STANFORD: “This may be charged, it may be difficult; this is a controversial and emotional issue for many people, but our intention is to have a civil discussion. I hope you will all approach it with that amount of civility,” said Thomas Blom Hansen, Director of the Center for South Asia as he opened a two-day symposium that attempted to demystify the most militarised place in the world; “Grounding Kashmir” brought South Asian scholars from around the globe to Stanford University.
“Our aim is to go beyond the narrow confines of (Indian and Pakistani) nationalistic discourse,” said Nosheen Ali one of the organisers of the event. “There is a physical line of control, but there is also an intellectual line of control.”
The panel of speakers was dominated by Indian academics, who collectively portrayed a scathing critique of “fraudulent uneasy peace,” “humanitarianism used to subjugate,” and, “heavy militarisation” by the Indian state in Jammu and Kashmir.
Author of Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights and the History of Kashmir, Dr. Mridu Rai’s paper on “Folding Kashmir into Indian Imagination” attempted to take on the prevalence of “one narrative” in Indian society, a narrative dominated by the state line. Rai argued, “Kashmir should not be claimed through maps.”
Pakistani Historian Ayesha Jalal also echoed Rai’s assertion. “It is not about religion, it has been made about religion by Pakistan and India.” Dr Jalal, who is currently a visiting professor at Tufts University, outlined her fascinating research that traces back the Kashmir and Punjab nexus, from 1931 to present-day. She showed how opinions have transformed in Punjab from wanting Kashmir to be a part of Pakistan, to wanting Kashmiris to decide their own fate.
Ironically, tensions that were foreseen in the opening speech did not breakout between Pakistanis and Indians on the stage or in the crowd, but between members of the audience from the Hindu-Pundit Diaspora who seemed very upset by the work of the speakers. After Dr. Suvir Kaul, from the University of Pennsylvania, finished answering a question about his paper– which outlined what he called, “fraudulent, uneasy peace” and how the Indian state continues to colonise the Kashmiri people – one man shouted from the back, “300 rupees they pay those boys to throw stones.” The speakers were accused of being “separatists” and under-representing the cause of the Hindu-Pundits. “I myself am a Pundit!” replied Kaul. “You want a tolerant India, I want a tolerant India; a search for that tolerant Indian space will begin and end in Kashmir”
