Normalcy Here
Anantnag fades out, it’s Islamabad back again
WRITE HAND Ajaz-ul-Haque
(from geaterkashmir.com)
It was quite heartening to see names getting gradually back to their original. Islamabad, the town and the district in South Kashmir has been a name in question for so long. Particularly the last fifteen years have witnessed the policy of coercion whereby Kashmiris were forced to do certain acts or to utter certain terms. We have no argument against those who want to prove it ‘Anantnag’ in official records. Let’s not bother to rake up the files of medieval history to find evidences in support. Here the contention is more social or communal than political or historical.
There is nothing in the name and neither do the two terms anyway connote a particular creed. The etiology of the two words has not been an issue of discord as both the communities might agree on both the names. ‘Anantnag’ makes it the land of many springs and Islamabad defines it as the abode of peace. Moreso, calling it either way does not speak of any religious or ideological commitment. Officially though the district is ‘Anantnag’, but the social lingo of the town still accepts, approve and endorses ‘Islamabad’ as its name. The Muslim majority, unwillingly though, are bound to follow the official norm. One may utter the word or write it on a personal note book or use it for a newspaper article, but once it comes to official communication, no one can afford to defy the rule. Once again there is nothing in the name, calling Earth as Mercury will not have any effect on its distance from or revolutions around the sun. Coining a wishful nomenclature at times smacks of obscurantism especially for those who want to liberate themselves form an undesired baggage of obscurantism. So the subject need be seen from an angle of neutrality. If Hindus of Kashmir are happy naming it one way, Muslims can’t do otherwise. The cleavage thus created is partly artificial, partly real. Artificial because nothing will change whichever way you call it, real because it confirms the group you want to identify yourself with. To make it more open, we must go back to the beginning.
In 1989, when armed struggle was about to take off, Kashmir witnessed a massive change on all counts. The change was not only political but ideological too. Momentary though, but introduction of a few trends might not have meant much, nevertheless signified a lot. Tying of watches on the right fist, reversing the clock by half an hour to make it match with Pakistan Standard Time, slogan shouting in mosques alongwith the regular call for prayers – call them enforcements from outside or acts based on conviction, but all the same it was a loud proclamation of seceding oneself from one system and identifying with other. It announced an allegiance to Pakistan and everything that meant Pakistani. Euphoric? May be. But the change was rooted in logic and history both. It, as a natural law of motion, invited repulsion. Equal and opposite reactions were expected to follow and they did. Indian troops deployed everywhere besides combating armed struggle were engaged in coercing people to get themselves Indianised. Anything which meant Pakistan was strongly dealt with and the backlash was imminent. Your safety would depend largely on the time set on your watch and the hand the watch is tied on. We are painfully reminded of those times when sporting beard, donning cap, wearing a typical outfit would invite anger and indignation from the cop on duty. A deeply polarized thought further vitiated and newer methods were adopted. In the process Islamabad suddenly became Anantnag and public transport fell the first casualty. The names had to be changed. No Islamabad hence forth. Drivers, conductors of the area know it full well. Those with Islamabad written on the board had to face the music. Terrorized they were at the mere utterance of the word. ‘Islamabad’, written or oral meant nightmare for commuters or bus owners as well. What was the option. To make it ‘Anantnag’. But no, they found a safer way, they replaced it with ‘Khannabal’, a place adjacent to the town. It was an intelligent move to save one’s skin and to sustain one’s aversion against anything thrust on them. If it’s no ‘Islamabad’, let it be no ‘Anantnag’ also. ‘Khannabal’ did the needful.
The very discussion sounds frivolous, but even in this frivolity, we find some sense. If naming a place is too innocuous an act to be made a matter of discord, why coercion? That makes one irrationally conscious of something which otherwise could have gone unattended. We see a reason in tasting the sweetness of the forbidden fruit. And we have a reason to believe that normalcy is back, as bus drivers are beginning to get back their ‘Islamabad’ boards. One is delighted to see a few passenger busses slowly breaking the code and settling with their original set of names. Saving your skin without accepting the imposition proved a good tactic. It’s not always easy to defy coercion, but an unwillingness from within makes us think of novel methods of resistance. Between suicide and submission, there is a scope to resist. A lesson for our ‘freedom lovers’ who smell betrayal in anything less than suicide, and for our ‘intellectuals’ as well who crawl when they are asked to bend only.
Copyright and courtesy of Greater Kashmir. com [link]
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