1.1. Structure of the Report Section I of the report presents the structure of the report, reasons for commissioning the report and the background to the research project as a way of contextualising the Kashmiri experience in Britain generally and specifically in relation to research on older people in Leeds. The section is concluded
with a look at the aims and objectives of the research.
Organisation:Kashmir
National Identity Campaign, UK and Europe
Designation:Co-Ordinator
Description:KNIC,
is an inclusive EU wide Group, with Individual and organisational Affiliation.
The group itself works on single point agenda i.e. Recognition and inclusion of
Kashmiri ethnicity at all level specifically Census in UK.
Contact:
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The purpose of this paper
is to inform all concern on the plight of the People of Jammu Kashmir and
Northern areas (Gilgit Baltistan and Ladakh) politically known as Kashmir. It
particularly aims to highlight the impact of the undetermined status of Jammu
and Kashmir on the Kashmiri Diaspora, especially on the question of identity
and its recognition in the countries of settlements of the Diaspora.
Since the introduction of extended ethnicity codes in the
censuses of 1991 and 2001, many ethnic minority groups up and down the country
have benefited in terms of resources and engagement at the decision-making
level. The RAISE Project case study suggests that census recognition is
critical in terms of resources for service delivery. It also notes that
Kashmiris are still wrongly identified as Pakistanis, therefore remaining
excluded at all levels.
Ladies, Gentlemen,
Distinguished Guests, and Honourable Lords,
Good afternoon.
My name is Daalat Ali; I am the Co-Coordinator
of Kashmir National Identity Campaign in the UK and Europe
Before I go any further, I would like to
take this opportunity to thank the organizers of this event, to pay tribute to
late Maqbool Butt. I would like to remind everyone present that, despite his
hanging by Indian authorities on 11th February 1984, in Tihar Jail
Delhi, he still remains in captivity. Why? This was the most frequent question
asked when I visited Trigham in 2006, by Maqbool Butts mother, his three sisters
and his grand children living in Muzzaffrabad.
The state of Jammu Kashmir has a chronological history
of 5,000 years (Kalan, P) but the modern state pre-1947 was carved up by the
Dogra dynasty. Though the state has been occupied and divided in to three
administrative regions both by India and Pakistan for the last 61 years, the
state still has defined borders and special status (state subject) intact (Emma
Nicholson,Baroness).
The purpose of this paper
is to inform all concern on the plight of the People of Jammu Kashmir and
Northern areas (Gilgit Baltistan and Ladakh) politically known as Kashmir. It
particularly aims to highlight the impact of the undetermined status of Jammu
and Kashmir on the Kashmiri Diaspora, especially on the question of identity
and its recognition in the countries of settlements of the Diaspora.
Monitoring is a key element of
an Equal Opportunities Policy. It is the only way we can examine whether our
policies are working. To be effective it is essential that organisations not
only collate data, but more importantly regularly analyse and act upon the
information gathered.
Contemporary
South
Asia, 12(4), (December, 2003)C~rfaX
Publishing
ABSTRACT The idea of the
nation-state continues to dominate the way in which political collective
identities are conceptualised in
South Asia.
One of the challenges the nation-state faces is the situation in which large
sections of its population are located outside state boundaries. This paper reflects
on the way in which the displacement of peoples can lead to the displacement of
a conventional understanding of the nation-state as combining the idea of one
government, one land and one people. It explores the impact of displacement,
both empirically and conceptually, on the notions of collective identity,
illustrating the argwnent by reference to the Kashmiri narratives of identity
being articulated in
Britain.
The Background Context and Alphabet By Shams Rehman
Introduction and Personal Reflections
Pahari is one of the ancient most languages
of
South Asia. It is one of over two dozen
languages spoken in the State of
Jammu
Kashmir (See Adalat Ali’s contribution in this pack).
With almost all of the migration to
Britain
taking place from Pahari speaking areas of Kashmir, Pahari has also become one
of the largest South Asian languages in
Britain. Out of over half a million
British Kashmiris only two hundred families originate from the
KashmirValley with Kashiri or Koshar as their
mother tongue. My interest in mother tongue that subsequently led me to be part
of the fascinating process of alphabet development goes back to 1989 when I
came to live in
Britain.
A brief recollection of personal reflections seems appropriate here to
understand the context in which the alphabet for Pahari and related linguistic
groups has taken place.
Kashmir National Identity Campaign (KNIC)
Coordinator
UK
Abstract: Recent research has shown that
around 80% of the all ethnic minorities classified as having Pakistanis
heritage are infect from
Kashmir. In other
words culturally, linguistically, and ethnically they are completely separate.
Their migration began well before
Pakistan was created and seems to
have chain migration characteristics, There seem to be many reasons for it
including economic and fleeing violence and oppression.
Amongst
many functions one of the roles of the central government in relation to its
citizens can be defined as service planner, special emphasis is paid to the
diversity of its population at the outset.The government has an inspectorate, which then monitors the delivery of
services for its fairness and efficiency.
A report published today, 13th July, will call for greater links
between educational organisations in Bradford and the Mirpur district
of Pakistan.
The report, entitled ‘The Mirpur Connection’, has been written
following a fact-finding mission by a delegation of staff from the
University of Bradford, Education Bradford, Bradford Achievement Forum
and the Bradford Confederations to Pakistan in December last year.
First
draft of this paper was circulated amongst some British Kashmiri
circles outlining the idea of building a broad-based, progressive and
inclusive platform of British Kashmiris with rehabilitation and
reconstruction of earthquake hit Kashmir and Kashmiris as its core aim.
To explore the need and possibility of such a platform some British
based Kashmiri political, welfare and charity organisations and
individuals were invited to an open meeting on 6th of November at Birmingham City Council Hall.
The
report is about the visit to the Earth Quake Zone in Kashmir. The visit
was endorsed (though paid by the author himself) by Kashmir Youth
Project (KYP) Rochdale and facilitated by Almi Pahari Adabi Sangat
(APAS), Kashmiri Journalists Forum (KJF) and Kashmir Charitable Trust.
This was continuation of Talat Butt from Sweden and Asad Zia from
Bradford, followed by Mohammed Mushtaq’s trip from Rochdale at the
earlier stages. The report is by no means an in depth research, just
the author’s observations. I have wrote this for the next batch of
people visiting the area to pick up on some of my experiences and make
useful contributions in rebuilding the area and the effected people’s
life, who had very little in the first place and lived under sixty
years of continuous oppression, this oppression and neo-colonialism
which somehow escaped any meaningful attention both domestically and
internationally.
Friends, brothers, sisters and comrades Asalaam o Alycum and a very good afternoon
My name is Shams Rehman. Originally I come from Mirpur district of
Kashmir and now live in Oldham for last ten years. I am here today on
behalf of the Kashmir National Identity Campaign (KNIC) to explain and
discuss the nature and current rise of Kashmiri identity in Britain.
Will Kylmicka points out that a nation is an unsustainable complete form of identity, which claims a territorial space, a shared language and a shared history. He also points out that ethnicity as a part of identity does not take the form of a nation state nor does it present itself as a nation in waiting. Both these claims can be found in a group of people that are increasingly designated as Kashmiris. They form a nation in waiting but they also consider themselves to have ethnicity within a nation. This duality can be seen in the activities of the Kashmir National Identity Campaign (KNIC).
The current population of British Kashmiris is estimated over half a
million. Except two hundred families from the Valley of Kashmir the
rest of British Kashmiris originate from what was historically Jammu
Province and since the division of Kashmir State under Indian and
Pakistani occupation in 1947, is called 'Azad' Kashmir. Here too the
centre of labour migration from its initiation in the last decades of
19th century had been the Mirpur district. The fact that migration from
Mirpur almost exclusively consisted of the poorest in the State of
Jammu Kashmir combined with the subsequent invasion, division and
occupation of the State Kashmiris started their lives in Britain as the
lowers of the lowest.