Category: Articles

Articles

No hope for a Kashmiri

Editor

Middle East couldn”t be our savior – thanks to official apathy! Dr. Rumana Makhdoomi As you land in Saudi Arabia right from the airport, you are greeted by Urdu/Hindi speaking people who happily help you carry your luggage or guide you to the nearest ‘Gate’.  You pay them a little sum and they give you a warm smile.  When you hire a cab to your destination, the driver invariably turns out to be a ‘Pathan’ speaking fluent ‘Pushtu’ or a very accented ‘Urdu’.  And, if you don’t encounter a ‘Pathan’,…

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Jamaal Kak, Ahad Kak and a tale of Cricket

Editor

By Rameez Bhat Cricket is a win or lose game. And quite a lot of people are admirers of this majestic game. This game is also meant for heartbreak and last minute tilts. I still remember the South Africa vs New Zealand match in a previous world cup. Till the final moment nobody could predict the winning team. What a game that was! Supporters of respective countries always support their team, but when we talk about Kashmiris, whom should they support? For Indians, that team should be India. But if…

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Climate Change: A siren for J&K

Editor

Malik Zahra Khalid Warm winters is a new phenomenon in Kashmir valley. In February the temperature rise has been ten degrees more than normal according to meteorological department. After 76 years, Kashmir is witnessing such rise in temperatures during winter months. The warmth has rushed the spring and in the month of February there are almond blossoms. There is also activity in Badamvaer, the small grove that J&K Bank could save from Afghan Governor Waris Khan’s orchard of almonds in the foot hills of Kohi Maran. Temperature hike in the…

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PDP suffers from ‘paralysis of analysis’

Editor

Gowhar Geelani Jammu and Kashmir’s former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed breathed his last on January 7. Nearly two months after Sayeed’s demise, his party led by daughter Mehbooba Mufti is yet to take a stand on the government formation. What does this inexcusable delay in either restitching the partnership with the ideologically antithetical Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or divorcing the right-wing Hindu nationalist party entail? Saying that PDP is in serious leadership crisis and facing paralysis of analysis would be stating the obvious. It is indeed facing a precarious…

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Kashmir and Afzal Guru: Patriotism and sedition!

Editor

Students in India seem increasingly lose their right to dissent as the BJP ruled India’s Hindutva central government is readily intolerant more as a pure political gimmick than a real setting. The Modi government backs all “Hindutva steps” but PM Modi himself does not talk about it openly. Today, the RSS-BJP duo has an important agenda to take care of. It wants the Modi government to return to power again after the next parliamentary poll unlike Vajpayee team that failed to come back to power after the term. Saffronization of…

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Draz and Kanhaiya: Villains or Victims

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India has got divided between BJP and the rest Nasir Ahmed He was taken aback when he opened door to a loud knock in his home at a small village in Okara district in Punjab Province of Pakistan, around 200 kilometers from Lahore. He was surprised to see a contingent of police at the entrance gate and later terrified when he came to know that police had come to arrest him. He was to know later that he was being charged with a very serious offence of sedition and faced…

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Letter to Arnab Goswami

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Aarif Qadir Before making a beginning, I am making a disclaimer. I will not shout; I would just write. I can’t applaud what Umar Khalid or Kanhaiyya Kumar ‘allegedly did’ but must appreciate them for what they really did. I am up for getting Kashmir its ‘Right to self-determination’ as promised by Jawaharlal Nehru. I am not in favour of Hurriyat who shout for “Azaadi” or “Sticking to Pakistan”. This is to make certain that I’m not labelled as seditious. This article is in response to the half literate and…

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If Kashmiri secessionists think the JNU agitation has boosted their chance for independence, they’re terribly wrong

Editor

The government’s inept handling of the situation in JNU has given a fillip to secessionists in Kashmir. A lot of Kashmiris, including some in leading positions, have got the impression that substantial support for Kashmir’s independence struggle has become apparent across India. They think the upsurge of middle class opposition to the arrest of JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar actually signifies support for them. They have this impression since the entire imbroglio got going over a function to observe the anniversary of Afzal Guru’s hanging on 9 February –…

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‘Afzal knew Indian youth will support Kashmir’s freedom struggle one day’

Editor

Peerzada Aarif Afzal Guru had told his family that the youth of India will realize the pain and sufferings of Kashmiris and will one day come forward in support of Kashmir’s freedom struggle, according to his brother Ajaz Guru. With the controversy surrounding the holding of a pro-Afzal Guru event at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University refusing to die, his family was reminded of his words during his incarceration at Tihar Jail. “He used to tell us that the youth of India who understand the pain and sufferings of Kashmiris will…

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Book – Islam in Kashmir – A Study of Prominent Sufis and Rishis

Editor

Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander The spread of Islam in Kashmir by the Sufis has been discussed by various scholars, academics and writers, but the lesser known aspects of various Sufi orders, role of Sufism in promoting pluralistic culture in Kashmir, Sufism as a channel of Inter-Faith Dialogue, lessons which Kashmiri Sufism has for the world to make it a peaceful place to dwell; such serious, and sensitive academic studies of Kashmir Sufism are rare, and even neglected. The book under review tries to fill this void. Prof Hamid Naseem…

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