Sharing Stories of Building Peace

Our Kashmir Local Correspondent Ashima Kaul this week attended a Peace Exchange in Nairobi, Kenya, organised by Peace Direct. Here she offers a personal reflection on the experience.

“What is your position on Kashmir?” Gulali Ismail asked me hesitantly at the Doha airport on our way back from Peace Direct’s peace retreat in Nairobi. Hailing from Peshawar in Pakistan the young 23 year old peacebuilder added, “Do you think it should go to Pakistan or India or get independence?” I smiled and said, “I have no predetermined position on Kashmir. The various solutions that are being floated around every other day will not lead to the resolution. It is the peacebuilding work that people like you and I do will carve a path for a final resolution”. With a thoughtful expression, Gulali nodded her head up and down, as we Asians do in agreement.

Later as we sat uploading the Nairobi pictures and waiting for our respective flights to Pakistan and India, I knew that while our physical journeys had different paths, the ‘powerful blend of personal peacebuilding stories’ that we shared with other peace builders from different parts of the world in Nairobi had touched us in a way that allowed us to envision a future full of possibilities even in the midst of severe adversities.

My thoughts raced back to the scores of untold stories that peacebuilders hold within their hearts; stories of courage and determination. Some of these stories unfolded in the sunlit room at the far end of Lukenya Getaway Hotel off the Mombasa highway almost an hours drive from Nairobi city.

As our conversations deepened over the three days, each one of us brought to life the people of our communities – from young people, women, tribal leaders, and religious clergy, to ex-combatants or even dreadful militia. “I befriended them (ex-combatants) and built trust as it was very hard to include them in peacebuilding initially”, said Henri Bura Ladyi, a cheerful Congolese peacebuilder. Dishani Jayaweera from Sri Lanka narrated stories of her befriending the Buddhist monks and Ramzi-Al Absi from Yemen shared about winning the trust of tribal leaders for a truce. Each person reflected on how ‘people in communities have the sharp edge’ in the restructuring and decentralizing processes that are integral to peacebuilding.

These stories of personal transformations, strategies, best practices and methodologies for peacebuilding have to be told and retold to the world, which sometimes seems only to listen to stories of horror, extremism and violence. We frequently hear news about motivated Sudanese, Afghan, Pakistani and Yemni Islamists fighting for Jihad in Kashmir, but we remain ignorant about equally motivated people like Rasha el Fangry and George Ngoha in Sudan, Ramzi Al -Absi in Yemen, Gulalai in Pakistan and Mirwais Wardak in Afghanistan who put their lives at stake to build peace in local communities, across borders and regions, dispelling stereotypes about identities and cultures.

I choose to as always hold their hands so that we can challenge extremism together, building relationships rather than destroying them!

Holy Cows in Kashmir

On December 4 2009, Fazal Haq Qureshi, 65 year old separatist leader from the moderate separatist alliance of Hurriyat was attacked by unknown assailants. Perceived as an ‘honest peace broker and negotiator’ between the government and separatist clan, he had almost four decades ago laid the foundation of a secessionist movement in Jammu and Kashmir. The attack on him was seen as a stern warning to all those who were ‘selling out on Kashmir’.

It was on October 14 2009 while addressing media at All India Editors’ Conference on Social and Infrastructure in Srinagar that Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the government will hold talks with every section of political opinion in the state through “quiet dialogue, quiet diplomacy”, in order to find a political solution to the Kashmir problem that may be “unique”. He added, “We cannot hold the dialogue in the glare of the media”.

However the media made sure that there was lot of focus and noise about the dialogue. They have watched and reported ‘quiet meetings’ between the government and separatist leaders. The government’s ‘fresh bids’ for an ‘inclusive dialogue’ and quiet meetings with the separatist leaders was seen by many as a conspiracy and ‘betrayal of the cause’.

Almost a week after Home Minster announced the quiet dialogue path, we in the women’s network Athwaas had a meeting in New Delhi to expand our circle and constituency to include women from Ladakh and Jammu in the core group. For us the Home Minister’s statement about inclusive dialogue was not acceptable whilst women continue to be excluded from the political process. It was to press this point Athwaas submitted a memorandum to Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India when he visited Kashmir soon after on 28th October 2009. In the open letter, we wrote:

“We deeply appreciate and welcome your step towards including all stakeholders for exploring inclusive solutions for sustainable peace in Jammu and Kashmir. However the desired dialogue process will not result in any creative outcomes if voices of women, fifty percent of the population, are not included in the process… Women have been directly and indirectly impacted by the violent conflict. Their experiences have given them a deep understanding and insight of the causes and hence their inclusion will deliver the holistic approach needed for sustainable peace.”

(For the full text of the letter, click here)

Despite our misgivings over absence of women from the process, for Athwaas the dialogue process of the government holds significant meaning. The absence of dialogue has only resulted in institutionalized, divisive politics. We realize that if the larger political situation in the region remains hostage to divisive politics, it in some way or other always adversely influences the peacebuilding spaces we are trying to open at the grassroots and civil society level.

For this reason, we had hoped that the talks would be fruitful. However, the attack on Fazal Haq has not only generated unease and concern amongst us, but brought to fore the chilling hard truth about how murky, complicated and dangerous the path to peace in Kashmir remains.

However what came as a genuine shock was Hurriyat separatist leader Bilal Lone’s interview in a local channel Take One, which can be viewed here:

For background on the interview, it is important to know that it was conducted by Ahmed Ali Fayyaz, a senior journalist based in Kashmir Valley. The interview was held in at the the context of the Indian government’s attempts at quiet dialogue and the attack on Fazal Haq.The interview was picked up by Jammu- based Pradeep Dutta, Bureau Chief of Times Now, a national TV Channel, gaining it wider attention.

In the interview Bilal Lone confesses to taking money from Pakistan: “There are no holy cows in Kashmir”. For many, the fact that separatists in Kashmir had been accepting money from Pakistan was an open secret, and the general levels of corruption, nepotism and unaccountability are also well know. This interview was notable for being the first time that it was openly admitted on TV. (Bilal Lone has since undertaken a rather uncomfortable follow-up interview.)

Bilal Lone’s admissions might bring more openness about the levels of corruption and secret dealings which exist in Kashmir. These severe defects in the political system nurture violence, extremism and separatist politics. Yet for the most part there has been a deep silence. Bilal Lone’s outburst gives context to not only to the government’s negotiations, but also to the environment in which local peacebuilding organizations have to work.

Posted by Ashima Kaul, 7 January 2010

Inter-religious Dialogue in Kashmir

Shrines of mystic saints and Sufis in Kashmir continue to be common collective spaces for both Hindus and Muslims. Many renowned Kashmiri Muslim poets have nurtured the philosophy of Kashmiri Shaivism in their poems. This syncretic tradition is what all Kashmiris upheld in their daily lives. To me, growing up in Kashmir, the ‘soul’ of the region was always embedded in the traditions of dialogue and co-existence. This culture, and the daily practices of Kashmiris, was what I would define as peace.

But in today’s Kashmir all this seems vague, fading away. There also exists the reality of an extremist agenda and propagation of an Islam which is alien to the indigenous cultural form that the Kashmiri Hindus and Muslims feel safe and secure with. In the new ‘Muslim Kashmir’, is there still scope for recovering the heterogeneous character of Kashmir? Can mechanisms be put in place to engage with the diversity in a constructive and progressive way? If the legacy of coexistence is to be saved, urgent steps need to be taken by both the state and its people, and especially by peace practitioners and peacemakers.

Religious leaders and institutions have often helped in transforming conflicts, either exacerbating or diffusing them. They have made choices to either use religion for dividing people, or for creating peace in their communities and regions. Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are no exceptions in this regard. On a recent visit to Jammu & Kashmir, Tom Gillhespy of Peace Direct suggested to me that it will be a good idea to engage with moderate religious leaders and explore possibilities for social change, and the opportunity to do so came very soon thereafter.

The Global Peace Initiative of Women is hoping to initiate a dialogue between Sufi practitioner-scholars and those of the Shaivaite (Hindu) tradition in Kashmir. These two spiritual philosophies have different approaches to understanding union with God, but both speak about universal brotherhood, inclusiveness and dialogue as the hallmark of human relationships.

Ashima Kaul (right) with Mian Bashir (centre)

As part of this dialogue, I went to meet Mian Bashir, a Naqashbandi spiritual leader, in his home in Wangat Valley, Kangan, around one and half hour drive from capital city Srinagar in Kashmir. Mian Bashir is known to his followers as ‘Sajjada Nasheen’, who travel from and Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan and beyond to see him. “My door never closes before eleven in the night”, he says with a smile. As we drove up the small hill where he lives, we saw scores of people trekking up to see him.

People sitting in the room with us told stories of the miracles associated with Mian Bashir. How once he blessed the villagers with water and at other times spoke about his concern and the actions he takes for the welfare of the marginalized. Mian Bashir, himself narrated many stories in which were hidden deeper meanings of inter-dependence, cultural values and spiritual revelations. “We do not reach out to know the other”, he said. He added with pained expressions that while India is a spiritual land where many paigambar (prophets) rested, aman (peace) was killed here when the country was partitioned and Mahatma Gandhi was killed. “And I hoped that Pakistan would prosper and rise, but sadly that has not happened”, he said.

It was heartening to see continuing openness to dialogue amongst religious leaders. The openness to dialogue of Mian Bashir is mirrored for example by the Shaivite (Hindu) scholar Dr. Moti Lal Pandit (currently based in New Delhi) who stated “there is always hope. While one has to be cautious, one should also keep ones mind open. I am willing to listen”. The word of Sufis and Shaivaites whom we met have given me hope and encouraged me.

This dialogue will continue over the coming months, and I will provide updates through this blog. It promises to be an enriching process.

Posted by Ashima Kaul, 2 December 2009

Visit of Melanne Verveer

Along with other women journalists in New Delhi today, I had the chance to speak with Melanne Verveer, the Ambassador-at-Large of the US State Department for Global Women’s Issues. She spoke of how the Obama Administration is ‘mainstreaming’  the women’s agenda and ensuring that it be included within  defence, diplomacy and strategic planning. I asked her about her office’s role in interacting with NATO in Afghanistan and addressing violence aginst women in armed conflicts. It was a very interesting discussion, and I will soon be writing up a report on this for Insight on Conflict.

Posted by Ashima Kaul, 6 November 2009