Though
this blog is more about design and art, but once in a while you are compelled
to deviate from your usual routine to introduce something that demands you to
do so, and that is the case here.
Recently
I had the opportunity to attend a talk by Dr. Nyla Ali Khan, about her book, “The
Life of a Kashmiri Woman: Dialectic of Resistance and Accommodation”. This book
is about Dr. Khan’s maternal grandmother “Akbar Jahan”, nationalist and social and
political activist. She was the first president of Jammu & Kashmir
Red Cross, Member of Indian Parliament, first lady of the state of Jammu &
Kashmir, a daughter, a wife, a mother and a grandmother.
In my humble opinion Akbar Jahan got a special gene
from her mother, “Mirjan”. Mirjan a
Kashmiri Muslim women from an aristocratic family married an Austrian, Michael
Harry Nedou, son of a European hotel chain owner in India, when in Indian subcontinent, it was unheard
of to marry an out of cast person, let alone a European.
 |
| Akbar Jahan c.a. 1933 |
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| Akbar Jahan's grandfather; Michael Adam Nedou |
Dr.
Khan takes us through the extraordinary life of an extraordinary woman, who
left a life of privilege to marry a young Indian/Kashmiri politician Sheikh
Abdullah. Together they went on to a journey to get Kashmir and it’s people
their right of self determination in the wake of partition of India by the
British into two countries; India and Pakistan. Kashmir, which was until then
an independent princely state, got consumed into the bitter politics of the two
new states and got divided.
 |
| Sheikh Abdullah (right) with Indian Prime Minister Nehru |
Akbar
Jahan went through a roller coaster ride from the First Lady of the state of
Kashmir to the wife of an exiled Prime Minister, who could not live in her own
house when it was sealed off on the behest of the Indian Federal Government. She
was steadfast and determined in all the trials and tribulations, and carried
out her duties as a wife, as a mother and as a political figure.
 |
| Akbar Jahan with Gandhi |
This is 2015, we still have not realized that women
are born equal; as a matter of fact we have yet to realize that all humans are
born equal. Perhaps we need more Akbar Jahan in our world to make it a better
place for all of us humans present and future.
 |
| A view of Kashmir |
(Nyla Ali Khan is a faculty
member at the University of Oklahoma and member of the Harvard-based Scholars
Strategy Network. She is the author of The Fiction of Nationality in an Era of
Transnationalism, Islam, Women, and Violence in Kashmir, and The Life of a
Kashmiri Woman. She is also the editor of The Parchment of Kashmir, a
contributor to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women (2013), and a guest
editor for Oxford Islamic Studies Online).
I don’t know how should I give you thanks! I am totally stunned by your article. You saved my time. Thanks a million for sharing this article.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very poignant and eye opening feature. Thank you for placing focus on these situations in the world still today!
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Karena
The Arts by Karena
A New Gallery in Town!
Thanks! Karen, it is ironic that even in the 21st century we still are far away from a real civil society where one's gender is not an issue.
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