The Last Thing We Need

On the 2^nd of January, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia executed 47 prisoners convicted for different charges. One of those executed included Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a cleric from the Eastern Province region of Saudi Arabia. On the same day, Channel 4 published a video reporting protests against Sheikh al-Nimr's execution. Strangely enough, the video highlighted, of all places in the world, Kashmir as one of the places where people protested against the execution of Sheikh Nimr. It even ignored the protests, that too violent ones that happened in Iran. As a Kashmiri, I find this worrisome, if not dangerous already. We are seeing country after country in the Middle East struggling to come out of imported and imposed-sectarianism fueled wars which refuse to die, one of the reasons being the fighters owing allegiance to either side of the Persian Gulf. I don't think we can afford people getting divided on the same lines in Kashmir. Do we need anything else to worry about than the reasons a military occupation has given us? How does one justify taking sides in a struggle for regional hegemony between two countries, which do not give a hoot to our issues when we have our own struggles unattended!

I have been using social media for a pretty long time now. And, I feel, the current discourse on social media is more dangerous than ever. I fear if the language one gets to see people using online is an indication of intensity of the divide between communities, a disaster is staring at our face. The social media war is a sectarian war without weapons. When I call it a social media war it is not an exaggeration. All you have to do is to follow some accounts from Kashmir on twitter and you will be treated to a myriad of social media posts related to issues ranging from the death sentence issued to someone in Saudi or Iran and conspiracy theories explaining how Saudi or Iran is a friend of Israel, depending on whether you are following a Saudi-loyal or a Iran-loyal twitter account. I can't help but be appreciative of people who raise a voice against injustices around the world, but the raising of voice against injustices selectively is an injustice in itself. And this sectarian and ideological idea of justice and injustice, in which every voice raised is actually an attempt to prove one's point or to further an agenda is an idea where people killed unjustly are reduced ultimately to pawns who at best get a place on placards in the hands of angry protesters.

Muslims around the world do not have to necessarily take sides in this rat race, and neither should we assume that we have sides already taken because of the sect we belong to. Saudi Arabia and Iran are not the imams of Muslims around the world that we should follow whatever their governments decide. Their governments serve, at best, the interests of their own people and strive to maintain peace within their international boundaries, irrespective of the hell they might have let loose elsewhere. Everyone of us cannot, and need not, be an International Relations expert and post our angry and emotional views online. The way we write our posts and the meaning we intend to convey is may not be the same what the reader comprehends. So, in regard to such issues where a single post of mine can be shared to the world, I ask myself, is it not better to refrain from taking sides? It is not that I am asking myself to remain silent in the face of injustice, rather what I am asking myself is to show commitment to justice for the sake of justice and not for the sake for purifying the king's linen or the mullah's robe. There are enough sensible thinkers with presence on facebook who share their views on such issues. I think it makes sense to first make sense of what the wise are saying about current issues facing the world than to publish our expert opinions online solely based on sensational headlines.

In an column in a German news-website someone recently wrote, “An escalation in the long simmering conflict between the rival regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran is the last thing the region needs”. I would add something and say that fighting each other taking sides which we never took, and hence becoming pawns in someone else's fight(s), is the last thing we need in Kashmir!  

der Weltmeister

Fireworks. Missiles.

Celebrations of different types.

You can't sleep when people are celebrating.

You can't sleep when people are getting bombarded.

Some celebrate being the world champions.

Some celebrate living another day, burying another martyr.

Fireworks allowed me to write this, keep away from me sleep.

What keeps Gaza away from sleep, do the children in Gaza sleep?

Some buy reasons to celebrate.

Some have reasons to weep.

The cries of ecstasy at a Public Viewing.

The cries of a child who lost his family.

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!”