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www.freepresskashmir.news VOL 10 ISSUE 16 SRINAGAR APRIL 19, 2021 PAGES 16 15.00
FREEPRESS
REGISTERED: JKENG/2011/36414
GLOOMY
GARDENERS
PHOTO BY ZAINAB MUFTI FOR FPKWEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 02
WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 03
08 EMPLOYMENT 04 PHOTOSTORY
FASTING IN FRAUGHT TIMES
By Mir Yasir Mukhtar
12 EDUCATION
OF EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGY
By Khawar Khan Achakzai
GLOOMY
GARDENERS By Marila Latif
14 SOCIETY
ENFORCED
HOMELESSNESS
By Beenish Basheer
Owned, Printed and Published by: Qazi Zaid | Published from: Second Floor, Aqsa Mall, Jehangir Chowk, Srinagar | Printed at: Khidmat Offset Printing Press, The Bund, Srinagar
Registered: JKENG/2011/36414 | Features Editor: Bilal Handoo | Layout & Graphics: Suhail Sultan | Contact at: +0194-2475633 | E-Mails: newsdesk@freepresskashmir.com | admin@freepresskashmir.comWEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 04
As a fresh
FASTINGin
FRAUGHT
wave of
Covid-19
sweeps
Kashmir,
the holy
month of
Ramzan
once again
begins with
curtailed
TIMES
routine.
/P H O T O S T O R Y B Y
MIR YASIR MUKHTARWEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 05 hen Persian ballad “Shahar Khali” mourned a new world order last year, people mostly observed the holy month within four-walls. A year later, the Covid resurgence is only re-enforcing the same fretful order. However, fighting back against the pandemic, many mosques and sanctums in Kashmir are witnessing masked attendance and cautious congregations at the moment. The holy month of Ramzan, in which Muslims observe fasting—one of the five pillars of Islam—by abstaining from eating, drinking and smoking from dawn to dusk, began on Tuesday in Kashmir amid restrictions due to spike in the Covid cases. In Kashmir’s grand mosque, Covid curbs have once again cut down the fasting fervor. The place has histori- cally remained the centre of Ramzan celebrations with people from the city and countryside arriving in droves to offer congregational prayers. The faithful did turn up for congregations after the initial night-curfew proclamation shadowing dawn and dusk prayers, but the festivity of pre-pandemic days is clearly missing. Even the women praying-hall in Jamia Masjid isn’t the same this year around. Otherwise a crowded cosmos, the Covid inflicted gaps are only making the subdued space craving for its buzzing past. And while she prays alone, they sit and wonder about the pandemic shift in the central mosque which used to be the center-stage of the far cry in the valley. The outings were religiously recreational and retreat in nature. But the bleak scenario is hardly stopping the old loyal- ists from creating the meditative calm with their hushed prayers. In the mosque courtyard, the signature post-prayer assembly is a crowd-puller. Simpletons who suffered his- tory sit to talk about things around them. Such gatherings are a parallel world — an escape route for commoners combating conflict and Covid concurrently. At the door, the faithful come to seek spiritual solace in swarms. During fasting, the sanctum only becomes the hall of consolation for the countless restive souls.
WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 06 A token gesture of pigeon-feeding is the part of the shrine sojourn. While humans fast, the fluttering tribe stays afloat with the mystic morsels. Giving alms is a part of the faith and the fasting only fuels this spirit. And the same has come to sustain the transcendent ecosystem of the holy month — mak- ing mendicants to crowd mosques and shrines for some societal support. Beseeching the departed soul about whom it’s said that wherever he sets his steps becomes blissful for others. Perhaps those eyes are only seeking that! Reciting the word of god is the part of the devotional routine during fasting. Especially during dawn prayers, people sit to recite the holy Quran and seek salva- tion inside sanctums. As a mandatory morning move for many, women folk visit shrines to pour their hearts out. The routine, mental specialists say, has helped Kashmiris to cope up with their distressed lives over the years. Anticipating the abstract aid, a woman flanked by a budding life is standing in a shrine and sustaining the characteristic culture. Praying in the peaceful ambiance is a compelling outing for many in the pandemic. But as Covid is once again rearing its ugly head, the home prayers have only become vibrant with young and old rubbing shoulders within four walls. At the end of the day, it’s time to break the fast together on the ‘dasterkhan’. FP K
WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 07
WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 08
/Employment
GLOOMY
GARDENERS
Engaged for preparing flower beds for sightseers, the landscape technicians of tulip
garden are voicing their existential concerns amid the feverish rush.
By Marila Latif
“From September to
October, we work on
the soil formation,” says
floriculturist Bashir.WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 09
“Our union which represents us is
divided and the officers are corrupt,”
Mohammad Ashraf, 45, said.
S
itting on a green bench in Srinagar, their concerns re-
under the shade of a tall main buried. The endurance begins with removing the
tree, three floricultur- “I have been working here for snow first. Then making beds and after
ists—Mohammad Sultan more than 12 years and drawing
Bhat, 50, Mohammad Amin, 44, just 6,780 rupees a month,” says that planting bulbs and recovering it
Rafiq Ahmad, 35—are warmly Shabir Ahmad, a 34-year-old
greeting the eager tourists in a casual labourer. “This is trav- with snow again. Snow helps to keep the
unique dialect of mixed Kash- esty, but most of us have no alter- moisture intact which doesn’t let funguses
miri and Urdu language. native.” Sailing in the same boat,
“These tulips are like our chil- Abdul Majeed, a well-built gar- consume a tulip and sand helps to keep a
dren,” Rafiq tells the sightseers. dener, travels 40kms to Srinagar
“We sow and grow them like every day from his hometown tulip loose in soil for secure exclusion.
parents.” Gutul Bagh in Ganderbal area.
The trio is the part of over “Whatever I earn gets spent
120-gardener team hailing from on my travel,” Majeed says.
different areas of the Kashmir “My children are growing and
valley. the income is negligible.”
They toil with their sweat and Inam-ul-Haq, In-charge of the
blood, around the year, to make Department of Floriculture,
the glorified garden bloom with Gardens and Parks, says regu-
1.5 million tulips of 62 kinds, for larizing process of gardeners
the 30-day flowering season. ‘with more than a decade expe-
Among them, while 40 are rience’ is a process that is ongo-
permanent employees, the rest ing. “An SRO has been framed
are working as casual labourers, for those daily-wagers, and
contractuals and daily-wagers. documents have been sent to the
A majority of them are being Directorate of Floriculture,
paid ‘peanuts’ for their endless Kashmir,” Haq said.
enthusiasm towards this work “Whoever fulfils the criteria
by the government. will be regularized.”
During the PDP-BJP coalition Before becoming an address
government in 2018, these gar- of tulips for the tourists, this 30
deners were promised that those hectare garden space girded by
with over 10 years of working the Zabarwan hills was called
experience would be regularized. Siraj Bagh that grew glodi, cut
But as the coalition disinte- flowers, fruits like pears, apples,
grated that summer, following and dry fruits like pistachios,
a seasoned scribe’s assassination dry apricot and almonds.
A local visitor offering prayers at Tulip Garden.WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 10
“The process of planting tulips fertility. By November, we sow the consume a tulip and sand helps to
never ends here,” says floriculturist seeds.” keep a tulip loose in soil for secure
Bashir Dar, 33. Tulips are native only to moun- exclusion.”
“We constantly work on soil, foli- tainous areas with mild climates Praising the toiling efforts of flo-
age, bulbs and beds. In the process and need a period of cool dormancy, riculturists, 45-year-old Mushtaq
of growing tulips, cooler temperature, known as vernalization. Mir, who supervises the functioning
“And experts who sand and moisture are its vital ele- “Like this year, if the bulbs come of the garden, believes that “the
are doing it for ments.” late from Holland, then we plant causal labourers can be terminated
In May, removal of foliage starts them in February,” Bashir says. anytime” and even the recently ap-
decades are hanging as the greenery turns golden till “The endurance begins with remov- pointed employees under SRO 520
June. Floriculturists then carefully ing the snow first. Then making are subjected to grave injustice.
on the ridge and are remove bulbs until August ends. beds and after that planting bulbs “In the recent GSA order, the gov-
uncertain for their “From September to October, we and recovering it with snow again. ernment approved contractual
work on the formation of soil; make Snow helps to keep the moisture regulation of few gardeners in which
future.” beds, use tractors and pesticides for intact which doesn’t let funguses no provident fund, GP fund or pen-WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 11
sion is mentioned, except a meagre Ashraf continues. 10th standard and a gardening degree
salary of Rs 10,000,” Mir says. “And experts who are doing it for in hand.
In March 2020, a short exam was decades are hanging on the ridge “Else, engineers and graduates
conducted under State Selection Board and are uncertain for their future.” were appointed because they chose
(SSB) and people from B-Tech, Arts Haq says he holds no authority to to give the exams,” Rather informs.
and Commerce fields were appointed talk on the SSB examinations, “be- Sitting on the bench, the trio of
as new gardeners here, informs Mo- “It feels nice when cause their prescribed qualification Sultan, Amin and Rafiq are happily
hammad Ashraf, a 45-year-old gar-
dener.
your garden is being and criteria are decided by the ad-
ministration”.
hosting the guests arriving in droves
despite a resurgent COVID phase.
“Look at these tulips! Some of them praised and becoming However, Farooq Ahmad Rather, “It feels nice when your garden
look so lifeless. It’s because they are Director Floriculture, says that the is being praised and becoming a
grown by people who know nothing a priceless memory recruitment process operates through priceless memory for these tour-
about them,” says Ashraf, gauntly.
It will take more than 4 years for
for these tourists,” a separate government wing – SSRB
(Service Selection Recruitment Board)
ists,” Rafiq says.
“But at the same time it feels terrible
them to learn how to cultivate tulips, Rafiq says. and the criteria is to have qualified to live with job insecurity.” FP KWEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 12
/Education
Of Education
and Pedagogy
By Khawar Khan Achakzai
Our society has fabricated a self-pitiable
‘education’ system in which qualifying
exams has become a delusional testimony
of how good or bad a person is.
A person who doesn’t perform well
in solving meaningless tasks of school
program – mostly monotonous,
unimaginative, counter creative and
barren – are looked down upon as
inferiors and face a life long social
rejection while others are made to
believe that they are valuable because
they could fit into the uncreative
monotony of a lifeless repetition.
Yes, a lifeless repetition, reducing
the idea of expression to a mere function
of capitalist utopia and completely
doing away with emotions, experience
and authenticity.
Dostoevsky had started warning
against such utopianism. Converting
human being into a pianno key, a
rational computer, a robot.
He was followed by people like
Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, Jung, Adler,
who showed to the western man that
the problem with preaching “thorough
going rationalism”, rational episteme,
rational (blinding horizontal) mentality
is that they wouldn’t be even aware &
their subconscious & unconscious
would be dragging them to places.
This capitalist utopia sorts us into
categories from the very childhood.
I remember when we were in school
we were taught not to sit with, or
befriend, those who were weaker
students than us. One of our famous
professors would tell us that if we
didn’t “study” we would end up being
“dukandaars”. There were backbenchers
and front seaters. When we could hardly
differentiate a right from a wrong we
had already been moulded into judging
and discriminating between “them
and us”, “doctor and dukandaar”,
“superior and inferior”, “material
prosperity and poverty”, we were
initiated on a ‘Capitalist note’ and its
profit driven definitions of right and
wrong.WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 13
Capitalism is an organized system to guarantee that greed becomes the primary
force of our economic system and allows the few at the top to get very wealthy and has the rest
of us riding around thinking we can be that way, too – if we just work hard enough, sell enough
Tupperware and Amway products, we can get a pink Cadillac.
Capitalism-inspired education got quarter of their life in school, children
us into the habit of measuring things, are taught to do exactly what they are
and of believing that what can’t be asked to. They are indoctrinated into
measured is either valueless or conformism, and scepticism towards
threatening. the higher authority is discouraged.
The system trained students to conform They are subtly manipulated into
to an alienated and class-stratified believing in the infallibility of official
society, a society passive to realities figures and accounts. They grow up
of a social(ist) life. The class system with a notion that large media agencies
in schools indoctrinated some children are the most trusted source of
into feeling inferior to others, while information. Focus on life skills, civil
others start believing they are better freedoms and liberties is diminished.
than the rest. Once children leave the capitalist
And it is this belief that the education school they are unable to question its
system nurtures, the belief that some authority, they are rendered incapable
people are less valuable than others, of their own observations about the
hence helping in perpetuation of nature of events and are unable to find
inequality and discrimination. The a meaning in anything beyond what
discrimination, the covet capitalist is proposed by the ‘political’.
agenda is inculcated through a hidden Kozol wrote in 1975: “School does
curriculum that bases itself on principles not exist to foster ethics and upheaval.
of external rewards, subservience to It exists to stabilize the status quo. It
the bourgeois norms, and an utmost exists to train a population which is
focus on competition rather than team subject to the power of such instruments
work. of mass persuasion as the social order
Fidel Castro compares competition has at hand. It exists to get its citizens
to hypocrisy and war when he finds prepared for moral compromise. The
“capitalism repugnant, filthy, gross first and primary goal of the U.S. public
and alienating… because it causes school is not to educate good people but
war, hypocrisy and competition.” good citizens. It is the function which
Capitalist pedagogy reduced student we call in enemy nations,’state
achievement to mere income and indoctrination’.”
employment, with absolutely no role The only point of view possible to
in social justice and inclusion. It laid us (including me) is the capitalist
the cornerstone of the neo-liberal point of view.
consumerism which has plagued the Capitalist philosophy has assumed
whole social fibre of the world. almost an ontological form. It is crime
As Michael Moore said, “Capitalism against current standards of humanity
is an organized system to guarantee to question science and its industry,
that greed becomes the primary force to doubt the education and its
of our economic system and allows the indoctrination, to put class segregation
few at the top to get very wealthy and and its watchdogs at stake, to see
has the rest of us riding around thinking prodigious mechanisation as gigantic
we can be that way, too – if we just work rape of everything intimate. Anything
hard enough, sell enough Tupperware sane spoken against those these
and Amway products, we can get a pink scandalous standards sounds outrageous.
Cadillac.” And it is precisely this that all of us
The greed is imbibed from the earliest, need de-schooling, if we want a social
through a reward driven repetitions change. FP K
of school system.
Schools in the current times are Khawar Khan Achakzai is a published
institutions set up to fulfil the popular author, a medical Doctor by profession,
political narratives. Spending the first and a student of history./Society
WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 14
Enforced
Homelessness
While Sadiq’s residence is rubble, Ashiq’s sank in Dal lake, and
Arif’s lays scattered in a forest. These people of land, water and
forest are divided in terms of geographical locations, but their grief
unites them in their helplessness at the hands of strife in Kashmir.
By Beenish Basheer
N
osoonerdidabatteryofexultant for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir fireworks.
counterinsurgents retreat by the BJP-led government, Lone was According to Srinagar-based
from Shopian’s three-day-long sent to one of the guarded hotels in rights advocacy body, Jammu
military operational zone, Srinagar for security reasons. and Kashmir Coalition of Civil
two school boys walked up to a smouldering “When my father participated in DDC Society(JKCCS)andAssociation
site. With teary eyes, they looked at elections, our neighbours turned hostile, of Parents of Disappeared
smoked walls, gutted terraces, crumbled and now that we are homeless, nobody Persons (APDP), ‘at least 87
kitchens, wrecked gardens, and burnt extends a helping hand,” said Sadiq’s encounters took place between
belongings. In the warfare waste, lay eldest daughter, Jozey. Indian armed forces and the
their cindering portraits, paintings, Three militants were said to have militants following CASOs
pens, papers. taken refuge at Sadiq’s house, and to (Cardon and Search Operation)
The smoke billowing rubble was their harbour a militant is against the law in the year 2019. During CASOs,
residence where they were laughing, of the land. All three of them were later vandalism and destruction of
studying, sharing their life moments identified as Kashmiri residents. civilian properties was reported
before driven out in a belligerent moment. At the time of explosive operation, through-out the year’.
In a pensive state, a young boy in his the four siblings including Jozey had Far away from Pulwama’s
early teens cleared the charred pile left their house empty-handed, while uptight landscape, the southern
with his bare hands, in an attempt to their mother was away at a relative’s hilly pockets of Pahalgam, a
unearth his buried books. to attend a wedding ceremony. mesmerizing t ou r i s t
“A part of me has forever gone now,” “When I heard the gunshots for the destination, is resounding with
a tearful teenager said. “While four- first time, I could only anticipate that another homelessness howl.
walls in the name of home will be there someone has come to kill my father In those frozen heights, the
sooner or later, the home won’t be same since he had taken part in elections,” nomadic tribal community of
again. They’ve devoured more than a the distraught daughter recalled. “I Gujjars and Bakerwals has
structure. Nothing can compensate curtly gathered my younger siblings spent the harsh winter season
this loss. Nothing.” in one corner of the house. I was fretful, in a state of worry and grief.
In the routine firefights in the volatile but had to put up a brave face for the In second week of November
valley, the lockdown-battered and the sake of my scared siblings.” 2020, Mohammad Abdullah
campus-craving students are now At her home, Jozey’s sister, Bilkis had Gorsee and his family met an
increasingly losing their lifetime study a little space of her own where she would encounter when his Kotha, a
materials and countless memorable stitch clothes of her customers to help temporary hutment of this
moments. her family get through the financial nomadic tribe and also their
While the state justifies house blasting restrictions. Her father said he “only summer home, got bulldozed
as an unavoidable combat upshot, these wished for a better life for his children, at the hands of government officials, including Forest Rights Act, 2006.
discord-bitten students only end up as what else could have been the reason” including that of the forest department, The Act guarantees the forest dwellers
the silent sufferers. when asked about his purpose of having without any prior notice. their right to reside at a place, recorded
But what happened at Shopian’s participated in the elections. “The irony is that we’ve been asked officially as forest area, including various
Rawalpora area lately was just another His youngest son, Zamir Sadiq received to submit the residential proof by the other rights, like using forest produce,
example of the annihilated addresses gunshot wounds in the fire-exchange same officials after and not before the and grazing their cattle over a defined
of Kashmir. phase of the military op, and is since initiation of the demolition process in area. However, this law is yet to see the
On December 9, 2020, when Sadiq being treated for various health related our area,” said Mohammad Arif Gorsee, light of the day in J&K.
Lone’s house was blown up in a military problems. The boy had just turned 18 son of Abdullah Gorsee. Many people of this community have
op, he remained oblivious about it inside when caught in the line of fire. After stripping the erstwhile state of been served with eviction notices in the
a government accommodation. Sadiq’s homeplace Pulwama, a southern Jammu and Kashmir of its special status month of October last year under which
After contesting DDC (District district in Kashmir, has emerged as an on August 5, 2019, the central laws were they were asked to ‘evict from the
Development Councils) elections, held explosive precinct fraught with frequent extended to the new union territory, unauthorizedoccupiedland,andtoremoveWEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 15 the encroachment within 5 days’. the rank of Corp commander, declare people of Kashmir vulnerable to Of those served with the eviction “Our ancestors have resided here at an area as strategic area within a local dispossession, eviction and in general notices, many have resided in the Kashmir this place, it’s a story of more than 8 area…’ against which many experts to disempowerment.” forests since the time India was yet to decades, and not of days or months that and human rights activists have sharply Being able to have rights over one’s gain its independence from the British they have termed our stay at this place reacted. own piece of land was a result of a long rule. as illegal,” Arif says. “Land ownership has historically popular struggle against feudalism and The British at that time carved the Some of the fear of the people in hills been a key to emancipation in Kashmir,” big estates, Junaid continued. “But houseboats in Kashmir’s Dal lake into has transcended down to the plains. On argued Mohammad Junaid, a Kashmiri we’re now seeing a potential return of their elegant design, and since 1947 October 27, 2020, the central government anthropologist, based in US. big estates which will be held by Indian when India gained its independence, issued an order according to which, ‘… “With the changes since 2019, especially corporates in the name of ‘development’ their number in the Dal lake has reduced the government may on the written the abrogation of 35A as well as these and by Indian military in the name of from 3500 to less than a thousand at request of an Army officer not below new orders about ‘strategic areas’ make ‘security’.” present. FP K
WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 19 – APRIL 25, 2021 16
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