Educated women in Srinagar pessimistic about elections

Original Source: http://kashmirreader.com/educated-women-in-srinagar-pessimistic-about-elections/

Most of the educated women in Srinagar appear not to be interested in casting their vote during upcoming parliamentary elections, citing reasons like less rights and privileges which the women enjoy.
Many educated women who chose to speak to Kashmir Reader said they fervently believed their vote won’t make any difference.
Lawyer Narjees Nawab, for instance, believes that women’s vote is not of much help and it is a socio-political election with no gender sensitivity. “Gender has no significant role to play, neither inclusion nor reference in any election manifesto, be it from female contender or male. There is no gender sensitivity,” she said.
Nawab said that the issues pertaining to women are always given less priority over other things. “Like always, gender is a non-issue in here. It becomes an issue only for teaching moral values to girls,” she said.
Echoing similar views, Shaheen Bashir, a college lecturer said, “As per government revelations only 12 per cent of women constitute its workforce. A government where there is such less space for a woman, what significance does her vote hold? Probably nothing.”
Mariya Zahoor, a banker, said that women’s right to vote has no importance at a place where women’s safety and empowerment are taken for a ride. “I would have voted for a government that ensures safety of women. But sad enough, they only talk about bijli, sadak and pani. Nobody talks about women empowerment, women safety. Every other day, a woman faces one or the other form of brutality in Kashmir. And the culprits roam around freely. I cannot think of casting my vote under such deplorable condition of women folk,” said Zahoor.
Adding another dimension, Dr Taizeena Khan, Founder/Principal ‘Red Letter Phyline(RLP)’, Centre for women’s and Pediatric Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, said that it is unfair for people to vote at ‘gunpoint’.
“I wonder how people can cast their votes under restrictions. It is quite likely that on the day of voting, we will be put under curfew or restrictions and asked to vote. How fair is that? In my opinion, nobody should vote, be it women or men. Let them first provide us freedom of speech and then ask us to vote for them,” Khan said.
Adding to it, Sabah Yaqoob, a Management student, said, “Our state is politically unstable and I think it is of no use to cast a vote. How can we caste our votes when the government could not punish the rapists and murderers of Asiya and Neelofar (in Shopian in 2009). Our women have been molested and our governments have tried to shield the culprits. So I would say whichever party comes to power in Kashmir, it is all the same as long as our issues aren’t solved.”

Kashmir's skewed sex ratio

Original Source:http://theparallelpost.com/narratives/featured-articles/589-kashmir-s-skewed-sex-ratio.html

The 2011 Census data on sex ratio and especially the child sex ratio in Jammu and Kashmir showed a marked decline. The figures have been contested by the government as well as academics but the moot question remains whether girls are being silently killed in J&K. There is also a larger question of whether the reflection of changing social mores in Kashmiri society is leading to social evils, as some sociologists believe.

The 2011 data showed that the sex ratio in Jammu and Kashmir is 883 per 1000 males and has decreased since 2001 when it was 900 per 1000 males. The child sex ratio saw a sharp fall from 964 girls per 1000 boys in the 2001 Census to 862 girls per 1000 boys in the 2011 Census. While the state government repudiated the 2011 Census data, some academics raised doubts over the reliability of the data.

Sociologist Bashir Ahmed Dabla has raised doubts about the scientific methodology. “As per population trends of J&K, there has been an increase in the male and female population but the data does not reflect that trend.” Dr Dabla, head of department of Sociology at the University of Kashmir, says, “Any study will reflect population trends. However the census figures for J&K do not reflect the population trends.” Dr Dabla says in 1991, the state government had carried out its own census in three districts of Kashmir which showed a 2-3% difference from the official figures. He argues that given the conflict situation in Kashmir, data cannot be reliably collected. 

However Peerzada Mohammed Amin, head of department of Social Work at the University of Kashmir, says changes taking place in Kashmiri society are largely responsible for the skewed sex ratio. Dr Amin blames the increasing grip of materialism on Kashmiri society and loosening of religious and cultural norms. “The institution of marriage and family are losing efficacy. Problems like dowry and dowry deaths, divorces, extra-marital affairs are on the rise,” he says.

“Marriage in Kashmir has become a costly affair, it is a status symbol and people are forced to spend lavishly and even take loans. Added to this, waywardness and permissiveness in society are growing and in these circumstances, parents think it is better not to keep a girl child,” he contends.

Dr Gul Afroz, assistant professor at the Central University’s Law Department agrees that changing social norms are putting pressure in the societal fabric. “We can believe that the data is manipulated but we cannot wish away the reality that female foeticide is happening. We are silently killing our girls.” As part of her research in 2007, Dr Afroz tracked 100 pregnant women to asses if the scourge of female foeticide was prevalent.

“I found that women were going in for sex determination tests and abortions. Nurses and ultrasound technologists would do abortions of girls who got pregnant out of marriage but also for those who wanted to abort a girl foetus.” Dr Afroz says poverty or illiteracy are not the reasons for foeticide. “Even the rich and educated are getting sex selective abortions done. I found that insecurity about safety of girls and concerns about putting together a hefty dowry for them have a role to play.”

 With the state government coming in for flak, it set up a Task Force to study reasons for the decline in the sex ratio. Officials blamed social stigma about girl child, paternal lineage, poverty and illiteracy as main cause for the decline. In October 2013, the government said in the state assembly that during 2013-14, the child sex ratio in the Jammu division had improved to 908 and in Kashmir division to 967. 

Kishtwar: What lies beneath Communal Violence

Source: http://www.claws.in/Kishtwar-Riots-What-lies-beneath-Communal-Violence-Pratibha-Singh.html

Peace in Jammu and Kashmir is fragile and a small incident could well turn into a major conflagration. The violence that suddenly erupted in Kishtwar during Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations on 9 August and soon took communal overtones is testimony to the brittle nature of peace that prevails in these areas. The violence unleashed in Kishtwar soon spilled over to the neighbouring districts of Udhampur, Samba, Kathua, Reasi, Rajourie and Doda. Curfew imposed in Kishtwar following the violence continued for 12 days, until lifted on 21 August 2013.

What caused the violence? As per local media reports, a group of villagers from Hullar, raising anti-India slogans, were going to the Eidgah to join Eid parayers at the Chowgan ground. This group got into an altercation with a few youth from the other community at Kuleed. At this time, some police personnel, said to be Personnel Security Officers (PSOs) of a local leader, opened fire in air. They were allegedly joined by some Village Defence Committee (VDC) members, who opened fire from their houses. The government version of the events stated, “Some anti-social elements picked up a fight in Kishtwar which turned violent and caused further disturbance to the large gathering on the occasion of Eid festival. As a result of rumour mongering the incident spread to other parts of the city where anti-social elements looted shops and indulged in arson”[1]. The tensions were also heightened if not entirely induced by the killing of five Indian soldiers in cross LoC firing.

Though incidents of violence continue to occur sporadically, it must not be forgotten that Jammu and Kashmir has a rich history of peaceful coexistence between diverse religious communities and ethnic groups. There is no historical basis for animosity between different sections of society, which therefore lends credence to the view that violence is more often than not provoked. To that extent, the threat lies within. Two causative factors merit consideration. First, there are vested political interests who want to perpetuate the tension and chaos in the region. Second, the peace process in J&K cannot be achieved without addressing the intrastate dimensions of the conflict. Jammu and Ladakh do not necessarily identify with the Kashmir nationalism. The latter has its roots in the Praja Parishad Agitation of 1953, which exemplifies the intra state differences that exist within J&K and are often used as a tool by politicians to divide people on communal lines.

Sheikh Abdullah, when elected as the leader of the State Assembly in 1951 launched the ‘New Kashmir Manifesto’, which advocated agrarian reforms, women’s empowerment and employment. This found resonance amongst the progressive elements of Kashmir. However, his unwillingness to ratify the Delhi agreement of 1951 caused unease in the Centre about the regime it had set up in Srinagar. Though the National Conference made secular claims, its policies aimed to secure Muslim votes in the valley of Kashmir. This struck a negative chord amongst the majority Hindu population in Jammu that found itself at the receiving end of these policies as well as an unfamiliar repression. Thereafter, the Hindu majority joined the violent agitation launched by local Praja Parishad Party and the newly formed Jan Sangh (presided over by Dr. Shyam Prasad Mookerjee) against Sheikh Abdullah. They campaigned for revoking the special status accorded to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and demanded its total accession to India. The slogan, “Ek Desh mein do Nishan, Ek Desh mein do Vidhan, Ek Desh mein do Pradhan - Nahin Chalenge, Nahin Chalenge”[2] echoed in the Jammu region.

Ram Chandra Guha, in his book “India after Gandhi” mentioned that, “The popular movement led by Dr. Mukherjee planted the seed of independence in Sheikh Abdullah’s mind; the outcry following his death only seems to have nurtured it”. Abdullah assumed that he could seek American help to carve out an independent nation of Kashmir, something like the “Switzerland of the East”. The unfortunate death of Dr. Shyam Prasad Mukherjee sparked an anti Nehru (who for a long time was indifferent to the chaos in the state)[3] and most importantly an anti Abdullah sentiment across Jammu. Consequently, in 1953 Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed replaced Sheikh Abdullah as the Prime Minister of J&K. He adopted a constitution without any reference to referendum and pushed forward the integration of J&K within India. This incident sowed seeds of factionalism between the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the effect of which exists till date.

Amarnath Land Row of 2008

In 2008, the Centre and the State Government in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon a land transfer of 99 acres to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board to construct shelters for Hindu pilgrims in the Kashmir Valley. This sparked a strong reaction in the Kashmir Valley forcing revocation of the proposal. Consequently, protests erupted in Jammu where Hindus and Muslims joined hands against the appeasement of Kashmiris and the fear of political marginalisation. The incident acquired a political tone when fresh elections were declared to be held in J&K later in the year with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad , Bajrang Dal and Bhartiya Janta Party joining the agitation. The agitation fetched votes for BJP, which increased its seat share to 11 from the earlier eight seats held in Jammu. The National Conference and Congress won the election and came to power.

Mehbooba Mufti (President-PDP) while representing the perspective of people in Kashmir said, “People have seen that New Delhi succumbs to communal forces and passes unilateral orders in Kashmir. Kashmiris feel totally alienated and think the Government in Delhi is ready to bend backwards to satisfy the communal forces.” The regional tensions have continued ever since and have made the Kashmir problem intractable.

To give a communal colour to the Kishtwar violence would be a blunder as this area has historically been free from communal violence. However, its proximity to Kashmir is what makes it a “fertile ground” for Kashmiri separatists and their rivals to widen the communal divide. Kishtwar  has a Muslim to Hindu population of 60:40[4] where both the communities have been known to have lived peacefully before the advent of militancy and Village Defence Committees[5]  in the area. Kashmiri nationalism has made no inroads into Jammu and Ladakh. While Kashmiris state that they are being given step motherly treatment by the Centre, people in Jammu and Ladakh feel that they are given a step motherly treatment because the Kashmiris dominate the socio-political set up of the state. Muslims in Jammu and Ladakh area also do not identify with the political aspirations of Kashmiris.[6]

In addition, the national and local media is often instrumental in widening the gulf and fanning tension between the two communities. During the Kishtwar riots, people also engaged in a virtual war over social media websites and this too contributed to the spread of violence. The social media is a powerful tool today and efforts need to be made to spread truth and stop rumour mongering through this all-pervasive means of information sharing.

The situation in Jammu and Kashmir is volatile and politicians often play the communal card in an attempt to divert the attention from the mal-administration that has plagued the region for several years. The developmental issues are hardly addressed. Kishtwar has a literacy rate of seventy percent but is still counted amongst the most under developed districts in the region. It makes news only for the wrong reasons .Villages near the LoC region are seldom highlighted in the media except for ceasefire violation or a war like situation. Mohar Ban, a village near Poonch district comprising of three hundred and fifty destitute is enveloped in darkness during the night. The State had received Rs eight hundred and twenty crore under  Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyuktikaran Yojana  through which thirty lakh houses had to be illuminated. After spending sixty percent of the amount, only twenty nine thousand seven hundred and forty two villages have received electricity. Several villages share the same story as Mohar Ban.

The health infrastructure in the region also represents a dismal picture. Given the absence of opportunities to support themselves and several years of political turmoil a new trend is emerging in Kashmir where young, educated and disillusioned people from the Valley are being drawn towards militancy.“We are not scared of death, we are just scared of detention of our families”, said Shakeel Ahmed , a 24 year old pharmaceutical representative, before returning to throw stones at the police. “The level of militancy is low now, but it will rise, God willing”.[7] This phenomenon signals towards a lurking shadow of militancy beneath the declining trend in insurgency in the past few years

Elections are scheduled in the State in 2014. In their, urge to gain power, some political parties might go to any extent to sow seeds of violence and communalism in the fragile State. However, one can only hope that good sense will prevail in the region and welfare of the common man would be given top most priority. Few recommendations that merit consideration are as under: -

• Intra State difference is the core issue, which often stalls the peace process in J&K. A dialogue amongst all the factions including the Central and the State Government is not only necessary but also vital.
• National and local media should be instrumental in providing an analytical and unbiased overview of such events in future, especially the ones potent of creating communal rifts.
• Education, employment, health and other development concerns should be given the top most priority. These channels have the potential to mitigate conflict.

References:

-Burke Jason, “Kashmir Conflict ebbs as a new wave of militant emerges”, The Guardian, August 2013

-Guha Ramchandra , “ A Fateful Arrest”, The Hindu, August 2008

-Iqbal Fida, “Election 2014”, Greater Kashmir, May 2013

-Wani Riyaz, “What Pushed Kishtwar over the Edge”, Tehelka, August 2013

-Kandhari Mohit, “Kishtwar Mob Turns Riot”,The Pioneer, August 2013

-Puri Balraj, “The RSS Sabotage”,The Hindu, July 2001

-Puri Luv, “Gujjar Muslims flay remarks of separatists”, The Hindu, August 2008

-Kashmir, Editorial, The Economic Weekly,Vol VI-No 7,February 1954

-Swarup Bhagwat, “Abdullah imprisoned those, who advocated integration”,an interviewhttp://www.drsyamaprasadmookerjee.com/contemporary-study-in-english/abdullah-imprisoned-those/abdullah-imprisoned-those.pdf

-Jameel Yusuf, “Surviving in the Dark ages”,Kashmir Times, August 2013

-Wani Danish, “Sheikh Abdullah and the World’s Largest Democracy: The First Betrayal”,India resists, February 2013

-Amarnath Agitation http://dogra123.webs.com/amarnathagitation.htm

-Government should have anticipated Kishtwar Violence: Ellora Puri, Business Standard, August 2013

-Mattoo Amitabh, “Masked Men of Kishtwar”,The Indian Express, August 2013

-Chibber Manish, Sharma Arun, “Beneath the communal violence in Kishwar lies politics and creeping shadow of militancy”,The Indian Express, August 2013

-Mishra Abhinanadan,Noor-Ul-Qamran, & Das Purba, “Village Defence Committes will be probed in Kishtwar”, The Sunday Guardian, August 2013

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[1] Maneesh Chhibber and Arun Sharma,  ‘Beneath the communal violence in Kishtwar lies politics and creeping shadow of militancy’, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/beneath-the-communal-violence-in-kishtwar-lies-politics-and-creeping-shadow-of-militancy/1156545/

[2] The English translation is ‘Two flags, Two Constitutions and Two Presidents shall not be permitted in a single country’.

[3] Writing to his friend and colleague C. Rajagopalachari on the last day of July, 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru observed that “the internal situation in Kashmir’ was “progressively deteriorating”. This was caused, in the first instance, “by the wholly misconceived Praja Parishad and Jan Sangh agitation, which produced strong reactions in the Kashmir valley”. This was bad enough; worse still was the fact that Sheikh Abdullah, while retaining his position as Prime Minister of the State, had begun “functioning as the leader of the opposition”.http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/08/03/stories/2008080350130300.htm

[4] Sectarian politics fuelled Kishtwar riots http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sectarian-politics-fuelled-kishtwar-riot/article5016380.ece?homepage=true

[5] Village Defence Committees will be probed in Kishtwar  http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/village-defence-committees-will-be-probed-in-kishtwar

[6] Haji Mohammed Qasim who had led the first organised civilian revolt against militants in Poonch district said, “We are touring various parts and trying to spread our message of secularism. Ethnically and linguistically we are closer to our Hindu brothers of Jammu. We cannot shun these ties and this is the message we have. We do not accept this argument that we want to separate from Jammu Hindus. This is a relationship of centuries and this cannot be severed

http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/08/stories/2008080861641100.htm

[7] Kashmir Conflict ebbs as a new wave of militant emergeshttp://www.theguardian.com/w

Mountains Resonate with Change

Original Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/mountains-resonate-with-change/article4994027.ece

How Kashmiri women have striven for economic freedom

BREAKING FREE:Kashmiri women expand their opportunities.PHOTO: SANA ALTAF/ WFS.

Naqshib Mushtaq, 22, was barely 19 when she landed her first job. She worked as a salesgirl at a local chemist shop for three years until she completed her graduation in the Arts from the University of Kashmir. Once she graduated, she took up a job with a private telecom company. However , Mushtaq's professional ambitions did not end there. She is planning to enroll for a Masters in Business Administration, which she feels will enable her to fulfill her ultimate dream of setting up her very own business.

"I have been working in order to support my education since my father's income was not sufficient to take care of all the needs of our large family. Thankfully, now I am able to save some money for the family, too," says Mushtaq.

Nargis Sofi, 25, from Srinagar, tries to save as much money as possible so that later she is able to contribute to future expenses. Many Kashmiri families get into debt during marriages, and Nargis wants to avoid such pitfalls. This young woman is currently working in a call centre and is simultaneously pursuing a Master’s degree is Education through distance learning. "Although my family's financial status is what you could call ‘decent’, I never wanted to be a burden on my parents, which is why I decided to start earning on my own. I would like to have saved enough in a few years’ time to be able to pay for future eventualities, like my own wedding," says a confident Nargis.

Mushtaq and Nargis represent the swiftly changing face of the Kashmiri woman, indicative of the steady transformation of the society itself. There was a time when majority of women in the region – educated or not – could not consider making a living for themselves outside their homes. Only women from a small sliver of the educated elite could benefit from the opportunities that came their way, whether in terms of education or employment. But today , many women who are making it into professional arenas could just as easily be from the lower middle classes, as they would from the topmost quintile.

So what changed? Today , not only are young girls being encouraged to study, but the career opportunities before them have expanded considerably. In addition to jobs in the formal sector, in educational institutions, or in the administration; women have started opting for careers as sales personnel or as call centre operators – jobs that were hitherto dominated by men.

Migrating to other states for education or a lucrative job prospect has also become quite common. Take Ayesha Ahmad for instance, who has been living alone in Delhi for the past five years, far from her home in the Baramullah district of Kashmir. She moved to the national capital so that she could pursue a course in Mass Communications and is now working as a Public Relations Officer in a private firm. In her free time, she takes tuition classes.

"Ever since I’ve come here, I haven't taken a rupee from my father. I have learnt to struggle and be strong," says the young professional, who lost her mother at the age of four. Ayesha is now aiming to do a doctorate from the US.

As women are breaking free from the trajectories set by the traditionally defined roles of domesticity, they are in the process also changing society. Many women-headed establishments have opened up in the Valley, ranging from boutiques and beauty salons to restaurants. Take Nazish Akram, 30. After completing a Master's degree in English, she found it difficult to land a suitable job, so she decided to set up her own boutique. Says Nazish, “I am glad I made this choice. It has given me a great feeling of independence.”

But not everyone is as fortunate as Nazish. Ambreen Sultan had to face a lot of family displeasure, even condemnation, when she first spoke of starting her own beauty salon. It took her months to convince her parents that she was doing the right thing. "My parents said the beauty business does not fit into our culture and tried to dissuade me. But for months on end I was doggedly after them, pleading with them to change their mind. Finally they did”. Ambreen’s salon turned out to be very popular.

Though women still face a lot of opposition and have to think a hundred times before they can follow a career of their choice, there is no doubt that times are indeed changing for the career-oriented women of the Kashmir Valley

(Names of some women have been changed on request.)

(Women's Feature Service)

Using Social Media to calm tensions in Kashmir

Original Source:http://www.peacedirect.org/using-social-media-to-calm-tensions-in-kashmir/

One morning last February, Kashmiri peacebuilder Ashima Kaul awoke to news that would send the province into turmoil. Mohammad Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri militant, had been sentenced to death in Delhi for his role in the attack on the Indian Parliament back in 2001. On the streets of Kashmir, people were already demonstrating in his favour. Messages glorifying his death sprang up on social network sites. The Government of Jammu and Kashmir had imposed a curfew and locked down public areas. Newspapers were banned for a time and internet services were blocked. “People were literally cut off from all communication. They had no ways or means to express themselves,” says Ashima.

Her organisation, Yakjah, which means ‘together’ in Kashmiri, have worked in Kashmir for 11 years to stop violence and save lives. Afzal Guru’s hanging was a set back to the process of peacebuilding. It had severely impacted the psyche of the people, especially Yakjah youth based in the Kashmir Valley. Yakjah had to deal with the huge problem of angry protests involving hundreds of young people.

The hanging of Azfal Guru unleashed anger, shock and social network outrage. The fact that he had been executed hurriedly and without warning provoked people in the Valley to declare him a martyr. He became the face of a ‘resistance movement’. Social network sites became ablaze with stories and slogans of his martyrdom. The government’s response fuelled this fire further.

What followed was to rock the Kashmir Valley and present Yakjah with a real challenge. Curfews, shutdowns and protests were spreading and youths were being killed in gunfire. Tensions were increased by the unexplained death of a young Kashmiri man, who protestors suspected had been murdered by their political opponents. Rumours started to circulate. Meanwhile a driver who had ignored strike calls was pelted with stones and killed.

Then in March a suicide attack killed five unarmed police, whose weapons had been withdrawn by the authorities to avoid further violence. On national television the police openly accused the government of making them vulnerable to attack.

In a bid to calm tensions, Yakjah reached out to young people with the best tool they had – social network sites. They have a Facebook page where members interact and share their views. It was through this space that they reached out to young people to persuade them towards peace. “If social network sites can be used for inflaming passions,” explains Ashima, “they can also be used for promoting rationality and peace.” While stories of Azfal Guru’s martyrdom and aggressive posts about execution and revenge dominated Facebook, Yakjah sent out alternative messages of peace.

They immediately faced the problem of followers who wanted to celebrate Azfal Guru as a martyr. But as a neutral peacebuilding organisation, they refused to take sides or politicise the dead.

Yakjah’s group had a direct impact on one young member of the organisation. He had posted a slogan glorifying Azfal Guru, which Yakjah could not approve. This created a dilemma, because the student wrote that if his post was not valued, he would leave the group. This move would remove him from their influence and heighten his susceptibility to engage in violence and radicalisation. Ashima decided to persuade him of his valued place in Yakjah as a volunteer for peacebuilding. As a consequence, the boy returned to the group, even sharing his poetry. He is now being encouraged to use his talent to write peace poems.

Yakjah have shown how, in times of extreme chaos, social media and technology can be used to bring people together. In the emotional disorder of Kashmir, they saved one young person who could easily have been influenced by the extremism on other social network sites. Instead, he emerged stronger and more determined to fight for peace. Yakjah proves that, together, people can do more for peace.

Women Inspire as Leaders

 Original Source: http://charkha.org/newsletter/wileader.html

Researcher- Hansa Rochlani


In Jammu and Kashmir where women have been worst victims of 17 years of insurgency, over 1400 dead, the women participation in political process has been a rarity and almost negligible.
In recent times, some women indeed have entered political theatre - mainstream as well as separatist, though it has been a slow and steady process.

The state, which till the year 2004 has had sent only two women to Indian Parliament, some young names like Mehbooba Mufti, Sakina Itoo, Kanta Andotra besides some senior names include Suman Bhagat, Zubeda Salaria and others such as Khemlata Wakhloo, Shanti Devi and Vimla Luthra have made forays into Parliament and state Assembly either through elections or through nominations.

Barring few, majority have been in political life because of family hierarchy and compulsions in particular that of the husband or father.

Though in the past few decades, political and social circumstances have restricted Kashmiri women’s political participation, 50 years ago Kashmir’s political scenario was more equitably divided between the sexes. There were women like Begum Akbar Jehan, wife of late Sheikh Abdullah, Zenaib Begum, sister of former chief minister, Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq, Zoona, a milkmaid by profession and Mahumda Ali, who played significant role in the Quit Kashmir Movement of 1946.

Begum Akbar Jehan, popularly known as Madre-Meherban was the first women from state to win any political election in state. In her maiden attempt, she won Srinagar Parliamentary seat in 1977 defeating her nearest candidate by a margin of over 100,000 votes.

As a 15-year-old daughter of a rich European businessman, Akbar Jehan in 1933 fell in love with late Sheikh Abdullah, then a schoolteacher in Kashmir. Soon after the marriage, her husband begun spending long stints in jail, and circumstances forced her into politics.

And on several occasions, she took over the reins of her husband’s party keeping the flag high to keep the anti-Maharaja movement alive in Kashmir after the arrest of her husband and other senior politicians.

She again made to Lok Sabha in 1984, however this time from Anantnag seat with a margin of over one-lakh votes. She died at age of 84 in 2002.

The second woman who made to Parliament had been Rani Parvati Devi Wangmo, queen of Buddhist land, Ladakh.

Interestingly, 1996 perhaps has been only year when maximum number of five women candidates contested state Assembly elections. Two women who made debutant entry into state Assembly were Mehbooba Mufti and Sakina Itoo.

Mehbooba Mufti’s political career initially came out of family compulsions since her only brother has shown disinterest to be political heir apparent of his father, the former Indian Home Minister, Mufti Mohd Sayeed in V.P Singh government.

About two decades back, Mehbooba had ended her marriage to a cousin and chose to be single mother to bring up her two daughters in Delhi. In 1996, she was asked to contest state elections. Her father’s Mufti Mohd Sayeed’s political career was in doldrums, he needed family support and chose his daughter, who obliged.

Mehbooba entered politics on a Congress ticket in the 1996 assembly elections. But later, she resigned and formed a regional party People’s Democratic Party (PDP), laying strong foundation for the party’s victory in 2002 state elections.

Having weathered several political and personal storms, Mehbooba (48), mother of two teenage daughters is today icon for many young Kashmiri women. She perhaps is one among few women who have individual political footing. She is also President of PDP, and changed the Kashmiris perception towards politics. After her was re-elected in 2002 in state Assembly, Mehbooba was chosen as PDP candidate for 2004 Parliament elections and she won earning the rare credit of the youngest and third women politician to achieve this ranking.

The other woman to follow the suit is Sakina Itto, the youngest of whole lot of women politicians, in her late thirties. Her political career also began out of family compulsions.

Unlike her senior counter, Mehbooba Mufti, Sakina’s tryst with politics followed a family tragedy. Militants had gunned down her father Wali Mohammad Ittoo, a former Assembly Speaker and a senior NC leader in 1994.

A green horn in politics, Ms. Ittoo in her mid twenties had to quit her medical studies mid-way to take over her father’s mission. In 1996, she too managed a maiden victory from her father’s constituency, Noorabad in Assembly elections. She also became the only woman Minister in the then Farooq Abdullah-led Government holding various positions and portfolios.

However, she lost the Assembly election in 2002, there have been several assassination attempts on her and she has had a close shave with death.

Recalling her trauma of attacks, she puts a bold face and says, “Am preparing for next elections. Every time I am attacked, it gives me new dimension of strength. “ I will continue to serve my people as long as God wishes, “she adds.
In the current 89-member state assembly, there are just three women members of whom only one, Kanta Andotra of the Congress, is an elected legislator. The two others, Khem Lata Vakhloo and Shanti Devi, are nominated members.

Kanta Andotra, too share a similar story that of her two previous counterparts. She made her political debut after her husband Choudhary Lal Singh got elected to Parliament in 2004. She filled in to contest the vacated seat of her husband to keep everything in family and she won.
Her political grooming she said begun in early days when she accompanied her husband in political meetings and further down the line, she begun addressing solo political rallies on her husband’s behalf.

“I was totally devoted mother and house wife and had no connection with politics except that I assisted my husband when he asked for my support especially to relate to women masses. Probably that stint of mine helped me and today, I am comfortable with my political role in state Assembly as well among people of my constituency.

Though she proudly gives all credit of her political career to her husband, whom she call her guru, she has clear political goals and set agenda of developmental works, she wants for people in her constituency and if one believes some male politicians, they say, she means business and knows her job very well.

The senior like Suman Bhagat who had been health minister in Mufti Mohd Sayeed government too has a similar history, it was her father-in-law who paved way for her entry into politics.

Not but least, one has to mention Asiya Andrabi, the chief of Kashmiri women separatist group, Dukhtarayan Millat (daughters of faith) despite the fact one agrees to their form of politics or not. The lady who once cherished dreams to study science outside Kashmir and had liberal thoughts over the past 17 years has been propagating separatist politics and also in moral policing. Despite her criticism, she as a single mother of a son, her husband a militant languishing in prison is spearheading her kind of politics.

Though women of the state have still long way to cover in politics, the impressive stories of these women politicians are already showing an enduring influence on common women, a sizeable numbers have made foray as municipal councilors and panches and Sarpanches.

Nirmala Deshpande: An Icon

Original Source: http://www.1000peacewomen.org/eng/friedensfrauen_biographien_gefunden.php?WomenID=1297

Researcher- Hansa Rochlani

Nirmala is a pioneer of peace work, especially in terms of mobilizing women and girls to engage in establishing pacifism-and the subcontinent is the net gainer.

Dr. Nirmala Deshpande (born on 17 October 1929) is the quiet, reflective face of Gandhianism in a world torn asunder by strife and communal and racial hatred. To the many people whose lives she’s touched, Nirmala is known as just didi (elder sister).
She was born to P Y Deshpande and Vimlabhai Deshpande in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Her father, a Member of Parliament, brought her up in an open and free environment, encouraging her to take up higher studies. Nirmala did her Masters in political science, and then worked as a lecturer at Morris College, Nagpur.
In 1952, Nirmala joined Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Yatra, walking more than 25,000 miles. The movement, which propagated the ideal of a nonviolent revolution, involved activists going to different parts of India asking for gifts of land, which were then distributed to landless agricultural laborers. Landholders, big and small, gave more than four million acres to the movement. This selflessness, one of the shining victories of Gandhian ideology, is enshrined in the Akhil Bharat Rachanatmak Samaj (ABRS), which Nirmala founded. The Samaj has thousands of dedicated social activists committed to peace and nonviolence working in various states under Nirmala’s leadership.
She is also a pioneer of peace work, especially in terms of mobilizing women and girls to engage in establishing a workable pacifism. In militancy-ridden Punjab in the 1980s, she organized massive peace marches. Peace activists from all over India spread out to every nook and corner of Punjab. Crossing dangerous terrain, Nirmala would travel alone in a jeep all over the state.
During the militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, Nirmala enlisted a few outsiders and many local friends to slog continuously towards peace and communal harmony. When she appealed for the discarding of guns and the adoption of peaceful means, many young men and women, from all communities, joined her movement.
Over the past two decades, communal conflicts and the spread of communal hatred has become ruthlessly rampant, causing the ABRS organized interfaith prayers, meets, and conferences. Nirmala was also active in the aftermath of the Gujarat carnage: among other things, she organized continuous protest marches in Delhi. Then, she and some friends set up forums to fight communalism and help the embattled secular forces--the Sanjhi Virasat (a forum of writers and artistes); the Adhyatma Jagaran Manch (with Swami Agnivesh and Rev Walson Thampu to use spirituality to counter the misuse of religion); and the Peoples Integration Council (to mobilize all sections of society for national integration and communal harmony).
Both the ABRS and the Association of Peoples of Asia have been working to bring rapprochement between India and Pakistan. Nirmala organized the Indo-Pak Amity Meet in Delhi in 1996, which was attended by academics, artists, social activists, and journalists from both nations; she led the Indian delegation to Karachi in 1997 for a similar meet. In 1999, she again led the Indian delegation to the Pakistan Peace Conference, organized by the Pakistan Peace Coalition. In 2000, she led a women’s Bus for Peace from Delhi to Lahore. As founder-chairperson of the Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia, she also organized a similar women’s Bus for Peace from Lahore back to Delhi.
Her Indo-Pak Soldiers’ Initiative for Peace in India, and its counterpart in Pakistan, is a strangely emotive initiative. When she led a delegation of the India chapter of the organization to Pakistan in 2001, those who had pitted themselves against each other in three wars embraced and pledged to work for peace. It is not a sight that can leave any eyes dry on the subcontinent.
Nirmala has also worked for the cause of Tibet through friendship associations, led a satyagraha on the Indo-Tibet border in 1997, and organized and participated in conferences, marches, and seminars. She associates closely with the Dalai Lama. She is also helping Myanmarese refugees, and several people close to Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. She has also attended the Global Assembly of the United Religions Initiative 2002 at Rio de Janeiro as an Indian delegate, and spoke on Gandhi.
At the end, Gandhi’s vision is what her life boils down to.

Nirmala Deshpande is the quiet face of Gandhianism in a world bloodied by strife and communal hatred. To the many people whose lives she has touched, Nirmala is known as didi (elder sister). Steadfast in her belief in Gandhianism, Nirmala joined the Bhoodan Yatra in 1952, walking more than 25,000 miles asking for gifts of land to distribute to landless peasants. To enshrine the spirit of the movement, she set up the Akhil Bharat Rachanatmak Samaj, which has thousands of dedicated activists committed to peace and nonviolence.
Nirmala is a pioneer of peace work, especially in terms of mobilizing women and girls to engage in establishing pacifism. Her mass mobilizations in Punjab during the 1980s, and in the conflict-ridden state of Jammu and Kashmir, are indicators. During the 2002 Gujarat riots, Nirmala and some friends formed various forums to fight communalism and help secular forces-the Sanjhi Virasat (a forum of writers and artists); the Adhyatma Jagaran Manch (with Swami Agnivesh and Reverend Valson Thampu, the collective voice of the opressed and the poor in India, to use spirituality to counter the misuse of religion); and the Peoples' Integration Council (to mobilize all sections of society for national integration and communal harmony).
Nirmala has also been active in Track II initiatives to bring peace with Pakistan. She organized the Indo-Pak Amity Meet in Delhi in 1996, and a women's bus for peace from Delhi to Lahore. She also founded the Women's Initiative for Peace in South Asia. Her Indo-Pak Soldiers' Initiative for Peace in India, and its counterpart in Pakistan, is a strangely emotive initiative-those who fought each other in three wars were embracing one another and pledging to work for peace. It is not a sight that can leave any eyes dry on the subcontinent.

During the course of India's struggle for freedom, Gandhi had propagated his unique concept of a "peaceful revolution". He also advocated the participation of women in social and political life. Part of that message has come down the dusty road of history along with his women followers.

Women as Peace Makers: Contributing to Kashmir Dialogue

Original Source: 
http://charkha.org/newsletter/wckdialogue.html



Before the partition of the country in 1947, Kashmiri women had little social role to play. While those Kashmiri women belonging to the aristocratic families would remain confined to their homes only, the rural Kashmiri women would participate in almost every domestic and agricultural chore right from working in the fields, harvesting of the paddy etc with their men. But even this active economic role did not give them complete economic independence and higher social status as it was predominately a patriarchal society. They always remained under-represented in political and decision-making positions; hence there could not be a perpetuation of policies and practices that could serve the needs of women.

After independence, Kashmiri women got a boost when reforms took place in various fields including the field of education which brought Kashmir women out of the shackles. Encouraged and motivated by all the respective state governments, many Kashmiri women entered jobs in various fields in the past 60 years of Indian independence.

But even in these past six decades, a strong women’s political activism is still not visible on part of Kashmir’s women. Women in Valley are not only under represented in political and social life, but the conservative Kashmiri society is the main barrier and constraint in their participation.

Ironical is the fact that in the 89-member state assembly, there are just three women members. While Kanta Andotra of the Congress is an elected legislator, she is in politics by virtue of being the wife of Congress Member Parliament Lal Singh who vacated his seat for his wife when he won the parliamentary elections. The other two, Khem Lata Vakhloo and Shanti Devi, are nominated members.

As Professor Hari Om, a former Head of history department, University of Jammu and member Indian Council for Historical research (ICHR) puts it, “The only visible face in Kashmir politics has been that of Begun Sheikh Abdullah, wife of Sheikh Abdullah who remained a Member Parliament twice, but that too by virtue of being the Sheikh’s wife. And now Mehbooba Mufti, MP, president of Peoples Democratic Party and the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Sayeed.” Prof Hari Om also believes that all of these handful of women have been able to carve some political space only because of their political family background.

Political patronage or background may be alright but what the Kashmiri women have witnessed in the past 17 years of violence in Valley is something different. They have not only lived through political turbulence but also negotiated and renegotiated their roles in the conflict that also does not remain static but keeps on changing.

In these past few years, Kashmir women donned a new role when they came out of their houses to work in the absence of their men folk in the family who become prey to the mindless violence, thus breaking the stereotypes related to women, especially in the background that they had no work experience and were forced to support their families and thus take over the role of a head of the family.

This clearly gives us an insight into the fact that they aren’t the passive recipients of conflict as most of the agencies see them but have an inborn, innate resilience, the will to survive the most challenging situations.

But then has anyone pondered over the fact that why women voices from Jammu and Kashmir have been conspicuous only by their absence in the dialogic processes that are now unfolding in the terrorism-hit state? Even none of the Kashmiri women, except the high profile president of People’s Democratic Party Ms. Mehbooba Mufti, was part of Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh’s five working groups on Kashmir which were set up after second Round Table Conference on Kashmir. Not a single Kashmiri woman from the state was included in the conference or in the five working groups.

Does it also mean that women are no stake holders to the peace in Jammu and Kashmir?

Ask Hameeda Nayeem, who teaches English at Kashmir University and is a founder-member of the Women Waging Peace, an initiative of Harvard University’s Kennedy School and she responds: “Ironically, in our society, there has been a cosmetic empowerment of the women. Ours is a very parochial society. Even if we assume women have a greater role, we need to know who are they representing? Only the daughters of politicians contest polls, that too if there are no sons to carry forward the legacy,” adds Prof Nayeem, whose passport has been confiscated by the Union government for her activism.

Women in Kashmir are greatly bothered by the non-representation of women at various intra-state dialogue processes too. Mrs Seema Khajooria Shekhar, Additional Advocate General, J & K ( who incidentally is the first women AAG in the history of Jammu and Kashmir) strongly believes that the absence of women in these working groups is both unacceptable and short-sighted, especially as the women and children are the worst affected by the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir.

”Steps should be immediately taken to address this serious gap,” she says suggesting women of Jammu and Kashmir should throw their weight behind any initiative across the LoC that promotes better people to people interaction rather than restricting themselves to gender specific initiatives.

Women who have working at the grassroots believe that women’s equal participation in political life, as voters, candidates and members of electoral committees, could play a crucial role in the advancement of women and the reconstruction of violence–ridden society.

Professor Rita Jitendra, renowned women rights activist who was also member of Jammu and Kashmir State Women’s Commission believes that though women haven’t come forward in political sphere in the real sense, yet for the first time in past 27 years in the troubled history of the state, the local bodies (Civic) polls held in Jammu and Kashmir in February-March 2005, have shown given us enough proof of women activism.

”What else you require? Involve women in all decision making levels as she understands about peace much better than anyone else,” she advocates adding never before in the troubled history of Jammu and Kashmir, women came forward and participated in the elections which were held after a long gap of 27 years, even in troubled valley as the contesters. If women can come out in huge numbers desisting terrorist threats, why cannot they be included in the peace negotiations, argues adds Professor Jitendra adding after all, nobody can understand the meaning of word ‘peace’ better than a woman who has lost her husband, son, brother and father in the past 17 years.

In the first civic polls in which women participated, a total of 934 women contested the elections, indeed a significant number keeping in the fact that women never tried to break the stereotypes and entered politics. Of these, 270 women ultimately made it to the municipal council in 2005 and committees through out the state.

What surprised the world was the fact that Kashmiri women, despite facing strong barriers at these polls due to coercion by male relatives, threats or intimidation by militant groups contested and women. One sixty one women contested civil polls for Jammu Municipal Corporations, 61 for Srinagar Corporations, 27 for Kupwara, 75 Baramulla, 51 Anantnag, nine Pulwama, 108 Kathua, 22 Budgam, 89 Udhampur, 66 Doda , 19 Poonch and 36 Rajouri. At least for the first time in the history of state Kashmir women ultimately got some say in decision making though these civil polls.

”Real progress towards gender equality will be seen when women have more say in the decisions that affect their lives. Even though it could be termed as beginning, these elections gave an opportunity to Kashmiri women to express newly found political impact,” says Professor Rekha Chowdhary, Department of Political Science, Jammu University.

Till now, local women associated politics with fear and violence and saw them as synonymous but when some efforts were made by the government to give them opportunities to strengthen the democracy at grass root level, Kashmiri women, enthusiastically, came forward to contest the polls.

”Give them some space and see how their confidence can do wonders besides inspiring other local women into political activism,” adds Jitendra.

Agreeing no less, Seema Khajooria Shekhar adds that affirmative action for adequate representation of women in the state legislature should be actively encouraged. Jammu and Kashmir, she argues, has a Constitution of its own and Article 370 will give it added leverage in doing so. What the State requires is the political will of the decision makers who are mostly men for women’s equal participation in deciding the political and economic future of Kashmir and a commitment at the governmental and administrative level.

Dr. Sumona Das Gupta, assistant director, Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP), says that a peace process that excludes more than half the population greatly risks the possibility of keeping several creative solutions and options out.

’When we talk about a gender sensitive discourse on Kashmir, we don’t mean to exclude males. It’s about building partnerships between men and women who agree that if conflict affects them differently it’s only natural that they may want to access the peace process differently,’ Gupta adds.

Empowering women would shape the path for peace and reconciliation that would organically grow out of participatory dialogue and lead to peace and development of the state, opine Professor Poonam Dhawan, Director, Centre for Women Studies, University of Jammu adding peace building attempts, in order to promote sustainable peace, need to address and transform structures which not only refer to the system of access and distribution of resources, but also social and political institutions, situations and relationships.

In this process, she feels, principles of democratic participation, human rights and gender equality are crucial elements for the longer-term process of building peace based on social justice and equality for women.

Kashmiri Women yearn for peace, economic stability

Original Source-
 http://beta.dawn.com/news/668162/kashmiri-women-yearn-for-peace-economic-stability-2

Researcher- Hansa Rochlani


The women during a two-day intra-Kashmir conference held at Gulmarg demanded their participation in all the peace-building initiatives and peace negotiations on Kashmir.
They demanded of the governments of India and Pakistan to simplify the procedures of trade, communication and travel across the LoC by opening other trade and travel routes like Kargil-Skardu, Chamb-Bhimbar and Leh-Khaplu.
They said that the ceasefire should be respected with immediate halt to violations. They also demanded resolution of all the outstanding issues like landmine, release and return of stray crossers and urged that all the civilian areas should be de-militarised and the Draconian acts like AFSPA and PSA should be repealed.
They also demanded an end to human rights abuses and violations; women representation in legislative assemblies, councils, local bodies, autonomous and independent state institutions to monitor and report gender-based issues; establishment of legal aid committees and village helpline by the state to immediately address issues of half-widows and sexual assault; coverage of state compensation under civil law; people-friendly police reforms; student and faculty exchange programmes across the LoC; and increase in women’s access to micro-financing schemes.

According to Mrs N Malik, Coordinator of Conference from AJK, the second intra-Kashmir dialogue could not take place in AJK due to strained India-Pakistan relations after the Bombay blasts.  However, after four years, the conference was held at Gulmarg which was jointly organised by the Center for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR) and Women for Peace, an indigenous Srinagar-based NGO with the financial assistance of EU.

The theme of the two-day dialogue was, ‘Women Roles in Society: Issues of Mutual Concern.’ The participants discussed women’s roles in peace-building, policy-making and socio-economic and legal issues in women’s empowerment. The women speakers from both the sides of LOC presented their papers and finally recommendations were finalised by the working groups, says Mrs Mailk.
A delegation of 15 women including educationists, medical practitioners, social workers, lawyers, retired and serving government servants, entrepreneurs, students and housewives from AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan attended the conference. Some 40 participants from all the regions of Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir and Ladak attended the conference.
In 2007, women of AJK representing cross section of the civil society made an informal group and shared mutual concerns over the increasing socio-economic instability, deteriorating economic conditions and atrocities being inflicted upon the women of IHK.

It's a Man's War

Original Source- http://www.littlemag.com/2000/urvashi.htm

Some weeks ago I was at Delhi airport waiting to board a flight to Nepal. Seated next to me in the lounge was a group of soldiers dressed in battle fatigues. Each one wore epaulettes on his shoulders that said simply: INDIA. Both our flights were late and after a while we got talking. Where were they going, I asked them. To Africa, on a peace-keeping mission. One was from Bihar, another from Punjab and a third was from Tamil Nadu. At some point I asked them how they felt about being part of a peace-keeping force. Were they proud to be part of such an ‘honourable’ activity? Did the fact that they were representing India make them in any way feel nationalistic? Did they feel they were doing something to serve the nation? I admit that my questions were loaded. I knew what I wanted to find out. But they replied readily enough. We’re in the kind of job, they said, where you have to follow orders and we’ve been ordered to go, so we are going. They weren’t particularly happy about being sent to Africa. It was the land of ‘habshis’, it didn’t have much to offer, and who knew what fate awaited them there? (The next week I learnt that 500 Indian soldiers were trapped in Sierra Leone and wondered if my airport companions were among them).

One of the three, the man from Punjab, had fought in the Kargil war (1998-99) with Pakistan. "We faced very tough conditions over there," he told me, "but even though we knew we were fighting the enemy, we didn’t really feel any sense of national honour. All we wanted was warm clothes and reasonable food, and some strategising so that we were not turned into guinea pigs for our two governments." Instead, they said, it was their wives who felt more nationalistic back in their villages — their homes were looked upon rather differently because they were homes whose men were out fighting for the country.

As I left to board my flight two seemingly unconnected thoughts passed through my mind: I realised that this was the second or third time in recent months that I had seen soldiers on their way to or from somewhere. They were getting to be a much more familiar sight in our lives than before: evidence of the greater closeness of war and conflict perhaps. I realised too that in the old days we believed that wars and battles were the domain of men. They went out to fight, to conquer or to protect the interests of the nation, and women stayed home, looking after the family, taking care of the home and hearth and occasionally providing backup services for the sick and wounded. This rather simple picture has become much more complex today. Unless they’re really driven by some strong nationalistic feeling – and this is increasingly difficult in this day and age, except in rare cases – men don’t really want to play the role of fighting for the motherland. And women are much more deeply implicated in wars and political conflicts than just as wives and mothers and nurturers of the sick and wounded.

It was what the soldiers at the airport said about their wives that set me thinking about this. Until now, the narratives of war and conflict we have had construct all women as innocent civilians and all men as combatants, with little exception. And yet, as we see all around us today, between these two binaries lies a whole complex reality, which shows how women and men are touched by war and conflict in different ways.

We don’t need to look very far to see this: our own, supposedly peaceable country provides enough examples. Traditionally, India has not been seen as a region of conflict, and there is, of course, a fair amount of truth in this for India has not been driven by conflict in the way that Rwanda, Guatemela, Cambodia or Eritrea (to name just a few) have. But you only need to scratch the surface and this façade of peacefulness very quickly disappears. In the last several years we have seen the escalation of different kinds of political conflict all over the country: war at one international border, continuing tension at others, military, ethnic, communal, caste and other sorts of conflicts within; the growth of militancy and sub-nationalist movements, increases in weaponisation, the greater visibility of the armed forces and, most recently, the dangerous posturing over nuclear power. The danger signals are clear to those who care to see.

War and conflict are everywhere: in newspapers and magazines, in films, in shops which sell ‘Kargil suits’ for young boys, in books and essays and even in weddings with thermocol cut-outs celebrating the Kargil victory forming the setting for tent-house marriages and even birthday parties! Not a day passes without reports of insurgency, police ‘encounters’, violations of human rights, abductions and rapes – all in the context of increasing conflict. Films about conflict (e.g. Border) draw huge crowds. Even publishers – usually a bit slow to rise to the occasion – have not lagged behind and there are a number of new books that deal with war and conflict in India in recent years. These are important in what they tell us, and in the possible solutions they suggest. It’s clear that conflicts today are very modern conflicts, fought not only with an arsenal of sophisticated weaponry, but also with words and pictures, using the media, with arguments and discussions. They’re battles over territory, sovereignty, homeland, power and above all, control, not only of resources, but also of that age-old thing, the mind.

These realities emerge very clearly in a recent spate of books on war and conflict. The first of these, Guns and Yellow Roses, has journalists reporting on the Kargil war, and we see here the terrible pointlessness and waste that war brings. In a similar vein, On the Abyss: Pakistan After the Coup, a collection of essays (once again journalistic) examines the recent past and the possible future of Pakistan, with one essay making a plea for India to be more tolerant because of its larger size and strength. Then there is Raj Chengappa’s book, mysteriously called Weapons of Peace in which he recreates the steps that led to India’s nuclear tests in May 1999 and you see how politics and political balancing acts enter the picture. In a densely argued book George Perkovich makes an analysis of the global impact of India’s nuclearisation (India’s Nuclear Bomb: The Impact on Global Proliferation). These are supplemented by Praful Bidwai and Achin Vanaik’s masterly work, South Asia on a Short Fuse, which makes an impassioned plea for sense, and lays bare the dangerous consequences of nuclearisation not only for India and Pakistan but for all of South Asia.

But, with a few exceptions (notably Bidwai and Vanaik’s book, and Muzamil Jaleel’s work in Guns and Yellow Roses) there are things about war and conflict that this body of writing has not addressed; important things that remain hidden under the overwhelmingly masculine and nationalistic rhetoric that always accompanies such discussions, things we need to turn our attention to. How do war and conflict affect the lives of women and children, for example? What do they mean in terms of the increasing insecurity and violence that they bring into society? How do people who have to live in situations of continuing conflict cope with them? What happens to families in such situations? What sort of system does the State have to deal with the problems war and conflicts raise? What happens when the violence of conflict enters the home? What is it about conflict, about war, about the violence that they bring with them that some women are drawn to? What can we do to prevent such violence?

Take Kashmir, for example. So many families have lost young children to the continuing conflict in the state. As happens in such situations, much of what we take to be ‘normal’ life is at a standstill: educational institutions are barely functioning, hospitals run at less than half strength, as do the courts, there are virtually no jobs to be had. Young people are frustrated and have little to do. For those who are out of work, or whose schools and colleges have been shut down, militancy exercises a powerful attraction. The moment they are able to hold a gun in their hands, and to use it, they feel the heady pull of power and in this way, the ranks of the militants continue to swell.

For their part, the Army and security forces are suspicious of every male youngster who is in the likely age group to become a militant. And there are thus false arrests, long periods of unjustified detention, and a growing number of unexplained deaths. What we’ve seldom asked, though, is how the parents of these young men (and now increasingly, young women) cope with their loss and disappearance. Parveen Ahangar runs an association called the Association of Relatives of Disappeared Persons in Kashmir. In 1990, she lost her son to the security forces. Under the aegis of an Oxfam related project to collect testimonies of women in conflict situations, Pamela Bhagat spoke to her.

"My problems started in 1990," Parveen said, "when there was a raid on our house by the security forces. On 2 June my 14-year-old son, Mohammed, was taken away. There was a curfew so we couldn’t follow him." When they could get out, Parveen and her husband ran from pillar to post trying to find their son. It took them a year to get him released. During this time, their other son, 16-year-old Javed, got picked up, probably in a case of mistaken identity. Nine years later Javed has still not appeared. As a result, Parveen’s family has fallen apart. Her husband is dogged by illness and is unable to work; her daughter has been taken away by Parveen’s parents, and most of their relatives have abandoned the family because they do not want to be associated with a family ‘under a cloud’.

And Parveen has not been able to mourn, to grieve for her lost son – for she continues to believe (and how can she believe otherwise?) that the boy is still alive somewhere, in detention. "Since Javed was taken away nine years ago, I am obsessed with finding him. I have had no time for the rest of the family or to be bothered about the house which needs serious repair work. I just don’t have the will to involve myself in these things – they seem so unimportant and futile."

Parveen is not the only one to face such problems. Mahbooba Bhat lost a young son to the militants. Two years after he left, they brought his body home. Fearful of what this might do to her other children, Mahbooba pulled them out of school and kept them at home. The son’s loss hit the father hard: gradually he stopped working and the entire burden of running the home fell on Mahbooba. The ‘compensation’ she was given by the militants turned out to be a bagful of paper with a few currency notes on top. Thrown on her resources, she put her children to work within the home, thereby adding to the numbers of child labourers in the country.

Rajai Zameen’s 18-year-old son Nazeer joined the militants because he was upset when the security forces took away his uncle, Farooq. Nazeer became a committed and hardcore militant and, when his parents tried to advise him to turn away from the path of violence, he threatened to kill them first. "It is commonly believed," Rajai says, "that the families of militants have flourished because of huge monetary compensation. No such thing happened in our case. Whatever money he used to bring, he distributed it among locals to buy their support or to convert youngsters." Some years after he had joined the militants, Nazeer was killed in an ‘encounter’. His mother said: "We have never mourned his death. He was better dead than alive because he brought only pain and suffering to the family."

Rajai may not have wanted to mourn her son’s death, but many other mothers who have lost their children, have been denied even this ‘luxury’ – for grief is a luxury in situations of war and conflict. Some do not have the time to mourn or grieve, others like Parveen Ahangar will not — cannot — do so. How do they put a closure on something when they have no proof that it can be closed? To put it more crudely, how can they mourn without a body?

A little over 278,000 people were displaced as a result of the Kargil war. The majority of these were women and children. Forced to leave their homes and their belongings, they had nowhere to go. The burden of the displacement caused by conflict is usually borne by women. All the Kashmiri pandits who have been forced to leave Kashmir now live in small, tenement type, refugee camps in different places. The men can at least have access to the public world – they may be able to go out to work, to walk across to the local tea shop. But it’s the women and young girls who have to stay at home in tight, cramped spaces leading constricted lives.

Wars and conflicts create their own myths. One of them is that the violence is always located somewhere ‘outside’ because that is where the ‘enemy’ or the ‘other’ is. The home, the family, for so many women the site of continuing violence, cannot now be questioned for it is the violence outside that must be fought. So, women not only have to deal with losses of the kind described above, but they continue to face violence at home, which they cannot now talk about. Should the conflict end and things go back to ‘normal’, the normalcy is seen as a state of peacefulness. Yet, what is normal when set against the context of war and conflict, may be a situation of considerable violence in less ‘normal’ times. The same logic applies in the wider world: wars and battles are often fought over control of homelands and territories. Yet, in protecting the ‘homeland’ or fighting for it, we forget to pose the question: was the homeland ever such a peaceful place? How do we address the lack of peace within the home?

The violence of war and conflict creates a powerful iconography. Kargil has already come to be known by the picture of the poor soldier, freezing at inhospitable heights and it is forever marked by that image. For many years feminists have argued that the pictures they saw of war and conflict were purely male ones, pictures that were not sex differentiated. Where were the women? Today, we can no longer make such arguments: we do see both men and women, and also children, when we see images of people affected by conflict. But not only do we learn very little about women, but it’s the kinds of pictures of women that we see that are questionable. For example, Kashmiri women, whether Muslim women or Kashmiri pandits, are known to be strong, secular, outspoken, confident women. They’ve never allowed themselves to be shut up inside the home, they’ve never allowed the public space to be claimed only by men. How, we might ask, do war and continuing conflict transform these women into the weeping, oppressed victims clad in burkha or locked up inside refugee tenements? Where did these strong, modern women go? And it takes time to realise that it’s in the interest of conflict to project women as ‘out there’ now and again (as fundamentalists and communalists, particularly the proponents of the Hindu right do), but at the same time reinforce their place within the home and family. It’s in this sense that wars and conflicts are also about male control over women.

The same iconography makes it impossible for those men who might want to, to opt out of battle. Immediately, they are labelled ‘cowards’ or ‘deserters’ – yet why should we expect that men have some kind of stake in war and battle and that they should be willing to go into the battlefield, knowing that they might be killed, but happy that they are doing so in the interests of the nation. Why should the nation mean any more to men than it does to women? Indeed, the entire rhetoric and vocabulary of war is a masculinist one. How far can you penetrate into enemy territory? Don’t allow yourself to be emasculated by the enemy. Show your virility in conquest. No wonder that raping women becomes so much a part of war and battle. And no wonder that armies do not prosecute their men for this crime – for after all, in their vocabulary, it is very much part of proving your manhood.

Yet, while we may be increasingly aware of the fact that men and women are touched by war and conflict in different ways, what is clear is that while women have to work hard to retain peace within the home and family in times of conflict, when it actually comes to peace making, they have little involvement in it. Political organisations, no matter which side of the picture they represent, never think of involving women in peace processes. Here’s where they don’t count. But here’s where they should count, for who builds and sustains peace in the home? Clearly the women. They are the ones who know how war and conflict enters and affects their daily lives, and the lives of those close to them. They are the ones who need to be brought in when discussions about a ‘return to normalcy’ are taking place. Yet, hardly anywhere in the world has this been done.

This is not to say that women are always victims of war. We have enough evidence to show that in certain situations of conflict, women do participate in the violence of war and conflict. But, for the most part, narratives of war and conflict represent a rather one-sided reality – as if only men are affected or concerned, as if, because the language of war is a male one, the reality of war touches only men, and that too in very specific ways. But here, it might be worth recalling a story that is sometimes told about war situations.

When a warring army goes into a village or a town to conquer, one of the first things they do is to rape the women of that place. While we recognise rape as a weapon of power and control perpetrated by men, over other men through the bodies of ‘their’ women, we’ve never asked why it is that invading armies rape women. The answer is simple: because of course, once they know about the possibility of invasion, the men run away. But the women stay, for they are the ones who have to protect the children, the old and infirm, the wounded. While men leave the battlefield to the ‘other’, the women stay to protect the bedroom. And for this they are raped.

After such knowledge, what forgiveness?