Our Insha Malik Couldn’t Become Malala Yousfzai

The pellets fired by the so called security forces on the 15 year old Insha has not only left her physically crippled but unveiled the masque of state brutality and its systematic saga of oppression. To keep its geographical lust kicking violence in the valley has always been used as a last resort to quell the popular sentiment even at the cost of death and destruction. Insha Malik’s tragic story defines all that Kashmir has witnessed since decades of violence due to its fragile political history marred by the broken promises. The current intifada is yet another defiance of people against the macabre of deceit and treachery by those who legalized this saga of oppression. The current uprising may set the agenda for a new aggressive and robust political discourse in Kashmir after the mainstream folks touched a new low by justifying the brutalities. The disproportionate use of so called non lethal pellet guns which so far claimed the eyesight of hundreds of people will be written in the history of Kashmir as the cruelest onslaught on the besieged people same as the Nazi’s did to Jews in the concentration camps. Insha too suffered the grave eye injuries in the pellet attack and most probably might not see again but it will definitely serve as a reminder for people in the valley to open their eyes and read the writing on the wall that reads don’t sacrifice your heart to a wife you no longer love. Her rest of life is certainly going to be dark and dependent but her tragedy will remain a perpetual scar on the face of humanity and a big question mark on the role of international human rights organizations. Whose silence this time was the most sickening and staggering of all? After losing vision doctors now fear she might lose sanity too because of the severe infection in her head. Insha unlike Malala Yousafzai represents the untold heart wrenching story of all those victims from a place which is reeling under siege and the world continues to forget because it didn’t serve their interests as the latter does.

Insha was not on the road neither there was any protests going on in her village but as usual she turned to be yet another fly to the wanton forces after they unleashed hell of pellets on the hapless people. According to her relatives, Insha was in the first floor of her house when forces fired pellets inside their house. “She screamed and fell unconscious and within no time her face was swollen,” recalled one of her relatives. Insha hails from Sedow village of south Kashmir’s Shopian where in the 2009 the tragedy of twin rape and murder of Aasiya and Neelofar took place which latter snowballed into a massive public uprising. The culprits of that shame still roam free, the probe ordered by the state government humiliated the victims and the dream of justice remain a dream for them.

The untold somber story of Insha couldn’t hit the headlines because of the complete media blackout by the defenders of democracy to squeeze the information flow so that the world should not come to know about their war crimes in Kashmir. The clampdown on the media and all modes of communication resulted that her story didn’t reach to the corridors of world powers. Where just few years back a teenage girl from the Pakistan’s swat valley became the focus of attention and world darling. There was too much overwhelming condemnation outpouring across the world that it finally bagged her noble prize. Today world calls her the noble laureate Malala Yousafzai, who defied all odds to seek education during the Taliban rule in the swat valley of Pakistan. After shot in the head by Taliban fighters who objected to her campaign to improve girls’ education. She was flown to U.K for the best medical treatment. There the western media subsequently portrayed her sole spokeswoman for the plight of female children living in the conflict zones.

On the other hand the unfortunate Insha couldn’t get proper treatment till the doctors in Srinagar alarmed that she might lose her vision any time. She was then flown to All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi for further treatment where even the crocodile tears were shed to wash off their heinous crimes. Insha had big dreams like Malala, her mother say she wanted to become a doctor and were studying hard, “She used to say she will have no time to play next year when she would be in Class 10th”. But the predators of peace darkened and shattered her all dreams. She of late finally hit the headlines of world media but the double standard of world community and the human rights groups look her through the prism of vested interest.

The major section of international media is still reluctant to broadcast Insha’s story unlike of Malala when they ran nonstop coverage till they achieve their covet objectives. This double standard of international media and the United Nations mandated to redress the grievances of oppressed people again stand fully exposed. Mere statements of sympathy and the formality of condemnations can’t scare the aggressor. If it would have happen in a Muslim country then the axe of economical sanctions and militarily assault might have fallen upon them. But unfortunately they forget those subjugated, oppressed and alienated Muslims continuously reeling under the tyrant non Muslim occupants since decades.

Insha’s misery couldn’t find any voice in the west unlike Malala whose biggest supporter Gordon Brown did everything to make sure to get maximum political mileage out of her story. May be Insha didn’t write any diary which can be broadcast nor her father was running any NGO affiliated with any international organization. The pellet injury has pushed her into the deep realms of despondency and darkness where she has to live the remaining life in misery and pain.
This insensitive and coldhearted response from the world was expected as the new strategic alliances in the region is coming up where the major powers like US, Russia, UK, China, Germany and France are signing treaty after treaty and ignoring the long standing issue of Kashmir? Their continues silence over the grave human rights violation in Kashmir shows the biased and polarized attitude where human beings are pushed to live without the human rights. If Malala’s misery can brought tears in the eyes of torch bearers of human rights and the world leaders. Then why they don’t utter a word of solidarity and share grief when another school going young girl from Kashmir fell to the pellets fired by the Taliban in Khaki.

The way state is swelling the intensity of brutalities after every passing day but it looks they are proving counterproductive as they continue to shake the collective conscious of people. Historically the mind of oppressed has always been the most potent weapon of oppressor but in this current intifada the fetters seems to have broken down. The resolve of people is incorporated with the belief, determination, steadfastness and power to end this decade’s long era of darkness no matter either the world community speaks or keeps silence.

They way protests, candlelight vigils, special prayers were held in the schools, mosques and streets for her speedy recovery across the world which should be done at every such barbaric incident whether its Malala or Insha. Due to the social media blackout, her place of birth, geo-politics in the region, the intellectual occupation and the constant criminal silence on the part of world community our Insha couldn’t become another Malala Yousafzai.

Revoke Draconian Laws

By Mir Liyakat

Mir Liyakat

The recent Handwara firing horror added yet another dark page in the bloodied history of Kashmir, when five unarmed civilians were killed in cold blood after they were protesting against the alleged sexual molestation of a teenage girl by men inKhaki.

The unabated cycle of killings will continue in the valley till the trigger happy forces enjoy impunity and legal protection.

No inquiry or commission can prove them guilty or punish till draconian laws like AFSPA are not completely scrapped.

These draconian laws have virtually turned Kashmir into a killing field where people are brutalized, terrorized and killed in the garb of law and order.

Those who were responsible in legislating and implementing such inhuman laws, at the behest of their masters, remained complicit in unleashing hell on people.

The Unionist power politics is always conditioned by the treachery and hypocrisy. That is why they never bother to take up these inhuman laws seriously with New Delhi.

They stage dramas and fool people during election rallies by promising lifting of all such inhuman laws.

Their paramount interest is to get power.

Words like, duplicity, backstabbing, flip-flopping are too narrow to connote the height of deceit of Unionist political forces in the state.

The mere hollow slogans of ‘autonomy’ and the thoughtless theory of ‘self rule’ are consistently been used by them as a regurgitated food to perpetuate power at the cost of collective interest of subjugated people.

Agitation that followed Handwara incident for removal of bunker shows how new volcano of resistance is simmering albeit tried to tutor it by the language of violence.

The more you keep people in the chains of black laws the more they will respond with high voltage resilience and massive outrage. These laws have strangled the justice system, which gives government forces free license to use force, to detain a person without a trial for two years and trample the sanctity of life, honour and property of the people.

These laws are not only against the basic system of justice but stained the face of humanity.

We saw it during the mass uprisings of 2008 and 2010 when more than 136 boys were killed and hundreds other injured in the brute police action. Not even a single person so far has been arrested or punished. Many Human Rights groups and legal luminaries have spoken in unison about the dark repercussions of these draconian laws.

But unfortunately the world’s “largest democracy” believes that these colonial era laws are effective and imperative in a disputed territory like Kashmir to run its show of democracy.

Twenty five years have passed, when these inhuman laws were implemented in the state, but apart from debates and promises by the Unionist  political parties, to revoke them, they continue to play havoc with the lives of people. Those who claim to be the elected representatives should hang their head in shame when the minister of state in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh said, “Last word on AFSPA would only come from the security agencies and not from the political parties”.

This tells of their importance and political credibility in Kashmir, where they often bailed India out of its turbulent times. When in power, they waste no opportunity to legalize oppression and act as collaborators in decimating, diluting the “constitutional and autonomous status of Kashmir”.

Meanwhile, the current government has ordered another probe in Handwara incident. It will meet the same fate as other previous cases, thanks to presence of these black laws.  To deny justice, choking the dissent of people, may have serious implications, which can prove potentially dangerous for all the stake holders.

Time is ripe for both state and Union governments to take a final call over these draconian laws before situation gets out of hand.  However, to revoke AFSPA and other black laws from Kashmir is no victory till it remains a disputed territory.

We know it won’t make any huge difference, but at least it can bring some respite particularly for the state judiciary to function freely.

Ironically, in India, constitution is demonstrated by judiciary, but in Kashmir it is defined by the men in Khaki through the barrel of gun.

The Trojan horses in the camouflage of democratic robes in Srinagar also need to show some semblance of respect for the besieged people and help restore justice and dignity.

If the demand for revocation of AFSPA is not heard and addressed immediately, it will certainly escalate chaos, violence, mass agitations in future.

Clash of Egos: Who Suffers in the End?

The recent clash of egos between the director of education and the self styled president of teachers' forum once again brought the education department at the centre stage in the public discourse. This time it's interesting as well as an alarming because the current standoff deals with the alleged dubious degrees of ReT teachers and the sanctity of their sacred profession. The president of teachers' forum in a public spat used objectionable language against the newly appointed director of education. Has it now become a mere clash of egos where strong bureaucracy and the leaders of teachers' forum are battling for the absolute power?

Is it only random transfers and postings that followed after the public spat panacea of all diseases in which the department is caught up? Nobody is against the government order that the certificates obtained by the ReT's teachers should be scrutinized but conducting exams of in-service teachers who are in department from the past more than ten years is harsh and sheer case of injustice.

It's the same arrogant bureaucracy and the feudal mindset of teachers' president that is proving to be detrimental for the lower middle class students who suffer as they continue to study in cowsheds, under the shadowy trees, in dingy classrooms reading the outdated syllabus. In the past there has never been any serious attempt on the part of successive governments and the concerned department to focus on the grave issues which destroyed the working ethics as well as the standard of quality education in the state. It would have been a welcome step from the director of education to start his campaign of reforms by focusing on the fundamental issues related to the elementary school education. But by making screening test compulsory for every ReT teacher who obtained their degrees from outside study centers or through distance mode after the High Court order issued on May 14 was a hasty decision that jeopardized the whole process of change. There are other court orders as well pending but unfortunately they were never taken seriously and implemented by the people in power.

We were expecting historical steps from the newly appointed director of education department so that we can restore its past glory when the education was holy mission and the teachers were most respected people. Unfortunately, as the times passes, the director is besieging himself in the political gimmicks of a ruling party which will certainly make things from bad to worse. We know at the end of this saga these union leaders turn out to be the darlings of the same bureaucracy after all this tirade against each other. It's the poor ReT teacher who will suffer at the end of clash. Because according to the court order he has to prove his academic worth on a single sheet of paper. If he fails, he'll be shown the door no matter how long he has served in the department. The single case of inefficiency and incompetency of a teacher should not be taken as a lawsuit against the entire teaching community. Yes there are black sheep but they exist everywhere in the state institutions and it's the duty of state government to take action against all, whether they are teachers, doctors, engineers or any other employee.

In contrast to it the employees like daily wagers, ad-hocs, ReT teachers are stigmatized, ostracized, harassed and disgraced by orders and in police actions but those who are involved in the menace of rampant corruption, nepotism, red-tapism and favoritism continue to rule. The transfer of an employee is an administrative issue and the employee should follow the directions in letter and spirit rather than outsourcing their right to a persona non grata. On his single call teachers without any questioning waste no time to hit the roads and protest till the men in kahki unleash disproportionate brute force against them.

It's not only the case of less educated ReT teachers who are caught up in the vortex of court orders; we have a bumper crop of doctors, engineers who not only have obtained dubious degrees abroad but are involved in the illegal acts and even became the cause of deaths. No court or government officials took any suo motu action taken against them. Hundreds of babies died in the state children hospital but still nobody was found guilty by the so called inquiry commissions. The negligence of doctors and hospital administration proved the worst hospital horror in the state history but were never asked to prove their worth on single sheet of paper. Then why every time the axe falls on the poor employees and ReT teachers? Nobody should be spared if he or she is found inefficient and incompetent but the law should be equal for all.

Education department has always been one of the premier organs of the state machinery but in case of Jammu and Kashmir, it has become an agitation department. Who is responsible for it - teachers or the successive heads of department who, except ribbon cutting ceremonies and having Wazwan in the private schools, do nothing? Teachers on the other hand are caught up in syndrome of promotion and perks without any substantial academic achievements. We know the process of government teaching job in Jammu and Kashmir is so challenging and exhausting. You need to grey your hair in perusing all the prescribed degrees no matter whether you are an expert in your subject or not.

When we have such a traditional educational system and discriminative bureaucracy, we should not expect quality education. The current problem is a result of people at the helm of affairs, who treat teachers as inferior creatures. History is testimony to the fact that the powerful nations have asserted their dominance only through educational developments and by respecting their teachers. They consider them as foot soldiers and arm them with new skills, infrastructure and modern methods of education. The teachers also need to pull up their socks and come out of the fantasy world so as to protect and preserve their respect in the society by not indulging in cheap unionism.

(Mir Liyakat Nazir has a PhD in Resistance Literature from University of Pune)

NIT Fiasco

Mir Liyakat

The day right wing forces came to power in Delhi; the already malignant democratic face of India become more darkish and perilous particularly to those who have been the victim of her colonial instincts since 1947. The ‘Ache Din’ promise of Modi is continuously translated into ‘Burhe Din’ agony for those who differ with their ideology, whether he is a student at JNU or a beef eater Muslim. The saffron Tamashaa at play is busy in re-scripting history, renaming roads; messing up in the academics, food terrorism; moral policing and turning the universities into concentration camps. These are all seen their desperate attempts to generate a fascist political discourse in India to hound minorities and muzzle dissenters.

The ongoing cascade of rioting, lynching, coercion, polarization and suppression has interestingly again reignited the debate of ‘you’ and ‘us’ clash by repeating the history, when the two nation theory exactly propounded the same in 1947.

The latest pre-planned communal endeavor was staged in the NIT Srinagar, where a handful of local students cheered for West Indies cricket team after their win over India in T20 sparked wrath, rage from the outstation students. Not only they beat local students and staff members to the pulp but ransacked the entire institute for many days. They indulged in provocative spat, after they felt highly inspired, when the Indian vicious media machines ran nonstop broadcast of hate mongering. To further fan the drama of hatred many fictitious characters including actors, academicians and filmmakers from outside the state were airdropped in the valley.

Thanks to the administration and the state police who barred many of them at the Srinagar airport from entering NIT and doused the imminent communal standoff.

However a little known extremist group in the disguise of Bhagat Sena sent its bunch of students from Delhi to march towards NIT, which according to many observers believe was part of a covet response from the BJP, so that not to annoy its ally in the state.

Despite their dire attempt to communalize Kashmir and the ongoing resistance movement they failed to find any local reactionary character, even from the separatist camp to execute their nefarious plan. Any tri-color hoisting is not going to change the ground reality of Kashmir which remained a disputed territory and the most militarized place in the world.

Majority of the People here do cheer for any cricket team that plays against a country viewed as a monster of all miseries, is not a new revelation which is hard to gobble.  From Sheri-Kashmir cricket stadium to NIT Srinagar, cricket has been seen as one of the medium of resistance to express anger against India. They (Kashmiris) were promised before the world community, that they will be given a chance to decide their political future, but still it remained a distant dream.

The last 60 years of ongoing forced marriage between Srinagar and Delhi remained swaddled in the robes of iron fist rule, trust deficit, countless miseries, violence, disappearance and miscarriage of justice.

The NIT drama may prove in future as a serious security challenge for Kashmir students studying outside the state, but it exposed once again the writ of local regional unionist political parties and administration after they were completely sidelined by Delhi. The way state police presence inside the campus was replaced by the CRPF shows how they are not considered a reliable force that manages their entire security grid and safeguard their interests in Kashmir.

On the other hand, the second innings of Mufti’s ‘unholy alliance’ may not complete its term but it will certainly jeopardize the bond of harmony and change its demography for power struggle. If the ruling party believes that the economical initiatives and the hollow chants of development will solve the political issues of the disputed territory, then the self denials and hubris may end their game of thrones forever, as what happened to National Conference in the past.

The NIT controversy is just a tip of an iceberg, we may see more incidents like that in future but it taught us a lesson that how irrelevant and rubber stamps are unionist political parties in the state.

Those who are seen collaborators at home and anti nationalist in Delhi were caught between a rock and a hard place. Time and again it was proven that Delhi holds the real power no matter how long Abdullah’s and Mufti’s claim to be the decision makers of state.

How on earth few bruises of outstation students became the national prime time debate and when Kashmir’s fall to the brutal bullets they maintain criminal silence?

This double standard and political discrimination has now pushed the third generation of the conflict to the edge where they celebrate every event in which the defeat is inflicted on their mighty oppressor. The Kashmiri students at the NIT were not first time celebrating the defeat of Indian cricket team. If we turn the pages of history, it is a chronic Kashmiri desire. The cricket particularly after the T20 format is emerging to be no less than a battleground of ideas in a territory where the anti India sentiment runs high. By taking minor altercations so seriously which happens in a cricket frenzy region and then flare up the communal tension for the political devious designs was unfortunate and deplorable. The NIT controversy, from every angle looks like a pre-planned attempt to push the state on the embers of hate and fear.

But kudos to the people of Kashmir who exhibited utmost sense of maturity and sent a strong message to the world and the people of India in particular that they are not communal although they continue to be besieged by the forces hell bent to bleed them.

JNU Aftermaths

Mir Liyaqat

The cultural programme at JNU to mark the death anniversary of Afzal Garu and Maqbool Bhat has snowballed into a controversy.

Both the so-called secularists and the nationalists are trying to script their own narratives of political opportunism and treachery to fool the masses. In this ongoing saga of nationalist and anti-nationalist, both the ideological groups play the rhetoric to battle and cover their past. Now to further satisfy their collective nationalism, they are hounding and heckling people with the critical understanding, who often challenge the mainstream myths related to Kashmir and NE regions.

In this epic war of ideologies, the most collateral damage is the alleged seditious Kashmiri students studying in various varsities across India particularly in New Delhi. They are not safe, neither at home, where they suffer in silence because of the unending fear psychosis and harassment, nor outside.

Anything related to Kashmir is manufactured into a huge controversy by vicious Indian media. However JNU row has a direct Kashmir connection as Shehla Rashid Shora, vice-president of JNU students Union, who hails from Srinagar, has become a prominent voice.

However her role in the ongoing agitation doesn’t mean that every Kashmiri student must subscribe or categorize themselves in this tirade of nationalism.

The only objective to be part of such an event is to tell their unheard stories, remove common clichés in the Indian audience.

But the way hysteria is manufactured and broadcasted by people in power free spaces and free voices may shrink and disappear because of fear.

To echo the sentiment, and share the platform with the similar ideological forces might be tough and dangerous given the current intolerant atmosphere particularly for a Kashmiri student.

Interestingly, students launched a high-voltage campaign to get Kanhaiya out, but forget to talk about S A R Gilani – a Kashmiri charged under the same seditious law.

Kashmiris studying outside are not only excelling in their studies, but have become the ambassadors of their culture, cause; unlike the students and teachers in the holy Kashmir University.

Ironically, just because they didn’t study at KU, their degrees are often looked down in the state institutions and are often referred to as ‘the bad eggs’.

As the pendulum of success stories are swinging in their favor the self styled jury are all of a sudden eulogizing and appreciating their daredevil and academic achievements.  It’s not easy to study in a hostile atmosphere where you are vulnerable to harassment and fear if you raise your voice and demand the basic rights.

Post JNU row will have multiple consequences for Kashmiri students who study in various varsities of India.

According to media reports Kashmiri students are harassed by the ‘Men in Khaki’ making them leave their studies and come home.

It won’t stop there, people staying in rented flats, hostels etc. may come under scanner.

Last year Kashmiri engineering students at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut were suspended for cheering Pakistan team during a cricket match.

Police started profiling of every Kashmiri students officially after that incident.

For a Kashmiri student things will be worse in future unless you first align yourself with any nationalist groups. It is quite evident in the case of Umar Khalid, another JNU comrade, who has spoken publicly against the Indian occupation of Kashmir, the progressive voices only began to protest the allegations against him after his associates made it clear that he self-identified as an atheist and a communist.

Since the day controversy erupted, there has been a sense of fear among students from Kashmir, not because pro-freedom slogans resonated in the power corridors of Delhi but the way jingoism and hate is repeatedly broadcasted in media may make Kashmir students face the ire of fringe elements.

Cashmere’s Lalla Rookh

A British poet’s 1817 narrative made Cashmere instantly famous in the West but nobody knew the man had fallen in love with the Vale without visiting it. On his 164th death anniversary, Mir Liyaqat offers an idea of the poet and his historic creation

Thomas Moore (May 28, 1779– February 25, 1852) the son of a shoemaker achieved such a literary stardom in the eighteenth century that he is often referred as the national bard of Ireland. This Dublin born, talented Irish was not just a poet but a famous satirist, composer and a great musician. His magnum opus work 130-poem Irish Melodies (1807-34) grabbed him 500 pounds annually after its publication for more than 25 years. His oriental romance; Lalla Rookh earned him record breaking stipend of 3,000 pounds at a time when the literary stalwarts like Byron and Shelley were dominating the literary landscape.

In his later life, the poet became physically crippled, disabling him from writing and singing.

Lalla Rookh: An Oriental Romance (1817) is Moore’s acclaimed narrative that became immensely popular in the west. The main protagonist of the romance is Lalla Rookh (tulip cheeked), the princess and the daughter of Emperor Aurungzeb.

During Aurungzeb era, Abdullah, King of Bukhara, gave up his throne in favor of his son, who was that time on a holy pilgrimage to Mecca. His cavalcade was passing into India through the fascinating valley of Kashmir and rested for a short time at Delhi. He was given full protocol by the king Aurungzeb and received royal hospitality, care and afterwards was escorted up to the Surat, where he embarked for Arabia.

During his temporary stay at Delhi, a marriage was agreed upon between the Prince, his son, and the youngest daughter of the Emperor, Lalla Rookh. It was intended that the marriage ceremony should be celebrated in Kashmir Mughal gardens; where the young King and the beautiful princess will meet face to face for the first time. Engaged to the young king, Lalla Rookh undertakes a journey to meet him but falls in love with Feramorz, a Kashmiri poet who was one of the attendants.

Moore’s Lalla Rookh consist four added tales sung by a Kashmiri poet: ‘The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan’ ‘Paradise and the Peri’, ‘The Fire-Worshippers’, and ‘The Light of the Harem’. It is pertinent to note that the romance was written in the backdrop of American Revolution, French revolution and the mass resistance of Irish people against the British rule.

Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,

With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave,

Its temples, and grottos, and fountains as clear

As the love-lighted eyes that hang over their wave?

The Princess never had such an experience to see any poet directly performing as she used to see from behind the screens of gauze in her father’s hall. As the poet continued with his tales of love and tragedy, she felt interested as well as inclined towards the narrator. He started with the story on the adventures of that Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, who, in the year of the Hegira 163, created such alarm throughout the Eastern Empire earning him praise from the Princess. But the Lalla Rookh became gloomy after she heard the sad love story of Zelica of Azim. She now thinks only about the misery of these two young lovers in the journey. Her gayety was gone, and she looked pensively even upon Fazaldeen. She felt some sort of uneasy and restlessness imagining that Azim must have been just such a youth as Feramoraz is, and was worthy to enjoy all the blessings of life.

Neither the serene atmosphere of the valley of Kashmir nor the splendor of the minarets, those high and romantic snow peaked mountains, nor the fair city on the Lake, where the houses roofed with flowers could steal her heart for a minute from those sad thoughts which but darkened and grew bitter after every passing day.

The Lalla Rookh is a classical romance embedded with intrigues and mystery; it’s considered to be the first imaginary travelogue upon which most of the western travelers conditioned their narrative on Kashmir. Historically if we delve deep in the tales we see that Thomas Moore was actually in search of an Ireland in the distant Orient territory. It’s because of the Irish political and cultural contexts that his literary work received lot of closer critical attention from the English and Irish critics.

“I suspect you have written a devilish fine composition, and I rejoice in it from my heart,” Moore’s famous contemporary poet and friend Lord Byron wrote to him. More recently, another modern oriental critic Nigel Leask writes that I find links between Romantic Orientalism and political struggles for national independence; like the eminent connection between Lalla Rookh and Shelley’s Address to the Irish People (1812) and The Revolt of Islam (1818). Despite all criticism and praise Moore’s Lalla Rookh was immensely successful and since its first edition it has reached its twentieth edition.

The narrator in all the four imaginative tales is Feramorz: a young Kashmiri poet employed to accompany and entertain the Mughal princess Lalla Rookh on her journey from Delhi to Kashmir. All the tales are high melodrama and becomes increasingly interesting as the emissary Fazaldeen, one of Lalla Rookh’s entourage on the journey, assumes the role of ill-tempered critic of Feramorz’s tales. The tales of Feramorz’s were so emotive and breathless that at the end of journey the princess falls in love with him. The poet turns out to be the king of Bukhara with whom she was engaged.

Here Moore draws an analogy between the Kashmiri and the Irish poet by expressing their national tales plagued with the torment. By using the breathtaking imagery of Kashmir and the melancholic love stories, he tries to galvanize the Irish readers to use these romantic resolutions as a medium towards the Irish struggle for liberty.

Moore never visited Kashmir but his oriental romance; Lalla Rookh became the blueprint for the early European travelers visiting Kashmir. However the rosy picture of Kashmir showcased by the Moore to the European people in his romance was often shattered by the prevailing ground realities in the valley. Before writing the Lalla Rookh, Moore took a close look on the writings of George Foster and Francois de Bernier whose travelogues are considered to be the first authoritative source on Kashmir. These travelogues successfully placed the beautiful valley of Kashmir in the deep psyche of European imagination as a spectacular distant destination in the oriental world. By mid 1850s Kashmir emerged as the destination of romance and solitude for the European travelers.

Lalla Rookh’s popularity in the Europe provoked satires and parodies from the readers and cultural critics. The poems in The Veiled Prophet and The Fire-Worshippers become cross-cultural tales about the relationship between the colonized and colonizers. However, the Lalla Rookh failed to shape the Irish psyche—despite its claim to be the important work in Moore’s search for an Ireland. But the Lalla Rookh will be always seen as the significant text in the history of English literature; largely its contribution to the study of the political legacies of the French revolution and the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Many Victorian readers were driven mainly by the common urge for novelties and curiosities, which latter turned to be the market for the East India Company’s exploitation.

After the tragic partition of the sub-continent many European travelers began to challenge the manufactured myth that the valley of Kashmir is an abode of peace and the rosy picture portrayed in the Lalla Rookh and other previous volumes was all fiction. Their travelogues on Kashmir after partition became explicitly political and controversial.

Nonetheless, Moore himself recognized that his Oriental writings would not attain the lasting status that his Irish work had earned,  he wrote in 1837, “I am strongly inclined to think that, in a race into future times (if any of mine could pretend to such a run), those little ponies, the Melodies, will beat the mare, Lalla Rookh hollow”.

But Moore’s search for an Ireland in the Lalla Rookh remains an unacknowledged literary piece in the galaxy of world literature. On the other hand the Kashmir; an oriental heaven in the Lalla Rookh became strategically important for the British after they landed in the sub-continent. All the post partition English fiction on the Kashmir scribed by the European writers is all political and intriguing in nature because of the prevailing political instability in the region.

(Author is a research scholar at University of Pune.)