Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 27 years for conspiring to overthrow the state. For many Indians, Bhagat Singh, Khudiram Bose, Madan Lal Dhingra et al were freedom fighters but for the British they were terrorists. Even though many Palestinians have distanced themselves from outfits like Hamas and Hezbollah, yet they are all in for collective punishment. Israel, and many Israeli citizens think of all Palestinians as terrorists and suicide bombers. And that is what, Barkha ironically, fails to do. To provide proper context, as Barkha urges, one would need a much deeper engagement with Kashmir’s history of conflict, political manipulation, oppression, human rights abuses and resistance – and not just from the time of Burhan Wani. Barkha conveniently plays into the nationalist narrative, which is a little surprising again given that she is often taunted by the nationalists.
![barkha dutt washington post barkha dutt washington post](https://www.indiapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Urmila-Matondkar-Priya-Dutt-file-nominations-in-Mumbai-1024x768.jpg)
The obvious problem here is the easy acceptance of categories like terrorist, separatist, militancy etc. Then there is the Pakistani-sponsored cross-border terrorism that she adds to the context she finds missing. She adduces the specter of terrorists, who, she claims, view Kashmir as a religious issue and who also recruit children into their ranks and encourage them to pelt stones at the the Indian army and police.
![barkha dutt washington post barkha dutt washington post](https://en.humsub.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/barkha-dutt.jpg)
The context that she puts forward that would make for a more accurate reporting is not entirely an unfamiliar one – but a little unexpected from a so-called leading journalist, who also has long experience in Kashmir to boot. Strangely enough, what seems to irk Barkha in the inaccurate reporting she takes issue with, is the fact that each report by foreign journalists (and a few left-leaning Indian journalists, she slips in) on the current affairs characterizes the Kashmir situation as “unprecedented.” That fills Barkha with horror – for she claims she knows that the current state in Kashmir is not unprecedented and therefore not something that a) we, the audience should not be taken in by and be appaled rather we should see them as something that has precedent (and so assuage our outrage), or 2) merits a doomsday like, alarmist coverage. Barkha informs us that even following that event,, there was a telecommunications blackout in the valley – for nearly a 100 days, according to her. For, Barkha does not reach back into some decades-old (or even centuries old) history of Kashmir to situate the current state of affairs, but only as far back as 2016, during and after the death of Burhan Wani.
![barkha dutt washington post barkha dutt washington post](https://images.thequint.com/thequint/2019-05/6fff5a2c-e4db-44b6-9671-5a8be0315e32/ccc.jpg)
However, I was met with only disappointment on this count. When I read her appeal for a need to attend to context and historicity while framing the current crisis in Kashmir, I was for a moment pleased and looked forward to an informed writeup that would bring in hitherto unexamined facets from Kashmir’s history and provide a comprehensive context to the current goings-on. Fair enough – we cannot take her Kashmir experience away from her – and good for her too to having engaged with Kashmir for such a long time! She informs the reader that she has been relaying news from Kashmir for 25 years, so knows a thing or two about issues in Kashmir. happy place” narrative that seems to dominate recent news reporting on Kashmir. In a recent Washington Post article, well-known Indian journalist Barkha Dutt railed against what she called the “living hell vs. Share on WhatsApp Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Telegram Share on Reddit Share on Email