Peace Watch » Archive
Exiled Kashmiris: Story of Pain and Agony
PUNCHLINE Deaths in Exile By Z.G. Muhammad In our agonized contemporary history there are many an untold ‘crippling stories of sorrow.’ Like many other struggling nations, we also have had our share of stories of exiles in 1819, 1846, 1947, 1965, and 1990 and after. Most of them will be never told. Sadly, the stories of pain and suffering of those exiled so far have not been themes of our poetry or subjects for our writers. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Importance Yusuf Buch’s Writings to Kashmir
Punchline Reading Yusuf Buch Z. G. Muhammad I learned two new phrases in the past fortnight that I believe are important to our narrative and need to dwell upon a bit at length. One, ‘life writing’ and another ‘conflict parasites’- the first one I heard from a Kashmiri born novelist Nitasha Koul at the Kashmir University and the second one from a young journalist. The first one gives more power to the narratives of the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Life Writing: Every Kashmiri Has A Story Tell
Punchline Life Writing and Resistance By Z.G. Muhammad Sometimes, one indulges in writings, without knowing to what genre of literature these belong to in the academic world. A couple of days back listening to a talk by novelist and poet Nitasha Kaul on ‘life writing,’ organized by KCSDS and Kashmir University, I understood that this is something couple of my friends and I have been doing for pretty some time. Interestingly for past ten years, I … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Jana Gund- Legendary Woman Rebel of Kashmir
Nostalgia Women in Resistance By ZGM Sue Monk Kidd, American novelist, and memoirist have said it and said it rightly, “Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.” The stories that came to us from our forefathers through oral tradition made our generation conscious about the primacy of our identity and sense of belonging to our land- gave us “a feeling and recognition” … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Kashmir Is Nuclear flashpoint Banning Social Media Is No Answer
Punchline Word of Mouth: Language of Resistance By Z.G. Muhammad For the past ninety-three years, the political struggle of people of Jammu and Kashmir has evolved its own grammar. The grammar had enabled the people of the state to defend their narrative even when the “dominant discourse” had its sway in the state. Or when in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru had succeeded in carrying out “political PSYOPs” on our leaders and made them do what he wanted. Nevertheless, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Prof. Hameedah Nayeem Looks at Significance of the Story of Downtown Boy
What is in a Title? Significance of the title Story of Downtown Boy— and the Issues thereof Prof. Hameedah Nayeem Last week when two books were released in the university’s Ibni Khaldoon Hall, It set me thinking about the significance of the title of G M Zahid ‘s (Z.G. Muhammad’s) book- Srinagar, the City of Culture and Resistance: Story of Downtown Boy as a pointer to understand its genre. On the one hand, it is about Srinagar, the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Kashmir-Talk
Silent Mothers With Million Word Woeful Stories
PUNCHLINE Our Sombre Sunday Z.G. Muhammad It was a sunny April Sunday, just, following the historic Sunday, when 2.3 million people of three districts of Kashmir, Srinagar, Ganderbal, and Badgam had registered their protest against the perpetuation of the uncertainty about future of the State through ballot- by boycotting the by-elections for the Srinagar parliamentary constituency. Nonetheless, despite the apple trees in full blossoms and vast tracts of mustards fields splashed with gold dust, the April Sunday was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Featured, Kashmir-Talk, Perspectives, Point of view