Shah Hussain
No matter, even if it sets all tongues wagging, I do not hesitate to call a spade a spade. Yes ! Choosing a gun is not infatuation, being a poltroon is! Speaking against oppression is not terrorism, spoon feeding oppressors is! Dying for a cause is not a defeat, mortgaging your soul for a mess of pottage is! Having a living heart is not extremism, Pseudo-intellectualism and hypocrisy is! Sacrificing everything for a sacred cause is not irrationality, making monkey of it is!
Yes ! Dying with dignity is far better than being a gold merchant in “Slavery” !
A boy of medium stature, fair and extremely handsome, sharp and the one who knows no ‘Hanky Panky’, witty as well as sagacious, few years elder to me, a sportsman and a topper of his class, I still remember the time when he was my senior at a central sponsored school. No wonder, he is none but Manan Wani. Although considered as a strict senior and yes! He was, however I still remember his love and affection towards me. He’d take me to the Play field wherein he’d teach me football. Jack of all trades, yet a master of many, Manan was candid, eloquent, sports lover as well as an efficient student. No wonder, he excelled later in his life as he was “Visionary’ right from his wee years. He could well understand the Kashmir conundrum -A prototype of paradise, albeit converted into a ” Slaughter House ” and a “Play field” Where in, time and again, the Plethora of ignoble players continue to play their nefarious games, at the cost of Kashmiri blood.
Why would a “Lustrous talent like Manan” pick up a gun? Tickles every mind. The answer is pretty simple, though! When the degree of tyranny and Feindishness circumvents the unimaginable boundaries, living hearts, by no means would act like ” Mute spectators”.They will swim against the tide and haunt the killers in every possible form. Those with ‘vivid conscious’ would never bear the innocent moans of their people being brutally slaughtered by the oppressors.Never would their inner force let them gag their own mouths,when their land is being considered as a hegemony by the illegal occupiers. A brilliant mind like Manan would never pick up arms in confusion. He did this, with all rationality! Somehow he could, through his sharp senses, touch the horizons of the ” Vicious circle” going on for several decades in Kashmir. Remember, If pangs of innocent blood doesn’t move you, surely, you’re dead. Your intellect is tantamount to garbage, even worse than that, which doesn’t even deserve a scrap value. Manan – A considerate intellect could not sell off his conscience. He did what he thought was right. His killing will pinch every plastic- sympathiser ‘s mind and instigate them to ask their own consciences ” How do you sleep at night? ” They say, ” A good conscience is a soft pillow”. At least , Manan must be sleeping with comfort- A valiant hero with a good conscience.
Now remains the matter of dual combination of Guns and pens! Stepping back into the ladders of history make us realize that there’s been a strong nexus between guns and pens! This ain’t be something new or peculiar. There’s no need to mention about it here, not necessary! That both have an essence and an impact remains the unvarnished truth. Nullifying any of the two will still fail to make them null. If one does, he’s, most likely, oblivious of what in his perception, he thinks he is well versed with. Gun is neutral- men make it evil. It’s the hands behind the gun that matters the most.Undoubtedly, Manan’s hands are tidy however those of oppressors are not! Their is no harm in saying the crude truth.
Dear Youth! Don’t get befooled with their cunning stratagems and falsified stories. We’re done with the cock and bull stories. Do not let the rhetoric of Govt. Sponsored pseudo-sympathisers and Fake-intellects bamboozle you.Enough of their balderdash! Our youth has a clear ideology and we, clearly know our agenda. Call us Islamic fanatics or radicalised or right wing Muslims or extremists or fundamentalists or your pet word “Terrorists”. If fighting against oppression is terrorism, I am proud to be a terrorist. If practicing Islam is extremism, I am proud to be an extremist.
For the physical eyes he is dead now. For many, he has axed his own career and intellect. But there is much more to it than meets an eye. He has attained martyrdom(God willingly) and landed in heaven. He’s attained the true sense of success. He’s succeeded! Indeed! Allah says in the holy Quran, ” And say not of those who are slain in God’s cause, “ They are dead”: nay, they are alive , but you perceive it not”.
Lest should we forget that when scholars choose the other ways, it surely signifies the doomsday for the oppressors. One should have firm belief that the oppression of oppressors is going to return to them soon and their downfall is at a stone’s throw now.
Manan’s martyrdom is not the dusk of his resistance but a beginning of new dawn with a full bloom sun, shining with the rays of hope, resilience and glad tidings. The birds are chirping and are busy in singing the few lines; A few lines for the heroic figure: –
Hey ! Don’t tell me ! He’s not with us anymore. Dare not to call him ‘Dead’. He is an effulgence that cannot be engulfed by darkness. He is a Dawn without a dusk. He is an invincible spirit, who lives in every heart. He is a spark, no one can snuff out. He is Manan Wani ?He is in you. He is in me!
NOTE: The Views expressed by the author are his own and are not the views of The Kashmiriyat necessarily.
The Author is an MBA student at The Business School,University of Kashmir, He can be reached at Shahhussain.ku@gmail.com