MEMORY, FREEDOM AND POWER

Abstract

In this age of retreating democracy, diminishing freedom, proliferating populism and
rising absolutism, power is increasingly asserting itself as the monster god. Perhaps it was
always so: dehumanizing, enslaving, intimidating and non-sharing. However, with the
increasing awareness of the important role that freedom, justice, and humanism can play
in transforming human societies, concerned scholars and policymakers are deeply
involved in exploring ways and means to diminish the brutality of power and enhance the
dignity and quality of life of the individuals, communities and nations. In this connection,
discussions and debates have been taking place all over the world to strategize a new and
dignified future for the entire humankind. Clearly such a future cannot arrive if the
tendency of power to convert human societies into constituencies of fear and servitude is
not challenged and confronted. Nevertheless, it is not easy for the powerless to speak to
power. History tells us that the powerless were often empowered through the launch of
nonviolent movements for peace, freedom and change. In this context, the empowering
and emboldening role of memory is usually ignored or slighted. This paper attempts to
examine the concept of memory in the changing times and highlights the role of memory
in the struggle against the tyranny of power. It suggest that a study of the role of memory
in empowering and emboldening the movements for freedom and human dignity is all the
more relevant today in the context of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) because it is being
rapidly converted into vast prison houses and torture camps.