SRINAGAR: In yet another crackdown on a peaceful talk by the visiting Professor Mridu Rai, Police on Wednesday swooped on the Hotel Grand Mumtaaz where the renowned author had to deliver the Pt. Rughonath Vaishnavi Annual Talk, which had been organized the Coalition of Civil Socieities. ” At the last moment the government threatened action against the hotel if they allowed the event to proceed,” The CCS Chairperson Parvez Imroz said during a hurriedly convened press conference.
The human rights body later claimed that following a press conference, the talk was held at another private venue. Prof. Mridu Rai, “despite the governments attempts to stifle her voice, addressed a more limited audience on “Languages of Violence, Languages of Justice: the State and Insurgent Kashmir”. Quoting from Professor Rai’s speech, the statement reads, I will never be silent.
The CCS maintained that under the law, there was no requirement for any permission for holding such an event at a private venue. “This ban is consistent with the governments policy of disallowing academic, cultural and political activity in Jammu and Kashmir. The very existence of the Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir has required oppressive measures military or otherwise. The State has consistently sought to choke all political spaces of dissent.”
The objective of the annual talk, according to CCS, was to invite scholars invested in the disciplinary fields of history, literature, arts, sociology, anthropology, urban studies, social geography, political philosophy and other related fields and writers, journalists, and filmmakers to highlight the everyday struggles of living in a militarized occupation. “The necessity of such an annual talk was perhaps again most strongly felt on a day on which the State sought to suppress voices of dissent,” the statement added.
The annual talk has been instituted to commemorate Pt. Rughonath Vaishnavis extensive contributions to Kashmiri society, history, and politics but also to begin a dialogue about the time in Kashmir of which little is known or heard in public or official narratives, the CCS release asserted. “We believe that Pt. Rughonath Vaishnavis life and persistent struggle to free Kashmir from the tyranny of a militarized occupation is a step in this critical direction.”
The government ban on the event, and the subsequent response of civil society by proceeding with the talk, are perhaps a suitable recognition and tribute to the circumstances in which Pt. Rughonath Vaishnavi lived, and his life of resistance.
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