Jammu & Kashmir Related | || Satyameva Jayate ||

Watch how a super-power defends itself

From a BBC report: “‘Another US strike’ hits Pakistan“ (emphasis mine)

Five civilians and seven militants have been killed in north-west Pakistan in a suspected US missile attack, local officials say. Missiles hit two buildings near Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border.

It has emerged that President Bush recently authorised US raids against militants in Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad.

There is growing concern in Pakistan over unilateral US military action.

…It is the fifth time since the beginning of this month that US forces have carried out cross border strikes, according to local people.

…The attacks follow persistent US accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to eliminate Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the border region.

An unnamed senior Pentagon official told the BBC that at some point within the past two months President Bush issued a classified order to authorise US raids against militants in Pakistan…

Contrast this with:

(National Security Adviser) Mr. Narayanan said the government had proof of how terrorism was controlled from Pakistan and in this regard mentioned the arrest of two foreign nationals in the aftermath of the Mumbai blasts…

…”What (evidence) we have is stronger than what the US had (against Taliban) after 9/11″ which prompted America to launch a war on Afghanistan. [ link ]

But thats nothing new…we have been saying this for almost 10 years now and Pakistan has consistently rejected “…(the) baseless Indian allegations of support for so called cross-border terrorism”.

Weekend potpourri: Kashmir, BJP, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

Some links for weekend reading:

1. From the Telegraph, an excellent article by Ambassador K Sibal on why borders are (still) relevant.

2. A revealing interview with Govindacharya: Jaitley is BJP’s best, Rajnath saboteur

3. Why Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam may not mean what you think it does and finally,

4. Why India..while enjoying all the characteristics of great power, is unlikely to become one (a 2005 article but still relevant, in my view).

Excerpts from all the three articles are below. Enjoy the weekend.

Keep Reading…

September 5th, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Ancient Hindu Political Philosophy, Ancient Indian History, Current Affairs, Elections Analysis, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), India & Its Neighbours, Jammu & Kashmir related, Politics and Governance in India | no comments

The forgotten “J” in J&K

Courtesy “Son of Devaki” by Tarun Vijay, this amazing table that provides a glimpse into how the populatoin in the Kahsmir valley has been rewarded at the expense of the citizens in Jammu.

Please read and circulate widely.

The step-motherly treatment of Jammu

Sr. no	Jammu region	Kashmir valley region

Area	26293 sq kms	15948 sq kms
Total revenue generated	75 %	20%
Total voters	3059986	2883950
Assembly seats allotted	37	46
Voters per seat	66521	49728
Area per assembly seat	710.6 sq kms	346.6 sq. kms.
Loksabha seats	2	3
Cabinet ministers(till 7th July,08)	5	14
Districts	10	10
Area per district	2629 sq. kms	1594 sq. kms
Unemployment status	69.70 %	29.30%
Representation in state govt. jobs	1.2 lakhs	3lakhs
Percentage of employees from local area	less than 25%	99%
Power generation	22 Mega Watt	304 Mega Watt
Annual tourist traffic	80 lakhs plus	Less than 4 lakhs
Expenditure of revenue on tourism sector	less than 10%	Plus 85%
Rural electrification	less than 70%	100%

Time to say One Country, One Law

Amidst the flurry of Op-Ed pieces in mainstream (English language) media, suggesting granting Kashmir “complete autonomy (Khushwant Singh) ” or holding a plebiscite (Swaminathan S Aiyar) or a referendum (Vir Sanghvi), I failed to spot even one Op-Ed suggesting that the answer may lie in scraping Article 370 forthwith.

I believe it is time to say, “One Country, One Law”…and turn Jammu and Kashmir into a normal “State” in the “Union of India”.

This is my 3-point prescription to get out of this mess for good (I do need to think through the consequences in some more detail though):

1. Stop ALL talks with Hurriyat, PDP and other assorted outfits who demand “azaadi”.

2. Stop ALL aid and grants…forthwith (to get an idea of how much money is poured down the drain in Kashmir, read below)

3. Scrap Article 370 and begin an active programme to re-settle and rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits back in the Valley.

Will this work? I don’t know.

Will Madam Gandhi and co. even consider it? Dream on.

Keep Reading…

August 17th, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Current Affairs, Identity, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History | 25 comments

This was The Beginning…

….and the world remained silent….

For those of you who are not old enough to remember how it all started, here is a brief excerpt from The bushfire of Hindu rage (emphasis mine):

…For the benefit of those who have come of age in the last two decades, among them many of the 24×7 news channel anchors who talk utter gibberish while donning an air of supreme confidence to camouflage their limitless ignorance, let me recount the events of January 1990, which mark the beginning of the latest crusade against the Hindus of Jammu & Kashmir. Since ’secularists’ are allergic to events of the distant past, we need not go into the details of how Hindus were decapitated by the Sword of Islam wielded by the original Islamists. The present will suffice to highlight the duplicity of those whose hearts beat for the hate-India hordes in Kashmir.

Srinagar, January 4, 1990. Aftab, a local Urdu newspaper, publishes a Press release issued by Hizb-ul Mujahideen, set up by the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1989 to wage jihad for Jammu & Kashmir’s secession from India and accession to Pakistan, asking all Hindus to pack up and leave. Another local paper, Al Safa, repeats this expulsion order. In the following days, there is near chaos in the Kashmir Valley with then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his National Conference Government abdicating all responsibilities. Masked men run amok, waving Kalashnikovs, shooting to kill and shouting anti-India slogans. Reports of killing of Hindus, invariably Kashmiri Pandits, begin to trickle in; there are explosions; inflammatory speeches are made from the pulpits of mosques, using public address systems meant for calling the faithful to prayers. A terrifying fear psychosis begins to take grip of Kashmiri Pandits.

Srinagar, January 19, 1990. Mr Jagmohan arrives to take charge as Governor. Mr Farooq Abdullah, whose pathetic, whimpering, snivelling Government has all but ceased to exist, resigns and goes into a sulk. Curfew is imposed as a first measure to restore some semblance of law and order. But it fails to have a deterrent effect. Throughout the day, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Hizb-ul Mujahideen terrorists use public address systems at mosques to exhort people to defy curfew and take to the streets. Masked men, firing from their Kalashnikovs, march up and down, terrorising Pandits. As evening falls, the exhortations become louder and shriller. Three taped slogans are repeatedly played the whole night from mosques: “Kashmir mei agar rehna hai, Allah-hu-Akbar kehna hai” (If you want to stay in Kashmir, you have to say Allah-hu-Akbar); “Yahan kya chalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa” (What do we want here? Rule of shari’ah); “Asi gachchi Pakistan, batao roas te batanev san” (We want Pakistan along with Hindu women but without their men). As the night of January 19, 1990, wears itself out, despondency gives way to desperation. And tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits across the Valley take a painful decision: To flee their homeland to save their lives. Thus takes place a 20th century Exodus.

Their wounds, as also the wounds of Hindu India, have been festering for 18 years. The simmering anger of Hindus has now burst into a raging bush fire that threatens to burn to ashes media’s perverse notions of ’secularism’ and destroy the politics of Muslim appeasement.

If you have a good broadband connection, I would also recommend watching this 12-min video: Terror on Kashmiri Minorities … and the World remained Silent… It includes a brief appearance by the late Benazir Bhutto - clearly showing her support for the “cause” (Courtesy: Ramesh Naidoo)

Fascinating: Terrorism and Public Opinion in Pakistan

Courtesy, this article on the CounterTerrorism Blog, I came across this fascinating survey conducted almost exactly a year ago which has some revealing insights. A small sample:

33% Pakistanis view Taliban, Al-Qaeda and radical Pakistani Jihadi groups favourably (while 43% oppose them)
38% favour Taliban (while an equal percentage oppose it)
37%-49% favour local radical Pakistani Jihadi extremist groups (only 24%-29% oppose them)
46% of Pakistani’s view Osama bin Laden favorably (only 26% have an unfavourable view of him) and finally,
76% of those polled believe that implementing strict Sharia law throughout Pakistan is either a “very important” or “somewhat important” long-term goal for the government of Pakistan.

Read the full report here: http://www.terrorfreetomorrow.org/upimagestft/Pakistan%20Poll%20Report.pdf

August 11th, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Global Terrorism, India & Its Neighbours, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related | 3 comments

“Reclaiming India” - excerpts

Great article by Tarun Vijay in today’s TOI: Reclaiming India.

*** Excerpts below (emphasis mine) ***

“None should say Omar is not allowed in Jammu. Let him come, listen and speak. Like any other Indian should feel free to visit Kashmir or any other part of the nation. He is welcome to visit my home even if he denies me a piece of land in Kashmir. Why should a few words uttered by him make me change my Indian-ness? If he spoke in Parliament as a Muslim, asserting his Islamic identity, let denial of land to Hindus be his Islam and my Hinduness must keep my nation as a free democracy where difference of opinion is a natural phenomenon unlike Islamic countries.

…But he must stop to think why he can own a bungalow in Delhi or Bangalore and at the same time deny that privilege to a fellow Indian in Kashmir? Kashmiri Muslim leaders would like to enjoy the fruits and liberties of a Hindu majority democracy but vehemently deny that to Hindus in their area of influence. Why?

When they are in a minority they crave and get special privileges. But once a majority, every single right to be at par is refused to other minorities.

…Kashmir is predominantly Sunni and Wahabi. Hence the intolerance that denies even the basic features of Kashmiriyat.

And see what the de-Indianised intellectuals wrote on the front pages in Delhi’s newspapers: “All over a piece of land!” Really?

Then why are the Indian soldiers defending a barren piece of dead snow in Siachen? Or what’s that piece of cloth known as the Tricolor? Is it worth dying for?

…In fact the whole movement is a revolt of Tricolour people against unpatriotic politics on Kashmir. It’s an effort to reclaim India in a region where the central leaders and regional parties have abandoned the idea of pan-Indian nationalism and geographical integration. India has been reducing every day in the valley and the seculars keep on counting their votes and encouraging separatists at the cost of an Indian identity.

Keep Reading…

August 6th, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | A Hindu Identity, An Indian Identity, Current Affairs, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Impact of Islam on India, Jammu & Kashmir related, Medieval Indian History, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement | 8 comments

Cry of the Valley - must read

Amidst the outpouring of years of pent-up anger in Jammu, I came across this vivid, very sad and intensely poignant first-hand account of living in the shadow of terror and the forced migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley… Please read and circulate widely…

*** Cry of the Valley ***

A cold winter night has fallen outside and the power cut makes it all the more gloomy inside. Huddled together in the warmth of blankets and a kerosene lamp we just sit silently watching each others expressions. I am too young a kid to understand the full implications of what is happening and my younger sister is busy watching a small bug circling the candle our mother had lit in the gallery just outside the kitchen. My thoughts drift from game of cricket I’d played earlier that day to how bright the snow makes outside look. Among all these childish thoughts is a nagging feeling that I’m just not able to get rid of. I feel I’m never going to be in this house again. Never ever in my life will I play cricket with these friends again. Never ever will mother and father have the careless laughs that I so love. Never ever will the things be same again.

It started a few months before in summer when I came home after an extended play session with my friends. Father was waiting for me on the porch of our relatively new house. We were still building the second floor and it already looked like the biggest and the most beautiful house in the community. I especially liked the way the roof was built. There were multiple parts slanting over each other and I couldn�t wait for winter to see the snow sliding off these. I knew father had worked day and night to take us from a one room kitchen-cum-bedroom place to this house. The evidence of his hard work was on his callous fingertips that had hardened by continuous writing on multiple carbon separated sheets of paper that he used while teaching. I met him at the porch of our house and my instincts had sharpened enough to know that I was in trouble. But usually I knew beforehand. This time did not have the slightest of clues. The day had been good so far and I had behaved within reasonable limits. The bigger issue was not that I was in for a tough time, the problem was that I did not know the severity of the mischief I was going to be accused of and therefore couldn�t estimate the severity of the punishment. Anyway, I sat down with a feeling of a lump in my throat. Then he told me something that surprised me. He had heard me arguing with a couple of friends over a game of cricket a few hours earlier. He told me that I was to stop doing that I should either play without arguments or stop going out for fun altogether. I couldn’t understand this. From the time I could remember, these small arguments were the part of fun we kids had. Elders never cared to comment on such silly things and now I was facing an expression on my fathers face which was as serious as it I’ve ever known it. If I didn�t know my father better I’d have argued to get to the bottom of this but wizened with previous unpleasant thrashings I decided against that.

I didn’t have to wait long to get the cause of my father’s concern. In a couple of weeks one of my cricketing buddies was missing from the game. When I suggested that friend we should go to his home and call him, one other friend said that he was not home but had traveled across the border to get training in handling weapons. Without me knowing so at that time, I’d just had my first brush with the extremism that would change our lives forever. Suddenly the world around me had changed in a way that I could never imagine. My friends one-by-started going missing. Muslim kids went across the border and Hindus mainly started to migrate across to other parts of the country. I started spending more and more time at home. When the schools closed the previous fall for winter break little did anyone know that they would never reopen. As a child that was a welcome development for me. I could have all the time in the world to myself for play and mischief. But the irony was that I couldn’t go out anymore and there was nobody else to go out with.

Keep Reading…

August 4th, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | A Hindu Identity, An Indian Identity, Current Affairs, Elections Analysis, Hindu Dharma, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Jammu & Kashmir related, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Post Independence History | 10 comments

Tackling Terrorism: One Step at a Time

This is probably a less lucid post than most of what I write…In spite of that it has taken me a very long time to draft this.

Last Sunday, after hearing of the blasts in Ahmedabad, I asked myself…what would I have done? What should the Government do? What can we do…as concerned, anxious and angry citizens?

I decided not to write anything more about the attacks until I had some idea of the answers to this questions…This post is an attempt in that direction…It mainly deals with what the government should do/ or consider doing…I may decide to write a separate post on what each one of us, as proud ”Bharatiyas”, can do…

The suggestions are organised in different sections (in no particular order):

The Political Will

Effective Policing and Intelligence Coordination

The role of the “middle class”

The role of the Muslim community

The role of Pakistan

Better Legislation

The Ideological Challenge

The ideas I have mentioned below are not all mine - they rely heavily on work and thinking done by others, more experienced and better informed than me…What I have attempted is to bring these ideas together - in a coherent, mostly consistent, way. I will be grateful for any critiques…Please contribute freely with your ideas and suggestions…

Jai Hind.

Tackling Terrorism: One Step at a Time

The Political Will

Our biggest weakness in this war is the lack of political will…No amount of proposals, ideas and counter-terrorist measures will work unless there is a clear, unambiguous and determined consensus - across all parties - at all levels - that this is WAR and it has to be fought with the same intensity and sense of urgency…The time for patting ourselves on the back about the “Spirit of Mumbai” (or Bengaluru or Ahmedabad) is past…

Political Will means bringing pressure on Pakistan …or as Ashutosh memorably mentioned in his comment on this blog, “turning on the heat“…It necessarily involves retaliation - something which NSA M K Narayanan hinted at a few weeks ago (after the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul)…It is time to follow-up on these statements…For more than a decade, we have been crying hoarse about terrorist camps and support infrastructure across the border…Well, THIS is the time to do something about it…

As Raja Ram mentioned in his comment following the Mumbai Blasts:

…The GOI has to present the evidence gathered publicly, set forth a clear demand for actions from governments - or agencies of governments - that may be involved with a clear time frame. This should be backed up with a clear promise of retributive action against the perpetrators with or without their support. International support for such should be channelised and developed.

…But this can happen only when the political class has the clarity of mind about dealing with terror in that manner. There are consequences to such actions that we must be ready to face. The political class, mind you is a creature of the people. The people should not only be ready to back them but demand such action from the political class and only then will they respond. Till that happens, concerned Indians can pull their hair and whack their heads - not much is going to come out of it. India will just have to take it in her stride yet again and fight on alone. There is no support for India in her war on terror. What is available is only meaningless platitudes.

The PM needs to get up and say, as did Tony Blair last June: “…This extremism can be defeated. But it will be defeated only by recognising that we have not created it; it cannot be negotiated with; pandering to its sense of grievance will only encourage it; and only by confronting it, the methods and the ideas, will we win.”

The President, Chief Commander of the Armed Forces needs to declare: India will not negotiate with terrorists… And every political party - and their leaders in Parliament - need to unequivocally support this stance…otherwise there is little hope.

Keep Reading…

August 1st, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Current Affairs, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Islam & Terrorism, Jammu & Kashmir related, LeT, SIMI etc., Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Terrorism in India | 30 comments

Shantanu’s Believe It or Not!* - I

A new series starting today with two news items…

“The central government will be sending a package for orphans of the slain militants. Scholarships and pension will be provided to them similar to the relief being provided to other orphans,” Nirupama Kaul, chairperson of the All India Centre for Urban and Rural Development told media-persons in Srinagar on Wednesday (30th July ‘08).

Kaul claimed she met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 25 and presented a charter of demands to him on behalf of nearly one lakh families of militants killed in the troubled state.

“The prime minister assured me that the Centre would be sending a package for the orphans,” she said.

From: Central aid for J&K slain militants’ kin, July 30, 2008.

Item # 2:

Saudi Arabia’s religious police have announced a ban on selling cats and dogs as pets, or walking them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them as a means of making passes at women, an official said on Wednesday.

Othman al-Othman, head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Riyadh, known as the Muttawa…said the commission was implementing a decision taken a month ago by the acting governor of the capital, Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz, adding that it follows an old edict issued by the supreme council of Saudi scholars.

The reason behind reinforcing the edict now was a rising fashion among some men using pets in public “to make passes on women and disturb families,” he said, without giving more details.

Othman said that the commission has instructed its offices in the capital to tell pet shops “to stop selling cats and dogs”.

From Saudi religious police ban pet cats and dogs

* With apologies to Ripleys.

P.S. I am still woking on the post detailing steps to counter terrorism…Hope to have it finished latest by weekend.

Related Posts:

Who are these “militants”?

The great joke that is Indian Media” series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.

July 31st, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Human Rights and Legal Issues, Islam & Reform, Jammu & Kashmir related, Miscellaneous, Terrorism in India | one comment

Who are these “militants”?

Why is the English mainstream media so scared of calling terrorists for what they are - instead of the silly label -�”militants”?

Is this�not an insult to�our brave officers and soldiers who day in and day out expose themselves to enormous risks…and put their lives on the line to protect our country and uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India?

I am sad, disgusted and very very angry…

Here is a sample from today’s new stories:

An Army Major has been killed and two jawans injured in encounter with militants in Rajouri district in Kashmir. [ link ]

An Army Major and a police constable were killed and three other security personnel seriously injured in a fierce gun battle with a group of Lashker-e-Toiba militants in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir today (July 20). [ link ]

An Indian Army officer and a policeman were killed and four soldiers injured in a shoot out that erupted in a frontier district of Jammu and Kashmir Sunday, defence sources said. The sources said Maj. Bhanu Partap of 43 Rashtriya Rifles and Sanjeev of Kashmir police were killed while fighting heavily armed militants hiding in the Bangai forests in Thana Mandi area of Rajouri district, about 190 kms north of Jammu. [ link ]

An Army Major and a police constable were killed and three other security personnel seriously injured in a fierce gun battle with a group of Lashker-e-Toiba militants in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. [ link ]

Interestingly, the Hindi language media (with which I am somewhat familiar) uniformly uses the term “Aatankwadi” (Terrorist) - save for the lone BBC Hindi which prefers “Charampanthi” (Extremist) - but then it is the BBC, as you know.

Any�doubt why we need a robust, right-of-centre alternative to what passes of as mainstream media?�

Related Posts:

The missing �T-word��

Nice, politically correct reporting -�UPDATED�

and “The great joke that is Indian Media” series:�Part 1,�Part 2,�Part 3, Part 4�and Part 5.�

.

UPDATE: According to this report, these so-called militants were using a woman as a shield:

Army sources claimed that on specific information, a joint team of the Thannamandi-based 43 RR and the Rajouri SOG launched a search and destroy operation in Kunda near here on Saturday night. After cordoning the area, a search party led by Major Bhanu reached a dhok (temporary shed used by nomads in higher reaches) owned by Gulzar Begum of Shahdara Sharief area and knocked at the door. Begum who was inside the dhok at that time was allegedly used by militants, reportedly belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), as their shield, sources added.

July 21st, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Jammu & Kashmir related, LeT, SIMI etc., Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Terrorism in India | one comment

“End the Moral Idiocy on Kashmir” - excerpts

From the original post by Dr Andrew Bostom, “End the Moral Idiocy on Kashmir”��

*** EXCERPTS BEGIN ***

I participated in a forum on Kashmir last night at MIT in Boston, as this Muslim supremacist, jihad-inspired conflict�really a tragic ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Hindus by Muslim jihadists which began in earnest during the 14th century�re-emerged in the news recently when the Indian government had the �temerity� to want to transfer 99 acres of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board…

…Please watch the video linked below, which chronicles in gory detail the brutal ethnic cleansing of some 350,000 indigenous Hindus from Kashmir during early 1990, orchestrated by Pakistan and it�s �moderate� Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto.

I was privileged last night to meet the astute, courageous, and passionate filmmaker, Ashok Pandit, who produced this documentary, �And the World Remained Silent�.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCRFWStxV_4 (Part 1)

Focus on the time period 2:15 to 4:00 minutes, from part 1 above, and witness the jihadist speech of the late, much ballyhooed �modernist reformer� Benazir Bhutto. She was a jihadist, plain and simple; the head of what remains a jihadist state, our �ally� Pakistan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2vsztUdkpU&feature=related (Part 2)

Here is the text of the comments I delivered last night for historical background:

Islamic Separatism & Kashmir: A Panel Discussion Exploring the Relationship Between Religion and Kashmiri Tangle, July 9, 2008,

During mid-November, 2007, a grim milestone was recorded in the macabre tally being kept assiduously in cyberspace by blogger Glen Reinsford: the 10,000th attack by jihad terrorists resulting in some 60,000 dead and 90,000 injured since the cataclysmic acts of jihad terrorism on September 11, 2001.

Reinsford does not include combat-related statistics…His tally also excludes the genocide in Darfur committed by the Islamic government in Sudan…whose murderous ravages the UN estimated last year had resulted in some 400,000 dead, and 2 million displaced.

Reinsford identified three episodes of such continuous, mind numbing jihadist carnage which had perhaps unsettled him most: Nadimarg, Kashmir India (3/23/03), dozens of Hindu villagers roused out of their beds and machine-gunned by Lashkar-e-Toiba; Beslan, Russia (9/3/04), some 350 people slaughtered by jihadists�half of them children; Malatya, Turkey (4/18/07), three Christian Bible distributors bound, tortured for hours, then gruesomely murdered by men who acted explicitly in the name of Islam.

These data should remind us that there is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad despite contemporary apologetics. Jahada, the root of the word Jihad, appears 40 times in the Koran�under a variety of grammatical forms. With 4 exceptions, all the other 36 usages (in specific Koranic verses) are variations of the third form of the verb, i.e. Jahida. Jahida in the Koran and in subsequent Islamic understanding to both Muslim luminaries�from the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam (including Abu Yusuf, Averroes, Ibn Khaldun, and Al Ghazzali), to ordinary people�meant and means �he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like�, as described by the seminal Arabic lexicographer E.W Lane. Indeed, Lane�s, An Arabic English Lexicon (6 volumes, London, 1865) is still used to this day by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars for definitive Arabic to English translation. Thus Lane, who studied both the etymology and usage of the term jihad, observed, �Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify wag[ing] war, against unbelievers.�

Keep Reading…

July 12th, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Conversions, Missionaries in India, Hindu Dharma, Identity, Impact of Islam on India, India & Its Neighbours, Islamic Rule in India, Jammu & Kashmir related, Medieval Indian History, Modern Indian History, Pakistan related | no comments

India - Pakistan: Notes from an Island

About two weeks ago,�the Royal Society of Arts in UK, together with�Tehelka, organised a Summit on India and Pakistan in London. It had a stellar line up of speakers and panelists (Jaswant Singh, Farooq Abduallh, Arun Jaitley, Mushahid Husain, Imran Khan, Asma Jehangir, Ram Jethmalani…et al) and I am sure it generated a lot of animated discussions…

I am delighted to present a guest post by my dear friend Ashutosh who attended the summit and graciously agreed to pen down his thoughts to share with everyone on this blog…Ashutosh has a blue-chip CV and he left McKinsey a few years ago to start his own consulting firm in London…Needless to say, he also has a deep and abiding interest in politics and international affairs. Without further ado, here are Ashutosh’s thoughts…in two separate posts…This is the first one (emphasis is mine).

*** POST BEGINS ***

Allow me to begin by saying that I attended the events over two days wearing essentially two separate hats- one that of a politically aware global citizen (after all �vasudhaiva kutumbakam� has not been a more relevant concept that today and best describes the world view of us expat desis) and the second more practical hat of a energy geo-politics analyst (and there is probably no other region than the sub-continent where geo-politics of nuclear- natural gas- renewable energy and climate change is most relevant, fragile and least appreciated); my thoughts on the meeting therefore are in that sequence…

As a relatively more aware follower of international affairs- I question the need to have any reconciliatory relationship with Pakistan. What follows is a brief summary of my thoughts…

A]�Pakistan wants India to forget the recent past (and in my view the most important past of the last 60 years) and reflect on our much longer history before…when we were one country.

If the meeting was about burying the past and moving forward- well it was a very good first step but we have barely scratched the surface in establishing trust at a human level. One example of self contradiction- Mushahid Hussain opening his speech by greeting (read insinuating) the audience in every other language and style but (conspicuously) avoiding�a single hindu greeting like �namaskaar� and then closing his speech (suggesting to India) by - �Thoda Dil Bada Karein�- this was just one example of several self contradictions in Mushahid�s speech.� Grow up dude, look at that inexperienced Sachin Pilot, measured and moderated responses in face of insinuations- logical and consistent- through out.

B]�Search for that sameness - another theme that came out…�We are similar �so there is no reason we cannot move forward�.�

Well- I challenge this notion of sameness- yes , we have common food habits, similar languages and to some extent a common civilization but our life experiences of the last 60 or more years driven by our national ethos have been totally different. Tolerance versus Fanaticism-� and so have emerged our relative positions as a function of our individual national ethos.�

Why should we desperately seek out that same-ness and struggle in this relationship?� When we deal with China, be it at a Governemnt level or in business, the first thing we do is recognize our differences- much stronger footing to craft our way forward. Pakistan and India may have common history and gene pool but our ethos is totally different- we will not only struggle but even get frustrated more easily in making this relationship work.� Lets recognize our differences first- tolerance v/s fanaticism then figure out what is the relative value at stake for each of us!
�
C] Don�t Use the T-word. If you do, then at least don�t use it as IT (Islamic Terrorism)…

Will someone please explain to me why not? Speaker after speaker mentioned that terrorism has no place in Islam. Good passionate rhetoric but frankly this is the 800 pound gorilla in the room and calling it militancy or freedom struggle ain�t any good, any more. Well done Tarun Vijay, for bringing it out into the open, chapter and verse with examples included. Of course no answer/response was forthcoming except a Humphrey Appleby-esque �Don�t use the T word and if you do don�t call it IT�

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July 9th, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Debates & Discussions, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), Global Terrorism, Identity, India & Its Neighbours, Jammu & Kashmir related, Miscellaneous, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History, Terrorism in India | 4 comments

The lies about Amarnath…

My�distrust of the Indian mainstream media deepens by the day.

Courtesy Dina Nath Mishra’s article,�”Amarnath land grant and the reality around it“, I learnt today how even “..in this age of widespread and fast communication”, it is possible to hide facts.

Fact #1:�The land was to be transferred NOT allocated

Fact #2: It was to be only for a period of two�months in a year when Amarnath pilgrims visited

Fact #3:�No permanent structure was to be constructed, for Article 370 forbids the same

And yet, we had the Hurriyat and assorted leaders crying hoarse over threat to demographics, ecological damage and danger to Kashmiriat…

And how has mainstream media reported these facts?

See this Rediff news-report in which�the words “allotment” and “transfer” have been used inter-changeably even though they have very different meanings and implications. And while the report clearly mentions “temporary structures” (which surely cannot be said to threaten any demographics), this important fact is soon forgotten (emphasis mine):

The forest land allotment controversy erupted soon after the state cabinet took a decision in May last to transfer 100 acres of land to SASB for raising temporary structures to facilitate the yatra.

HT refers to “land diversion”�in�this news-report…surely a very different thing from “land allocation”?

After NC patriarch Dr Farooq Abdullah demanded the government order sanctioning land diversion be revoked, PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayed has asked for a cancellation too.

So why is no one talking about these “facts”?�

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July 7th, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Ancient Indian History, Current Affairs, Indian Media, Jammu & Kashmir related, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History | 13 comments

|| Satyameva Jayate ||

Devoted to “Bharat” and “Dharma”

Watch how a super-power defends itself

Weekend potpourri: Kashmir, BJP, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

The forgotten “J” in J&K

Time to say One Country, One Law

This was The Beginning…

Fascinating: Terrorism and Public Opinion in Pakistan

Recommended Weekend Reading

“Reclaiming India” - excerpts

Cry of the Valley - must read

Tackling Terrorism: One Step at a Time

Shantanu’s Believe It or Not!* - I

Who are these “militants”?

“End the Moral Idiocy on Kashmir” - excerpts

India - Pakistan: Notes from an Island

The lies about Amarnath…