Hate mongering about Kashmir on social media: is it enough?

It fascinates how liberals respond to trolling on social media specially about Kashmir when soldiers die in militant attacks. Kashmir is, has been since 1947 and will forever be a disputed territory between India and Pakistan - unless sincere, mature and mindful moves are made by politicians of both countries as well as J&K to resolve the Kashmir issue. A living testimony to this is that a part of Kashmir is not under Indian control and no one has ever done anything to bring it back despite some wars with Pakistan.

Anyone who contests this by saying that Kashmir is an integral part of India needs to read history better. Un-fortunately, non-partisan and dispassionate analysis of historical works on Kashmir exists in English and the Bhakts have still a long way to go before they master English. Moreover, where do they have the time to do some serious reading when the motives of their demagogues are being served by jingoist comments, bantering on social media and chest beating in 'paan ki dukan' chhap un-parliamentary language full of low innuendo, double entender and even unsavory hurling of abuses.

Needless to say that the vested interests focus on securing the vote banks by dividing a sentimental nation on lines of religion and region. They may not have learnt English from the British but have learnt their policy very well.

I wonder what does this 'bharat Mata ki jai' crowd closing fists in the air envision as a final refrain to the vicious cycle of killings in Kashmir? Any sane individual is equally pained at the martyrdom of an innocent Indian soldier just as much as at the brutal killing of a 15 year old Kashmiri civilian succumbing to pellet gun injuries. Neither the army covered under AFSPA is parsimonious nor the common Kashmiris' patience with three decades of armed occupation of their streets, muhallahs and bazaars is unquestionable. Both are human and weak in the flesh.

So will a genocide in the valley give Kashmir back to India without any claim of separatism and militancy? Or an invasion of the PoK to facilitate a reunion between Kashmiris on both sides of LoC? Or a carpet bombing of all four states of Pakistan - a nuclear power, to achieve the utopia of Akhand Bharat?

Does it all come without a cost? The Indian armed forces are fighting a battle in Kashmir and in any battle there is loss on both sides. 100,000 Kashmiris and  100s of security personnel have died in the blood bath of militancy and native Kashmiri Pandits have been displaced - to the avail of no national good. Ghetto like settlements for Kashmiri Pandit families is all that the government is promising them after years of exile. Don't they deserve better in their own homeland?

So will the bhakts now start enrolling for the army leaving their cushy corporate chairs? Will all the Indian American Modi fans cheering for  him at the Central Park in New York city come back to India and fight with Pakistan? Will all the politicians now go to the border without their Z security covers and pick up the gun in the holy war?

Difficult to answer eh?

OK give me just one objective answer. It's easy. How Many Indian politicians' sons are in the Indian army, navy or air force? How many of their daughters are married to captains and generals?

It takes a law like the RTI to get that sort of data and it was not gifted to the nation by the RSS but by liberals in the Civil society who understand the nuances of public good and the plight of the Indian masses. Meanwhile consider this: infighting suits them -  politicians on both sides, so that they enjoy life and keep the public consciousness diverted from the real issues.

If a well read journo, thinking film actor, or a condescending writer is worried about intolerance, killing of stone pelting civilians and beef vigilantes it's worth more than a mock or a scorn by an anonymous coward on social media who will not even reveal his true identity and location. Liberals have an Idea of the past, they have not swallowed the sugar coated bitter pills of hate campaigns given by political hate mongers and they are concerned about the future of their beloved nation. They are Patriots if not nationalists.

Liberal journalists are not journalists like Arnab Goswami who merely sit in studios and pass verdicts high on the  singular merit of decibel. They are highly educated and active liberal Indians who travel across the length and breadth of their country to intermingle with its mind boggling diversity of peoples and understand their view point.

Liberal actors are not actors like Gajendra Chauhan who after dishing out flops over flops become jesters for the ruling government and occupy positions of power they do not deserve by any claim to contributions for the performing arts. They are hardworking self made artists who have the caliber of raising millions of rupees in aid funds for relief of tsunami hit people when they move a leg in a charity concert.

Liberal writers and scholars are not like Chetan Bhagat who are reduced to writing paeans for the king after having wasted public funds over their subsidized education in world class IITs and IIMs. They are writers and intellectuals with a heart and mind brave enough to follow their dreams of changing the world with the power of their pen. They bring international awards and accolades. They bring respect to country.

Yes, the Kashmir issue is complex. It needs a multi layered treatment too. Simplistic 'do or die' rhetoric, us Vs them jingoism, heroic nationalism and shifting the blame conveniently to the other - read punching bag (Pakistan) in this case, is unfortunately what is signified by hate mongering on social media. But even more troubling is the fact that this proposes no durable and long-lasting solutions in near future.  Hitler had his fiery speeches laced with such identity based inspirations for ovsrzealots to Nazi Germany. Rest is history.

Autonomy to a unified Kashmir, delinked with Laddakh and Jammu under a confederacy with the sharing of the triumvirate - India, Pakistan and Kashmir is what C  Raja Gopalachari had proposed in the 1950s. This famous 'Raja ji formla' ironically is buried in the annals of history as it serves no one's vested interest and promises a win win situation. Had Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar and Sheikh Abdullah lived together and longer this may have been achieved.

Anyhow, Manmohan Singh regime did achieve some years of cease fire and peace in the valley by his vision of a 21st century SAARC in which borders would become meaningless.

Sadly, post July 2016 in NaMo's India we have receded 10 steps backwards. The past of wars, penury and suffering may again become our present if we fail to learn from the past.

Today Kashmir is not about settling scores. It's about moving on with as little baggage of history as possible.

Many hues of the green learning spaces at AMU

The Many Hues of the Green Learning Spaces at AMU

By

Faiza Abbasi

A lot can happen in a garden, lawn, woods or just some scrub wilderness. Imagination

knows no bounds when the receptive minds of inquisitive students, scholars and teachers look out from a classroom, lab or library opening to greenery. More rewarding is a reflective walk or an informal rendezvous in the green learning spaces of the Aligarh Muslim University. 

Ensconced in the over one thousand acre of the sprawling AMU campus, its heritage buildings and state-of-the-art educational facilities stand tall. What sets it apart from the rest of the city is the vastness of space and plain featureless land between concrete monoliths; where nature finds a playground and the academic community a respite to reflect and grow.

It is neither a Shanti Niketan with most activities in the open nor a Mughal Garden regimented enough for entry timings enforcing a closure for most days of the year. The AMU campus is a happy mix of nature in its myriad manifestations. From the difficult to pronounce botanical names like Casuarina equisitifolia and Erythrina vareigata painted on square tin plates nailed to the trees, to the indigenous varieties like babool and khejri, the AMU grounds have it all to soothe the soul. 

Herbal and medicinal plant cultivation of the Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College for their Dawakhana and the Botanical Gardens of the AMU Fort and the Prince of Wales Botanical Laboratory known as the Botany Dept., have exotics owing their existence to the careful plant breeders. In the manicured lawns of the Gulistan-e Syed, VC's and PVC's Lodges the hedge heights are meticulously calculated to golden proportions and flowerbed distances are measured to precision. The slightly unkempt gardenia of the Faculties, Offices and Halls of residence boast of some ornamental plants, occasional patches of bushy overgrowth and countless mighty trees having stood the test of time. 

April and May in north-India are notorious for the heat and the scorching sun but one look at the skyline of the main University road suggests that the sun has just entered the spring equinox. The bare lifeless branches of the trees during fall are replaced with green foliage and flowers of all colours. The many Gulmohar trees near the Arts Faculty are adorned with their red flowers and Amaltas trees lower their branches with yellow bells creating the famed golden showers. Complete with the lilac and purple crowns of the Jacaranda it actually signifies fertility, growth and life much needed for an academic institution.

With this first burst of summer, the Duck Pond at the T-junction Park, where the main road bifurcates towards the Engineering Faculty and Computer Centre is on the verge of drying up but the blooms rupture colours. Early morning and evening walkers are greeted on the side-walks lined with seasonal plants. One can cast a gaze beyond the lawns and the timber stands near the Education Department and almost touch the clustered flowers in the hanging inflorescence of the tall Fishtail Palms on both the sides of the road.

This is also when the moths and butterflies feast in the orchards of the AMU Fort and the bees are busy drinking up the blossoms. Be it Holi, the festival of colours or the solar new year celebrated as nauroz by sprinkling petals, communities with roots in peasantry, the world over indulge in festivities marking the joys and prosperity of a new harvest. A riot of colours in the expanses inundated with flowers - petunias, cosmos, marigold, sweet peas, pansies, calendulas, asters, verbenas, nasturtiums, geraniums and what not; near the Dental College, Bab-e Syed and the Victoria Gate Nursery are just in time to party with spring.

Students sipping a late evening tea outside the kiosks near the Training Placement Cell and Canteen make merry, chat, poke fun at and swear in pollen laded air. The crisp freshness of each breath invigorates discussions and revitalizes ambitions for success in future. The stark white jasmines emanate fragrance for the moths to pollinate them but their aroma gladdening the nostrils, fills romanticism in the scholarly life of the young people who will forever be enchanted with the memories of their pleasant days at Aligarh. 

Here, a team of writers, speakers, actors, singers, debaters and musicians of the various co-curricular clubs of Cultural Educational Centre surcharged with the creative energies straight out of the Kennedy Hall may stumble upon a group of students huddled around their plant Taxonomy Professor studying the buttress roots of the line of Arjuna trees outside the Maulana Azad Central Library.

The hot winds during the day do not just bring dust and particles of white sandy soil called Reh in the vernacular for which Aligarh is even documented in the Colonial Gazetteers. Small black cotton seeds frayed up in soft white filaments from the Semul (red silk cotton tree), aromatic Baur (mango flowers) from the orchards near the Sir Syed Nursery not destined to be ripe mangoes in summers, and the winged chilbil (nut of Indian elm tree), light as feather travel afar on the wafting breeze. 

The guava and jujube trees in the Naqvi Park and the University farm lend their fruit to humans be it the contractor of the harvest or the gangs of marauding local children dodging the sleepy watchman. Come summer-monsoon and a fresh offering of mangoes and jamuns in the stretch between the Art Gallery and the Geology Dept. is the bone of contention between the rightful owners and the intruders.

Not that these green spaces of flora come with no surprises from the fauna. The age old Nullah near the Allama Iqbal Hall can spring up a white-breasted water hen walking in the reeds. A massive roosting phenomenon can be observed on any setting day at the electric wires near the railway line behind Habib Hall. The Hariyal (Yellow Legged Green Pigeon) fabled for its inability to feed on the ground is seen foraging in hundreds on the Mulberry trees of the Chemistry Department lawns. The Eucalyptus and Ashoka trees planted for cover are a nesting site for the Pariah kites and Mynas.

Camouflaged in the high but dense crowns of the thickets with intermingling dhak (Butea monosperma), sheesham (Delbergia sissoo) and neem (Azadirachta indica) trees the Grey hornbill makes a swift but suave flight gliding from one cover to another. A close look reveals its long kinked neck and bright eyes shining through the brown sticks. The Koel sings sweet through the morning and the Faakhta (Laughing Dove) laughs on the desolation of the day. Sunset is marked by the cackling flocks of egrets returning to nests. Rubbing shoulders with its winged mates on the trees is the tiny squirrel, often darting on the roads, grabbing a fallen fig to nibble at after climbing back with agility, to its cosy comfort of the twig high up.

While the girls hostels in Abdullah, Sarojini Naidu and Indira Gandhi Halls are specially frequented by our closest primates - the menacing rhesus monkeys, whose squeals are responded to by the frenzied shrieks of the inmates, animal encounters also leave happy memories. The last minute exam preparations in the early mornings are carried out in the open to avoid the other room-mates busy with usual make-up and music. It is considered auspicious for the candidates' performance to spot a peafowl. Though, its long meoooow call is a regular haunting memory for every inhabitant of the hostel from day one. On a luckier overcast day, one might see the peacock in a nuptial dance raising its pheasant tail to display its male fitness to a lek of peahens around.

Towards the outer periphery of the campus where the humble gardeners pay less attention, rough country has a better chance to prosper. Moving towards the Faculties of Law and Agriculture across the railway crossing near the Begum Sultan Jahan Hall a jackal might be seen sneaking through the fence in the dark or a monitor lizard may be discovered stupefied by sunlight trying to scale a wall using its firm grip. The calm and peaceful residential colony around the J.N. Medical College, one day throws a spectacle of a checkered keel-back snake stiff with stress under the attention of the selfie-mongers unaware of its venom-free fangs, on the other a mongoose emerges from the undergrowth entering a drain to reach its burrow. 

In summers and monsoon as darkness lowers its pall, the lapwing lets out a shrill call from the sporadic shallow pools and there are torch flies emitting light from their sooty bodies in the secondary scrub vegetation around the Viqarul Mulk Hall. During winters most of this animal life is hibernating but the AMU community comprising staff and students is often out soaking in the sun, smelling the roses and swivelling with the sunflowers. Shadows lengthen on the salubrious lawns glistening in the winter sun as it traverses the sky concluding a short cold day.

Asrarul Haq Majaz appropriately termed the AMU a chaman (Garden) for its bulbuls (aka students) when he penned the Tarana (Anthem) for the University during his hostel days. Walking barefoot in the pristine lawns of the Founder’s Residence which houses books on and by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and his personal belongings; feeling the soft velvet grass under the feet - sometimes oozing dew, sometimes damp under the gentle drizzles of the sprinkler irrigators; the background is lit up by warm glows of floodlights on the newly constructed red brick structure of the K A Nizami Centre for Quranic Studies in fine medieval architecture; and the Quranic promise of a paradise with gardens beneath which rivers flow, comes alive.

To the gardens of AMU a humble tribute from a learner in the words of Urdu poet Andaleeb Shadani:

            Shafaq, dhanuk, mehtaab, ghaTaen, taare, naghme, bijli, phool

            Us daaman mein kya kya kuchh hai, woh daman haath mein aye to

شفق،دھنک،مہتاب،گھٹایئں،تارے ، نغمے،بجلی ،پھول

اس دامن میں کیا کیا کچھ ہے،وہ دامن ہاتھ میں آئے تو

            (Evening twilight, rainbow, moon, clouds, stars, songs, light, flowers

            What all is there in that hem, may that hem come in the reach of hands)

Nowroz - a cultural and Biological diversity Festival

ںو روز مبارک 

Nowroz is a Zoroastrian festival that celebrates the spring and harvest. Having originated in Iran thousands of years ago it has moved out with the diaspora, to be observed by people of Iranian origins the world over. Falling usually on the 21st of March every year it denotes the entry of the Sun into the Spring equinox from the winter solstice. And there are exact calculations pertaining to this transformation. Traditionally, the moment when the earth enters into the new quarter of its orbit - between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, is calculated to the precise second with the help of Jantris. Now however, there are websites that dedicated to nowroz which display a calculator constantly counting seconds backwards to the upcoming nowroz time.

Jantris, like all horoscopes are recommend lucky alphabets, stones to wear and colors don in apparels etc. For instance this nowroz on 20 March 2016, the lucky colour was orange. So celebrations were marked with merry makers wearing orange dresses and serving the fruit on their table. Probably, due to 2016 being a leap year, the Jantris had calculated 20 March instead of 21 march for the spring festival. This also happens to be the Solar New year, hence the name Nowroz in Persian where Now=new and roz=day. 

Interestingly, this solar year which is enacted by nature, is neither adhered to by the Islamic Hijri calendar nor by the which is lunar, nor by the Christian AD era calendar which despite being solar, is governed by political reasons. St. Augustus and Julius Ceasar demanded that both July and August have 31 days and the rightful and  powerful of the Christian era deemed fit for the new year to be coupled with Christmas.Although orthodox Christians in the United States and Central Europe celebrate Christmas on 7 January, according to the Gregorian Calendar which predates the Julian Calendar.

Despite the hegemony of the CE, over world affairs nature celebrates its new years day on Nowroz by all means. This was recognized by our ancient ancestors who lived close to nature and responded to the joys of biodiversity. The day is literally marked by a riot of colours in gardens. Be it the regimented manicured gardens of the city, the little green spaces of the country or the unkempt wilderness. Flowers and in bloom and pollen is in the air. This pollen is an allergen to many, but the aroma lent by them to the whiffs of cool breeze wafting around is a welcome. Very soon the flowers in blossom will give away fruits and there will regeneration of life.

Happy families lay elaborate tables with the Sapt Seen (Seven food items starting with the perso-arabic alphabet seen س ). The germinated wheat, sweetened rice desert, dates, fruits and dry fruits decorated in fancy platters and pots radiate in the soft glow of candles and incense sticks. Tradition has it that a mirror is also set on the table. The Nowroz observance in the White House, attended by the President Obama had similar arrangement. Children and women also set the same on push carts and visit the neighbours filling their vicinity with festivities.

Nonetheless, people of Persian origins the world over - which includes the present day Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Iraq get together to celebrate Nowroz with mirth and friendliness. This  year too my facebook home page was adorned with pictures of friends celebrating nowroz by sitting together around elaborate dining tables and greeting each other. An Afghan student of mine huddled up with friends in the University of Masachusetts, Amherst and was wishing his family back in the Palmir mountains of Afghanistan.

Ideally, the Muslims have alienated themselves from Zoroastrians who are originally Persians. There is no way Islam can reconcile on religious grounds with the fire worshipers but fortunately, the shared customs and traditions of Nowroz live on. This former Afghan student of the AMU, when I was teaching him here, once complained of the ignorance of natural solar calendar in India. He was trying to learn the Hindi names of the Vikram Calendar in India from his batch-mate, another Muslim girl. The foreign students hostel dominated by Muslim Iranian families seems becomes abuzz with activity on Nowroz. They congregate in parks in the evenings and sing and clap till late at night. 

It is prevalent with the Parsi community in India. Living in Gujurat and around Mumbai, they have never forgotten their Parsi roots while performing all rites and rituals. While the Parsis may have added Salli (potaoto chips) eggs to their spread in other places too  Indian Muslims tracing their Iranian origins have added to the diversity. Some Muslim families in Aligarh painstakingly organise an open house for friends to devour on goodies and display the decorations with pride. Women drape sarees according to the colour of the day by the Jantri and modify dishes to suit the Indian palate. 

The peasant in the country plains of India may not know of Nowroz but the koel singing and the flowering of the mango tree relates to him bringing joy and smile with the onset of spring. Parsi or Muslim, Shia or Sunni, Nowroz, is truly a celebration of the variety of live forms that has transcended the boundaries of religion and culture and proven its test of time.