Extracts of Truth

Someone just sent me an Interview with writer Arundhati Roy, who authored the book "God of Small things" which is on my have to read list and there are thing she said in that interview about Kashmir, that I just have to share:

"AMY GOODMAN: So, starting there, if you can tell us what is going on there—even place it for us geographically.

ARUNDHATI ROY: OK. Well, Kashmir, as they say in India, you know, is the unfinished business in the partition of India and Pakistan. So, as usual, it was a gift of British colonialism. You know, they threw it at us as they walked—I mean, as they withdrew. So Kashmir used to be an independent kingdom with a Muslim majority ruled by a Hindu king. And during—at the time of partition in 1947, as there was—you know, as you know, almost a million people lost their lives,because this line that was drawn between India and Pakistan passed through villages and passed through communities, and as Hindus fled fromPakistan and Muslims fled from India, there was massacre on both sides.

And at that time, oddly enough, Kashmir was peaceful. But then, when all the independent princedoms in India and Pakistan were asked to actually accede either to India or Pakistan, but Kashmir, the king was undecided, and that indecision resulted in, you know, Pakistani troops and non-official combatants coming in. And the king fled to Jamu, and then he acceded to India. But he was—you know, there was already a movement for democracy withinKashmir at that time. Anyway, that’s the history.

But subsequently, there’s always been a struggle for independence or self-determination there, which in 1989 became an armed uprising and was put down militarily by India. And today, the simplest way of explaining the scale of what’s going on is that the US has 165,000 troops in Iraq, but the Indian government has 700,000 troops in the Kashmir valley—I mean, in Kashmir, security forces, you know, holding down a place with military might. And so, it’s a military occupation."

Here I just have to add that she has depicted it with brutal honesty, Kashmir is a military occupation. The Indian Army is there constantly and their duty seems to be to ensure that every time Kashmir begins to resume any sense of normalcy,to disrupt it so that it will forever be a war zone and under the control of India.

She Adds:

"ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, I think, you know, unfortunately, the thing about Kashmir is that India andPakistan act as though Kashmir is a problem. But really for them both, Kashmir is a solution. You know, Kashmir is where they play their dirty games. And they don’t want to solve it, because whenever they have, you know, internal problems, they can always pull up—pull this bunny out of the hat. So it’s really—I really think that these two countries are not going to solve it, you know?

And what is happening is that there is a population of people who have been suffering untold misery for so many years, you know, and once again so many lies have been told about it. The Indian media is just—the falsification that it’s involved with about Kashmir is unbelievable. Like two years ago—or was it last year? Two years ago, there was a massive uprising in Kashmir. I happened to be there at the time. I’ve never seen anything like this. You know, there were millions of people on the street all the time. And—

AMY GOODMAN: And they were rising up for?

ARUNDHATI ROY: They were rising up for independence. You know, they were rising up for independence. And then, that uprising was—you know, when they rose up with arms, that was wrong. When they rose up without arms, that was wrong, too.

And the way it was defused was with an election. An election was called. And then everybody was shocked, because there was a huge turnout at the elections. And all the—you know, we have many election experts in India who spend all their time in television studios analyzing the swing and this and that, but nobody said that all the leaders of the resistance were arrested.Nobody asked, what does it mean to have elections when there are 700,000 soldiers supervising every five meters, all the time, all year round? They don’t have to push people on the end of a bayonet to the voting booth, you know?Nobody talked about the fact that there was a lockdown in every constituency. Nobody wondered what does it mean to people who are under that kind of occupation.The fact that they need somebody to go to, you know, when someone disappears—or, you know, they need some representative.

So now, once again, the violence has started. You know? It’s a permanent sort of cycle where, obviously in the interest of geopolitical jockeying, any sense of morality is missing. And of course it’s very fashionable to say that, you know, there isn’t any morality involved in international diplomacy, but suddenly, when it comes to Maoists killing, morality just comes riding down on your head. You know, so people use it when they want to."

The lockdown (also known as a curfew) she talks about is where the Indian Army basically shuts down all of Kashmir, so that nobody can do anything, no business, no leisure walks, no visitation to friends/family. You are to basically not step outside your house, because if you do, expect to be shot at and expect no one to apologies. And the worst part? It happens ALL THE TIME. I was there for only two weeks and out of those 14 days only 2 were without curfew. TWO. HowIndia expects anyone to survive, nevermind make a living there is beyond me. Or perhaps that is exactly what India wants. I find it interesting that in the world of politicians that Tibet is the poster child for suppression and oppression, I mean they want freedom and look at China being all Communist! Why can't they just give them the freedom/independence they want and truly deserve. But when you raise the issue of Kashmir, forced to be part of the "world's largest democracy", well, uh, you know uh, that different.

Only its not. Its the same. Kashmir does not want to be part of Pakistan and it does not want to be part of India. If you think whats happening with Tibetans is wrong, then you automatically think what's happening with Kashmir is wrong too. And it is.

Oh world, sometimes you make me sick to my stomach.