Book Review: The rage and confusion of Gowhar Geelani

 Book: Kashmir: Rage and Reason

Author: Gowhar Geelani

Publisher: Rupa Publication

Pages: 288

 

inam ul rehman

The “Rage and Reason”, Gowhar Geelani, believes is because of the Indian state policies toward Kashmir! Paradoxically he cites an example of a mechanical engineer, Maseehullah, working in Jalandar Punjab, joining militant ranks. It was Maseehullah’s study of Islam that prompted him to join the call of, what he believed, jihad. 

 

The author here, like a skilled politician, spins the narrative, and writes that the protest of 2008 against the grant of land to the Amarnath shrine board made many to think that it was an attempt to change the demography, and it was this event which forced Maseehullah! Although the latter’s father clearly states that it was Islam which made him to pick the gun against the state. Even his father supports that the land belongs to Allah, and His laws should govern people here. 

 

In fact, throughout the book author negates his own assertions. He says that armed movement of the 90s started because people were “displeased by the façade of democracy”, but later calls all those people naïve who link the armed movement with the wide scale rigging of 87 assembly elections! Here is another example of contradiction when the author says that the majority community backed the armed movement, but a couple of pages later writes, “Our literature was bloody. It was not our choice, though. Some choices are not of our own.”

 

The author confuses dissent, and secession from the state. States tolerate dissent, but are brutal toward secession. Like most Kashmiris he asks; why does the state fire bullets, and pellets on crowds that are demanding secession from the Indian state! Like most he is also confused why the Indian media is belligerent toward Kashmiris demanding azaadi!As a Kashmiri who supposedly wants to part away from the Indian state why should it rankle him that its media is “aggressive” toward Kashmir? Shouldn’t the author feel happy that half of the work to discredit the state is being done by the Indian national media? 

  

But since the author’s linear theme in the book is action-reaction he frames everything from this prism. 

 

He also opines that the militancy is “largely symbolic”. It is erroneous assessment that many pro-thereek intellectuals claim to show that Kashmiris are victims, not the initiators of secession. The militants take up gun because they believe that it is jihad to fight against the Indian state, and it is this religious zeal that does not let almost all of them to surrender even though many of them have no weapons to fight, and prefer death to surrender. The author quoting former Hurriyat Corporation chief, Syed Ali Geelani, compares militants of Kashmir with Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh, and co.! Now, Bhagat Singh was an atheist, and socialist. Can the author be brave enough to tell the families of Kashmiri militants that their sons aren’t martyrs because it was not for the sake of religion that they sacrificed themselves?

 

In order to be in the good books of the Jamaat and its supporters the author equates Geelani with the legendary Libyan fighter, Omar Mukhtar! He writes that Geelani won hattrick of elections, which is factually wrong, although remains silent that of the three Assembly election that Geelani won two are widely believed, by a vast section of the people of Kashmir, to have been rigged. Geelani also not only lost assembly elections, but fought for Indian parliament elections where he again lost. Sometimes he claims that Geelani is a supporter not a member of the Jamaat! But forgets his own words couple of pages later.  

The author begins with the 2016 Ragda protests after militant commander Burhan Wani along with his two associates were killed in a gun battle with Indian forces. Burhan Wani was the trendsetter for the 4g militants of Kashmir. (To understand what 4G militants mean refer to:https://kashmirdispatch.com/2015/02/02/the-4g-warriors-of-kashmir/129068/).

He came on the social media and stormed its space in Kashmir. In his first video message Burhan dropped a bombshell when he said that his fight is to establish Khilafat in the whole world. It was a shocking moment not only for the Hurriyat Corporation, but for pro-Pakistan supporters as well.  However, the author says it was “a casual remark”, with a “moderate message”.Suppose the RSS leader comes to the Valley and in his first public speech he says that he wants to establish Ram Rajya in the whole of Jammu and Kashmir, and the same speech will be interspersed with allowing Muslims to travel for pilgrimage. Will the author be generous to say that the RSS leader’s talk of Ram Rajya was just a casual thing, and a moderate one?

 

The author further alleges it was not any “global jihadi ideology” that inspired Burhan, because he didn’t have “deep understanding of religion”.  This is as ridiculous as it can get. “Global jihadi ideology” does not require “deep understanding of Islam” any Muslim can join and fight for it. The author claims that officially Hizb has never endorsed Khalifat! What Burhan said in 2015 was the official slogan of the Hizb in the 90s. But the author is unaware of it! 

                                          

The book is filled with such intellectual dishonest views. Take for example referring Tral area as “Tora Bora of Kashmir”. Now the US led coalition minus nuclear weapons used every bomb in its arsenal to turn Tora Bora upside down.  Tral has not witnessed any such thing. In fact, nowhere in Kashmir India has resorted to aerial bombardment. In fact, the only time the Indian state seriously thought of using planes to bomb militants was the Doda area where the militants went berserk against Indian troops. 

 

His intellectual disability comes to the fore when he writes that why should “the majority community be held hostage to the aspirations of the minority?” when it’s the former that has suffered.In any civilised society it is the majority community which has to not only protect the minorities but give them freedom to express themselves, no matter whether they participate in the freedom movement or not, whether they agree with the majority community or not. If the majority community fails to provide security to its minorities then it has no right to demand justice for itself which it denies to others. 

 

Then author repeats his various write-ups published in different media outlets over the decade, but hyperbolically states that from “a young age, a Kashmir is exposed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Karl Marx, Nitzsche, Camus, Fanon, Schimmel,” et al.  If it had been the case then we would not have been reading this book. Now take Gowhar as an example of reading these authors juxtapose it with his comment wherein he says that Kashmir’s first pro-India Prime Minister, Sheikh Abdullah’s, status today can be judged that his grave needs protection! It’s a puerile observation. Isn’t Jinnah’s grave protected? The fact of the matter is that if people had so much hatred against Sheikh, as we are made to believe, in 2008, 10, and 16, they had golden opportunity to desecrate his grave with only a couple of guards there! 

 

There is a certain snobbish attitude running throughout the book. One example among the plethora of such is when he writes that why do bright students end up joining the armed movement! As if armed movement is hereditary of dumb people. He tries hard to exonerate the former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, for what she did since 2016. His softness toward Mehbooba Mufti is perhaps because he was one among many journalists who used to council her during 2016. 

 

Not that the book is deprived of a few bright spots. The author writes that some Kashmiris intense love for Pakistan “will surpass the proudest and most patriotic Pakistanis”, but will leave “a few Pakistanis to doubt their nationalism and patriotism.”  He also mentions the duplicity of the Jamaat-i-Islami, but makes Burhan Wani’s father to speak up on the Jamaat hypocrisy of provoking people to take up the gun, but the politico-religious party maintains it does not support the gun! 

Reading the book one gets an impression that its author is a wannabe politician. 

 

 

 

Some factual howlers in the book are:  

It was not under governor Jagmohan Malhotra that renegades were patronised in Kashmir. 

Zareef Ahmad Zareef is satirical poet, not a historian. 

Maqbool Bhat’s slogan of independent Kashmir didn’t make him an instant hero in Kashmir, and Mohammad Yusuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin was not “immensely popular” in the 80s.

Mohammad Yaseen Malik, and Javid Mir were not “young boys” in 1987, but one was 21 years old, and the other was 26 years old. 

 In 2016, people didn’t follow the protest calendar of the Hurriyat Corporation in letter and spirit. In fact, the Hurriyat give a one-day strike call to protest the killing of Burhan! Only when the protest amplified, and people refused to resume normal activities did the Hurriyat call for more strikes.  

After the killing of Burhan, Zakir Musa was declared the divisional commander of the HM, not Sabzar Bhat.