Peace Watch » Entries tagged with "Freedom Struggle"
In Stifling Atmosphere Forget History! Create Literature
PUNCHLINE Forget History! Write Literature By Z.G. Muhammad A fortnight back, a single column news item in newspapers announced the death of Mushirul Hasan, an Indian historian and former Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia and author of a dozen and half books. His forte has been Islam in South Asia, communalism and birth of India and Pakistan as independent dominions. Except for some occasional remarks in sync with the ‘hegemonic discourse’, he had no direct connection with Kashmir. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
LOC Violations: Don’t Kill Us For A Sport
Punchline Don’t Kill Us For A Sport Z. G. Muhammad Who named the line dividing Jammu and Kashmir for past seventy years as the bloody line? Google, which responses to commands on smartphones like genies in old films also could not help me in finding an answer. Nonetheless, it is the most appropriate title given to this artificial line dividing not just the territory but the people of the state- dividing a brother from a brother, a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk, Point of view
Who Are They To Tell You This
Books And ‘National Narratives’ Z.G. MUHAMMAD Four new books, published from Srinagar during May vied for space in my small work place. Out of them, two have been written inside the Central Jail, Srinagar by two prisoners Dr. Muhammad Shafi Khan Shariati and Dr. Muhammad Qasim. Both convicted for life. Ess Ahmed Pirzada and Shabnam Qayoom have authored the other two. The book by Dr. Muhammad Shafi Khan Shariati is an Urdu translation of controversial book ‘The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order’ by Samuel P Huntington. Translated into almost every important language in the world the book has been for past two decades at the centre of discussion in academia, passageways of power in the West and the Muslim World. Seen as gospel for Muslim bashing the adversaries of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
A.G.Noorani On A Slippery Wicket
Z.G. Muhammad On two counts, I thank A.G. Noorani, one, for titling his book as, ‘The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012.’ (No one now in New Delhi likes to call Kashmir as a ‘dispute’. Instead, they grapple with some “palatable” softer phrases for describing the imbroglio.) Two, for bringing question of the ‘accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India’ once again into sharp focus through his speech. In his speech on the release of his book, he made … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Dr. Iqbal Dreamt of Kashmir’s Freedom
Zahid G Muhammad Momentous day in the life of a leader, writer or poet is when he sees his ideas translated into reality. Iqbal did not live up to the day when his dream of a separate nation for Muslims of South Asia became a reality on 14 August 1947. He was not a part of the galaxy of leaders of the Muslim League that had gathered in the Minto Park, Lahore on 24 March 19, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Who Is Going To Tell Kashmir Story
Z. G. Muhammad Sometimes, I feel downcast not for the fast changing political discourses. Not for the pipers and drummers of the ‘peoples narratives’ subtly joining the ‘dominant discourse’ and singing songs in symphony with actors that they often told us not to believe in but for our failure to tell our story effectively. It is not a new phenomenon, our history is full of bagpipers of ‘people’s narrative’ suddenly joining the drummers of the ‘dominant discourse’- some out of fatigue, some falling prey to the machinations of the ‘powers that be’, some out of lust for power, some for petty consideration and some stumbling for taking wrong steps at right moments. Nevertheless, the ‘people’s narrative’ never died. Our ancestors successfully always breathed fresh life in it by passing on ‘the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Distorted Kashmir History And Historians.
History too is elitist. It does not tell the whole story. It tells stories about Czars, Pharaohs, and Moguls but very rarely narrates the stories about the real Spartacus’s- the real heroes. Kashmir is not an exception besides elitism the history of this land more particularly about past seven hundred years has also suffered distortions and largely written with a particular mindset. It is not only, none of the past historians has written what is termed as the ‘people’s history’ but they have been on mainly to use Albert Camus ‘phrase by ‘the side of executioners’. Here, I am not to talk about the narratives of the past that avowedly have been twisted to suit particular discourses but of the contemporary history that I believe after the end of the feudal rule … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take