If life was a beach, Kashmir would have been just Cashmere, its soft fibers giving that signature warm feeling in dark winters.
However, as another chilly season descends on the Valley, Arundhati that latter-day Helen of Roy to some has sparked a self-righteous indignation across India.
Trust every word spoken by a celebrated rights activist that begs to differ from the state narrative to stir a hornets nest in this part of the world. Suffice is to say, you cannot escape sedition and secession in the context of Kashmir, if you dare share an independent mien.
As the tribe of the proverbial stone-throwers swells in nervy New Delhi around the Booker winner, who was named by Forbes as one of the worlds 30 most inspiring women only last July, Pakistanis appear to have gleefully latched on to the opportunity presented by Roy-speak to augment their own stance and enjoy every minute of the discomfiture it has caused the South Block and an India that used to smugly enjoy it days in global limelight as a force to reckon with.
Cocooning around lopsided views never helped anyone. To be brutally honest, India and Pakistan have been guilty of behaving like typical landlords and in so doing usurped the land, which essentially belongs to Kashmiris and treated them worse than slaves. Perhaps, short of an independent Kashmir, the script is likely to remain embedded in trauma for its inhabitants and scars for its proprietors.
He said it some 235 years ago, but Samuel Johnsons take on patriotism being the last refuge of the scoundrel applies no more than it does in the case of India and Pakistan. Dare to be different on the fate of Kashmir, past or the future, and chances are you will earn your spurs as a traitor.
In the coercive land-over-rights dispute, the latter appear not to matter. The atoot ang (integral part) and sheh rug (jugular vein) diktat overrides any sane discourse about how the spirit of Kashmir has been mauled for decades. The will of Kashmiris, whose home and hearth is at the heart of the dispute, is unfailingly last on the list of solution-seekers if ever a serious push is made.
Anemic to even accidental highlighting of the issue, India has reacted to Roys remarks about the brutal occupation of Kashmir by Indian forces and their massive and well documented rights abuses according to form.
One is singularly amused at how her well-grounded case for redressing the grievances of Kashmiris has been once again put down to the cheap thrills of a mass attention seeker.
There is no dearth of people in the Indian intelligentsia, who seem to pander to, if not deliberately, propagate the silly notion to offset global embarrassment.
Such tirades neatly overlook the great commitment and work the indefatigable Roy has done across a wide spectrum of human rights related issues from seeking equality as a spokesperson of the anti-globalization movement and stern critic of neo-imperialism to carrying the torch for non-nuclearisation and the consequences of unhindered industrialization in her country that, she believes, comes at the cost of the poor and downtrodden.
When it would have been far easier to bask in the glory of her literary feats, Roy chose to hit the road as a proactive leader of the movement against the Narmada Dam project and Enrons activities in India which risks displacing half a million people, with little or no compensation and not even provide the projected irrigation, drinking water and other benefits. It bears mentions that she donated her Booker prize money as well as royalties from her books on the project to the Save Narmada Movement.
Paucity of space would make it virtually impossible to provide a true reflection of her long and, often arduous, journey for the cause of fundamental rights. But it is difficult to surmise Roys station in life would be to amass publicity per se especially when it rubs her countrys civil and security establishments the wrong way, not to say the danger such a proposition entails to her life.
The latest squirming in New Delhi arising out of Roys broad sword is more likely down to the fear that it may lead to some sort of commotion ahead of U.S. President Barack Obamas much trumpeted feel-good visit to India this month.
For obvious reasons, the country is loathe to seeing one of her prominent citizens become a cause de clbre for internationalizing the issue at a time when not only has the freedom movement in Indian-administered Kashmir picked up momentum, resulting in disproportionate use of force, but Islamabad also keeps reminding Obama of his pre-election pledge to work for a Kashmir solution.
In my reckoning, arresting or trying Roy for sedition would be highly counterproductive and therefore, unlikely.
The writer is a columnist and former newspaper editor
The writer is a former newspaper editor and columnist.
