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100 people attended a dynamic discussion forum on
Kashmir in Friday, organized by People for Peace in
Kashmir and Social and Cultural Anthropology Program
at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)
in San Francisco. The speakers were Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy
well known physicist and anti-nuclear activist from
Pakistan, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai from Kashmiri American
Council and Akhila Raman a researcher on the Kashmir
Conflict. The audience included people from various
diverse groups- Indians, Pakistanis, Kashmiri Pandits
and Muslims, Americans.
This Forum was conceived as a balanced and liberal
one, striving to avoid common features present in
many other forums: Indian speakers bashing Pakistan,
Pakistani speakers bashing India and Kashmiri Pandits
and Muslims presenting the Kashmir tragedy as a tragedy
to their group alone. Instead, the speakers turned
it around and did a critical introspection of their
respective sides, presenting the tragedy to various
communities as a whole.
The Forum was introduced by Dr. Angana Chatterji,
Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology Program
at CIIS, as one which seeks to address the concerns
of Kashmiris, India and Pakistan. She illuminated
the fact that there is one soldier for every 10 Kashmiris
in the Kashmir Valley which is seen as oppressive
by the local population.
Mr. Zulfiqar Ahmad - Peace and Security Program Officer
for South Asia from Nautilus Institute at Berkeley
introduced the speakers and outlined the principles
for the discussion forum and the fact that ultimate
arbiters of the dispute should be the Kashmiri people
and that any solution should respect the syncretic
Kashmiri culture.
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai began his speech highlighting
the fact that the long-standing Kashmir dispute had
become a nuclear flashpoint which needed an urgent
solution, putting an end to the pain and suffering
of not only the majority Kashmiri Muslim community
but also the minority Kashmiri Pandit community. He
stated that a lasting solution could only be arrived
if all the three concerned parties Kashmiris, India
and Pakistan make sacrifices and compromises from
their respective hardline positions.
He further went on to argue as follows: (1) Kashmiri
movement was not secessionist because Kashmir did
not belong to any member nation of the UN and hence
Kashmiris cannot secede from a nation to which they
had not acceded to in the first place. (2) Kashmiri
movement was not fundamentalist given their rich tradition
of Kashmiriyat- a composite cultural identity of tolerance
and communal amity (3) The movement was not a terrorist
movement but a popular freedom struggle because hundreds
of thousands of unarmed civilians marched on the streets
of Srinagar between January and May 1990 (4) The issue
was not bilateral between India and Pakistan but that
Kashmiris were a legitimate third party which needed
to be included in unconditional dialogues to resolve
the dispute. He highlighted the need for UN/US mediation
given the fact that all previous bilateral talks had
failed.
Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, who spoke next, began his speech
highlighting the role of evolutionary biology in war
and also war as a means of socialization; He highlighted
the subversive role played by Pakistan since a popular
insurgency began in the Kashmir Valley in 1989 against
the repressive Indian Rule. He recalled an interview
he had with General Musharraf in Pakistan regarding
Kashmir in which he had asked the General " Was
it not high time Pakistan stopped the covert war in
Kashmir and stuck to its stated position namely- providing
merely "moral and diplomatic" support for
the freedom struggle in Kashmir".
He illuminated the role played by India as an occupation
force, with half a million soldiers brutally repressing
an estimated 5 million
Kashmiris in the Valley. He closed his speech stating
that (1) India must end its permanent occupation of
Kashmir. (2) Pakistan must put an end to cross-border
terrorism (3) The media in India and Pakistan must
turn down the volume of official rhetoric and play
a constructive role in dispute resolution.
Akhila Raman, the next speaker made a presentation
of the history of the Kashmir conflict and highlighted
the fact that both India and Pakistan were fighting
over Kashmir like two pugnacious landlords, trampling
over the dead bodies of tens of thousands of Kashmiris
half of them civilians. She highlighted the fact that
India had promised self-determination (the will of
the people shall be
ascertained in a plebiscite about the future of Kashmir)
to the Kashmiris in 1947 and many times later, which
had been long denied.
She also highlighted the fact that the 1989 insurgency
arose as a result of long-denied historical grievances
- denial of promised
plebiscite, consistently rigged elections and erosion
of autonomy and that the popular alienation and discontent
continues.
She illuminated the fact that the Kashmiri movement
was not communal, given that Kashmiri Muslims had
always demonstrated in support of the slain minorities
as in the recent Nadimarg massacre in March and that
Kashmiriyat continues to flourish. She closed the
speech highlighting an “Andorran solution”
which could potentially work Kashmir Valley and Azad
Kashmir made as utonomous entities with external defence
and foreign affairs controlled jointly by India and
Pakistan.
The speeches were followed by a Q&A session with
the audience. Some Pandits discussed their concerns
about safe return to their ancestral homeland of the
Valley, which they had been forced to flee in a massive
exodus in 1990. Another person in the audience reiterated
the fact that there were no communal riots in Kashmir
and that communal amity still flourishes and hoped
for a lasting solution. Snehal Shingavi, a Berkeley
student activist, highlighted the need for unity among
the people of Kashmir in their struggle for self-determination.
The two and a half hour program ended on a positive
note with many in the audience feeling that the discussion
forum was informative and productive.
Dr. Angana Chatterji and Zulfiqar Ahmad conducted
and moderated the Forum very effectively in a very
admirable manner. Friends of South Asia and ISO, Berkeley
expressed their support for this Forum.
Source : ‘uttorshuri’ yahoo group
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