A
nation builds on the power of collective efforts of a society that are
shaped by the directions of its intellectuals. The foundations of a
society that are conceptualized and build by intellect are the ones
which sustain the ravages of time and the erosion of social incumbency.
Hordes of doctors, engineers, lawyers and bureaucrats may be tagged
intellectuals by common lexicon, but in reality the ones who work for
the continuity of a set social order often oiling their own gears &
purses by their professional positions they hold are no real
intellectuals. The real intellectuals are the ones, who stand up for
cause, speak for a positive change, hold the hands of downtrodden and
the deprived: often getting into a collision course against the social
oligarchs, seeking with an unconstrained vision. Fortunately for a
society intellect is not inherited down the family, unfortunately for
the intellectuals they often become victims of the countervailing forces
of venality and nepotism. A vibrant society must have mechanisms of
intellectual peace and social safety accorded to that peace, in order to
thrive. And if you want to destroy a society top down, it is this
intellectual peace that is targeted, this social safety that is
nullified.
Kashmir
conflict has held a no bars policy of killing, erasing: traumatizing a
society repetitively. All sections of society having been targeted
generally, the erasure of our intellectual class has been selective and
systematic. When they kill the intellectual they just don’t kill the
human, they intend to kill the process of change associated with him,
the thought of resistance, they try to subdue the efforts of social
rebuild and renaissance. The killing of an intellectual is the murder of
a voice ; silencing the agent of change. The intellectuals and thinking
minds of a conflict zone have always to walk on a thin line in the
middle of extreme forces, often running the risk of antagonizing either
or both: a formidable task. All along the decades of conflict there has
been a widespread feeling that Kashmir is witnessing a deliberate
attempt to destroy its intellectual life, to create a thought vacuum and
to neutralize any efforts of positive social and political change. The
killing of every intellectual is followed by the blame games of state
and non state forces, and in none of the circumstances has follow up
justice been dispensed. The state takes a lame refuge in its
preoccupation with the law and order, the ‘in the greater interest of
national security’ repertoire, while the non state forces take refuge in
‘state stronger and more reachable than us’ and ‘state out to defame’;
thus both shredding any accountability and blame. In the friction of
this conflict it is the society that gets crushed, pulverized and
ground.
The
killing of Maulana Showkat today at Gawkadal is another ghastly
reminder of the intent of the extreme forces of this conflict. We shall
soon have the blame game running full steam, but none of the rants of
these blaming opponents can and will repair the loss to our society, nor
is there any hope of dispensation of justice. By erasing the thought
leaders and social torch bearers of Kashmir, these extreme forces are
forcing intellect desolation and inanity on us where in the society is
left in disarray with blanked out social progression paths. This is
nothing short of forcing an intellect holocaust on Kashmir. Maulana
Showkat’s social contribution is well established; his efforts to
improve the education standards of Kashmiri’s led him to work for the
creation of the Trans World Muslim University in Kashmir under the aegis
of JAH, which was to work under the guidelines of the western
educational policy. His killing follows the irreparable loss of leading
minds of Kashmir over these years, who have been eliminated under the
cloak of Kashmir conflict by internecine and slaughterous forces, who
disregard all rules of engagement and human cost in this blind war.
The killing of Dr. Guru (1st
April 1993), an intellect, a reformer and a visionary whose bullet
ridden body was found abandoned. The tragedy followed the funereal
procession of Dr Guru, when Indian security forces fired on the funeral
and killed Ashiq, brother in-law of Dr Guru (who was holding the coffin)
on way to his burial. The blood soaked dead body of Ashiq had to be
picked by his own father in the middle of Barzulla chowk, the crowd of
mourners having been dispersed by the unprovoked firing. How heavy a
burden of a fathers shoulder!
Jaleel Andrabi (killed on 8th
March 1996) was taken away by forces personnel on the Indira Gandhi
road; his dead body was later dumped with torture marks all over it. The
case against the killer Major (who is also accused of killing 11
persons including Andrabi) has been proven in the court, the culprits
arrest ordered: but that is where it stands till now, justice beyond a
court order has eluded for want of state action and will.
Dr. Farooq Ahmad Ashai,
(killed in 1993) a noted orthopedic specialist and a human rights
activist was killed by gunshots from a CRPF bunker in Barzulla, targeted
at him. A void unfilled, a gap open left in our society.
Pandit
Hriday Nath Wanchoo (killed in 1992) who voiced concern about human
rights in Kashmir and had filed numerous writ petitions against
custodial deaths was shot by assailants silencing one more sane voice
from Kashmir. The writ petitions consigned to quiescence and muteness,
the voice having been subject to a permanent lull.
Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq (killed 21 May 1990) and Abdul Ghani Lone,
(killed 21 May 2002) were two towering political voices from Kashmir
who were shot and killed, forcing contraction of sane political
discourse in Kashmir. In none of the case was any justice dispensed.
The
list seems unending, all major faculties, all schools of thought of our
society having been trampled, decimated. I quote from one of my earlier
blog
“In
his rage the imposer had also felled many mind humans, scholars,
intellects who were guillotined for their thoughts, decimated for their
value. They were made extinct to make this nation deprived of a road
direction; the imposer uprooted the milestones, the path markers of the
nation. We were being robbed of our guiding minds.”
In
their fight for annexing our land these forces have murdered our
bodies, killed our souls and guillotined our intellect. The real intent
of these killings being to dismantle the holding pillars of our society,
fragmenting us into smaller and divided units, making of ease the
trampling efforts over us. This forced hollowness on our society aims at
making us collapse from within, create delusions and speedup our
extinction.
How
many more to this unending list, till our society realizes the oblivion
and desolation that we are being forcefully herded into? Expecting
justice from any of the forces, the state or the non state is self
deceit. Both the state and the non state cherish our body count, build
on our misery and capitalize on our disarray. If we don’t speak up
against this felony of thinking minds, this forced annihilation and
carnage now; we may not retain the faculties and prowess to speak up
again.
We
can live as a lemming’s society and collectively, silently walk to our
destruction or we can speak up, condemn and speak for justice in one
voice and be heard. But the time to speak up is now.
"I know that they pursue me and will kill me. It is a matter of time; I will be killed in a month or two or less ... but I prefer to die for my ideas than on a bed of illness or aging." Lounes Matoub, the Algerian singer, poet and intellectual days before his assassination.
The killers may have physically killed these scholars and intelligentsia but they could not silence their thoughts, could not erase the ideals they stood for and cannot falsify the truth they believed in.
Saadut
Srinagar
Friday, 08th April 2011
Source : Speaking Mind
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