Azadi Quotes

Are we Pakistanis, children of a lesser God? Is there one law for the west and one for us? Is our democracy supposed to be only democracy if you give us a no objection certificate?

When fishermen cannot go to sea, they repair nets.

Does a country fall into fascism the way a person falls in love? Or, more accurately, in hate?

It's a battle of those who know how to think against those who know how to hate.

She was sobbing for help, but her sobbing wails died within the four walls of the room under the clamorous slogans raised by a mob on the road, which had gathered near the masjid just beside the hospital, raising slogans, "Hum kya chahte, Azadi, we want freedom", "Yahan, kya chalega- Nizam-e-Mustafa", "La Sharqiya' lagharbia, Islamia Islamia.

The winds of fortune tend to favour the sails of those who politely yell out to it, 'Nice to meet you!

The division in opinion on the use of the term (i.e - fascism) comes down to whether you believe that fascism became fascism only after a continent was destroyed and millions of people were exterminated in gas chambers, or whether you believe that fascism is an ideology that led to those high crimes - that can lead to those crimes - and that those who subscribe to it are fascists.

Losing the plot again to the rhetoric called "Azadi". Trapped in a "Status quo"of fragmented reality , we eroded the seeds to our future.(yet again). Somehow (I) forgot that - Actions have consequences. Non actions have "deadly " consequences too & turning blind eye to something so obvious will eventually produce the generation of "vision less society". (Literally and figuratively).

Hope lies in texts that can accommodate and keep alive our intricacy, our complexity, and our density against the onslaught of the terrifying, sweeping simplifications of fascism.

Indians who valorize their own struggle for independence from British rule and virtually worship those who led it are for the most part strangely opaque to Kashmiris who are fighting for the same thing.

The place for literature is built by writers and readers. It’s a fragile place in some ways, but an indestructible one. When it’s broken, we rebuild it. Because we need shelter. I very much like the idea of literature that is needed. Literature that provides shelter. Shelter of all kinds.

It’s a battle of those who know how to think against those who know how to hate. A battle of lovers against haters. It’s an unequal battle, because the love is on the street and vulnerable. The hate is on the street, too, but it is armed to the teeth, and protected by all the machinery of the state.

...as the Covid-19 pandemic burns through us, our world is passing through a portal. We have journeyed to a place from which it looks unlikely that we can return, at least not without some kind of serious rupture from the past - social, political, economic and ideological.... Coronavirus has brought with it another, more terrible understanding of Azadi: the Free virus that has made nonsense of international borders, incarcerated whole populations and brought the modern world to a halt like nothing else ever could. It casts a different light on the lives we have lived so far. It forces us to question the values we have built modern societies on - what we have chosen to worship and what to cast aside. As we pass through this portal into another kind of world, we will have to ask ourselves what we want to take with us and what we will leave behind. We may not always have a choice - but not thinking about it will not be an option. And in order to think about it, we need an even deeper understanding of the world gone by, of the devastation we have caused to our planet and the deep injustice between fellow human beings that we have come to accept.

[...] il 7 ottobre 2011, in occasione dell'assassinio di Mechaal Tamo, figura di spicco dell'opposizione curda al regime, schierato e impegnato con la rivoluzione. La sua uccisione ha provocato manifestazioni in molte province del paese e 50.000 persone hanno partecipato al suo funerale a Kamechliyeh. Di fronte al coinvolgimento crescente della componente curda nella rivoluzione e alle dinamiche di incontro e unità con i suoi altri protagonisti i diversa provenienza, culminate nel venerdì "Hurria, Azadi" ("Libertà" in lingua araba e curda), il regime sceglie di giocare la carta della divisione, risparmiando le aree curde dalle distruzioni, anzi ritirandosene. [...] I giovani curdi hanno sfidato una dittatura che negava persino le loro esistenze e hanno dimostrato di non essere mossi solo o prevalentemente da rivendicazioni "nazionali" proprio rifiutando di accontentarsi del riconoscimento della loro cittadinanza, obiettivo per cui avevano lottato generazioni precedenti di curdi. In questa chiara scelta di schieramento erano compresenti il rifiuto di farsi comprare con un passaporto e la sfida alle logiche e alle formazioni politico-militari da decenni in competizione, anzi in lotta, tra di loro, alcune delle quali si erano collocate addirittura a fianco del regime di Assad. [...]

In India today, a shadow world is creeping up on us in broad daylight. It is becoming more and more difficult to communicate the scale of the crisis even to ourselves-its size and changing shape, its depth and diversity. An accurate description runs the risk of sounding like hyperbole. And so, for the sake of credibility and good manners, we groom the creature that has sunk its teeth into us-we comb out its hair and wipe its dripping jaw to make it more personable in polite company. India isn't by any means the worst, or most dangerous, place in the world, at least not yet, but perhaps the divergence between what it could have been and what it has become makes it the most tragic.

According to every patriotic Indian, India was a victim of unprovoked Chinese aggression, and China is in illegal occupation of vast tracts of Indian territory. Although the Hurriyat and its friends in Pakistan do not care for the feelings of India’s citizens, the Hurriyat claims to stand for Kashmiris. How then can it ignore the fact that 42,000 sq miles of Jammu & Kashmir territory have been ceded to the Chinese by the Government of Pakistan? The Hurriyat has never protested against this Pakistani action, nor shown the slightest concern for the Kashmiri inhabitants of the ceded territory. They are China’s slaves, with neither azadi nor jamhooriyat, nor with any guaranteed human rights enjoyed by citizens. The Hurriyat is supremely indifferent to their fate, which is an inconvenience for those playing mercenary politics and depending on Pakistan for a livelihood.

TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' begum Dil Afroze was a well-known opportunist who believed, quite literally, in changing with the times. When the Movement seemed to be on the up and up, she would set the time on her wristwatch half an hour ahead to Pakistan Standard Time. When the Occupation regained its grip she would reset it to Indian Standard Time. In the Valley the saying went, 'Begum Dil Afroze's watch isn't really a watch, it's a newspaper. Q 1: What is the moral of the story?

When you use fat as the primary fuel source, it burns very clean, as opposed to burning sugar, which is a “dirty” fuel source. Glucose burns quickly and easily, but it also burns dirty via excessive production of free radicals. Think of burning fat as a natural gas stove and burning sugar (glucose) as burning firewood. The gas stove burns very clean with no smoke; the firewood creates massive amounts of toxic smoke.

founded by the British hero Sir Henry Lawrence, who died defending the British Residency during the siege of Lucknow in the 1857 “Indian Mutiny.” He authored a legal code in the Punjab that forbade forced labor, infanticide, and the practice of sati, self-immolation by widows. Hard as it may be to accept, things aren’t always as simple as they’re made out to be. The motto of our school was “Never Give In.

What we need are people who are prepared to be unpopular. Who are prepared to put themselves in danger. Who are prepared to tell the truth. Brave journalists can do that, and they have. Brave lawyers can do that, and they have. And artists—beautiful, brilliant, brave writers, poets, musicians, painters, and filmmakers can do that. That beauty is on our side. All of it.

Your fiction and nonfiction—they walk you around the world like your two legs.

Whenever intolerance raises its fangs, hiding behind menorah, saffron or crucifix, Every Samaritan must become Samurai - Every Civilian - Arabi, Azadi, Ashiqui!

Arabi Azadi Ashiqui (The Sonnet) The more you persecute a certain community, the more you'll find me your fiercest enemy. Defending that community with my last breath, I shall remind you of your own utter futility. The more you dehumanize a certain people, more you'll find me your uncorrupt impediment. The people will be safe, even if I'm annihilated - In the process, world will witness your impotence. More you criminalize a certain community, more in my eyes you lose right to dignity. Honor is earned through behavior, not by excuse of throne, scripture or nationality. Systemically propagate fear all you want - In the end, you're at mercy of my civilian judgment. Belonging is my bible, conscience is my koran - Behave like a bully, and I'm your celestial guardian. Whenever intolerance raises its fangs, hiding behind menorah, saffron or crucifix, Every Samaritan must become Samurai - Every Civilian - Arabi, Azadi, Ashiqui!

After the revolution most of the major roads in the cities, especially in Tehran, had been renamed with the appropriate amount of anti-western fervour, changing the likes of Eisenhower Avenue to Azadi Avenue (meaning ‘freedom’ in Persian) and Shah Reza Square to Enqelab Square (the Persian word for ‘revolution’). My map recce also showed up a liking for using street names to show allegiance to Iran’s friends and allies, such as the ubiquitous Felestin – Palestine – which cropped up in many Iranian cities. There were more pointed allegiances too; the street that housed the British Embassy, Winston Churchill Street, had been renamed in typically cheeky Iranian fashion as Bobby Sands Street (it was transliterated as ‘Babisands’), in tribute to the IRA hunger striker. In 1981 the embassy had been forced to move their official entrance to a side street so as to avoid the embarrassment of having Sands’ name on their headed notepaper.

her back

Something convulsed. Something changed. It was about language again. Not a writer's private language, but a country's public language, its public imagination of itself. Suddenly, things that would have been unthinkable to say in public became acceptable. Officially acceptable. Virile national pride, which had more to do with hate than love, flowed like noxious lava on the streets.

We have journeyed to a place from which it looks unlikely that we can return, at least not without some kind of serious rupture with the past - social, political, economic and ideological.

YOUR COUNTRY EXTENDS AS FAR AS YOU CAN THINK, ELSE WHEREVER YOU PUT YOUR FOOT THERE IS A BOUNDARY जहां तक तू सोचेगा वहां तक ही मुल्क होगा वर्ना तू पांव रखेगा जहां, वहीं सीमा पायेगा

The Azadi movement and the revival of puritanical Islam, had become intertwined in such a way, that it created confusion, not only in the valley, but in the international community, which had become suspicious of our objectives as well.