Why protesting against authority comes naturally to Kashmiris
Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi Aug 07, 2010, 00:20 IST
Till a few years ago, on April 29 every year, a handful of men, some old and stooping, some young and angry, used to gather at the Srinagar home of veteran journalist, communist supporter and Kashmiri Pandit P N Jalali. They would drink tea and toast the first recorded organised demands day in Kashmir’s history, the rebellion of the shawl bafs (shawl weavers) that led to the killing of 28 weavers in 1865, well before the Russian Revolution. Shawl bafs were — and are — the creators of the wonderfully fine silk or wool lengths that have such fine embroidery; there is not a shawl baf above 35 who does not have something wrong with his eyes. Justly prized, these shawls entailed a lot of labour but shawl bafs earned very little. The regimes of successive Dogra kings used the shawl industry, then exporting to Europe, as a means of augmenting state revenues. The weavers were forced to weave (punished for abandoning their looms unless a substitute was in place) — and what they earned, the state took away by imposing prohibitive taxes.
Hit by famine, angered by exploitative taxes, in April 1865, as many as 4,000 shawl bafs abandoned their looms and began marching with their families towards Lahore and Amritsar. Families of hungry farmers joined them en route. They were stopped near the old-city neighbourhood of Zaldagar. Dogra troops asked them to disperse. When they refused, they were fired upon. As they fled, they were gored to death with spears.
Shawl bafs rose again in 1924. This rebellion was also put down in a similar manner.
It is the stories of rebellions of this kind — and the Valley saw many in the 430 or so years of its history during which it was ruled by Afghan, Mughal, Sikh and, later, Dogra dynasties — that Kashmiri children have been reared on. So, if you want to understand the phenomenon of protests through throwing stones on symbols of authority, well, it is firmly rooted in the political tradition of the state.
Against this background, look at what is happening today. We already know that the Kashmiri people love protests: 10,000 of them can come out on the roads at an hour’s notice to join the funeral procession of someone they don’t know. They also detest authority, especially Indian/Hindu authority.
But, we were told, there was hope. During 2009 (Ministry of Home Affairs data till November), terrorism-related incidents dropped by 27 per cent, those of killing of civilians by 17 per cent and of security force (SF) personnel by 19 per cent, compared to the corresponding period in 2008, merely following a secular trend of declining violence since 2001.
So what changed ?
Assembly elections were held in J&K in the winter of 2008 and polling for eight constituencies was held in and around Srinagar on December 24, 2008. Results came out on December 28. On Christmas Day, the Abdullah family called on Sonia Gandhi — who had previously consulted with the two factions of the Congress party, one led by Ghulam Nabi Azad (who is anti-National Conference); and the other led by Saifuddin Soz (who, while not being pro-NC, wants to stymie Azad at every possible opportunity).
The Abdullah family meeting with Gandhi sent the desired message to the 17 Congress party MLAs who were elected. But it sent a quite different message to the voters of Kashmir.
The whole state saw how the election in Srinagar was managed. On the foggy morning of December 24, NC volunteers went from door to door to get sympathisers to vote. The Opposition, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was less vigilant. The moment the sun came out, a rumour went round the city that militant groups had called for a boycott of the election. After 11 am, people stayed at home, fearing violence. The turnout should have been 40 per cent. It was 21 per cent.
The people of Kashmir noted that not only had Omar Abdullah got a fractured (many said, manufactured) mandate, the Congress leadership was firmly behind him. The reaction to the 2009 Shopian incident (the alleged rape and murder of two girls who the CBI found had actually drowned accidentally) represented the first rumblings of discontent in the Valley.
The denouement followed. The Centre promised the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The Ministry of Defence prevented a proposal to this effect from reaching the Cabinet. The thinning out of the army and paramilitary forces from orchards and schools was invisible and slow. Corruption in government recruitment and in the police reached new heights. An MLA described his efforts to get a local boy released from the police’s manufactured FIRs, torture and no recourse to lawyers. The trail of broken promises by an elected government is enough to break your heart.
Does it surprise anyone that Kashmiris detest India and their own government? In throwing stones and setting fire to police stations, they are only doing what comes naturally to them — since 1865.
I would feel very, very grateful if Ms. Phadnis names a few prominent
Dogra families who did business in Pashmina and had "shalabaafs" in their employ.
Second, hardly any part of our country has enough of everything. As for the business of stone-pelting, it isn't the Kashmiri men who indulge in it to keep alive their 'TRADITION OF REBELLION". It's the kids. And they get paid for it, if one is to go by newspaper accounts.Reminds one of the old Jaichand technique of putting the cows in the forfront of an invading army.
Thirdly, didn't know that at some level the distinction between a supporter and a died-in-the-wool adherent disappears. And "up to a point" applies to all CPI members (there was no CPM those days), Sadiq Sahab, D. P. Dhar, N. N. Raina downwards.
And finally, nowhere have I stated that shawal traders were an impoverished lot. "Shalabaaffs" are a different kettle of fish however.
(3) Gun culture didn't help Pakistan either but left the Valley badly scarred. "Kani jung", revived now by a newer generation is surely the brainchild of some old NC hand trying to push his own agenda, not of "Kashmiri youth reared on stories of rebellion". Even the Quit Kashmir movement wasn't dubbed a rebellion. The idea was to disrupt Amarnath yatra, which had become a big issue last year, and gain political mileage. If things have gone out of hand, if the situation helps the separatists and Pakistan, one has once again to thank the state govt and Centre. As things are now, Kashmiri youth should have little to complain about. Compared to most other states, they have more schools & colleges, more professional institutions, more dispensaries/hospitals, more per capita income, more construction activity, more mosques, more madrasas, more of practically everything. No matter how our obliging media clothe their well-thought-out acts of what in Kashmiri we call "mukr" or "damb".
Posted by: Aditi.Phadnis
August 20 , 2010, 15:09 IST
Whether Kashmiri Muslims have enough of everything and are throwing stones just for entertainment is a matter of opinion.
(2) Not that there haven't been any protests against Dogra misrule. I still remember the patriotic strains of the Mahjoor song, "walo ha bagbano, nav baharic shan paida kar", or that composition, "ministaro payas peyew, azad assembly diyiv" (ministers wake up, give us an independent assembly), with which the evergreen Zoona Begum would lead processionists. As for stone-pelting, kani-jung as we call it in Kashmiri, it was done more to settle inter-mohalla scores. No doubt, there have been in the past quite a few But the gun, violence, even "chhuri chakoo", were alien to Kashmir's culture. If Pakistan succeeded in injecting the Valley youth with this virus in late eighties, one has to thank a somnolent state govt and an equally sleepy Centre. It was yet another desperate attempt of our neighbour to grab the Valley after two earlier ones---the 1947 October invasion and incursions by armed bands in early sixties---had been foiled by none other than the Valley Muslims. cont'd...
Ms Phadnis has got her facts wrong. Pran Nath Jalali was a dedicated communist, not just a supporter. Right from his student days. Student activism in the Valley was on a high in pre-independence days. Pranji, along with Moti Lal Misri and others, was a leader of sorts in the communist stream. These groups functioned under the National Conference umbrella and Shaikh Abdullah's leadership. Wonder also where she stumbled the 1865 incident. It is doubtful if Jalali Sahab's dad was born then. Or, for that matter a similar incident of 1924. In any case, the ruling Dogras had little to do with the Valley's handicrafts trade, which was largely an all-Valley enterprise. The traders and artisans were mostly Muslims. And their impoverishment was due to heartless exploitation, not of any Dogra dictat. And if there have been any protests against it, I haven't seen any, or read or heard about one. ...cont'd
Posted by: Aditi.Phadnis
August 20 , 2010, 15:07 IST
All the above references also have footnotes about the systematic oppression of Kashmiri weavers by the Dogras who taxed the Muslims heavily in a bid to subjugate them. Mridu Rai's book has a rivetting account of institutions Dogras built up just to keep Muslim elite in check. Shawl traders were one such category.
Posted by: Aditi.Phadnis
August 20 , 2010, 15:06 IST
The references to the history of Kashmir and rebellion of the Shawl bafs are: a. Chitralekha Zutshi: the Language of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity and the Making of Kashmir b. Article by Haroon Mirani in Kashmir News c. the account of historian FM Hassnain d.Mridu Rai: Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights and the History of Kashmir, C Hurst, London 2004. I know PN Jalali was a Communist. There is little difference between being a supporter and being from the political party He was also a supporter of Sheikh Abdullah but only upto a point.
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