Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan aka Frontier Gandhi (1890-1988) visited Kashmir in June 1980. I, an eight year old child at the time, had the honour of meeting him. I remember being taken to a public rally at which Badshah Khan sahib made a speech in his heavily accented and delightful Urdu, and I was made […]
Religion, reformation, and modernity
It is extremely important for educated Muslims to argue for a rational Islam and to seek to reconcile Islamic teachings and democracy. We cannot afford to disavow the space of religion for fundamentalists to do whatever they like with it. To keep fundamentalist forces at bay, educated and rational people must endeavour to bring about […]
Islam promises redemption, growth, and deliverance
The acquittal of Asia Bibi, who, several years ago, was accused of having committed blasphemy, portends well for civil society in Pakistan and paves the way for human rights. This judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan could, potentially, diminish the potency of militarised interventions. I emphasise that I have always considered Islam an emancipatory […]
Revising narratives of the Partition and October 27, 1947
In what ways are women present in political contexts? Kashmiri women, from different walks of life, have managed against all odds to express their agency during the plethora of political, social, and military transformations in the past nine decades. The perception and manifestation of women’s political struggle during the nationalist awakening in the 1930s became […]
Realpolitik relegates human rights to the background
It is essential to create a non-militarised, non-militant and humane environment to ensure the rights of citizens to peacefully protest and to be heard by their political representatives. To that end, an environment that ensuresall citizens that they have a voice and that their voices will not go unheard must be created. In any society, […]
Reconceptualising a new Kashmiri order
The turbulence and turmoil that has haunted Kashmir for the past twenty-three years holds all of us, as a people, accountable for the degeneration of our politics and society. While it is important for us to condemn, question, and seek redress for the human rights violations in Kashmir, it is also important for us to […]
The power of diplomatic overtures versus the impotency of political rigidity
In the wake of the cancellation of the scheduled meeting between the foreign minister of India, Sushma Swaraj, and her Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, which was going to be held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Session in New York, here’s a particularly relevant excerpt from my book, Sheikh Mohammad […]
We are made by history
In order to enhance their economic and political clout in the South Asian region, India and Pakistan require stability. Can they begin the process of establishing themselves as stable political forces by initiating a serious political process in Kashmir in which the people of the state have a substantive say? Can the governments of India […]
The significance of September 8, 1982
In her several visits to Kashmir in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Bilqees Taseer, an astute Kashmir observer, carefully noted that my maternal grandmother, Akbar Jehan Abdullah, was “given a share of the reverence which they [populace of Kashmir] always held for her husband. She was the person who could give him peace and […]
Remembering Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah
Over the past two decades, Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah, my maternal grandmother, has been glorified, vilified, venerated, held in contempt, and iconicised. Historically, female icons have been “appropriated for contradictory causes”. As to whether or not Akbar Jehan’s work was transformative and resplendent in its revision of women’s roles, education, and professionalisation; whether or not […]