Peace Watch » Entries tagged with "Zahid G Muhmmad"
Heightened War Of Nerves – India and Pakistan
Fireworks for Obama? Z.G. Muhammad The war of nerves has become cardinal guideline for relations between India and Pakistan. It has not paid in the Past. It is not going to pay now. It is not going to pay in future also. Immediately, after their birth as independent dominions the two countries got embroiled in the dispute over future of the Jammu and Kashmir. After landing of Indian troops at 9 A.M on October 27, 1947 at Srinagar, battle in Kashmir between India Pakistan started – it continued for twenty months. The actual fighting came to an end after military representatives of India and Pakistan under auspices of the Truce Sub-Committee of United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan signed the Cease-Fire Line Agreement on 29 July 1949. This agreement had come … 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
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
Kashmir Perspectives
Z.G. Muhammad Even those suffering from ‘ostrich syndrome’ cannot deny it. For past sixty-five years, ‘Kashmir dispute’ has been running through India and Pakistan narratives as blood runs through veins in human body. It has been steering and shaping the foreign policy of the two countries and has been hugely influencing their domestic politics. To think of politics in the two countries without Kashmir is unimaginable – any major history work on the post-independence India like ‘India After Gandhi’ by Ramachandra Guha testifies it that Kashmir has been at the centre of Indian polity – and all other issues have rallied around it.’ Since January 1948, when Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru took Kashmir to the United Nation, with all its lows and highs the dispute is seen as threat to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
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
Kashmir: 1947 Lies Exposed
Kashmir: 1947 Lies Exposed BY Z. G. Muhammad Manufactured narratives’ do not stand the test of the time. Like a soap bubble this burst once put to the litmus test of history. Christopher Snedden, an Australian politico-strategic analyst, author and academic in South Asian studies in his recently released book, “Kashmir: the Unwritten History’ has dismantled much orchestrated ‘dominant discourse’ about the Kashmir ‘dispute.’ For over past sixty six five years New Delhi has been asserting that Kashmir’s ‘conditional … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Featured
Why Did Plebiscite Front Die?
Z.G. MUHAMMAD On a cold but not freezing February afternoon pushing my way through crowded and crushing Residency Road to a nearby bookshop I was stopped by an old time Plebiscite Front worker. Given to intolerance of some contemporary “top” leaders, “clerics” and their “hangers-on”, initially, I thought, he has not liked some of my writings about once towering leader or his scions. There was no anger on his face but from expressions on his face, I … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk