Kashmir Halcyon:

British Raj’s duplicity Book review Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire Author: Alex Von Tunzelmann By Daanish Bin Nabi While reading “Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire” written by Alex Von Tunzelmann, one gets the idea that the book has been written to appease the Indian standpoint. This because the British author and historian has given more space to Indian leaders and its politics while ignoring Pakistan, its leaders and the country at the same time.   The author has also tried to bail out Lord Louis Mountbatten for his misadventures in the wake of partition of India. The book highlights immense research and the chain of events that led to partition, put aptly by Tunzelmann.  Her work covers in detail Mountbatten’s relations; Mahatma Gandhi’s politics; Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s stubbornness on achieving Pakistan, a separate state; Jawaharlal Nehru’s re-drawing of secret plan of independence documents i...

By Daanish Bin Nabi The fuss over crumbling diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan has been played up in last couple of years, particularly after Pakistan declared that it will take up the Kashmir issue and human rights violations in J&K at international fora and India declared that it will isolate Pakistan, diplomatically. Amid the India-Pak bickering and heightened tension on the Line of Control and in Kashmir (JK), the peculiar case of Kulbhushan Jadhav popped up. Jadhav, facing guillotine after his alleged arrest in Pakistan, indictment wherein he has been charged with spying and trial, became a common link connecting or  disconnecting the foreign relations. The ultras in Pakistan advocated swift and decisive action – execution. In India, the allegations were refuted, but the government never backed from giving up on Jadhav. The case was pursued meticulously and the government tried its own methods of applying necessary pressure to stop Jadhav’s execution...

By Daanish Bin Nabi As the world observed ‘International Day in Support of Victims of Torture’, Parcham brings you the story of a woman in Kashmir. Despite persistent inhuman torture, she continues her search for her father and her husband. The 39-year-old Saba Khan (name changed) is from Boniyar, Uri. Her misfortune started soon after the onset of militancy in Kashmir. Saba has four sisters, a brother and a daughter. Missing Father Saba’s father went missing on May 11, 1990. He was a salesman in a cooperative ration ghat. With teary eyes, Saba says, “I and my sister had gone to meet a Pir Baba, who stays near our house. His son had also been picked up by the Army.” Saba says that while they were talking to the Pir Baba, the Army raided his house. “When they saw my sister and me, they told us that your father has not gone home today. We were petrified and started crying. We spent that dreadful night at Pir Baba’s house. When we went to our house in the morning, we ...

By Daanish Bin Nabi daanishnabi@gmail.com Pakistan was born on 14 August, 1947. If we put the facts straight, Pakistan is a day older than India, as it was 15 August 1947 when India announced its freedom from colonial British yoke. The British left Indian subcontinent divided into two parts. No matter how theories are interpreted, the two countries were founded on the basis of religion, with Pakistan as so-called Islamic state and India as so-called secular plural country.  The great partition in South Asia left both Pakistan and India devastated as it saw exodus of 15 million refugees through borders to regions completely foreign to them. In this bloody mass exodus, Hindus migrated from regions that came under Pakistan to India and Muslims migrated from regions that came under India to Pakistan.      The blood spilled over the partition injured the people in both India and Pakistan, and after years and decades those injuries, the wounds wh...

By Daanish Bin Nabi daanishnabi@gmail.com Jerusalem is now under “their” control. Not that it was with us - but they have now made it officially their capital. What did we do? Nothing. Yes, we did issue some meek statements and some shows (read rallies) to express our muted anger and frustration against Uncle Sam, but that’s it. And then we are back to our daily exercise of creating faultlines among ourselves (Muslims). The division now runs so deep that the Great Satan may be relieved to do his bit to keep us divided. And all thanks to our so-called sect scholars who for their own benefits keep dividing and disintegrating us. We are divided in sects – Sunnis and Shias primarily. While some Sunnis scholars accuse Shias of betraying Muslims in general and Islam in particular, Shias on the other play up on the expected lines as well. If we have a look at both the sects, Shias happen to be more united than Sunnis. They have their leader and whatever he says is the bottom line ...

By Daanish Bin Nabi daanishnabi@gmail.com This may be an anecdote, a concocted tale to demean the basic character of a Kashmiri or a pun wrapped in mischief, but since the time I heard it I have not been able to undo its effect. It goes like this – “On a hot summer day, a Kashmiri man was sitting on a boulder in an open field, sweating profusely. A foreigner (I was told an Englishman) seeing the condition of the man approached him and asked why he was sweating in the full heat of the sun instead of taking cover under some tree. To which the man seeing a prospect of making something replied – how much will you give me if I take the cover.” This is me, this is we, Kashmiris, and although it hurts, feels painful but it is less so when one admits it, the hypocrites we are and the hypocrites we continue to be. We are the people who would ask for compensation to any advice or suggestion for our one good. At times we also take pride in being so.       ...

By Daanish Bin Nabi To bring down the rule of the Congress party in India which it had held for decades, the BJP had to bring down its image first. The right-wing party on the one hand demeaned one of the core concepts of Indian constitution – secularism – and on the other worked covertly to project Congress party as a monster feeding on gullible citizens. Public perception, before the smear campaign of the right-wing party, on secularism was it had a positive value. The perception by right-wing propaganda has been changed to “sickularism” meaning that those supporting it are sick. Slowly and gradually, secularism in India is finding hard to save its positive value and acceptance among masses. It is the second front, to portray Congress in bad light, by the propaganda machine of BJP that has received its share of limelight with the uncovering of facts, verdict on the infamous by intent 2G Scam.        With anti-incumbency bending its back a...