Why Kashmir Children Thank JNU ?

Punchline
The JNU and Us
Z. G. Mohammad

Two phrases, ‘innocent emotionalism’ and ‘political astuteness’ on Saturday morning instantly oscillated like pendulum inside my mind. The reasons for the two phrases engaging my mind were pictures clicked after the Friday prayers in Nowhatta by photojournalists and published in some dailies on the front-page or popular inside pages. For protests and ding-dong battles between stone-throwing children and para-military forces having become a regular feature after Friday prayers in this historic and politically vibrant township, the area has become major Newsbeat after the 2008 Amarnath row. In media circuit, it is now popularly called as the “Intifada County.”
The picture showed a group of teenagers and children with their faces semi-covered carrying pictures of Afzal Guru and one of the boys carrying a small black banner reading, “Thank JNU”. The boys also carried placard decrying crackdown by police on the JNU students for speaking in support of Kashmir. In the history of the “county of intifada” or the “city of resistance,” it is the first-ever an occasion when the protesting teenagers have connected themselves with an institution outside Jammu and Kashmir. Some New Delhi-based think tanks have been calling these stone throwing and protesting boys as the “children of conflict,” and some others call them as the ‘children of resistance.’
‘If it was a bout of ‘innocent emotionalism’ or a manifestation ‘political astuteness’ of young Kashmir, this question haunted me on seeing the ‘intifada-children’ expressing solidarity with JNU students. And what has made these boys to uphold this small banner ‘Than JNU” aloft despite tear smoke fired by the troops filling the air- choking their throats and making their eyes irritatingly wet. To find an answer to this question, I tried to understand what has been the import of the JNU event titled as, ‘The Country Without Post Office” held on 9 February 2016, on the third death anniversary of Afzal Guru. In the world of literature for his ‘the Country Without Post Office’ Agha Shahid Ali is to Kashmiris what Mahmoud Dervish and Fadwa Tuqan are to Palestinians- a poet of resistance. Who more than often reminds them, “They make a desolation and call it peace.” Holding, an event on Kashmir has been in keeping with the tradition of the JNU standing for the rights movements across the globe. In the ocean of the New Delhi’s ultra-nationalist politicking, this University has been an island of higher ideals of democracy and tolerance. Like many such events in the past, the event in the JNU on Kashmir would also have passed and remained within the confines of the campus. But for the Hindutva organizations exploiting the event for controlling this institution and changing it complexion has caused ripple effects that caused a stir in few other Universities like Jadavpur University, West Bengal. These ripple effects have made Kashmir teenagers believe that their voices are not going unheard, but they do echo in the hearts of thousands of students and youth in different parts of India. In Jadavpur University student activists like Jubi Saha and Dibyokamal Mitra took the debate generated at the JNU event further by stating, “’Azadi’ is a right of the citizen to their land. And here I deliberately mention ‘land’ and not ‘country.’ Tell me this, why should students not have the freedom to discuss the issue of Kashmiri self-determination? Why should we not discuss the atrocities which the Kashmiri people have endured under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act? Is all this anti-national? (Scroll.in 20-2-16) The JNU event on and booking of Kanhaiya Kumar, President of the Students Union by the police on charges of sedition for allegedly raising pro-Kashmir slogans has in the ultimate analysis brought Kashmir problem once again into focus. Moreover, send a reminder to hundreds international intellectuals from Noam Chomsky to Orhan Pamuk that Kashmir is calling for justice. Nearly 500 academicians, economists, and scholars of international repute have extended their support to the arrested leader of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kanhaiya Kumar. Perhaps, the teenager Kashmiris, who raised a banner ‘Thank JNU,’ understood the message that the JNU event has sent across the world.
The JNU and Jadavpur University events stand as testimony that India is not just a few shouting anchors and some bloodthirsty panelists. There are lots of people who know the history of the Kashmir problem and recognize the rights of the people of the state. But for the failure of writers and leaders to reach out to them this class of people is yet to emerge as a combined and cohesive voice that the powers that be in New Delhi would hear. That would change “Nehruvian-mindset”, procrastination and weaving lies will dissolve the Kashmir Dispute. Or Saffron brigades doctrine of oppression will make people of Jammu and Kashmir abandon their accrued right. In 2008 and 2010, when people of the state en masse had articulated their demands. The most important achievement of these mass rallies was as Barkha Dutt had written, “Cry for Azadi in the volatile valley of Kashmir has suddenly found a chorus among some of Delhi’s sharpest thinkers.” Many important and forceful voices to mention a few like Pankaj Mishra, Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, Raj Mohan Gandhi, Vir Sanghvi and Arundhati Roy had candidly supported the much cause of the overwhelming majority of the state. The writers like Swaminathan and Sanghvi in their writings had not only deconstructed the “dominant narrative’ and taken the wind out of the discourse of the establishment” by candidly asking for the resolution of the Kashmir problem in its historical context. Admitting that like many opinion makers in New Delhi, he also nursed a wrong perception Swaminathan had written, “I was once hopeful of Kashmir’s integration, but after six decades of effort, Kashmiri alienation looks greater than ever. India seeks to integrate with Kashmir, not rule it colonially. Yet, the parallels between British rule in India and Indian rule in Kashmir have become too close for my comfort.”
The writings of these important voices sufficiently suggested that slowly the support for resolving the Kashmir problem was growing in New Delhi. Had there been political sagacity around in the state at that time, the changed perception would have generated as good as a movement as A.W.A.V.W, in the US in 1965 or like the writing of Simone de Beavior in support Algerian women would prick the conscience of people in India.

PUBLISHED In GREATER KASHMIR ON 22-02-16