Kashmir as an Abu Ghraib

Humra Quraishi?s book is driven by emotion, but not over-emotional. One of the best books written on Kashmir.

Kashmir
The Untold Story
Humra Quraishi
Penguin
2004
Kashmir, Current Affairs
Pages: 216
Price: Rs 250
ISBN: 0143030876
Paperback

It seems obvious that on a complex issue like Kashmir, the range of books is quite diverse. You have a lot of trash, much of which consists of looking at the problem solely through a military prism. There are several readable books, exhaustively researched and well-written, but which deal solely with the political aspect. These books suffer from being typecast as either pro-India or pro-Pakistan (and the average Kashmiri can quite easily tell which one is which).

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There ought to be more pro-Kashmir books, but then they would have to deal with the moral complexities of the whole story, not an easy thing considering our track record of torture, custodial deaths and arbitrary killings during the past 15 years (which has been overshadowed, in a twist of irony, by the West’s behaviour in Iraq).

Tavleen Singh wrote one such book about a decade back, but her book often read like a prolonged rant. In contrast, Humra Quraishi’s book is driven by emotion, but never over-emotional; it is honest, more than almost any other book on the movement; it is, indeed, one of the best books on Kashmir, ever.

Quraishi looks simply at the average Kashmiri’s hardship. The disappearances of husbands and sons; the tortures they endure; the little humiliations of daily life when soldiers dominate your civic landscape; the hardships of long curfews; the deterioration of mental and sexual health; the downward spiral of society by whichever yardstick you choose.

And the writing isn’t just impressionistic, it is fleshed out with facts. To support her assertion of the widespread phenomenon of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Quraishi says: “The number of patients at the OPD of the lone government hospital for psychiatric diseases in the Valley increased from six a day in 1990 to 250-350 a day in 2000. According to the hospital records, the total number of patients rose from 1760 in 1990 to 18,000 in 1994 and to over 38,000 in 2001.” And this is just those who could make it to the hospital.

What the statistic also shows is that though New Delhi believes it has “crossed the hump” with regard to the Kashmir problem, some basic issues remain to be addressed. It goes beyond the issue of political autonomy — it concerns dignity. This isn’t a hollow phrase. Imagine if, every time you went to the local market to buy milk, you were subjected to a body search by an armed jawan. Every time for 15 years, with no end in sight. And imagine if it were the same for your wife or grown daughter.

Quraishi’s point, ultimately, is that a lasting solution will come only if policy-makers factor the Kashmir people first in their problem-solving. Currently, the focus seems to be on the jehadis and on keeping democracy going. It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg approach. And it won’t help, even if paradigms have shifted after 9/11.

Quraishi’s style at times is kind of Barbara Cartland-Oprah Winfrey, but I think it ultimately works. For those readers accustomed to strict chronologies, the book will appear a bit disorienting, for the chapters have unconventional internal structures — they follow themes, and flow freely rather than move rigidly from point to point. But the book is well worth the journey. Well done, Ms Quraishi.