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2/3 Kashmir's first all-female rock group disband following threats
(Pragaash quit three months after forming, pointing to fatwa from cleric and local opinion in India's only majority Muslim state)
An all-female rock band in Kashmir has decided to disband following threats of violence on social media and a fatwa from a senior local Muslim cleric.
The three teenage members of Pragaash (which translates as Light) told local reporters in India's only Muslim majority state that they were sorry if "the people" were unhappy with their music and that, in order to respect the religious ruling issued by Grand Mufti Mohammad Bashiruddin at the weekend, would no longer play.
The cleric, who has a history of controversy, had said Pragaash, the first all-female rock band in the contested state, was against "Islamic teachings" and suggested that such "behaviour" contributed to rising sexual assaults in India.
"Muftisaab has said our music is un-Islamic. We respect him and the people of Kashmir … and their opinion. That is why we have quit,'' one unnamed band-member, whose face was obscured in broadcast footage, told Times Now television.
The affair has revealed deep tensions in Kashmir, which was split between India and Pakistan when the two nations gained independence from Britain in 1947. As elsewhere in India many young people in the state are adopting lifestyles which challenge the values and authority of conservatives.
The Kashmir cultural clash comes in the aftermath of the rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapist in December in Delhi. The full trial of the five men accused of the crime opened on Tuesday at a newly established "fast track court" in the Indian capital. A juvenile will face separate proceedings.
Both Hindu and Muslim conservatives blamed the attack on "westernisation", outraging those who believe a widespread and deeply rooted culture of misogyny is a major factor behind the current wave of sexual violence in India.
But the situation in Kashmir is complicated by other factors including the inroads made by more rigorous strands of Islamic practice, often influenced by hardline thought in Pakistan and the Gulf, in recent decades. Previously Kashmir, which has a long tradition of female singing and music-making, was known for its folksy, tolerant religious culture. A vicious insurgency in the state through the 1990s and into the following decade, caused tens of thousands of deaths. Now violence is rare but a new puritanism is still strong.
The decision of Pragaash has also raised broader fears over freedom of expression in India. In the last two weeks an exhibition showing nudes was forced to close temporarily by Hindu rightwingers, a spy film dealing with Islamic terrorism was banned in the state of Tamil Nadu, the Indian-born author Salman Rushdie was barred from Kolkata and criminal complaints were registered against an academic who claimed those who rank lowest among India's caste system were responsible for most corruption.
One minister spoke of an atmosphere of "competitive intolerance".
"The challenge for us as a society is got to be to find the right balance that leans more towards freedom and not towards repression," said Shashi Tharoor, minister for human resource development and a writer.
But the Indian government has repeatedly been criticised by campaigners for its efforts to control online activity as well as for frequently failing to protect the outspoken.
"Freedom of expression is still seen as something of a western idea and not a priority for the Indian state. Secularism [in India] … means not the absence of religion but the accommodation of many gods. If there is the slightest risk of antagonising ... voters, then who cares about artists?" said Manu Joseph, a novelist and commentator.
Last year Rushdie, whose 1988 novel The Satanic Verses led to a fatwa from the Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the murder of the author, was forced to pull out of the Jaipur literary festival after threats from Muslim groups.
The members of Pragaash have, however, received support from the elected chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, who has ordered police to trace those who posted threats of violence against the band, formed three months ago, on Facebook.
"Shame on those who claim freedom of speech via social media and then … threaten girls who have the right to choose to sing," he tweeted. "I hope these talented young girls will not let a handful of morons silence them." (Guardian-uk)
The three teenage members of Pragaash (which translates as Light) told local reporters in India's only Muslim majority state that they were sorry if "the people" were unhappy with their music and that, in order to respect the religious ruling issued by Grand Mufti Mohammad Bashiruddin at the weekend, would no longer play.
The cleric, who has a history of controversy, had said Pragaash, the first all-female rock band in the contested state, was against "Islamic teachings" and suggested that such "behaviour" contributed to rising sexual assaults in India.
"Muftisaab has said our music is un-Islamic. We respect him and the people of Kashmir … and their opinion. That is why we have quit,'' one unnamed band-member, whose face was obscured in broadcast footage, told Times Now television.
The affair has revealed deep tensions in Kashmir, which was split between India and Pakistan when the two nations gained independence from Britain in 1947. As elsewhere in India many young people in the state are adopting lifestyles which challenge the values and authority of conservatives.
The Kashmir cultural clash comes in the aftermath of the rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapist in December in Delhi. The full trial of the five men accused of the crime opened on Tuesday at a newly established "fast track court" in the Indian capital. A juvenile will face separate proceedings.
Both Hindu and Muslim conservatives blamed the attack on "westernisation", outraging those who believe a widespread and deeply rooted culture of misogyny is a major factor behind the current wave of sexual violence in India.
But the situation in Kashmir is complicated by other factors including the inroads made by more rigorous strands of Islamic practice, often influenced by hardline thought in Pakistan and the Gulf, in recent decades. Previously Kashmir, which has a long tradition of female singing and music-making, was known for its folksy, tolerant religious culture. A vicious insurgency in the state through the 1990s and into the following decade, caused tens of thousands of deaths. Now violence is rare but a new puritanism is still strong.
The decision of Pragaash has also raised broader fears over freedom of expression in India. In the last two weeks an exhibition showing nudes was forced to close temporarily by Hindu rightwingers, a spy film dealing with Islamic terrorism was banned in the state of Tamil Nadu, the Indian-born author Salman Rushdie was barred from Kolkata and criminal complaints were registered against an academic who claimed those who rank lowest among India's caste system were responsible for most corruption.
One minister spoke of an atmosphere of "competitive intolerance".
"The challenge for us as a society is got to be to find the right balance that leans more towards freedom and not towards repression," said Shashi Tharoor, minister for human resource development and a writer.
But the Indian government has repeatedly been criticised by campaigners for its efforts to control online activity as well as for frequently failing to protect the outspoken.
"Freedom of expression is still seen as something of a western idea and not a priority for the Indian state. Secularism [in India] … means not the absence of religion but the accommodation of many gods. If there is the slightest risk of antagonising ... voters, then who cares about artists?" said Manu Joseph, a novelist and commentator.
Last year Rushdie, whose 1988 novel The Satanic Verses led to a fatwa from the Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the murder of the author, was forced to pull out of the Jaipur literary festival after threats from Muslim groups.
The members of Pragaash have, however, received support from the elected chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, who has ordered police to trace those who posted threats of violence against the band, formed three months ago, on Facebook.
"Shame on those who claim freedom of speech via social media and then … threaten girls who have the right to choose to sing," he tweeted. "I hope these talented young girls will not let a handful of morons silence them." (Guardian-uk)
3/3 Fatwa on girl band rocks Kashmir
An all-girl rock band in Jammu and Kashmir - a first
for the region - has been forced to break up after a senior cleric
called the musicians un-Islamic.
He banned them in a controversy that has gripped the north-west Indian state.
The three-member group Pragaash (meaning From Darkness to Light) was also targeted in an online hate campaign.
They had won a battle of the bands talent quest in December.
Now
the grand mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Bashiruddin Ahmad, has issued a
fatwa, or religious ruling, ordering the girls to break up.
Girls' right
But the girl band has
its supporters, including sections of the media and those who feel that
hardline Muslim conservatives should not dictate the cultural choices of
Kashmiri society.
Many in the Kashmir Valley, it seems, support the girls' right to make music.
Prabod Janwal, editor of the Kashmir Times, told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific
program the clash was "one of the major stories, since it involves all
the civil society, general public, citizens and everybody in the whole
of Jammu and Kashmir.
"It's a major issue, which has created a
sort of controversy about the role of the clerics and those who were
opposed to the playing of the rock band, and their performances in Jammu
and Kashmir."
Asked if the row reflected a division in society,
Janwal said he believed "Jammu and Kashmir is not a highly-conservative
society, it has been very open society, very progressive.
"I
think women have every right to education and performances and other
sorts of activities related to culture, literature and the performing
arts."
But "now and then, clerics have been acting on their own,
or trying to enforce their own sort of Islamic fundamentals on the whole
of the society."
The editor said that in the early 1990s, when
women's education was targeted by some clerics, they (the clerics) were
isolated by the entire society, people refused to listen to their
dictates and the fatwas issued by them were also flouted.
"And in fact they were opposed by society as a whole."
Posted abuse
He said the current
problem started a month ago after some people "posted abuses" and
objected to the performances of the all-girl rock band.
Before
that, "when they were playing, they were open, they were holding their
performances, nobody noticed it and nobody opposed it.
"People were very encouraging for the entire rock band group."
Janwa said the state government had been reluctant to stand up to the mufti.
"When the whole of the society is opposed to the utterances of the cleric, why should the government remain silent?" he asked
The
music follows the local tradition of Sufi-ana, related to the Sufi
heritage, "which have been considered by some of the fundamentalist
Islamic clerics as un-Islamic," he said.
"But they (the Sufi
singers) go ahead with it, society is with them, society listens to
them, society follows them. And then, Sufis are always revered by the
society." (abc)
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