{"id":2883,"date":"2016-11-29T11:53:48","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T06:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=2883"},"modified":"2016-11-30T09:31:50","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T04:01:50","slug":"the-kashmir-civil-resistance-and-peoples-amnesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/the-kashmir-civil-resistance-and-peoples-amnesia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kashmir “Civil Resistance” and Peoples’ Resolve and Beyond?"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

Punchline<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Intifadas and Peoples’ Amnesia
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Z.G. Muhammad <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the eighty-five years long contemporary resistance movement of Jammu and Kashmir the 2016 \u2018intifada\u2019 so far has been the longest. In many ways, compared to earlier \u2018intifadas\u2019 it has been an unprecedented and extraordinary story of sufferings and resilience. In the history of Kashmir and the resistance movements across the globe as rightly said by Ellen Barry of the New York Times, \u201c2016 will almost certainly be remembered as the year of dead eyes.\u201d\u00a0 From age, six to eighties people suffered the \u2018epidemic of dead eyes\u2019 as the blinding of people with the pump-action \u201cpellet guns\u201d was described in the international media. For the first time in modern history \u00a0\u00a0children and school going girls \u00a0were shot in the face with metal pellets or birdshot piercing their eyes. In fact across the world, there is no instance of firing of metal pellets on the protestors in their eyes and blinding them. The deadly pellets have hit over fifteen hundred directly in the eyes leaving them partially and fully blind for rest of the life.<\/p>\n

The \u2018intifada\u2019 2016, \u00a0third in a series of \u2018intifadas\u2019 of the second decade of the twenty-first century and after a paradigm shift from the \u2018armed resistance\u2019 or \u201cmilitancy\u201d \u00a0to peaceful protests is also unparalleled for the number of civilians- the non-combatants \u00a0wounded and injured in police firings \u2013 bullets, lead pellets, tear smoke canisters and pepper gas shells. More than fifteen thousand people have been wounded and injured in four months- a colossal figure. More than eighty boys and girls killed- \u00a0\u00a0for their academic brilliance majority of them holding big promises for the society. \"2016-july-srinagar-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From 1865, Kashmir has a long history of political incarceration, but detentions and arrests made during three months after 8 July 2014 at an average three thousand a month also have no parallel. Even by the reckoning of the Sadiq regime which is known for the highest number of arrests of political workers, students and citizen and blatant use draconian laws like the DIR and the PDA, the detentions during three months are far higher than at any point in time in the recent history. \u00a0In a written reply the Ministry of Home Ministry (MHA) \u00a0to a question couple of days back informed the Parliament that \u20187392 persons were arrested and bound down in Kashmir after the killing of a commander of\u00a0\u00a0 Hizb-ul-Mujahideen on July 8. The FIRs registered against\u00a0\u00a0 4372 persons, and 472 persons detained under the Public Safety Act.\u2019<\/p>\n

Living true to their history of rising to the occasion at the spur of the moment; \u00a0the people not only braved theses harshest tactics with a resolve but as a society collectively rose to face the record challenges thrown up by raw dealing of the protests by the authorities after the killing of Hizb commander Burhan Wani on Friday July 8, 2016 In the history of hospitals across the globe even during the war time\u00a0 the ophthalmologists \u00a0might not have to deal with such huge number of children arriving in the hospitals \u00a0with lead\u00a0 pellets having hit their eyes with matted up the lens, the irises, the retinas- and carry out operations in scores. It was the dedication of the doctors who tirelessly operated upon the pellet and bullet hit children and teenagers and saved lives and eyes of some. Nevertheless, many young girls and boys lost their vision forever, and some got disabled for life.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding, the curfew, and restrictions young and old came out to donate blood for the wounded, arrange medicine and essentials for those in need. Outside the hospitals\u00a0 tens of relief camps were established for providing food for the relatives of the wounded. Peopled\u00a0 vying each other and working with a zest for providing relief to the wounded spoke about the vitality of our bruised society.\u00a0 During all the macabre days the voluntarism, which has been from 13 July 1931 cardinal to the resistance movement of the state was at its peak not only in and outside the hospitals but almost in every village and mohalla.\u00a0 In every area overnight Bayt al-mals treasuries came up in every locality.\u00a0 These small institutional frameworks immensely helped in providing succor to thousands of daily wagers and minor traders. Importantly the shocking and sad four months like those of the early nineties largely senstise the society to the political blunders of the past that have brought the people of the state to this impasse.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the question that perhaps haunts all of us is, if as people we once again do not suffer from the \u2018political memory lapse,’ as we suffered after 2008 and 2010 and allowed ourselves to get ensnared in some catchy slogans- believing that these will not affect the main narrative. Moreover wittingly and unwittingly worked for strengthening the \u201chegemonic discourses\u201d\u00a0 \u2018for gaining and maintaining power\u2019- in our case for maintaining the status quo.\u00a0 \u00a0These question should put the conscious and conscientious members of the society into an introspective mode and make them look for an answer. How to prevent general masses from getting entrapped in the \u201cdominant discourse,\u201d thus prolonging their miseries \u00a0\u2013 is it leadership that has bigger role to play or the intelligentsia or the civil society \u2013 \u2018class of collective intellectuals.\u2019\"2013-pulwama\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u201cIntifada 2016\u201d like those of 2010 and 2008, by all definitions, have been \u201ccivil resistances\u201d- a peaceful struggle. \u00a0That to quote, Erica Chenoweth a scholar of Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver \u2018are more than twice effective in waging political struggles.\u2019 Studies have shown that the \u2018civil resistances\u2019 has produced remarkable results and in the recent years succeeded in many parts of the world. It should engage all of us, to introspect why the \u201ccivil resistance\u201d of 2008 and 2010, did not enable people to achieve their desired goal. Have we as people failed is the question that bothers many in our society?<\/p>\n

The political struggles are a continuous process, and these do have their crests and troughs. The \u00a0\u00a02016 uprising is a continuation of 2008 and 2010. It also can pass into history like that of 2010 leaving space for another \u2018intifada\u2019 in some later year- if the status quo continues. Nevertheless, there is a basic flaw that our society suffers from, when \u00a0\u00a0\u2018intifadas\u2019 are at their high the overwhelming majority of people go the whole hog for it- even the traditional fence sitters are at the frontline. The voluntarism touches new heights, and in providing instant relief to the victims of the state repression, the social groups try to outsmart each other. Once the uprising calms down, our enthusiasm for social work evaporates as quickly as ether. The bereaved families that need continuous succor, the victims of violence- whether those disabled for life, blinded to live a miserable or those with impaired vision left to fend for themselves and forgotten.It happened in 2008, and 2010. The Society forgot the children blinded and disabled during 2010. \u00a0Such behavior from the society with all its ostensible commitment to the cherished political goal was work to the disadvantage of the political and leave space for the ascendance of the hegemonic and dominant discourses.\"pellet\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2016, \u2018intifada\u2019 is leaving behind a harrowing legacy of blind children and disabled youth who have a long way to go. The society needs to come out of the syndrome of the \u201cmemory lapse\u201d that it suffers from after every phase of the intifada and work for their \u00a0\u00a0institutionalized rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Some portions of article were published in Greater Kashmir on 28 November 2016.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Punchline
\nIntifadas and Peoples’ Amnesia<\/p>\n

By
\nZ.G. Muhammad
\n\u00a0
\nIn the eighty-five years long contemporary resistance movement of Jammu and Kashmir the 2016 \u2018intifada\u2019 so far has been the longest. In many ways, compared to earlier \u2018intifadas\u2019 it has been an unprecedented and extraordinary story of sufferings and resilience. In the history of Kashmir and the resistance movements across the globe as rightly said by Ellen Barry of the New York Times, \u201c2016 will almost certainly be remembered as the year of dead eyes.\u201d\u00a0 From age, six to eighties people suffered the \u2018epidemic of dead eyes\u2019 as the blinding of people with the pump-action \u201cpellet guns\u201d was described in the international media. For the first time in modern history \u00a0\u00a0children and school going girls \u00a0were shot in the face with metal pellets or birdshot piercing their eyes. In fact across the world, there is no instance of firing of metal pellets on the protestors …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-take","category-kashmir-talk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883"}],"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=2883"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2890,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions\/2890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}