Peace Watch » Entries tagged with "Z. G. muhammad"
Doda Has Tale to Tell
Z.G. MUHAMMAD Tell me! Who is going to tell an honest story of Doda? For over two decades, it has been story of deaths, destructions, barbarities, brutalities, and mayhems- remembering them freezes blood in my veins even today. Did you or any other valley-based writer or historian ever dare to tell macabre tales of life in the Chenab Valley? I was confronted with these question two days earlier, when I engaged in a discussions with a friend from the Chenab Valley on some recent happenings in the erstwhile Doda district. These included the killing of four persons in a small hamlet in the Gool and recent communal disturbances in Kishtwar and role of the VDCs. Continuous dangerous vibes coming from Kishtwar and other two districts. News reports about migration of around 200 … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
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
Why I Rebutted Noorani?
Z.G. Muhammad Sitting in the backroom of a shop on the fashionable Residency Road, a “friend” of A.G. Noorani, complained that I and few other columnists were not ‘just and fair’ to author of book, ‘The Kashmir Dispute-1947-2012’. Taking an exception to my column in response to the speech of the octogenarian lawyer and writer at the inaugural function of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Greater Kashmir he was of the view that instead of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
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
2014- Kashmir and Afghanistan
Z.G. Muhammad Some fifty-nine years back Josef Korbel wrote, ‘India and Pakistan continue to dissipate their wealth, their strength and their energy on a near fratricidal struggle in which the hitherto almost unknown State of Kashmir has become the physical battleground.’ Trillions of dollars are spent on building arsenals at the cost of development of tens of millions living a sub-human life. People of the two countries have not been paying heavy prices for the wars … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Tribesmen and Kashmir narrartive
Z.G. Muhammad Many stories about 1947 happenings in Kashmir have remained untold. The reason has not been that there were no historians or scribes around to record them but for fear of reprisal by what one would call as ‘neo-fascists’ rulers many dared not to record the happenings as they happened. Those that dared to violate the dictates were exiled or deported to AJK. It was denounced as “gangster rule” by Mehr Chand Mahajan in his … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
India-Pakistan- Kashmir 2013
Z.G. MUHAMMAD Situation on the home turf during 2013 is difficult to predict- if it would be unruffled as all through 2012 or shaking as during 2010. However, there are indications that during the next ten months fulcrum to India and Pakistan diplomacy will be Kashmir. In all likelihood, the clichés like CBMs, Cross LoC trade and MNF status will take a back seat and the diplomatic circles in India and Pakistan will once again be abuzz with phrases like Kashmir ‘nuclear flash point’, ‘peace to Afghanistan passes through gates of Kashmir’ and ‘South-Asian security hinges on Kashmir. There debate over ‘Kashmir being a bilateral issue’ between the two countries or an ‘international disputes’ will become louder. Moreover, as the date for draw down of US troops from Afghanistan draws nearer … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk