Mazahmat (Resistance) is an academic publication that provides reliable analytical & interpretative reports about the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
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1. Resistance Unto Freedom
kashmircivitas.com
Volume 1, Issue 1
J U L Y 2 0 2 0
A monthly collection of significant
developments related to Kashmir
Domicile law an existential
threat to Kashmir
Kashmir, Palestine in Making
Indian State Terror Kills
Kashmir Journalism
3. CONTENT
Domicile law an existential threat to Kashmir
Journalism under Indian State Fire in Kashmir
Territorial Surrender in Ladakh: China Shows India its Place
Liquor Shops an Attack on Kashmir’s Cultural Ethos
Kashmiri House and Resistance
Kashmir, Palestine in Making
Songs of Kashmir
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Topics
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4. Mazahmat03
According to the arrangements of
domicile law, there is no space for a diaspora
Kashmiri, whose parents do not have an existing
certificate of permanent residence, to obtain
domicile without living in the region for 15 years
or serving the Indian government for 10 years.
Effectively, the child of an Indian citizen from any
part of the country is eligible, even if the child has
never lived in Kashmir, but the child of a diasporic
Kashmiri may not be eligible if the parent does
not possess an existing certificate of residence.
Kashmiris have never in history faced such a
blatant attack on their existence. Some reports
are given below to help properly understand the
implication of this domicile law for Kashmiris.
Riyaz Wani
https://www.storiesasia.org/2020/05/25/why-kashmir-faces-the-greatest-existential-battle-in-past-500-years/
Mirza SaaibBég
https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-domicile-law
References:
Domicile Law an Existential
Threat to Kashmir
In August 2019, the Indian government
led by Hindutva ideologue Narender Modi abro-
gated Article 370 and Article 35A of Indian consti-
tution amid strict military lockdown in the entire
disputed territory. The Articles gave a semi-au-
tonomous status to Kashmir. Following the abro-
gation Kashmiri people became worried about
potential demographic change in their country,
but no one expected the process to commence
so soon. In May 2020, in the midst of COVID-19
crisis, the Indian State passed the domicile law,
removing all the doubts about its intent in Kash-
mir. The domicile certificate has been made
mandatory for employment in Kashmir following
amendments to the Jammu and Kashmir Civil
Services rules. Eligible individuals from any part
of India will also be granted the right to purchase
immovable property in Jammu and Kashmir,
something that has not been possible till now in
Jammu and Kashmir.
5. When Article 370 and Article 35A of the
Indian constitution, which gave semi-autonomy
to the disputed region of Kashmir, were abrogat-
ed by Hindutva government of Bahartiya Janata
Party (BJP) of India on August 05, 2019, media
became the foremost target of the government
and military forces operating in Kashmir.
Although media clampdowns by Indian govern-
ments have been frequent in Kashmir historical-
ly, it was unprecedented this time. Not only were
newspapers and the Internet shut down, Journal-
ists continue to be either jailed or charged on
flimsy grounds.
Indian State has intensified its crack-
down during COVID 19. Global media is widely
covering the Indian State’s crackdown on Kash-
miri media and journalists, though, Indian media
has been either silent or supporting the crack-
down. Even amid this unprecedented lockdown
many Kashmiri journalists have been performing
their duties and covering India’s human rights
abuses in the region. Indian State and public
were shaken recently when three Kashmiri photo
journalists won Pulitzer Prizes for their gallantry
work, covering Kashmiri people’sendurance
against multifaceted oppression.
Mazahmat04
Sameer Yasir and Jeffrey Gettleman
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/world/asia/kashmir-crackdown-newspapers.html.
Tariq Mir
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/30/india-is-using-pandemic-intensify-its-crackdown-kashmir/.
Mohammad Haziq
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/meet-the-journalists-whose-jobs-vanished-after-india-s-kashmir-crackdown-33118.
Aakash Hassan
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/kashmir-brings-home-a-pulitzer-despite-india-s-attempt-to-muzzle-the-region-36065.
References:
Journalism under Indian
State Fire in Kashmir
6. Territorial Surrender in Ladakh:
China Shows India its Place
Mazahmat05
References:
The Express Tribune
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2244810/1-four-civilians-martyred-another-indian-ceasefire-violation-along-loc/.
National Herald
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/loss-of-face-and-territory-in-ladakh-but-everything-under-control.
Riyaz Wani
https://www.storiesasia.org/2020/05/25/why-kashmir-faces-the-greatest-existential-battle-in-past-500-years/.
First time in the history of Kashmir, the
people of the region are facing an existential
threat. However, china’s intrigues in the disput-
ed region of Jammu and Kashmir seem to have
come as a surprise to him, denting his image
not only as a strong uncompromising national-
istic leader but also as a strategist his supporters
over the years were trying to project him.
Although Indian has faced shame before when
China defeated it in 1962 when the country’s
populist leader Jawaharlal Nehru was ruling it,
the current moves by China are taken as
unprecedented among expert circles of interna-
tional affairs. In order to save its face against
international disgrace, India once again resort-
ed to killing innocent unarmed civilians of Kash-
mir. On June 18, to avenge the killing of 20
Indian soldiers who challenged Chinese army in
Ladakh, Indian army violated the ceasefire at
Line of Control, killing four Kashmiri civilians of
Azad Kashmir. Some important articles are
attached below to give a comprehensive under-
standing of the ongoing events.
For the past half a decade Modi held his
nose high against Kashmiris and his minority
Muslim community. Kashmiris especially were
reminded of their powerlessness every single day
as his government kept sabotaging their strug-
gle on different fronts. It is the peak of oppres-
sion at the moment that Kashmiris are enduring
– a double lockdown of Indian military forces and
COVID 19.
First time in past 30 years a brazen reality stands
in the face of Kashmir people, abrogation of
semi-autonomous character of Kashmir, and the
domicile law that is meant to erase Kashmiris out
of the face of Kashmir.
7. Liquor Shops an Attack on
Kashmir’s Cultural Ethos
References:
Mazahmat06
Tribune News Service
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/j-k/67-sites-identified-for-opening-liquor-shops-in-kashmir-101979
Hilal Mir
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/kashmir-liquor-sale-proposal-triggers-outrage/1885765
Greater Kashmir
https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/govt-faces-criticism-over-proposal-to-open-liquor-shops/
Anti-Islamic rulings by Indian State
are seen as part of the strategies to
solidify the occupation in Kashmir.
That is the reason why Kash-
miripeople demolished the liquor
shops in Kashmir as soon as the
armed struggle started in Kashmir
in 1989. Amid the widespread
crackdown in Kashmir Indian
government wants to reverse the
process by targeting Kashmiri
culture.
In a series of steps taken in the aftermath of the
abrogation of Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status
in August 2019, India’s Hindutva government has
passed a ruling to issue certificates for 67 liquor
shops in Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiris through-
out the region see this as a colonial act meant to
target Kashmir’s Islamic religious ethos. After the
wide spread discourse on opening of cinema halls
in Kashmir, liquor have become a new point of
Indian State discourse to present alcohol as cultural
symbol of so-called liberation and emancipation.
Kashmiris, on their part, from across their social
groupings responded against this news with
outrage on social media. In Kashmir this step is only
seen as one more addition towards the decimation
of Kashmir’s culture amid double lockdown of
COVID-19 and Indian military.
Thousands of Kashmiri leaders and commoners are
languishing in Indian jails. Media channels have
been shut down. Ever since India took control of the
region of Kashmir, the resistance movement of the
people of Kashmir against Indian rule has been led
by religious ethos given that more than 96 percent
of the population of Kashmir is Muslim.
8. Kashmiri House
and Resistance
Mazahmat07
TRT World
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/in-pictures-indian-forces-set-ablaze-a-kashmiri-neighbourhood-locals-36470.
Junaid Kathju
https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-srinagar-encounter.
Rayan Naqash
https://scroll.in/article/894739/breaking-peoples-will-in-kashmir-gunfights-leave-a-trail-of-destroyed-homes-and-rising-anger.
Kashmir Post
https://kashmirpost.org/2020/06/03/locals-collect-rs-3-crore-in-7-days-to-rebuild-houses-damaged-in-nawa-kadal-encounter/
References:
Ever since Kashmiris began their armed struggle against Indian State control in
1989, Kashmiri houses became a target of ruthless Indian military operations.
From seizures and looting in search operations to blowing them up with bombs,
targeting Kashmiri homes has been one of the basic symbolic manifestations of
Indian State’s intents to dispossess Kashmiris of a homeland. Therefore, protecting
houses and rebuilding them after destruction is an aspect of multi-dimensional
resistance strategies of Kashmiris.
One latest example is here: on May 19, Indian
armed forces set fire to a neighbourhood in
Srinagar city, and at least 15 residential houses
were destroyed, leaving the residents home-
less. In an extensive show of solidarity, Kashmi-
ri people, including those living in other parts
of the world, began to supply monetary aid to
their brethren in Kashmir.
More than Rs. 3 crore
(approximately USD
416,000) were collected
in just 7 days to rebuild
the houses.
9. Kashmir, Palestine
in Making
After the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A
of Indian constitution on August 5, 2019, which
gave semi-autonomous status to the disputed
land of Jammu and Kashmir, and prevented
outsiders from buying fixed assets including land
there, Indian government has moved on with its
long-meditated plans. The disputed territory was
unilaterally bifurcated by the Indian government
into two Union Territories that would be directly
controlled from New Delhi. The long-held appre-
hensions of demographic change in the region
are now proving to be on the horizon. Indian
government in May passed the domicile law that
enables Indian citizens to attain residence
permits in Kashmir, raising existential threat for
Kashmiri people who have endured Indian mili-
tary rule for so long. Thus, Kashmir is Palestine in
making.
With inputs from Yasmeen Abu Tarbush
Kashmir and Palestine may be located in two
different geographical locations – one in South
Asia and other in the Middle East – the evolution
of their history and political events share stark
resemblance. They represent two symbols of
neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism where
indigenous people are surviving at the verge of
their extermination. The latest land grab in Kash-
mir by the Indian State is an audacious manifes-
tation of the Settler colonialism, a replication of
what has been going on in Palestine for decades.
Not coincidentally it is Israel whose councils are
behind what is unfolding in Kashmir. RecentlyIs-
raeli right-wing nationalist prime minister Benja-
min Netanyahu expressed his plans to annex
parts of the West Bank, including the Jordan
Valley, in line with US president Donald Trump's
so called “Middle East peace plan”. Something
similar raises the spectre of settler colonialism in
Kashmir.
References:
Mazahmat08
Mirza SaaibBég:
https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-domicile-law.
Riyaz Wani
https://qz.com/india/1834012/after-article-370-new-jammu-kashmir-domicile-law-fuels-anxiety/.
Abdulla Moaswes
https://www.inversejournal.com/2020/05/15/neoliberal-
ism-in-palestine-and-kashmir-the-nakedness-of-colonial-pretexts-in-the-21st-century-by-abdulla-moaswes/.
10. References:
Mara Ahmad
https://maraahmed.com/wp/2010/07/22/stones-in-my-hand-kashmir/
YeniSafak
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/kashmiris-my-name-del-
la-milles-releases-song-to-raise-awareness-on-humanrights-violations-3532198
Photo Credit (Anadolu Agency)
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/pg/photo-gallery/american-singer-della-miles-in-istanbul/0#
Mazahmat09
Songs of
Kashmir
Muslim American singer and songwriter Della Miles
released a song titled “Kashmir is My Name” as a mark of solidarity
and tribute to the decades-old struggle of Kashmiri people
against Indian rule."Muslims are being massacred in Kashmir," the
famous jazz singer, who converted to Islam after moving to
Turkey, wrote on Instagram while sharing a video clip of the song.
The song was composed by Turkish poet and writer TurgayEvren,
and endorsed by ministries across Turkey and Pakistan. But most
importantly for Kashmiris the song became an articulation that is
reminiscent of the popular Palestinian resistance song “Stone in
My Hand” written by Erik Schrody.
The song had become popular in Kashmir in 2010 upris-
ing when Indian armed forces killed 117 protesters. An unknown
Kashmir artist made a montage of documentary visuals showing
Indian brutality in Kashmir and the montage was set to the song.
Thus, the song became an important site where Palestinian and
Kashmiris sufferings resistance were showcased.“Kashmir is My
Name” presents similar visuals. As much as the song’s lyrical and
visual articulations are important, the song is significant from
Kashmiri point of view because it came from a geographically
distant but culturally close ally of Kashmir – that is Turkey.
