Notes of my lecture at
the symposium: The Kashmir Files, Moment of Reckoning, April 9, 2022, at 7 PM
IST/ 9:30 AM EST
In today’s lecture I will
focus on two of the important aspect brought out by the Kashmir files.
The Kashmir Files Represents
Historical Human Rights Violations Amounting to Genocide
Unfortunately, contemporary
discussion surrounding the recently released film The Kashmir Files represents
what is wrong with our collective conscious; it went astray: The discussion is
not about historical facts or historical issues, that everyone agrees, but aside
from the issue all they want to discuss is either polarization, or politicization,
which is traditionally used to distort facts in the past; moreover, it ignores
the issues that perpetrated violence and punishes the victims with silence. Instead,
If the historical event is discussed focusing on the brutal violence, the
perpetrators, and the victims, it would lead to truth and reconciliation.
There are two issues with
the way the public is misled in the current discussion in some media and
academic sections:
1.
Misguiding the Historical issue
2.
Distorting the Human rights and Humanitarian
concerns
What does it mean for
contemporary history and for the future?
We must be ready to
condemn violence, any elements perpetrating violence, and support the victims.
1. History is constituted by: Facts, more facts,
and all facts! For history nothing else matters.
I was surprised to
read some articles about the Kashmir files hurting certain groups of people
etc. How is recording historical facts hurting to somebody? If we go by that
route, we cannot record any history, because no matter what its bound to hurt
someone. Hurting or not hurting sentiments should not matter for history: the
discipline of History is not the handmaiden of some activists or political
theorists. History works independent of all these ancillary ideas. History
should provide truth based on facts, that’s all it matters for history. In the
case of Kashmir, as far as history is concerned the truth is hidden, facts of
killings, maiming, and other atrocities committed in Kashmir did not see the
light of the day or form part of the public discussion until now.
What happened on the ground
is important for history, it should not be erased. hence as the Hindus of
Kashmir has been requesting for a long time, a white paper should be released
on the violence of Kashmir. The Kashmir files brings forward this moment of urgency.
Kashmir files stirred
the soul of India by touching the Inner conscience of many across the country who
have seen or heard of similar violence in the past not far from their home. There
is an unmistakable pattern of violence of this nature seen across India.
1. For many in India the Kashmir Files stirred
emotions hidden inside the inner layers of conscious. Coming from Southern
India the events of the Kashmir files had brought to life the stories of
inhuman atrocities Razakars in Hyderabad state, that I heard from near and
dear. It is the same: terrible atrocities killing innocent civilians including
children, raping women, public terrorization of a group of people by chopping
their limbs, gorging their eyes etc, for simply being different and practicing
their faith; there is clearly a pattern---
How long will these genocidal massacred be
ignored? How long will these atrocities remain suppressed? For what purpose?
What is humanitarian response for these atrocities?
2. Through its inaction not even condemning such
acts, the Humanity’s soul is dead.
Human rights abuses even though partially depicted in the film form
a large part of the film due to the nature of the issue on hand; these events are
also imprinted on the inner conscious of Indian public, which stirred horrifying
memories of previous events like these. It is important to understand the gravity
of the issue, hence these events do not repeat.
Within all these discussions and debates, the Kashmir Hindus
still await the recognition for their pain and suffering.
The Hindus of Kashmir face a dual curse in addition to their
long struggles to get recognition for their trauma- first, they are victims of
brutal violence, second, their victimization is being denied, which is worse
than the abuse perpetrated 30 years ago. A film depicting their troubles is
being termed Islamophobic- this is the irony. Hinduphobia within the Kashmir
genocide is ignored and victim’s voices are suppressed by outrageous claims of Islamophobia.
Silencing victim’s voices, suppressing history is the biggest crisis of our
time! It’s not merely in the past, but
continues in the present, and the future of this pattern of violence is
embedded in it. This pattern of violence amounts to serious humanitarian
crisis.
No comments:
Post a Comment