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| Author | Tariq Ali, Hilal Bhat, Angana P. Chatterji, Habbah Khatun, Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Kashmir Conflict |
| Publisher | Verso Books |
Publication date | 2011 |
| Pages | 140 |
| ISBN | 1-844-67735-4 |
Kashmir: The Case for Freedom is a collection of essays by Tariq Ali, Hilal Bhat, Angana P. Chatterji, Habbah Khatun, Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy, [1] published by Verso. [2]
The first essay by Pankaj Mishra describes that Kashmiris want true democracy and questions the disregard of the hardships faced by the Kashmiris and evasiveness of the Indian intellectuals on this issue. Tariq Ali in his essay "Story of Kashmir" explains how the valley which was once considered a paradise changed into a disputed region. Arundhati Roy in "Azadi: The only thing Kashmiris want" discusses Jawaharlal Nehru's stance on the Kashmir issue by referring to his speeches, letters, telegrams and quotes under the header "Seditious Nehru." Moreover, Roy elucidates what freedom means to Kashmiris. [1] While questioning India's liberal democracy, she criticises journalists for not raising their voice against the human rights abuses against the Kashmiri people by Indian security forces. According to Roy Kashmir was never an integral part of India. [3] Hilal Bhatt shares his experience of a train journey, which was marred by the violence that erupted after the Babri Mosque debacle. Bhatt who lost his friends in the violence during the journey, expresses how the announcement at reaching Aligarh railway station made him realise the meaning of the word freedom. [1] The essay also includes a poem by the sixteenth Queen of Kashmir, Habbah Khatun. [4] Angana P. Chatterji discusses how militarisation has affected the lives of the people in the valley in her piece "The Militarised Zone", while Tariq Ali describes his views in "Afterword". [1]
According to Manisha Gangahar, the book states the ground reality of the Kashmir region. [1] Arifa Akbar for The Independent writes: "This collection speaks urgent truths about the disputed Kashmir region and its struggle for independence (azadi)." [4]
Suzanna Arundhati Roy is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes.
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Habba Khatoon, also known by the honorary title The Nightingale of Kashmir, was a Kashmiri Muslim poet and ascetic in the 16th century.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani was an Islamist, Pro-Pakistan Kashmiri-separatist leader in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, regarded as the father of the Kashmiri jihad.
Pankaj Mishra FRSL is an Indian essayist, novelist, and socialist political figure. His non-fiction works include Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia and A Great Clamour: Encounters with China and Its Neighbours, and has published two novels. He is a Bloomberg opinion columnist, and prolific contributor to other periodicals such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. His writings have led to a number of controversies, including disputes with Salil Tripathi, Niall Ferguson and Jordan Peterson. He was awarded the Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014.
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was an Indian politician who played a central role in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir. Abdullah was the founding leader of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference and the 1st elected Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir after its accession to India. He agitated against the rule of the Maharaja Hari Singh and urged self-rule for Kashmir.
The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claimed the entirety of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a dispute over the region that escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several other armed skirmishes. India controls approximately 55% of the land area of the region that includes Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, most of Ladakh, the Siachen Glacier, and 70% of its population; Pakistan controls approximately 30% of the land area that includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan; and China controls the remaining 15% of the land area that includes the Aksai Chin region, the mostly uninhabited Trans-Karakoram Tract, and part of the Demchok sector.
Mian Iftikharuddin was a Pakistani politician, activist of the Indian National Congress, who later joined the All-India Muslim League and worked for the cause of Pakistan under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
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The Zakura And Tengpora Massacre was the killing of protesters calling for the implementation of a United Nations resolution regarding the plebiscite in Kashmir at Zakura Crossing and Tengpora Bypass Road in Srinagar on 1 March 1990, in which 26 people were killed and 14 injured by Indian forces. It led Amnesty International to issue an appeal for urgent action on Kashmir.
Angana P. Chatterji is an Indian anthropologist, activist, and feminist historian, whose research is closely related to her advocacy work and focuses mainly on India. She co-founded the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir and was a co-convener from April 2008 to December 2012.
Nyla Ali Khan is an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City Community College. She is a former Visiting Professor at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, and former Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. She is the author of four books, and several articles that focus on the political issues and strife of her homeland, Jammu and Kashmir, India. She is the granddaughter of Sheikh Abdullah.
Mihir Desai is a human rights lawyer in cases of mass murders & riots, fake encounter & custodial deaths by the police, police brutality, freedom of speech & journalists, political activists & prisoners of conscience, excesses by the state, mass disappearances & deaths and genocide probes. A senior counsel, he has been practicing criminal matters in Bombay High Court, Mumbai and the Supreme Court of India.
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Khurram Parvez is a Kashmiri human rights activist. He is the Chairperson of Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and Program Coordinator of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS). Khurram is a recipient of the 2006 Reebok Human Rights Award. Parvez was included in Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in 2022.
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