FJ Kashmir

Book: Interrogating my Chandal life Author: Manoranjan Byapari Translator: Sipra Mukerjee Pages: 356 Inam ul rehman A poor man holds unto no ideology except that of bread. It is the lack of bread that haunts him and his family. But the burden of providing blood for any revolution, or change, is always on the poor men. Manoranjan Byapari’s autobiography is a tale of few decades but it encapsulates centuries of oppression that the upper caste Hindus have wielded on their lower castes . Byapari comes from the lowest caste of Hinduism , and as such is unschooled, and oppressed. He learns lessons of the life on the streets, through punches, humiliation, scares, cheated, stealing food from mongrels, every worse thing except never giving up on the life. He runs away from his family in order to work and feed them, but returns home dust handed a decade later cheated and duped by most of his proprietors. During his runaway a police official rapes him. Male rapes are...

inam ul rehman Politics is less based on morals and more on politicking. That is why political class mostly gets away with wrongdoings. In 1636, the Mughal emperor Shahjahan signed a deal with the Deccani states of Golconda, and Bijapur , promising not to conquer these states in future. This promise was reneged by Shahjahan himself.  But Golconda, and Bijapur kingdoms continued to exhibit some sovereignty although they accepted the Mughal suzerainty . Then came emperor Aurangzeb . He wanted both these states to confront Marathas , who were hassling his troops in guerrilla warfare. They refused, and Aurangzeb for the time being lost interest. Bijapur, and Golconda states acted as a buffer zone between the Mughals and Maratha. The latter would plunder these two states, and sometimes join hands with them against the Mughals. Aurangzeb’s repeated offer to Bijapur to join hands with him to destroy the Maratha was not acceptable to Bijapur, as it considered Maratha pow...

inam ul rehman Now officially it has been declared that the first death of coronavirus has taken place in the Kashmir Valley (March 26). It may have sent a shock wave to the entire Kashmir Valley. Often his death is blamed on the proselytising methods of the Tableeghi Jamaat . The Tj is an offshoot of the Deobandi school of thought . The TJ are known for their non-confrontation ways. They invite everyone toward Islam irrespective of the place where they are. And now the spread of coronavirus in Kashmir is blamed on them. Why, because as per Kashmiri netizens the TJ members refused to disclose their case history, and didn’t abide with the restrictions imposed on congregations!  These are some of the allegations which can easily swoon any man. The TJ ameer has already clarified that he had asked his men not to hold congregation prayers, and no matter how fast the communication is it takes time for any message to reach every individual.  But it doesn’t absolve th...

inam ul rehman Incompetence of any person during his service years can be gauged on number of hurdles he creates for his co-workers. A competent person erases roadblocks because he considers it his professional duty.  I work in the University of Kashmir , an apex educational institution so far. Here we have a number of incompetent persons, who unfortunately are also placed in responsible positions. Many of these persons are in such positions because their fathers, uncles, who were previously working in the University, vied for them. Their incompetence mars not only individuals working with them but hampers the growth of the institution.   In January 2020, the government said that broadband connections would be restored to educational institutions but our man at the information technology and system support refused to act on it. Instead “His Highness” at the ITSS put a form on the intranet of the University, which states that anyone who wants to use the internet ...

inam ul rehman On January 08, 2020, I came across a news story in one of the fledgling English newspaper, Kashmir Reader , on the Global Educational Trust, Mumbai , run schools in Kashmir. The story ( “Mumbai based school closes 2 branches in Srinagar, career of hundreds of students in quandary”) was a case of lazy journalism in which the contending party’s view was not sort, or wilfully ignored.    In the said story the reporter quoting the “parent association” writes that the GET closed two school branches at Iqra International School, Habak , and Bagh-i-Mehtab , adding that it “hiked fee”, increased the “prices of books by 40 percent”, the GET management wants to “layoff some staff members at the two branches”; “staff barred to enter the premises”, and the “salary of staff members is withheld for several months” The fact is that my kids are studying there from the past six years. I looked at the fee card which says that no fee was hiked for the past three years. Pl...