The fire of angst burnt my city, Jammu
Pico Iyer lost everything he had—and nearly his
life in one of the worst man-made fires in California. While recounting the
tragedy to lose something that you call home, he says “I always had that sense
that home was not where I lived but what lived inside me," "When our house burned down in the
forest fire that became literal." I also lost my home in an angst of fire
that slowly killed my desire to call Jammu my home. I am in mid-thirties, an
age where realities of life are too stark to be ignored and the haze of
idealism turns too thin to cover the nakedness. No matter whether you love it
or hate it, home is where you return to. Somebody would guide you back or as
they say, ‘will show you your place’.
Recently, I was reminded again of the place where
I was born and raised. In the outskirts of a town near Jammu, an eight year old
girl was missing since January 10, 2018 .People mostly from her own nomadic
community came out in large numbers and protested against the inaction of the
Police in finding her. Some of the young agitators were incarcerated and few
were beaten as they were causing law and order problems for the police. The
girl was finally traced after a week but only when she was already raped and
dead. The protests continued against the police for their ineptness in tracing
her alive and afterwards for not catching the culprits responsible for the
heinous crime.
The Indian subcontinent likes to hold itself very
high on moral standards. However, record of crimes against women and children
shows a picture of a decayed and dilapidated society that has always been cruel
to the marginalised people. The most barbaric acts were always saved for the women,
children and people belonging to low-castes.
In mainland India, recently an aggressive
agitation was going on against a Hindi movie. Some of the protestors were ready
to immolate the actress alive because they felt her portrayal of the Rajput princess
was in a bad taste. The same princess had supposedly immolated herself saving
her honour from the Invading Muslim enemy. In the neighbouring Pakistan, Zainab,
a girl of almost same age as Asifa had to face the same fate. She was raped and
killed which also resulted in wide spread protests against the failure of authorities.
There is always a protest or agitation going in
our part of the world. Some of these get round the clock coverage and some
don’t even get a mention in any section of the media. .To protest, is to make a
statement or express disapproval or objection to something. When I saw reports
of Jammu protests in favour of the Asifa rape accused, I was not surprised as
living in Jammu and other parts of India I have witnessed various contours of protests.Protest is not
always the voice of the victim ,it can also be mean to intimidate the weak.
Protest, is also a mean to intimidate.
Jammu, the place where I was born and raised has
also seen frequent protests. Most of the times the protests were a reaction to
an incident in Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir is a majority Muslim state, Jammu and
adjoining districts like Samba, Kathua and Udhampur have more Hindus with 10%
to 20% of Muslim population. Living in Jammu interestingly made me understand
how this Majority-minority equation actually works. Jammu Muslims are a
minority living in a Muslim majority state. Being a minority is a difficult
learning experience in our part of the world, it teaches you how humans collectively
intimidate the lot that is somehow less in number.
Indian cricket team of 90’s was no match to their
Pakistani counterparts, on rare occasions when they were able to beat Pakistan,
the celebration marches from all over the city used to pause near our
neighbourhood of around 15-20 Muslim homes .The loud expletives against
Pakistan and Muslims were more of a protest than celebration, the crowd as if
holding Jammu Muslims responsible for the mediocrity of Indian team. Thanks
goodness, Indian team is far superior to Pakistan now and is beating them on
almost every occasion.
In 2008 Amarnath land transfer row erupted and
resulted in massive agitation in Jammu. These protests started as a reaction to
an agitation in Kashmir against the land transfer to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board
(SASB) .There were massive crowds of protestors with brazenly communal slogans
and naked tridents. Every Muslim neighbourhood lived in fear of these communal
mobs for more than two months.
RSS always had a very visible presence in Jammu
and during the run-up to 2014 elections when the majoritarian narrative was
pushed all over India. Jammu also had its share of communal tensions flaring up.2008
had already changed the Jammu narrative from Anti –Kashmir to Anti-Muslim.
In 2010, when all over Muslim world there were
protests against Quran burning incident in US, devout Muslims in Jammu and
Kashmir also couldn’t resist themselves. One of the young boys returning from
one such protest was attacked with a knife near our home. Next day, a prominent
local Jammu paper had a 100 word inside page report about boys of a certain
community being attacked for raising pro Pakistani slogans.
August 2013 saw communal clashes in a remote town
of kishtwar which resulted in the Mob burning businesses and shops, both the
communities suffered but the major brunt was felt by Hindus as reported by all
the major Jammu papers. Hindu Organisations like VHP, Bajrang dal, backed by
BJP held aggressive and charged up protests all over the Jammu city, same night
our neighbourhood was attacked by a large mob looking for revenge and when
police did give them a free hand for an hour or so, they burnt down every
visible Muslim shop in the neighbourhood.
The parliament and Assembly election results did
give BJP the reward of its fervour for the politics of fear. BJP was able to
win almost all seats of Jammu province and formed Government in J&K for the
first time. Many people that includes the writer of this piece, believed that being
part of the Government, the communal narrative unleashed in the run up to the
elections will mellow down. On the contrary spreading hate against others became
mainstream. Any protest or an act of violence in the name of Hindu nationalism
got the patronage from the ruling dispensation and many people were rewarded
for spreading hate against Muslims.
In Jammu no protest was ever complete without
raising slogans against Kashmir and its separatist politics. In the last decade
separatism and Muslims have become synonymous for the Hindu right wingers. The
Muslim Majority character of the Jammu and Kashmir state has been a rallying
point for all the protests in Jammu. Police investigating the murder of Asifa arrested
people from the same village, one of them a police cop*. The Hindu community
which was earlier watching the unfolding of events from the fence came out to
protest. As I tried to explain earlier, every protest in Jammu was a protest
against the Muslim majority character of the state.
Asifa was drugged and beaten before the rape .She
wasn’t even 9 years old when killed but, the protestors were agitating for the accused
in the case and not the kid they allegedly kill. The main organisation behind
all these protest is called Hindu Ekta Manch. The name literary translate to
the forum for unity of Hindus. A forum where all Hindus can unite against their
biggest and the only enemy.
I read a post shared by one of my Facebook friend
.A mother of a cancer patient in a war ravaged Syrian hospital told her ‘‘the
war is easier on me than the sickness of my child, ’Nothing in this world can
be more difficult to bear than the sight of suffering young children.
‘The hatred for the other’ formula may have
reaped electoral benefits for the Hindu Radicals in Jammu but how will they
tame the monster when there is nothing left but hate. Jammu is still my home, Someday
I will be a nostalgic old man and the love may rekindle itself. For now, the
place is too tattered and torn to be loved.
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This was written a few weeks ago, police have
made many more arrests in the case
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More details are here :
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