{"id":1488,"date":"2013-06-04T21:13:42","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T15:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=1488"},"modified":"2013-06-04T21:19:05","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T15:49:05","slug":"who-are-they-to-tell-you-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/who-are-they-to-tell-you-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Are They To Tell You This"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

Books And \u2018National Narratives\u2019<\/h1>\n

Z.G. MUHAMMAD<\/h4>\n

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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.
\nThe book by Dr. Muhammad Shafi Khan Shariati is an Urdu translation of controversial book \u2018The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order\u2019 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 Islam intensely played up Huntington\u2019s\u00a0 ideas: \u2018In the clash of civilizations, the Islamic civilization was the most troublesome and greatest source of secondary global conflict for the generations or two, with the attendant dangers of terrorism potentially leveraged by nuclear proliferation.\u201d Muslim and many other scholars around the world have been demolishing his theories built on pedestals of bigotry and prejudices.
\nSamuel Huntington\u2019s philosophy of clash of civilization again became point of discussion during the Arab Spring. In the Arab uprising\u00a0\u00a0 many an important voices in the West like David Brooks of New York Times saw his philosophy crumbling under its own weight. He wrote, \u201cHuntington\u2019s thesis set off a furious debate. But with the historic changes sweeping through the Arab world, it\u2019s illuminating to go back and read his argument today.\u00a0 In retrospect, I\u2019d say that Huntington committed the Fundamental Attribution Error. That is, he ascribed to traits qualities that are actually determined by context.\u201d Dr. Shariati\u2019s Urdu translation of this book is quite lucid and a good contribution towards Urdu literature.
\nThe book would be of interest to a selected Urdu readership but it would hardly catch the imagination of the struggling people of Kashmir. As against this people will largely identify themselves with three other books namely, \u2018Dr. Muhammad Qasim: The Victim of Political Vendetta,\u2019 Vaadi-e-Khoonaab\u2019 (Valley of bloodshed) by Ess Ahmed Pirzada and \u2018Phansi\u2019 (Hanging to death) by Shabnam Qayoom. On the assumption, whatever happened yesterday is history today. The three books like many other earlier works\u00a0\u00a0 for retelling what happened yesterday are books of history that strengthening the \u2018national narrative\u2019.\u00a0 To understand how the three books strengthening the Kashmir narrative there is need to understand what a \u2018national narrative\u2019 means and how its \u2018incorporation helps in the conflict resolution.\u2019
\nMany scholarly and insightful works enable one to understand the idea of a national narrative and its importance for struggling nations. Without lacing my column with scholarly quotes, I will try to briefly explain what a national narrative means. \u201cNational narratives\u2019 are concrete stories about the dramatic events in the recent history or distant past of a nation. These stories are centered around national heroes who have legendary spiritual or physical powers, embodies the ethos of the people and its\u00a0 national identity, and provides it with a source of national pride and comfort at times of trouble.\u201d\u00a0 These provide \u201cthe ideological and moral foundation of the nation being formed, and they represent its ethos as well as the legitimacy of, and justification for, its establishment and existence.\u201d In fact, the \u2018national narratives\u2019 work like magical potions for invigorating the nations, relieving them of traumas and driving them with full force towards their goals.
\nMany as I would call them, \u201cNGO-Scholars\u201d visiting Kashmir and organizing seminars at Delhi and Srinagar on \u201cKashmir Problem\u201d show aversion to mentioning of 1947 and\u00a0 developments thereof or UN resolutions on Kashmir. In friendly-didactic tone, they tell participants to \u2018come to terms with the realties\u2019 as the needles of clock cannot be reversed. Taking recluse under an archaic phrase, \u201cmuch water has flown down the Jhelum\u2019 they very subtly suggest to people to forget history- their \u2018national narratives and meta-narratives. I will not be pioneer in saying, many others have said it before, \u201c \u201c the national narratives as solid historical facts\u00a0\u00a0 must be recalled and retold to the youth in order to reinforce belief in the righteousness of the cause \u2013 certainly against those perceived as enemies who threaten the people\u2019s very existence\u201d
\nThe book \u2018Dr. Muhammad Qasim: The Victim of Political Vendetta that has been published on the completion of his twenty years imprisonment is a compilation of the court proceedings. Holding the view that the trial of Dr was not fair\u00a0 in his foreword to the book Syed Tassaduque Hussain, author and Sr. Advocate writes, \u201c Dr. Qasim has done a yeoman service to the cause of prisoners throughout the developing countries who have the misfortune of getting implicated in such political trials, by presenting to the outside world in his dissertation a narration of facts that spotlight the iniquitousness of these trials.\u201d\u00a0 The book provides an insight into the justice system as has been obtaining in the state.
\nThe year 2010, has added one more carmine chapter to the scarlet history of contemporary Kashmir. The bloodshed during the year has nursed the Kashmir narrative. The book Vaddi-e-Khoonaab (The Valley of Bloodshed) by young writer Ess Ahmed Pirzada published by Kashmir Studies Foundation, Srinagar is result of hard work and commitment. The author in this book lucidly narrates the stories of\u00a0\u00a0 hundred and twenty unarmed children and teenagers who fell to the bullets of men in uniform. Every story narrated in the book is blood curdling and heartrending. I see the book for its details, veracity and lucidity of style\u00a0\u00a0 as an important milestone in documentation of contemporary Kashmir history. It memorizes the stories that provide warp and woof to the Kashmir narrative.\u00a0 The book \u201cphansi\u201d by Shabnam Qayoom recapitulates the story of Muhammad Afzal Guru from arrest to gallows. The book is an important addition to Urdu literature on hanging of Guru. It is translation of some important articles published in various newspapers and magazines in English.
\nIn the history of conflicts, even in the contemporary world\u00a0 there are umpteen example that suggest resolution would not be possible without addressing historical memory.<\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Books And \u2018National Narratives\u2019
\nZ.G. MUHAMMAD
\n <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.
\nThe book by Dr. Muhammad Shafi Khan Shariati is an Urdu translation of controversial book \u2018The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order\u2019 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 Islam intensely played up Huntington\u2019s\u00a0 ideas: \u2018In the clash of civilizations, the Islamic civilization was the most troublesome and greatest …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[74,109,8,45,24,10],"class_list":["post-1488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-take","category-kashmir-talk","tag-freedom-struggle","tag-hurriyat-conference","tag-kashmir","tag-kashmir-dispute","tag-z-g-muhammad","tag-zahid-g-muhmmad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1488"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1491,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488\/revisions\/1491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}