Kashmiri Pandits who were chased out of their homes violently by separatists in the 1980s and 1990s, know the horror of ‘Azadi’ chants the woke Instagram policy experts happily chant at the protest sites. The ‘woke’ generation takes a thrill in chanting ‘Azadi’ slogans because they think they are ‘saving democracy’. Little do they realise that these ‘Azadi’ slogans meant death for the Kashmiri Pandits in the valley. That when an Islamist mob came for them chanting these ‘Azadi’ slogans and raped and murdered them.
But in an era when even a poem calling for destruction of Hindu idols in temples gets whitewashed into a poem of resistance, what can one say about these ‘Azadi’ slogans. In one such attempt at obfuscation, filmmaker Anubhav Sinha today shared an Azadi poem recital by claiming how the Azadi slogans are not even from Kashmir but these were a part of feminist movement.
https://twitter.com/anubhavsinha/status/1215200954653392897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Author Rahul Pandita, a Kashmiri Pandit himself, who has written about the plight of Kashmiri Pandits informed him that the poet Sinha was citing, Kamla Bhasin, herself said that she heard them first in 1992 in Delhi.
https://twitter.com/rahulpandita/status/1215202885841014786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
These, essentially came to Delhi in 1992 a few years after they were chanted in the valley, chasing away the Kashmiri Pandits. As per a report by Hindustan Times, Bhasin had said that she heard feminist version of Azadi slogans as a war against patriarchy in 1991 when she attended Women’s Study Conference in Kolkata’s Jadavpur University. She said that she had heard these Azadi slogans from Pakistani feminists and then improvised on the words.
After Pandita pointed it out to Sinha that these words in Delhi in 1991/92 came *after* they were chanted in Kashmir in the late 80s, Sinha questioned whether the chants from Delhi in 1991 should be ignored.
https://twitter.com/rahulpandita/status/1215203463216287746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Pandita politely explained how he is just pointing out that the ‘Azadi’ chants were first used in Kashmir and not in Delhi as what Sinha was originally claiming. Displaying his low IQ, Sinha then said how he is still confused. To that, Pandita, in as many words pointed out the brutality of those chilling slogans.
https://twitter.com/rahulpandita/status/1215204125463343104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“Three years after it was used in Kashmir extensively to brutalise the Hindu minority,” Pandita said. Sinha, who now appears really poor in maths said how the song came as feminist voice in 1991 in Delhi first *after* it was used to kill Hindus in Kashmir. For Sinha, 1980s comes after 1991. Not losing patience, Pandita now explained it to Sinha in Hindi, hoping he’d perhaps understand it better.
https://twitter.com/rahulpandita/status/1215205725644804097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Refusing to accept that the ‘Azadi’ slogans would mean nothing but horror for the lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits, Sinha continued to whitewash the separatist slogans.
https://twitter.com/rahulpandita/status/1215208964939378689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
After multiple attempts at trying to make a point, Sinha said that he had ‘misread’ the original tweet.
https://twitter.com/anubhavsinha/status/1215209498282823683?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
He then said how he’d read up more on this. But despite multiple people explaining to him about the brutal and bloody history behind the origins of ‘Azadi’ chants, Sinha continued to water down the horror. Perhaps it would do Sinha good if he reads up a little on the Kashmiri Pandit exodus.