Major Kashmir symposium – A report by Aziz Haniffa of India Abroad May 10, 2001

THE Indo-American Kashmir Forum (IAKF), a leading organization representing Kashmiri Pandits in the US, has organized a major symposium on what it called the proxy war being waged by Pakistan against India by sponsoring militant groups. “From Paradise to Ideological Battleground: A Symposium on the Kashmir Conflict,” will be held in the Northern California Bay Area on June 9 and will feature Congressional leaders, noted academics and policy wonks. Among those billed to attend are Jim McDermott, Washington Democrat and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India, former US ambassador Teresita Schaffer, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS), Yossef Bodansky, director of the Republican Task Force on Terrorism in Congress, D.R. Sardesai, historian at the University of California and Raju Thomas of the department of political science, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Also billed to appear at the event, which is being co-sponsored by several local and national Indian American organizations, are the mayor of Fremont, Gus Morrison, and India’s Consul General in San Francisco R.M. Abhyankar.

International Seminar held in London on March 24, 2001

London: A Symposium on March 24 and 25, 2001 titled International Seminar on KASHMIRI LANGUAGE AND CULTURE AND FIFTH MUSICAL FESTIVAL was held at Kashmir Bhawan, Luton, U.K. The symposium highlighted the culture and heritage of Kashmiris and ways and means of preserving it. The symposium was the brain child of Dr. S.N.Ganju, a veteran Kashmiri leader based in U.K. ‘We have to make all the efforts to preserve our language, music and cultural heritage and to achieve that, we must have a Kashmiri center in every city in the world,’ Said Dr. Ganju to a very large gathering of attendees. ‘We are spread out in all parts of the world and considering our small numbers, we have to make an extra effort to maintain a link and that purpose can best be served through these cultural centers.’ Dr.Roop Krishen Bhat of Northern Regional Language Center, India and prominent U.S based community leader Jeevan Zutshi were in attendance besides the delegates from U.K, Mrs. Krishna Bhan, Dr. Vijay Dhar, Dr.Jeevan Raval, Mr. Bansilal Kaul, Rattan Kotwal and Dr.Shiban Durani. Also in attendance was Nirja Pandit, an eminent Kashmiri singer from India who mesmerized a large audience with old and new kashmiri songs. The two days eventwas very successful and the musical extravaganza in the night of 24th provided lots of memories to the Kashmiris in Diaspora.

A ‘Shradhanjali’ for Gujarat – By J.M. Shenoy: Feb 24, 2001

When we created TiE , one of our goals was wealth creation,” muses Bakul Joshi on a tony California Sunday afternoon at the Swami Narayan Mandir in Milpitas. “We wanted to create entrepreneurship. Now, we are learning about creating social entrepreneurship,” says Joshi, one of the leaders of The Indus Entrepreneurs, or TiE. He was participating in a shraddhanjali (condolence meeting) for the Gujarat earthquake victims organized by Swami Narayanis (and their association BAPS Care), TiE and over two dozen San Francisco Bay area organizations.

Onus on Pakistan to restore peace in Kashmir: Bodansky – Rediff report, June 12, 2001

Som Chivukula in California For over a decade, Yossef Bodansky has been fiercely attacking Pakistan in his lectures and books, holding Islamabad responsible for escalating terror attacks in the region and for making itself a fountainhead of religious fundamentalism. He brought that message to more than 200 academics, community leaders and politicians who attended a daylong seminar in Fremont, California, recently. Organized by the IndoAmerican Kashmir Forum, the event was called ‘From Paradise to Ideological Battleground’. Unless Pakistan gives up its efforts to acquire Kashmir to makeup for Jinnah’s ‘lost heritage’,there will be no peace and stability in the region, Bodansky said. Getting Kashmir out of Indian hands had always meant for Pakistan a mission to achieve the unfulfilled task of Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Forum in Newark focuses on bloodshed in war-torn Indian region of Kashmir San Jose Mercury June 10, 2001.

Mercury News Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-dominated region, has become a deadly battleground between India and Islamic fundamentalists who want to take it over, Hira L. Fotedar, the vice-president of Eaton Technology in Michigan, said at a forum Saturday. The event was the Indo-American Kashmir Forum held at the Hilton Hotel in Newark. Once a Himalayan paradise, Kashmir has been torn by bloodshed since India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947.Both countries make claims to it and have fought wars over it. The conflict deepened in 1989, when Muslim Kashmiris fought to end Indian rule, and India waged a battle against them. Pakistan sent mujahedeen veterans of the Afghan-Soviet war to aid the separatists.

A conference on Kashmir titled “From Paradise to Ideological Battleground” – A Report by Asian Age June 12, 2001

Fremont (California), June 12: While Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf’s forthcoming meeting may not yield a “perfect solution”, policy experts, academics, two former US ambassadors to South Asia and a prominent Democrat Congressman agreed that just sitting down together was an essential component in diplomacy between India and Pakistan.”The impulse for peace is very strong,” Washington Democrat Congressman Jim McDermott told an audience at a daylong conference on Kashmir here on Saturday. “There is no perfect solution (to the problem in Kashmir), but if we keep waiting for one and don’t talk, we will never get anywhere,” said Mr. McDermott, a co-chairman of the congressional caucus on India.

Indo-American Youth In Gangs Defy Stereotype – San Jose Mercury News April 9, 2000

In family photos, the young men pose politely in turbans and ties. But in secret snapshots confiscated by police, some of the men reveal a darker side. They stuff assault rifles down their pants, flex their tattooed muscles and flaunt their bare chests. Others point 9mm pistols at each others’ temples and flash gang signs. Police say these 20-somethings belong to three small Indo-American gangs in Alameda and Santa Clara counties the Santa Clara Punjabi Boys, Aim to Kill and the All Indian Mob. Authorities describe their members perhaps as many as 500 mostly Sikh men in Northern California as some of the Bay Area’s most violent offenders. “Their conflicts always result in a stabbing, shooting or beating,” said Dave Lanier, a Fremont police sergeant who also is the region’s foremost expert on Indo-American gangs. Investigators began focusing on the gangs after a series of violent incidents during the past two years

Villaraigosa Appoints Jeevan Zutshi To State Transportation Committee : Jan 31, 2000

Jeevan Zutshi, a longtime community activist and a transportation Engineer with a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University, California has been appointed to the Departmental Transportation Advisory Committee by Speaker of the California State Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa. Term of this appointment is from January 31, 2000 to January 31, 2004.

Indian Americans voice Kashmir concerns in White House: Feb 25, 2000

WASHINGTON, FEB 25: If posterity captures a defining moment that signaled the political coming of age of Indian Americans in the United States, it could be at noon in the year 2000 on a balmy Thursday in Washington. That’s when a group of 33 well-heeled immigrants trooped into the White House to voice their views on the Presidential trip to South Asia at the invitation of the Clinton administration.

Sustained Dialogue The Only Answer – August 8, 1999

This refers to Iftekhar Hai’s opinion carried in the issue of August 5 on Kashmir in San Francisco chronicle. To understand the problem of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) we have to go back to when India became independent and was partitioned, and Pakistan was created in August 1947. Then, there were 565 Princely States, which were given the option to join either India or Pakistan.Legally, there were three points to note on J&K: