Category: Politics
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The Return of the Kashmiri Pandit
By: Dr. Sadaf Munshi “The Return of the Kashmiri Pandit” – this phrase has come to sound like that famous 1985 horror movie-cum-black comedy The Return of the Living Dead. Given that we Kashmiris are so hypersensitive that a slight tinge of satire may stoke unwanted emotions, I hope being candid does not lead to…
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Drama Over Portfolios
It is time to deliver duties rather than clamor over assignments After the months’ long haggling between the members of the newly formed alliance partnership of the Jammu & Kashmir state government and the sensation around the oath-taking ceremony, the news in the last couple days has focused on to the drama over the portfolio…
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Murder of Kashmir’s Healthcare System – II
Dr. Sadaf Munshi About a year and a half ago, in August 2013, I was in Srinagar for another yearly visit to Kashmir. During one of those days, an unidentifiable insect bit my mother-in-law in her eye-lid. We thought it was a spider or something but could not say for sure. At night, she had…
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Murder of Kashmir’s Healthcare System – I
It was summer 2007. I was in Kashmir with my two-year old son. I had decided to get his khatanhaal (‘circumcision’) done in Srinagar (and not in the United States) due to some scheduling issues and the nervousness of dealing with any aftercare on my own, this being my first child. As I had little…
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India Lok Sabha 2014 — the comedy of errors?
Every time I listen to Narendra Modi, I feel like: Satyanaas! BeDa-gharq! Jaltu-Jalaaltu, aayi balaa ko Taal tu! Much of the elections drama back home this time around. You won’t beleive I was so curious to hear about the latest news today that while taking a five-minute break during my three-hour long teaching today, I…
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Male hypocrisy and the lies about Islam
Given the touch-me-not attitude one experiences in Kashmir, I have observed that many rational voices steer clear of indulging in talking about controversial topics, especially those related to religion and politics. Several months ago during my annual visit to Kashmir, I had expressed an objection to the extensive use of loud speakers for broadcasting religious…
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Revisiting the question of the Kashmiri Pandits: The battle of the narratives
Every year the people of the Kashmiri Pandit (KP) and Kashmiri Muslim (KM) communities commemorate the month of January 1990 for the beginning of an era of two structurally different but extremely bitter and painful experiences: the “exodus” of the former facilitated by an atmosphere of immense fear and terror and the beginning of the…
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Revisiting the Question of the Kashmiri Pandits: The Battle of the Narratives
By: Dr. Sadaf Munshi Every year the people of the Kashmiri Pandit (KP) and Kashmiri Muslim (KM) communities commemorate the month of January 1990 for the beginning of an era of two structurally different but extremely bitter and painful experiences: the “exodus” of the former facilitated by an atmosphere of immense fear and terror and…
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The Burnt Shrine: A Personal Journey in Kashmir
As a child I grew up in a fairly peaceful period of Kashmir, listening to the stories of Heemaal-Nagray, Zehra Let, Lal Ded and Haba Khatoon. Weekends were spent waiting for Doordarshan to broadcast the one and only Hindi movie a week on a well-to-do neighbor’s black-n-white television set. Life was quite laid back and…
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Why did I Leave Kashmir?
Remembering the Times of Darkness Back in 1991 when militancy and the sentiment for freedom were at their highest peak in Kashmir, I took my Higher Secondary Part I (Class 11th) exams like many others of my generation amidst extreme tension and turbulence. My school, the Government Girls Higher Secondary School at Soura (situated a…
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