WIDOWS AND HALF WIDOWS
Saga of extra-judicial arrests and killings in Kashmir
Afsana Rashid
Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd,
D-84 Abul Fazl Enclave-I, Jamia Nagar, New
Delhi – 110 025, India
192 pp / PB
Rs 200 / USD 13
Reviewed by KHAN YASIR
Imagine, the sole bread-earner of your house (father, husband, brother, or son) disappear an evening. Police refuses to register an FIR, the court denies justice, media looks the other way round, and the civil society chooses to play mute. You weep… wail… and wait… for every new morn to come. This is quite common, say a way of life in Kashmir!
The total of those who simply disappeared in the valley is a whopping 8,000 to 10,000 according to the data collected by the organisations like Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) with meagre resources at their disposal (p.17). Other estimates are as frightening as 10,000 in one district alone (i.e. Kupwara, p.119). Constant discoveries of mass graves throughout the state have proved that these provisional estimates are just the tip of the iceberg. The problem of disappearance is not unique to India; it exists in Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, China and Argentina as well (p.32). But numbers are worst in Kashmir and so is the administrative mechanism to deal with it, or is it the other way round?
Despite being meagre, there are academic works that highlight human rights violations in Kashmir per se, but Widows and Half Widows: Saga of extra-judicial arrests & killings in Kashmir is perhaps a pioneering work that looks at the phenomenon through a gender perspective. It highlights the suffering of women which may be vicarious but anyhow, not less severe; in some ways it is more brutal than what their males have undergone. Two women, one on the shoulder of another, both with tearful eyes, both equally inconsolable, both still trying to console each other, surrounded by the blackness all around, with just two shades of white – the title artistically epitomises Kashmir, a ray of hope in otherwise the valley of hopelessness.
Afsana Rashid, a Srinagar-based journalist, with several academic and journalistic awards under the belt, for many purposes has played successfully the role of a participant-observer throughout the book. The book contains detailed ethnographic interviews of the affected people from across the valley. The author also had detailed discussions with resource persons like human rights activists, journalists, advocates, academic and religious scholars, etc. She has also relied on the data and interviews provided by the press releases, statements and reports of the APDP and JKCCS, and seminars and workshops by various other NGOs (p.189). Though occasionally, it seems that the book concentrates on Kupwara district but it is because this district consists of a large chunk of the people who have gone missing during different regimes, since 1989.
‘Half widow’ is Kashmir’s peculiar contribution to the English vocabulary. The Kashmiri press has coined the term to describe the women whose husbands are subjected to ‘enforced or involuntary disappearances’. These women suffer from extreme mental agony and social and economic problems plus the identity crisis for not knowing that their husbands are dead or alive (p. 5).
The author has not attempted any camouflage in the book to hide excruciating pains that she feels for the Kashmiri women. She had no qualms in arguing that people resorting to arms, earlier had faith in the ‘democratic’ system of India, but were let down (p.16). One would not help noticing the democratic within single inverted commas that perhaps not only spoofs but also summarises the political circus in general and electoral stunts in particular that have been performed since 1947 in Kashmir, all in the name of democracy.
People in Kashmir have no faith in army. Security personnel meant for ‘security’ had killed the citizens at will to claim gallantry awards (pp. 42, 43 etc). They had brutally beaten the hapless children and wives of disappeared people (p. 77). In order to conceal their misdemeanour, these ‘brave’ soldiers have even killed their fellow officers (p. 43).
Police is worse. It is not uncommon that relatives of the disappeared people could not succeed in filing FIRs even after a passage of ten years since the actual disappearance took place (p. 66).
Generally the police would only register FIRs after palm-greasing by the relatives (p.118). Even then the police feels no shame in altering the complaints, for example mentioning ‘unknown’ perpetrators when they were clearly identified by the complainants (p. 71). More horrendous is the fact that the whole vicious cycle could begin with the police demanding exorbitant amounts from people, failing to meet which they would be made to disappear (p. 134). Rewards and promotions are primary motives for the fake encounters by dastard police officers (p. 30).
In this backdrop one only hope that justice would be done in the courts of law that otherwise in India enjoy the confidence of the general populace barring a few exceptions. But courts too have failed the Kashmiris. Cases are decided on the basis of ‘shadow files’ produced out of thin air by army or perpetrators without opposing party getting a wind of it (p. 53). It seems that courts, the author says, are impatient to “deliver justice”. Burden of proof astonishingly lies on the relatives to prove that the killed one was innocent rather than security forces to prove the contrary (pp. 55-56). The Supreme Court too is not an exception in this regard (ibid).
Such is the criminal silence of civil society and otherwise vociferous feminist groups, activists of JKCCS that out of despair have turned their attention to international forums, in order to ensure some diplomatic pressure on India, to curb the gruesome human rights violations and enforced disappearances (p. 24).
Needless to say that a large portion of the book concentrates on the social costs of these unwarranted excesses by the security forces on civilian population. In Kashmir, child and women labour has increased manifold over the years, crime rate has rocketed, neurological and heart related problems are ever-increasing, and suicide rate is on a high. After untimely death or disappearance of their fathers, economic hardships, psychological setbacks and denial of love has hurt gravely the children psyche (pp. 87-90). Education of the children has suffered enormously. Majority of them could not attend schools as they have swelled the ranks of labour force to make both ends meet. School days have been reduced to 60 days a year from 210 in 1989 (p. 115).
Government officials only aggravate the pains as even Below Poverty Line (BPL) ration cards could not be acquired without paying exorbitant sums as bribe (p. 98). Mental agony and suffering is immense as most of the Kashmiris suffer from what is called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Dr. G.A. Wani, a psychiatrist, was quoted as saying, “Ten years ago, we did not get more than 30 such patients a day. Today we examine nearly 200 such cases” (p. 109).
The suffering lot has organised under APDP and has given many a sleepless night to the authorities with their tiresome activism. After the release of Facts Underground (a report on unidentified mass graves) office bearers of APDP are harassed and intimidated in order to hamper their further investigations (p. 38). Besides sticks, carrots too are offered but disdainfully refused by Praveena Ahangar, President of APDP (p.21). These adamant women are fighting for their rights despite many socio-economic constraints. They no longer fear security forces; after all they have nothing to lose. Their life is actually a sentence… life-imprisonment. Many would say they are fighting for a lost cause but this battle has given a purpose to their lives which otherwise was only an endless search. In their heart of hearts they know that their dear ones would never come back, but perhaps they consider it a betrayal to give up their search. When will they get justice, or will they get it at all, are some question-marks on Indian democracy.
The author laments that the law and order crisis in Kashmir has come to such a pass that ‘the loss would be measured in terms of generations, rather than years’ (p. 5). Chapter one of the book contextualises the whole scenario and presents the historical background of the Kashmir imbroglio, and thus enhances the significance of the book. This chapter, though very brief, locates the question of the widows and half widows in the larger framework of the Kashmir tangle.
Kashmir is a dispute where many stake-holders are involved and unless each of them has a say in the process of resolving the dispute – the dispute will only prolong the tales of sufferings and havoc with people of the valley being the ultimate sufferers (p. 15). Why people raised the arms in the first place is the question whose answer should be genuinely looked into if a permanent solution is sought instead of just procrastinations (p. 16).
In the last two chapters The Way Ahead and Helpful Suggestions, the author presents her suggestions for solution of the conflict once and for all. Though, the discussion here seems to be slightly simplified and sketchy with much scope for sharpening the axe of analysis. It was a strange omission on her part that she did not suggest any punitive action for those who are behind these heinous disappearances.
Overall, the book is able to send the shivers down the spine and fill the eyes with tears of empathy. The author appears fairly successful in her attempt to compile the tears, moans and sighs of despair from the ‘paradise-on-earth’. She has also portrayed the activism, willpower and resoluteness of the relatives of the disappeared people, in which there is hope as well as a lesson. What is required then of the reader, is more than just shedding a few tears of sympathy. Spreading the word and springing into action is the need of the hour.