Soon after the court judgement, social media realised there was a law against cow slaughter. Naseer Ganai Jammu and Kashmir is the only state with laws against cow slaughter and beef eating. Almost all the laws enacted during Maharaja’s time in 1930s were subsequently adopted by the constituent assembly of the state. While with regard to penalty, amendments were made but the laws remained there including law against cow slaughter and beef eating. However, no government tried to implement the law against cow slaughter except governor Jagmohan in 1980s and…
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Articles
Protection of Environment in Kashmir
One of the significant decisions in the environmental history is the recent climate change encyclical of Pope Francis. The document is now the church’s official position on the environment which includes the practical guidance and is being hailed as a major intervention in the climate change debate. It presents a rare locking of arms between the church and the scientific community. The truth that climate change is happening is now an established fact, although there is section which does not agree with it. The day in and day out flood…
Read MoreWhy Kashmir Needs A Literature Of Its Own?
GHULAM MOHAMMAD KHAN The former US admiral and commander of NATO in Europe James Stavridis’ interesting injunction to read and closely scrutinize Russian Literature in order to get to the ‘soul of Russia’; its public behaviour and political actions to the people and politicians of Europe in general and America in particular, vindicates the relevance and authenticity of ‘Literature’, the discipline otherwise adjudged by many as something simulated or apocryphal. To figure out any possibility of getting closer to the otherwise cryptic Kremlin foreign policy, Stavridis preferred the reading of…
Read MorePolitics of Symbols
A. G. NOORANI Section 144 of the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir says in the plainest of words: “The Flag of the State shall be rectangular in shape and red in colour with three rectangular white vertical strips of equal width next to the staff and white plough in the middle with handle facing the strips. The ratio of the length of the flag to its width shall be 3 : 2”. All the holders of office under this Constitution are required (Ss. 40, 64, 97 and the Fifth Schedule)…
Read More‘We Need Pens, Computers Not Guns and Grenades’
A member of British House of Lords, Nazir Ahmad on Tuesday said that ‘Tripartite negotiations between Governments of India, Pakistan and Kashmiri leadership’ is the only way to resolve the “outstanding dispute of Jammu & Kashmir.” He was speaking during the 52nd Annual Convention of Islamic Society of North America(ISNA), held in Chicago USA, on the subject: ‘Kashmir: A Case of Steadfastness’. Lord Nazir said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “reckless defiance to resolve the Kashmir dispute” is a “threat to the regional peace and stability”. “And the international community…
Read MoreBeing a Kashmiri
Mother tongue is a fundamental tag that ties people into a particular identity. More than geographical identities, it is the idiom you inherit that makes you a people. Humans tend to dream in their mother tongue and it is the language you speak that shapes up your perception. But it is to note with great concern that we are fast losing this peculiar identity. The Kashmiri language, which binds us into a distinctive character, is dying a leisurely death. The official apathy apart, the people who get identified by this…
Read MoreAbout History and 2014 – floods
Shoeb Hamid About History Social media has received severe criticism lately. Proponents who believe online networking sites like twitter and facebook have encroached on our valuable time which we should utilize for face-to-face interactions ( though less but effective), are right to some extent in their assertions. However, the new media also present advantages, one being which presents volte-face that opponents of facebook and twitter should acknowledge. Perhaps twenty years ago if you were told to recall what happened in the past, the instant and most reliable source would have…
Read More‘It was like doomsday’
Hamidullah Dar As I finished my day’s job at the desk on September 6 evening last year, I headed for waiting vehicle to rush to my rented accommodation at Rajbagh. As we drove on Zero Bridge, Jhelum waters were kissing the upper brims of the river banks. It was a frightful sight, made more menacing by the night hours and the flurry of emergent activities going on all around. The level of water was at its devastating high as any breach could prove disastrous for almost half of Srinagar city.…
Read MoreResilience shown in the face of pain, loss
Floods: A Year Later For a moment, Ahmad (40) from the Chattabal locality of Srinagar thought everything was lost. He saw his two children and wife crying, struggling in the water and drowning when the boat, in which they were being rescued during the floods last year, hit something and capsized. The fate, however, had something else in store for them. Another boat which was rowing nearby rushed and saved the family. Ahmad (last name used) is haunted by the memory of the floods and has not returned home at…
Read MorePackage or no package, Kashmir will rise again
Two tragedies that I witnessed in my recent past are stuck to my memories- the disastrous earthquake that hit on Oct. 8, 2005 and the floods of September 7, 2015. The earthquake hit the Pakistan-administered Kashmir region and the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan; it also affected adjacent parts of India and Afghanistan too badly. At least 79,000 people were killed and more than 32,000 buildings collapsed in Kashmir, with additional fatalities and destruction, making it one of the most destructive earthquakes of contemporary times. Morning 8:50 AM; I was…
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