Is celebrating Pakistan team's loss in Srinagar sedition?

This past Sunday would be remembered for years, if not decades to come. It was a jam-packed stadium at Mirpur where India lost to Pakistan in a crucial cricket match thanks to the last over heroics of Shahid Afridi. It was à la Eid affair back home in Kashmir with celebrations starting just after Afridi’s last hit sailed across the boundary for a Six. I surprised my friends here at the university by sharing with them my happiness of India losing the match. Upon seeing me happy they expected India to have won the match. Back in India, more than 60 Kashmiri students of a University were suspended by the authorities and booked for ‘sedition’ for ‘celebrating’ the Indian team’s loss.  

In Kashmir, i studied at an institute which is unique for a college/university in Kashmir. The majority of the students in the institute were non-local, non-Kashmiri students. During the course of my studies there were many cricket matches we watched together in the common-hall of our institute. Among all of them, I remember three cricket matches which are significantly relevant in the present context.

In 2009, the ICC World Twenty20 Final was played between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Lord’s. Pakistan won the match with, again, Shahid Afridi playing a major role. Indian students rooted for Sri Lanka in the match and Kashmiris cheered for Pakistani team. I decided to go home, watched the match at home partly because I did not want to hear the battle cries and hooting by fellow Indian students in case Pakistan lost the match. However, the Kashmiri students at the hostels after the match were ecstatic. Pakistan having won the match, Pakistani national song was played in hostels on full volume with only the joy of having won the match. An odd slogan here and there. "Meri jaan Pakistan".

Australia versus Pakistan. St. Lucia. ICC World Twenty20, 2010 - Semi-Final. At one point of time in the match Pakistan were cruising along with the match having set a huge target of 192 runs before the Australian team. With every falling wicket the joy in the Kashmiris watching the match was reaching new levels. Indians were silently watching the game and gradually leaving the common-hall. Just when Mike Hussey began pummelling Saeed Ajmal’s deliveries across the boundary the Indians felt a new lease of life. The last five balls bowled by Ajmal went for 23 runs and Hussey took Australia into the finals single-handedly. By the last over, only the mess-workers were in the common-hall with Kashmiris having retired themselves to the hostel rooms. While Hussey raised a storm at St. Lucia, Indians raised one in the Chenab hostel at NIT Srinagar. Slogans, MCs, BCs and celebrations. It was as if India had just won a war against Pakistan although the Indian team was knocked out earlier, having lost all of its matches in the knockout stage.

We did not damage college property just because the Indians celebrated Pakistan team’s loss, acting upon their sentiment. We did not demand their rustication, or suspension. We did not burn effigy of the Director because the Indian students had violated our sentiments by celebrating a Pakistani loss. Many of us were willing to battle it out verbally, or may be physically as well. But, restraint was the way. We would always ask ourselves, “If we fight, the news will go out and there will be problems for Kashmiris studying in India”.

India versus Pakistan. Mohali. ICC Cricket World Cup, 2011 – Semi-Final. This was The match. Special arrangements were being made, both, by the students as well as the college authorities. Students in hostels without internet did some self-made arrangements for watching the match while as the authorities decided to shut down the common-hall for the night. Just in case. Police was deployed in the campus. And India won the match, and went on to win the Final as well. Those who had stayed back in the hostel reported ecstatic celebrations with slogans and all. “Indiyaaaaaaa, Indiyaaaaaa”. Again there was no fight, there were no demands for suspension of students. Had there been some sort of equivalent of Hindutva parties in Kashmir, I think they might have demanded the same for the Indian students who celebrated the Pakistan team’s loss. But there are not any!

For me, however, it did not come as a surprise to see the bigoted reaction of the same Indians who studied with us at the same college in Kashmir for four years. One of them commented on the recent suspension of the Kashmiri students saying, “First step towards controlling anti nationals” and six others ‘liked’ this comment. Strangely, one of those who ‘liked’ this comment also lives to believe that Pakistan is all about hunger and bombs. To quote him,“Bahut pyaar karte hain kashmiri bhaiyon se... aise nahi jaane denge paakistan... bhookho marne, bombs me udne ke liye”. Well, UN testifies that poverty levels in India are alarmingly higher than in Pakistan.

It is like them saying to us, “I have a sentiment. It is called National Interest. I can abuse, arrest or kill in its name.”

“Thou shall not have a sentiment!”

Is it just a game? India versus Pakistan!

It is another of those days when a game of Cricket is not just a game. The game surpasses itself. It is not a war but there is a people who have seen all what it takes to call a people a war hardened people. It is not just a bowler delivering the ball and the batsman hitting it, it is about the heartbeat of an entire people skipping a beat with every delivery. It is not just about 11+2 players battling it out at a particular time on the field, it is about an entire nation with a history linked to both the teams' nations letting out their emotions to express their sentiment. It is not about who wins the match that is important, more important thing is who loses the match. And this is the thing which satisfies the, may i borrow the term, 'collective conscience' of my nation in a somewhat emoticomic way.

It is not just a cricket match, it is a India versus Pakistan cricket match and Kashmiris root for the Pakistan Cricket Team in such a match.

KunanPoshpora, GawKadal, Zakoora, Sopore, Pathribal, Machil, Chittisinghpora, Tufail Mattoo, Wamiq Farooq. Maqbool Butt. Afzal Guru. Curfew, Crackdown, Encounter (fake?), Rashtriya Rifles, CRPF. Occupation.

Cricket is followed back home like the Champions League, here, in Europe or like the NBA in the US, if we need a comparison. Some people even say, "Cricket is a religion and da da da player is its god!" This is just to tell what Cricket means to the people in South Asia - India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.

When India wins a Cricket match it generates a wave of nationalism and nationalistic pride across the country.  When it wins against Pakistan all this is topped with an inexplicable happiness in the Indian fans, which may, in some cases, spill over into anti-Pakistan bigotry. On the other hand when India loses a cricket match, more importantly against Pakistan, Kashmiris see it as a perfect antidote which punctures this nationalistic pride of Indians. The same nationalistic pride of the same national interest which has served as a forever-young, collective conscience satisfying, blood-thirsty alibi to deny justice to Kashmiris for the past 67 years. 

The joy is inexplicable. Well, i am not going into he details on how Kashmiris forget everything on this day and become cricket experts/commentators! Or how it feels like a Curfew, or what a friend called Cricket Curfew, on this day!

It is not just about the joy of seeing India lose on the cricket field (read battleground) to Pakistan. It is about how a cricket match brings Kashmiris across the world together, cheering for one team to win. People may argue that it is just a game of cricket but for a Kashmiri, it is much more than just a game. It is an opportunity, howsoever insignificant for some, to see the back of the collective conscience of a particular nation.

P.S. If Pakistan loses the match, we have an antidote for that thing as well. "Tum jeeto ya haaro, suno, humein tumse pyaar hai!"

Different Strokes - I

The trophy would be a 2 rupee coin or two coins of 1 rupee, each contributed by the two teams. The venue – around the walnut trees along the banks of Romush, a tributary of Jehlum. The stumps – twigs from the nearby poplar or willow trees – three on the batting end and bowling one (or none) on the bowling end. For that matter we would never change sides at the end of overs. The balls – green, yellow, red or white plastic balls which we would call as ‘tennis’ ball. The red one was preferred as it was easy to find it out if ever it went into the bushes. And the name, brand of these ‘tennis’ balls was, usually, SKumar and this name was as preferred as SG or Kookaburra  in international cricket. For practice purposes we would, sometimes, use a stuffed ball - moaz ball - made up of old shreds of cloth stuffed into a sock! Yes, the sock was washed before being put into use, I guess! The seniors would tell me that if I could play the moaz ball well I could well play the leather ball. We used to get the leather ball – for ‘leather ball matches’ – from the village ‘A-team’ after they had played a couple of matches with that. We would play matches with the same ball for the whole season or until the seam of the ball ripped apart!

There would be a list of clauses which had to be verbally signed by the two teams before the toss – the toss in which no coins were tossed but a bat was, the choice being sadak & pahad instead of head and tail. The clauses included – whether or not ‘wides’ would be counted in the score, if a stumping would count as a wicket or not, who takes responsibility if the ball gets lost or rips apart during the play, what if a shot got intercepted by a branch or trunk of a walnut tree, whether or not the batsman would be deemed out if he hit the ball into a neighbour’s courtyard and who, in such a case, would have to make up the courage to bring the ball back!

All clauses signed, the match would begin. No scoreboards, for that matter no scorebooks, not even a piece of paper to jot down the runs! Both the teams would keep track of the score on their own and in case of any conflict, the players would have to give hisaab – details of every ball bowled – as if it was the judgement day! //…then there was a wide, then a single, then a four, then a dot ball, then a single; but he didn’t complete the single on the last ball; oh sorry! I’ll deduct that run// Run-outs would be the most controversial ones and more often than not the umpire would straight away rule a batsman not out (the umpire was always from the batting side!). The batsman on his part would show the mark of his bat’s landing in the crease as proof enough that he was ‘in’ when the ball hit the stumps (or the clay brick substituted for stumps, at the non-strikers end)! There were rarely any bails on the stumps and sometimes the ball would go in between two stumps without even disturbing the stumps – again controversial!

If the batsman ever hit the ball into the Romush and if it was agreed upon that it won’t count as ‘out’,  he would get 6 runs and start heaping praises upon….not himself but upon Shahid Afridi! “This is Afridi playing, mate!”, would be a typical brag (sic). I personally would never say such a thing. Partly because I would never hit such big shots – I was more like Dravid (and people would call me so!) being content with not-so-big shots, partly because I believed in being myself (without attributing my shots to any other player) and partly (or should I say hugely) because I was an ‘Indian’ and I could not say, “This is Jadeja playing ,mate!” lest I make a laughing stock of myself among all others who were (and are ‘Pakistanis’)! The bowlers had their own patrons – Shoaib Akhtar for example.

At times when we would play with the leather ball – the rugged one which we got from the village ‘A-team’ – it would be much more engaging. It was as if we were graduating from domestic cricket to international cricket. This is where the classification of bats would set in – there would be a ‘leather ball bat’ and a ‘tennis ball bat’! Common sense would dictate that we could play the tennis ball with a ‘leather ball bat’ as a tennis ball was way lighter than a leather ball. But there were strict instructions from the team management that the ‘leather ball bat’ should never be used to play the tennis ball. The stated reason – the bat may lose its stroke! Stroke – it was defined as a quality which only a few experienced players could analyse. If a batsman would middle a shot perfectly and despatch it beyond the boundary or into the Romush or onto the neighbour’s iron sheeted roof he would declare, “This bat has got a very good stroke!” The same thing – stroke – would fit perfectly as an excuse for those who failed with the bat!

To be concluded

Cricket and Conflict!

Apart from having identical letters of the English alphabet at the beginning and the end, Cricket and Conflict have a lot in common. Or should I say they have had a very interesting relationship, here in Kashmir. We use almost identical terms for a cricket match and for a conflict situation. A batsman runs himself out while as a Surakhsa karmi runs out of ammunition. Others terms include fightback (by a losing side), encounter (between two teams), victim (of a bowler or a bullet/pellet/pepper gas), boundary (of a country or a stadium), score (of the runs or the injured), follow on (of the innings or of the ‘story’ by media). Owing to this interrelated lingo, I sometimes get confused whether I am reading the sports page or the front page of the newspaper. And I wonder, is it the ‘conflictisation’ of cricket or the ‘cricketisation’ of the conflict? I’ll go for the later!

All through my life, I have been watching boys (and men) play cricket on link roads and the inter-district roads throughout Kashmir on the conflict days. And conflict days are those when people wear the conflict on their sleeves rather than keeping it in their hearts – the days of Curfew, Hartals and other related ingredients of the conflict! So much so that a friend of mine wonders, “given the frequency of hartals and curfews in Kashmir it should have produced a lot of world class cricketers by now!” True that because when we play cricket on a metalled road (or that with potholes!) we can learn cricket better than anyone else. Such a ‘pitch’ has all those ingredients which usually pose a problem to Indian cricketers/players. Their batsmen can’t score on hard and bouncy surface. Their bowlers can’t take wickets on such surfaces. So, such ‘pitches’ or roads do qualify as a moment to think over, for the Indian ‘team’ – be it a cricket match at the WACA pitch in Australia or one of those pitched battles in the by lanes of Kashmir! 

Usually, it is a cricket match which decides which way of the conflict you stand, in Kashmir. As it happened, a goodwill General sensed the nabz of Kashmiris right and came up with an idea.  This goodwill army man delved on the idea of Premier Leauge-ising the Kashmiri Cricket. Hence, the Kashmir Cricket League was born. As a result this goodwill General, who happened to have a well receptive Muslim name, was seen more in Cricket grounds, cultural programs and flagging off wattan ki saer programs than in war room meetings!  It was supposed to be an attempt to bring the Kashmiri youth to the ‘mainstream’ – as if they were flowing in some wrong stream of Jehlum (towards Pakistan?)! It was an attempt to take the youth off the roads – where they were either engaged in cricket or stone-bullet (or stone-pellet) chor-police! Well, it did have a good result – Parvez Rasool, who played for the Anantnag Arsenals in the Kashmir Premier League went on to play for India A, BCCI President’s XI and also played alongside Yuvraj Singh for North Zone in Deodhar Trophy. And according to some ‘sources’ he may be ‘fast-tracked’ into the Indian team! This – apparently to cricketise the loci standi of the youth about the conflict!

But, there are always some repercussions to devious ideas. Only recently there was a ‘fightback’ from the apparently losing side – they claimed 5 wickets in quick succession before valiantly running themselves out! They even had a hashtag on twitter for this fightback - #KashmirFightsBack – as if it really were a test match going on.  Hence, television diarrhoeics like Goswami were forced to follow on (on the story!). As I said Cricket and Conflict have a very interesting relationship here.

Now, the goodwill Generals may well be ruing the fact that they inculcated the spirit of cricket in the jawans (jawans = youth, or otherwise!) so much so that they see a cricketer in everyone with a kit bag and a track-suit. In the process they even forget to save their own wickets!

Or, who knows, maybe they are staring at an innings defeat!

This write-up first appeared in the March 19 2013 edition of Kashmir Reader.

A ‘Kashmired’ identity!

This article first appeared in the Wednesday, 10th October edition of Daily Greater Kashmir.


It would have been just another match for majority of the people outside the Indian sub-continent and even for some living in India. But in our part of the world, it was a time for emotive redemption, vengeance and a display of the ever present extreme emotions lying buried in the heart of our hearts. Be assured, I am not going to tell you about an India Vs Pakistan cricket game!     

   

 India vs South Africa, it was! The match nearly ended in a tie. India won against the Proteas but lost to Kashmiris! All the way into the twitter and facebook social networks, timelines were filled with tweets and posts in support of the men in green (Light Green, if it wasn’t obvious) as to how they managed to lessen the margin of loss to ‘less than 30-odd runs’. The Proteas don’t claim even the remotest stake in this part of the world, the Valley of Saints. One wonders, why on earth would a major chunk of educated, tech-savvy and outspoken Kashmiris cheer (or tweet) for a country as distant as South Africa, which does even share its border with ours!        

  I am sure supporting (or cheering) a cricket team in a cricket match is not the barometer of determining nationality or loyalty. I even wish that it does qualify for sedition or a PSA!? For that matter,  can you call a fan of the English football team, in FIFA World Cup, a ‘firangi’ (of the pre-1947 era)!? It is, albeit, in consonance with the fact that India does not qualify for the FIFA World Cup! I suppose, for anybody, being an ‘integral’ part of a nation would naturally push him to cheer (or tweet!) for the sports of that very nation.          
The result of the said match resulted in firecrackers (this time not from the CRPF!!!) from the ever so emotive Kashmiri waiting in the street with a cracker in one hand and a matchstick in the other. Another duel of vengeance after the WC ODI champions repeated the performance of Mohali Semi-final, in the preceding match. While the sabre-rattling over Kashmir was going on at the UN around the same time, the Youth of Kashmir were expressing themselves out there in the streets and the cyberways of twitter and facebook, even without an UN mandate and without the presence of any supervising agency, without even the consent of the two parties who were playing wordsmiths at the UN, of integral parts and jugular veins!         

 But, ask any such person who is celebrating an early Indian exit from the World Cup T20 that is he being a Pakistani by doing so? The answer would be a big , “NO”, without a second thought! Ask him how does it feel to be part of the rhetoric of integral parts and the jugular veins. The answer in most of the cases may be, “I don’t care”. Ask him how does it feel like saluting the national flag and standing upto the national anthem before the start of a match. The answer to this question may, well, be, “I don’t do that”. Ask him if he is a dropout and thus confused about his future and thus venting out his anger. The answer may be as astounding a, “I study at an IIT or a NIT or an IIM or AIIMS or AMU!” Ask him if he is unemployed (or is he in need of stipend or internship from Tata or Birla?) and that being the reason for his dissent. The answer in many of the cases will be, “I work at IOCL, NTPC, ONGC, HPCL, NHPC, BHEL, Mahindra, Tata or Airtel”. Even plum jobs don’t impose silence!         

 But, ask the same person who gave these answers who does he cheer for when India plays Afghanistan, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Kenya! The answer will be anything but India. Ask him , “Why?”. The answers would as contrasting as the characters of Che Guevara and Mahatma Gandhi! Finally, ask him who he is, where does he belong to, what is his identity? Answers will be, “I am a Kashmiri. I was born in Kashmir. I have lived Kashmir, seen Kashmir, and experienced Kashmir”. I don’t have an identity of my own. My identity has been ‘Kashmired’!

The author tweets @Islamocrat. You can like this blog on Facebook!