Curfewed
Night
By Prof. G.L. Jalali
January 2012
Packed with facts and fiction, narrated
in a locale of electrified human emotions
TITLE: .Curfewed Night
AUTHOR: Basharat Peer
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2010
PAGES: 221
PUBLISHER: Harper Publications,
London
Its
racy prose is both lyrical and moving, subject
matter most poignant It describes what a heaven
it (Kashmir) was and what a hell it is now –
all man made.
It is an emotional tale of mans’ love for
his land, the pain of leaving home and
ultimately the joy of return.
In the wake of the ongoing Muslim insurgency
in the erstwhile princely Indian state of Jammu
and Kashmir that broke out in 1989 a spute of
books, dealing with the J&K insurgency, have
flooded the world book market. These books were
authored mostly by the persons living either
outside J&K or some foreign writers. There
were a few Kashmir authors who wrote copiously
on the Kashmir subject. Mr. Basharat Peer, the
author of Curfewed Night (under review) is one
such author who has the distinction of writing a
revealing book on the ongoing political turmoil
in his native land – the scenic valley of
Kashmir. His book “Curfewed Night” is the
memoir of a young Kashmiri Muslim Journalist who
spent his childhood and adolescent years in the
strife ridden Kashmiri valley.
Belonging to a well-to-do Muslim Peer
(priestly) family, Basharat’s father Mr.GA
Peer is a serving bureaucrat (now posted as
Commissioner-cum-Education Secretary in J &
K state).His mother serves as a school teacher
while his grand father is a retired head-master
of a Government Secondary School. His upbringing
was unlike that of other Muslim boys in his
native village, Seer which is on way to
valley’s internationally known tourist spot.
Gifted with rich imagination and deft of
thought, Basharat Peer describes his village
environs-open paddy fields, neighboring
mountains, rich flora and fauna, village houses
with thatched roofs, running and roaring brooks
– in an artistic manner couched in a simple,
readable and, above all, racy style of his prose
reminiscent of any matured and experienced
English writer. Still, the young scribe has to
go miles ahead. For his style of writing I offer
my hearty congratutions to Mr. Basharat Peer.
The book consists of sixteen chapters running
over two hundred twenty one pages. Each chapter
carries an appropriate heading, capping the
details given inside the chapter. Chapters from
one to eight describe author’s early life up
to the period when he is all set to leave the
valley for plains in search of new green
pastures and to make a successful career.
In the second part the author of the Curfewed
Night describes his journey as a reporter of a
Delhi based newspaper through length and breadth
of Kashmir, meeting a cross-section of the
Kashmiris and noting their reaction towards the
militancy that engulfed his homeland.
So the book titled Curfewed Night is an
anecdotal record of the events seen through the
prism of a writer who, overtly or covertly,
sympathizes with the militants. It is a
chronicle of events keenly observed by a young
Muslim journalist who grows up watching this
charming valley turning into a hotbed of Muslim
insurgency.
Basharat Peer’s narrative takes the reader
into 1990s when almost the whole of Kashmir
valley was overtaken very badly by Pak-sponsored
militancy. The author was only 13 years old boy,
reading in a village school when the Indian army
was fighting a tough gurrila war with the
Pakistan trained militants.
Pakistan had never reconciled with the Indian
stand on Kashmir. When General Zia-UI-Haq came
to power in a military coup against the
democratically elected Bhutto Government,
Pakistan started a proxy-war to grab Kashmir. It
started indoctrinating Kashmiri Muslim youth,
giving them arms training
at military camps set up in PoK by Pakistan’s
infamous ISl. Thus started the Jihad in Kashmir.
It burst forth with vigor in 1990. The civilian
government in the valley was almost subverted.
That is what Mr. Basharat Peer, the author of
the book the Curfewed Night under review, calls
“Independence movement”.
Even in his adolescence, he was swept by this
“Freedom movement” which was in full bloom.
Once it so happened that he had to join a
procession of “Freedom Fighters”, he felt
himself a part of “something
larger’……”Fighting and dying”. Fired
with a strong urge to usher in an Isiamic order
and to overpower the enemies of their so-called
freedom, Basharat’s school friends would cross
high-mountain peaks, standing magnificently all
along the border with PoK, to receive arms
training in alien climes. The rebel in the young
school-going boy, Basharat, take the place of a
coy- some sibling of a middle-class rural Muslim
family and decides to join the much talked about
freedom-struggle as Mujahideen. He wants to bid
adieu to studies at school.
Peer’s parents heard about their sons firm
resolve to join JKLF, the then premier militant
outfit, fighting for valley’s independence.
His parents intervened and succeeded in
preventing young Basharat from joining the
militant outfit. “He can join after finishing
his studies,” they said to their overzealous
son. Rebellion, his father said repeatedly, were
led by educated men. The young boy had to yield
to the wishes of his parents. He draws a pen
picture of the situation appering in February
1990 in the valley, particularly in Srinagar.
The author says, “By February 1990 Kashmir was
in the midst of a full-blown rebellion against
India. Every evening we heard the news of more
protests and deaths. Protests followed killings,
and killings followed protests. News came from
Srinagar that hundreds of thousands of people
had marched to pray for independence at the
shrine of the patron saint of Kashmir, Nooruddin
Rishi. All over the state similar marches to the
shrines of Surfi saints were launched. I joined
a procession to the shrine of a much revered
Zain Shah Sahib at Aishmuqam near my
school”(page 17). It is worth mentioning that
Saint Zain Shah was originally a Kashmiri
Brahman converted to Islam in 15th century,.
When Kashmir was ruled by some fanatic Muslim
rulers, including the infamous idol breaker
Sikender Butshekan. As admitted by the author of
the Curfewed Night, it was a full-fledged revolt
against India, provoked and abetted by Pakistan
in collabration with the Sunni Musllim
Community. So, the so-called political movement
was no less short of a religious movement aimed
at seceding Kashmir from India on the “basis
of two-nation theory, the sheet-anchor of the
bloody Partition of the Indian subcontinent. It
is on account of this premises that former
President of Pakistan,Ghulam Ishaq Khan called
the Kashmir issue “unfinished agenda of
Partition”. To call the ongoing Jehad as
Independence Movement by Mr.Basharat Peer, the
author of the Curfewed Night, is sheer travesty
of truth and the distortion of historical facts.
His remarks about the former Governor of
Kashmir, Jagmohan are unwarranted and
condemnable in the light of facts. ‘The night
of January 20, 1990 was long and sad. Before
dinner, my family gathered as usual around the
radio for the evening news on BBC World Service.
Two days earlier, Jagmohan, an Indian bureaucrat
infamous for his hatred for Muslims, had been
appointed the governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He
gave orders to crush the incipient
rebellion……”(page15). To this question the
author will find a suitable answer in the “My
Frozen Turbulance’ written by Jagmohan two
decades ago. He says when he had assumed the
charge as the Governor of J & K state, the
strife-torn state was “slipping away from
India” as a result of conspiracy hatched and
worked out by Pakistan’s infamous ISI, named
“Operation Topac”. As a patriot and
well-wisher of the peace-loving Kashmiri’s he
had no option but to bring the deteriorating
situation under control. It goes to the credit
of Mr. Jagmohan that he retrieved the valley for
the Indian-nation and let the flag of secularism
flying aloft on the ramparts of the Red Fort.
Had he remained as the Governor of J&K state
for some time more the history of the
strife-torn state would have been decidedly
different and there would have been no Kashmir
issue. Unfortunately, some anti-national
elements, emboldened by false media propaganda
by Pakistan against Jagmohan, this visionary and
ace-administrator was unceremoniously removed as
Governor of the state. I, as reviewer of Mr.
Basharat Peer’s book Curfewed Night, am not
holding brief for the former Governor Jagmohan,
but stating facts for the information of the
author of the book who appears to rely upon what
former militants and their sympathizers have
stated in their interviews with the author of
the book.
His reference to the Gowkadal firings and
killings needs to be discussed in the light of
volatile propaganda. On page 15,the author
say’s “One protest march began from a
southern Srinagar area where my parents now
live, passed the city centre, Lal Chowk, and
marched through the nearby Maisuma towards the
shrine of a revered Sufi Saint of a few miles
ahead. Protesters were crossing the dilapidated
wooden Gawkadal Bridge in Maisuma when the
Indian paramilitary, the Central Reserve Police
Force, opened fire. More than fifty people were
killed. It was the first massacre in the Kashmir
valley. As the news sank in, we all wept…? It
was no doubt, a great tragedy. There was
reliable intelligence reports that some
mischievous elements in the protest march were
bent upon raking up communal riots by setting
ablaze on way Hindu houses in nearby Kashmiri
Pandit localities, including Ganpatyar, Habba
Kadal etc. That might have been the reason for
the Indian Security Forces to take such a strong
action. On hearing about such happenings, the
heart of every Kashmiri – Hindu or Muslim- is
bound to bleed and ache, let alone that of the
author of the book under review.
One thing, as pointed out by a critic, goes
to the credit of the author of the book Curfewed
Night, is an extraordinary memories that does a
great deal to bring the Kashmir conflict out of
the realm of political rhetoric between India
and Pakistan and the lives of Kashmiri’s.
Again, Mr. Basharat Peer refers to his
unsuccessful visit to Kunnan Poshpara Village in
Kupwara district of North Kashmir were the
security forces were alleged to have raped a
number of village Women. It was just a
propaganda stunt by Pakistan. A probe into the
alleged rape incidents by the state authorities
brought the fact to limelight that these charges
leveled against the Indian army were totally
false and fabricated. I wonder how an impartial
news-reporter was led away by this propaganda
stunt. His emotional out burst on these
fabricated crimes committed by the security
forces can be gauged from his own description !
“He sits at a bus-stop watching for the bus to
take him to Kunnan Poshpora, but when it arrives
he just goes on sitting, listening to the sound
of reviving engine, and watching the bus drive
away. For all the stories of suffering he seeks
out, there is one he cannot bring himself to
look at too closely.”
The author has no word to say about the
Chattisinghpora and the Wandhama carnages
committed by the militants on non-Muslim
villagers. In Chattisinghpora village, situated
close to Bashart Peer’s native village in
Anantnag distinct, over thirty- Sikhs were
brutally killed, while twentyfive Kashmiri
Pandits in Wandhama village in Ganderbal Tehsil
were gunned down mercilessly and their houses
set on fire. A thirteen year old Kashmiri Pandit
boy was the lone survivor in this village where
almost fifty Pandit families lived prior to this
brutal massacre of innocent Kashmiri Pandit
Villagers. Their burnt houses still remain a
living eye-witness to the atrocities perpetrated
on the Kashmiri Pandit Community.
There is just one stray reference to the
forced mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the
land of their birth. The author went to attend
his village school one fine morning. He found no
Kashmiri Pandit teacher present in the school as
all of them had fled the valley. Of course, he
felt very sad and puzzled. ‘The murders sent a
wave of fear through the community and more than
a hundred thousand Pandits left Kashmiri after
March, 1990. The affluent moved to houses in
Jammu, Delhi and various Indian cities. But a
vast majority could find shelter only in the
squalor of refugee camps and rented rooms in
Jammu and Delhi’ (page 184).
The author refers to the secular and
harmonious atmosphere prevailing In the valley
prior to 1989. ‘The practice of Islam in
Kashmir borrowed elements from the Hindu and the
Buddhist past, the Hindus in turn were
influenced by Muslim practices. In my childhood
nobody raised an eyebrow if Hindu women went to
a Muslim shrine to seek the blessings of a
saint. The religious divide was visible only on
the days India and Pakistan played cricket.
Muslims supported the Pakistani Cricket and the
Pandits were for India. My father’s best
friend was and remains a Pandit; my mother had
long friendships with Pandit women who taught in
the same school”( chapter 15, page184).
The chapter titled “Papa-II”deals with
the author’s interviews with some militants.
The details givien by these militants about some
of these interrogation centres are horrible and
blood-curdling ancedots. The discription of
these horrible stories invoke the sympathizes of
the reader, no matter how callous-minded the
reader may be. If true, one cannot but condemn
these inhuman acts committed by the army
investigators. But there stands a question mark:
are these real acts of the India’s disciplined
army? However, there may be exceptions here and
there. Perhaps it is aimed to tarnish the image
of our security forces.
One such centre was shut and later on
occupied by a top-ranking Oxford Educated
Kashmiri bureaucrat as stated by the author of
Curfewed Night, Says the author, “Before
moving in, the Oxford-Educated Officer called
priests of all religions to pray there and
exorcise the ghosts”(page 133, chapter 11).
The author has almost sidelined describing
the gruesome killings of some eminent Kashmiri
Pandit leaders, Lawyers, Doctors, Journalists,
Business men, Teachers and Scholars. Can the
Kashmiris particularly Kashmiri Pandits forget
brutal killings of Pandit Sarwanand Premi and
his son, whose eyes were gorged with an iron rod
and the bodies cut to pieces or Sarla, a school
teacher in a Kupwara school, sawed to death in a
sawmill. Militants are equally responsible for
turning the happy valley into hell. Without
describing these killings, the author has not
taken his narrative to a successful conclusion.
However, author’s search for his “lost
teacher”-Pandit Chaman Lai Kantroo- evokes our
admiration for this budding Kashmiri Muslim
author. He desperately makes a search for his
childhood Kashmiri Pandit friends. He visits
Awtar’s hut in Jammu where he meets his
father’s adopted Hindu sister Gouri wife of
Awtar, Jee. “Is he Ammul’s son?” says
Gouri. “Ammul was my father’s childhood name
which hardly any one outside the family knew. My
eyes were wet,” narrates Basharat Peer (page
183). He met his childhood friend, Vinod, by
chance in Srinagar where he worked as Area
Manager of a Pharmaceutical Company. After a
long search he met his Master Jee Chaman Lai
Kantroo, in a rented room in Amphela in Jammu.
“A step stair led to the rooftop. Behind a
curtain of clothes hanging on a nylon rope was a
garret. “Come in, Basharat,” Mr Kantroo
called out. I looked at him ; he had aged. His
checks had sunk deep, his hair was almost white;
his eyes were deep down, but seemed to have lost
their verve.”(page190). His teacher gave him a
book of poems composed by him. The cover of the
book read “Eternal Sin”. His partings were
surcharged with emotions on either side-from his
old student Basharat and his teacher Pandit C.L.
Kantroo.
He describes valley’s corrupt bureaucracy.
Even bureaucrats demand huge bribes for
sanctioning monetary relief. “The files do not
move by itself from one table to another. Out of
the relief money of one lakh, the applicant has
to spend 25 per cent to thirty thousand rupees.
Otherwise he will waste years visiting offices.
And once he pays that, we ensure that his name
in the compensation job list goes up and things
move fast.”(page 164). He gives a pen picture
of the devastated Rughnath Mandir in the
interior of Srinagar city and the abandoned
Martand temple at Mattan sans (missing) Shiva
idol. At the end of the Curfewed Night the
author crosses the Line of Control at Uri which
now “functions as a defecto border between two
parts of Kashmir” He comments, “The Loc did
not run through 576 kilometer of militarized
mountains. It ran through the reels of Bollywood
coming to life in dark theatres; it ran through
the conversations in Coffee shops and TV screens
showing cricket matches. It ran through whispers
of lovers. And it ran through our grief, our
anger, our tears and our silence”. (Page
220-221). It ends with the people awaiting
eagerly for the bus coming from the other side
of our valley. “I watched thousands of men,
women and children stand and along the
soldier-laden road, welcoming the ones who had
stepped across the Iine.”(page221).
I wish Basharat Peer writing his new book,
describing the return of 4 lakh displaced
Kashmiri Pandits to their land of birth and
their Muslim brethren according them warm
hearted welcome in the true spirit of
“Kashmeriat” of which the author of the
Curfewed Night is a strong votary Amen !
In the end I agree that the “Curfewed Night
is an emotional tale of man’s (author’s)
love for his land, the pain of leaving home and
ultimately the joy of return”. Its racy prose
is both lyrical and moving, subject matter most
poignant. It describes what a heaven once it
was, and what a hell it now is – all man-made!
Buck up Basharat Sahib-that is my message to
you!
*(The author is prolific writer
and editor Samachar Post)
Source: Kashmir
Sentinel
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