Abstract
This chapter addresses the issue of Islam in Kashmiri politics and dissuades the use of Islamism as a blanket notion to understand Muslim societies. Religious resistance politics is a project of Islamicate modernity in which women created agential positions which culminated in an armed struggle in 1989. Through this chapter, I try to demonstrate that women’s Islamicate political projects were formulated to challenge the social patriarchy and the Indian state. The Islamicate project was constructed as a response to the debilitating violent atmosphere endangering women’s multiple identities. The complexity of the context and the difficulty of the agency are shown through an exploration of the women’s narratives. Women’s political action is historical and contextual in nature and aims at altering the lack of political freedom in the public space. In the 1980s armed struggle, women’s activism took a new militant form when it targeted social and traditional gender roles.
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Notes
- 1.
See Rao Farman Ali’s Kashmir Under the Shadow of Gun: Making of Alfatah. New Delhi: Uppal Publishing House, 2012.
- 2.
Jamat-e-Islami Kashmir (Islamic gathering of Kashmir) arose in tandem with Muslim revivalist movements in Egypt in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood of Hassan Al Banna (1928), and Jamat-e-Islami of Maulana Abu Ala Maududi (1941) formed in the British India. Jamat had a reformist and revivalist agenda which culminated in the formation of Anjumans (Islamic schools) for Kashmiri Muslims who were largely kept uneducated by the Dogra rulers and traditional sufi clergy. Maulana Rasul Shah formed the Anjuman Nusrat ul-Islam (The Society for the Victory of Islam) in 1899 which aimed to impart both modern and Islamic education to the Muslims of Kashmir. Jamat-e-Islami continued the tradition finding inspiration from the Indian subcontinent and the downfall of Ottoman Caliphate. The first all British India Ijtema or religious conference was held in Pathankot in 1945. It was attended by four Kashmiris who then popularised these new influences on the reformist thinking as Jamat-e-Islami Kashmir.
- 3.
Muslims in the state were governed by customary laws and up until 2007 there was no legal framework for applying Shariah law. The criminal legislation of the state however is not included under Shariah Law.
- 4.
ISL is a political party organised since 1985 by Kashmiri college students to protest against systematic occupation in Indian-occupied Kashmir. One of the founders, Shakeel Bakshi, is a political activist who advocates natural denied rights in Kashmir—the right of self-determination for the people.
- 5.
Islambad is a colloquial way of referring to the southern district of Islamabad or Anantnag the naming of which has been an ideological contest. By the majority of natives it is referred to as Islambad or Islamabad but in the official records the name was changed back to Anantnag. Anantnag is a Sanskrit word that means ‘infinite springs’ and Islamabad literally means urbanised by Islam Khan. Islam Khan was a governor of Kashmir during Aurangzeb’s reign who built a garden and a village that was sufficient for the name change. Khalid Bashir Ahmed in his book, Kashmir: Exposing the Myth behind the Narrative, claims that Ranjtarangi by Kalhana which documents the ancient history does not mention any such garden or village pointing to the fact that Islam Khan did really build these.
- 6.
MUF was a coalition of Islamicate Kashmiri political parties that contested the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election of 1987 in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Jamat was the predominant party of the coalition. The coalition won four seats in the assembly and widespread rigging by the ruling National Conference was reported.
- 7.
See Sumit Ganguly, Explaining the Kashmir Insurgency: Political mobilization and Institutional Decay. International Security, Vol. 21, Issue 2, 1996.
- 8.
The term Line of Control refers to a ceasefire and military control line between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is not a legally recognised international boundary but a de facto border.
- 9.
All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) faction (G) under the aegis of Syed Ali Shah Geelani has eleven executive members and two of them are women representatives of MKM-G Anjum Zamarooda Habib and J&K Mass Movement Patron Fareeda Behanji. J&K Mass Movement is the only organisation comprising of both men and women, headed by a woman leader.
- 10.
See article published in the New York Times on 20 May 2011, ‘A New York Jewish Girl Becomes an Islamist’: ‘Jameelah’s parents were dumfounded by her zigzagging fixations and flirtations—first with Holocaust photographs, then Palestinian suffering, then a Zionist youth group and, ultimately, fundamentalist Islam. While her classmates fell happily into “boys, dates, dances, parties, clothes and film stars,” Jameelah recoiled, refusing to date or form friendships’. Also, in the same article, ‘Assessing her life’s work, Baker criticizes Jameelah for presenting a savage and titillating portrait of America while disclaiming “all responsibility for the crimes” committed by young terrorists who were inspired by her. She also wonders why Jameelah was intent on limiting the role of women to that of wife and mother, a way of life she herself “never managed to live.”’
- 11.
Syed Abul A’la Maududi was born in 1903 in British India. He was a Muslim philosopher, Jurist, journalist and an imam. His works range from Quranic exegesis to Hadith, law, philosophy and history, which are predominantly written in Urdu and have later been translated into many languages. He believed that Islam was essential for politics and believed in a version of Islam that must be revived. He rejected secularism, nationalism and socialism because they were ideologies tied to the Western imperialism. Maudidi also rejects the concept of capitalism and socialism. He writes that these western concepts are devoid of the human elements of kindness, equality, brotherhood and justice, which are the basic ingredients of an Islamic society. Maulana Maudidi writes that the western ideologies have divided the human race on the basis of caste, creed, religion, language, colour and territorial boundaries. People who adhered to these concepts are referred to as nationals and the rest as aliens. He, therefore, writes that the elements of morality and humanism have no place in these western ideologies. He points out that these manmade concepts are devoid of any spiritual elements. This position has resulted in a deep rooted caste system as in Hinduism, the divide between the black and white in the United States and apartheid in South Africa. All this has resulted in bloodshed and misery for hundreds of thousands across the globe.
- 12.
Jamia masjid is the old grand mosque in Srinagar, Kashmir, built by Sultan Sikandar Shahmiri Kashmiri and follows the Pagoda style of architecture.
- 13.
Red 16 is an infamous torture centre in Kashmir that existed before the breakout of armed insurgency. The centre served as a torture camp during Bakshi Ghulam Mohamad’s rule and most of the Al-Fatah members were lodged here. Oral narratives claim that this house no 16 was unlawfully taken by the government forces from its inhabitants and converted into a torture centre.
- 14.
During September–November 1947, between 70,000 and 500,000 Muslims were massacred in the Jammu region of the princely state Jammu and Kashmir, leading to their mass migration towards West Pakistan. The killings were carried out by extremist Hindus and Sikhs and incited by the Dogra forces of the Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh.
- 15.
Maulana Rasul Shah formed the Anjuman Nusrat ul-Islam (The Society for the Victory of Islam) in 1899 which imparted both modern and Islamic education to the Muslims of Kashmir and influenced their nationalist consciousness in their fight against the Dogra monarchy.
- 16.
Sayed (meaning master or mister) is an honorific title for people who trace direct lineage to the Islamic prophet through his grandsons. However, in its non-Arabic context it has acquired status denomination especially in regions formerly organised through a caste system. They have evolved as social groups that practise strict endogamy.
- 17.
Story of the Pharaoh and his wife Aasiya mentioned in the Quran, Chapter 66. Interview of Aasiyeh Andrabi with the author conducted in June 2013.
- 18.
In 2006 a sex scandal rattled Kashmir’s government. When a pornographic CD was handed over to police, they questioned two girls who named Kashmir government’s top officials and bureaucrats. About 56 people were accused of involvement, including a local woman named Sabina who admitted her close links with counterinsurgency units in Kashmir. As the scandal came to light, her house was razed and she became a particular target of the wrath from the community. Some of the prominent accused are as follows: former Jammu and Kashmir ministers Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Raman Mattoo, former Border Security Force Inspector General K.S. Padhi, former Additional Advocate General Anil Sethi, former Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohamad Ashraf Mir and former senior IAS officer Iqbal Khandey. The case was handed over to the Central Investigations Bureau and has been ongoing in Chandigarh for the last twelve years. Most of the accused have been acquitted, except for Sabina, who still has to travel to Chandigarh for case hearings. Sabina lives in the outskirts of Srinagar city and faces a severe backlash from the community. During this time, only Dokhtaran have approached her with their counsel and spiritual advice and have taken her into the group.
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Malik, I. (2019). Resurgence of Muslim Consciousness and Islamic Liberation Theology. In: Muslim Women, Agency and Resistance Politics. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95330-4_3
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