besides Mr. Butt, the owner of the houseboat. And finally, I see him. George Harrison, the Beatle, hung on the wall.

The guest book reveals even more names imprinted in history- Yehudi Menuhin, Ravi Shankar, Dilip Kumar and P.G Wodehouse, the humorist writer. The recent addition is Peter Jennings and Micheal Palin.

 “All these people came to stay in our houseboat because of the service we provide. The way we care for the guests and give them attention is what they like” says Mr. G.N Butt. “We have been working hard to keep our guests comfortable ever since Clermont was established.

The history of houseboats in Kashmir dates back to the mid-19th century which was the peak of Indian Raj in the neighboring India. The maharaja of Kashmir submitted to British dominion, but insisted on one condition: that the occupiers and other non-natives refrain from setting up any fixed buildings in the state. The British agreed. And instead came up with mansions on water.

Butt Clermont was established in 1940 by a handicrafts businessman, Ghulam Mohammad Bhat. "My father was regularly going to Calcutta to sell handicrafts," says Ghulam Nabi Butt, Owner of Butt’s Clermont. "There he met a British couple working in a shipping company and they became good friends. One day they asked him if he can arrange a houseboat for them during their Kashmir visit and he agreed".

 Bhat returned to Kashmir and set-up a houseboat at Naseem Bagh. For seven year, before the partition, the British couple, their friends and relatives were the regular visitors to the houseboat. "After partition they left Kashmir and didn’t return. But they transferred this property to our name." says Ghulam Nabi Butt. Since then it has been a favorite destination for tourists.

The Butt’s Clermont Group consists of five houseboats. Each houseboat has bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a living room and a dining room. One of them is a special honeymoon houseboat.

The boats are luxurious and aesthetic. Intricately carved cedar woodwork, magnificently stitched crewelwork on the curtains and tinted chandeliers set the rooms completely apart. The Kashmiri silk carpets grace the flooring.

Adding to the beauty of the houseboat is the touch of Kashmiri Cuisine. One can order from the entire range of Kashmiri delicacies. And the aroma of the famous Kashmiri Kehwa at the Clermont’s is something not to be missed. The cooks can even make foreign dishes with an equal skill.

Three shikaras, canopied longboats await the guests to take them into the vast expanses of the Dal Lake and the floating gardens. The butt Clermont’s unlike other houseboats on Dal Lake has a beautiful garden on one side. Besides playing soccer in evenings, the garden is famous for candlelit dinners and barbecue parties.  

The 'God fearing Communist' of Kashmir politics.

SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 30

While separatist leaders made yet another show of strength with tens of thousands of people assembling for special Eid prayers today, this festival brings no cheer to the families of the young protesters, who were killed in police firing during the recent ‘Azaadi’ groundswell.

Here is a sordid story of two Srinagar families, who lost their sons during the recent protests. Their kitchens have no whiff of spicy mutton, no smell of pastries which lingers across the homes of the valley today on Eid. There are no new dresses for children.

Tanveer Ahmad Handoo’s mother, Haseena is quite and there are no festivities in their home today. Handoo was killed in Police firing on August 14 near his mobile repair shop in Sekidafar locality of downtown city. Tanveer’s son, Musaib cries for new clothes rolling his body on the ground, banging his fists on his mother’s legs. “I will not wear the old clothes, buy me new ones”. Suraya, Tanveer’s widow is 26 and happiness has eluded them.

There is no source of income for her anymore. “His father used to buy new clothes for him every Eid. How will I explain to my son that there is no one left to buy anything for him”, says Suraya, Tanveer’s widow.

Shehzada cries as her daughter Nazima fiddles with the empty vessels which would be full of dishes every Eid. But this Eid, they have cooked nothing for Eid, not even rice. Sameer Ahmad Batloo, Shehzada’s son was killed in Police firing about hundred meters away from his home. “We were poor but my son would somehow manage bakery and mutton for Eid. We were happy in our poverty- what Eid now without our son,” says Shehzada. “He would buy clothes for me on Eid. He loved me and now he is dead,” says Nazima, Sameer’s sister.

JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik had distributed Rs 50,000 each as “Maqbool Bhat Award” among the families of the six protestors who were killed in the protests. The families said that no other separatist group has come forward to help them in any way. “We are thankful to Yasin sahib that he helped us when misfortune befell us. At least someone cares for those who laid their lives”. Few voluntary groups - HELP Foundation and Sakhawat Center of the Iqbal Memorial Trust have, however, visited the families and helped several of them financially. 

Unlike Jammu where special ex-gratia was given on a priority basis to the families of the slain protestors, the J-K Government has not come forward with any help to the families of 54 protestors who were killed in police action in Kashmir. 

The house of the dead- one day before Eid

SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 30

While separatist leaders made yet another show of strength with tens of thousands of people assembling for special Eid prayers today, this festival brings no cheer to the families of the young protesters, who were killed in police firing during the recent ‘Azaadi’ groundswell.

Here is a sordid story of two Srinagar families, who lost their sons during the recent protests. Their kitchens have no whiff of spicy mutton, no smell of pastries which lingers across the homes of the valley today on Eid. There are no new dresses for children.

Tanveer Ahmad Handoo’s mother, Haseena is quite and there are no festivities in their home today. Handoo was killed in Police firing on August 14 near his mobile repair shop in Sekidafar locality of downtown city. Tanveer’s son, Musaib cries for new clothes rolling his body on the ground, banging his fists on his mother’s legs. “I will not wear the old clothes, buy me new ones”. Suraya, Tanveer’s widow is 26 and happiness has eluded them.
There is no source of income for her anymore. “His father used to buy new clothes for him every Eid. How will I explain to my son that there is no one left to buy anything for him”, says Suraya, Tanveer’s widow.

Shehzada cries as her daughter Nazima fiddles with the empty vessels which would be full of dishes every Eid. But this Eid, they have cooked nothing for Eid, not even rice. Sameer Ahmad Batloo, Shehzada’s son was killed in Police firing about hundred meters away from his home. “We were poor but my son would somehow manage bakery and mutton for Eid. We were happy in our poverty- what Eid now without our son,” says Shehzada. “He would buy clothes for me on Eid. He loved me and now he is dead,” says Nazima, Sameer’s sister.

JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik had distributed Rs 50,000 each as “Maqbool Bhat Award” among the families of the six protestors who were killed in the protests. The families said that no other separatist group has come forward to help them in any way. “We are thankful to Yasin sahib that he helped us when misfortune befell us. At least someone cares for those who laid their lives”. Few voluntary groups - HELP Foundation and Sakhawat Center of the Iqbal Memorial Trust have, however, visited the families and helped several of them financially.

Unlike Jammu where special ex-gratia was given on a priority basis to the families of the slain protestors, the J-K Government has not come forward with any help to the families of 54 protestors who were killed in police action in Kashmir.