The Kashmir conflict has its roots laid back from since the British left the Sub-Continent back in 1947 but as they got out of India they would arguably leave behind some of the worst damage done to the sub-continent possibly the worst of all colonial legacies . At the beginning of the independence movement the vision that had brought people together was one of a united India, a society not divided by its many cultures, languages and faiths but one republic for all. That vision was represented by the eventual founder of the Indian Republic , Jawaharalal Nehru but it is a vision that was challenged by the leader of the Muslim league Muhammad Ali Jinnah the eventual founder of the Pakistani republic. Jinnah believed that in a united sub-continent the Muslims would as a minority get the short end of the stick and for therefore the Muslims of India would need their own state. The British eventually agreed to his demands and drew lines as borders that in retrospect didn’t make much sense the ripped apart communities cut ethnic groups and cultures into different counties and stripped the Sikhs of their ancient capital and Holy sites. The British were given only 11 weeks to get out by their government. That hasty unorganized retreat resulted in abhorrent violence and ethnic cleansings that cost the lives of up to 2 Million people and caused the second largest refugee crisis in human history as 14 Million Sikhs , Muslims and Hindus fled into a new country by leaving their homes behind. Two visions stood at the end of India’s independence. The Republic of Pakistan which is easily confused today for being intent as an Islamic State but that was not the vision of its founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah’s ideal was what he had seen in Ataturk’s Turkey the creation of a new modern national identity in which the people would be Pakistani first, Muslim second and although mostly Muslim it was supposed to have a place for those who were not. The Republic of India founded by Nehru, the vision being of a united republic of different people cultures and faiths, united for common benefit and struggle in one society. A nation in which it would not matter that the Hindus were the majority because the concerns of all would be given equal weight and precedence in a new secular republic. In both the visions would be challenged from Islamic extremism in Pakistan to Hindu fanatic in India and in both of the two the founding vision would die soon after the republics founding.
Source: The Washington Post
The favorite political pastime of the sub-continent for the past 70 years has been to try to undermine and harm your neighbors. Pakistan and India have fought 4 wars. Both countries constantly trying to undermine each other, both countries are nuclear powers and the sub-continent is currently the most likely source for a nuclear war. Most wars have been fought over the region of Kashmir, a muslim majority province that used to have a Hindu king. Pakistan lays claim to it because of its muslim majority and India because the Hindu king ceded the province to India. In 1962 China invaded to take the northern part of Kashmir from India which it did to secure its Himalayan borders and that intervention sort of reveals the actual reason for why there is conflict in that region. Most Kashmiris when polled don’t want to be either part of India or Pakistan, they want Independence and all parties in this conflict simply ignore this because Kashmir is a key element in the sub-continents tradition of the politics of antagonizing each other.
The Indus river is the single most important geographical feature of Pakistan it’s the country’s lifeline its fresh water supply is the backbone of its agricultural population centers. However the Indus does not originate in Pakistan but in Kashmir, so do the three most important tributary rivers to the Indus, the Jhelum, the Chenab and the Sutlej. Four of the most important rivers of Pakistan have their origin in Indian controlled land. To understand the significance of this, nations that have rivers running through them can project power downstream along the river. In short if you have a river running through your land you are at the mercy of those upstream. By controlling Kashmir India can project power down four major rivers into Pakistan. India is currently constructing several dam projects not just for hydro electric power but to divert drinking water away from Pakistan. This is an extremely precarious situation for Pakistan which in return does anything it can to destabilize Kashmir as much as possible. On the other hand India can also not allow Kashmir to fall into Pakistani hands since the hills and the lowlands of jammu lead straight into the population centers of Indian Punjab. Both sides hate each other too much to give up strategic advantage over the other. The conflict over Kashmir is therefore not really a religious conflict but a conflict of strategic positioning over the other and Kashmir finds itself squeezed between the two to this very day.
Source: The Third Pole
The Baglihar dam, also on the Chenab, in Jammu and Kashmir
Kashmir is the stage for the relentless conflict between India and Pakistan, but focusing on these countries can obscure what’s really at stake, the voice of the Kashmiris who are caught in a vicious cycle of violence. After the first Indo-pak war broke out in Kashmir in 1947 as the muslim majority population rebelled against their Hindu monarch fearing he would join India and the will of the people might not be heard. Armed tribesmen from Pakistan soon joined the fight. India fearing they would end up losing Kashmir and a strategic haven sent military aid to the monarch who in exchange agreed to join India, which sparked the first indo-pak war in Kashmir. The war was seen as a threat to world peace and brought the dispute to the attention of the united Nations. The UN security council brokered a ceasefire in 1949, which established a line in which Pakistan would end up controlling the western part of Kashmir and India the eastern part. The ceasefire also asked Pakistani tribesmen to withdraw and Indian troops to follow, so that Kashmir could hold a direct vote to decide its own future, however neither held up their end of the deal. Pakistan argued that Kashmirs muslim majority population rightfully belonged with them. While India insisted that Kashmir was handed over to them by the hindu monarch, so they doubled down and added Kashmir to their constitution. THE VOTE WAS NEVER HELD. To this very day the supposed plebiscite that was meant to determine the actual future of Kashmir. A referendum not decided by force or brute strength or either of the nations India and Pakistan pushing their insurgencies hard into Kashmir to overthrow one another. The outcome of Kashmir was to be decided by its people for its people not two nations who are not even interested in the interests of the Kashmiri people but they just look at it as an opportunity to undermine and harm each other as the land provides key strategic importance in the dirty political game of the sub-continent to harm your neighbours and subotage them in any way possible
Source: Kashmir Narrator
October 1947: Indian troops landing in Srinagar at the Old Airfield Rangreth
As of 2020 so much damage has been done to Kashmir by India aswell as Pakistan. Armed militant groups backed by Pakistani intelligence ISI are wreaking havoc in Indian controlled Kashmir to try to destabilize the region as much as possible. The armed groups are using gorilla warfare tactics and launch surprise attacks on Indian troops stationed over there. In response to this India keeps doubling down on the insurgencies groups and has deployed over half a million troops who continue to harass, rape and violate the basic human rights of kashmiris. As of 2020 11,000 kashmiri women have been raped and molested by the Indian military present in Kashmir over the span of 3 decades. Kashmiris are treated as second class citizen and the pro hindu nationalist party BJP under the leadership Narenda Modi has done some of the worst damage to the region in the past 70 years. Stripping the area of its special status, annulled its separate constitution and split the region into two federal territories. Muslim nomads in Kashmir are being evicted as they stand up to the new law lands that allow anyone to purchase property in the region even non residents. Protests and violence in Kashmir are at their extremes as india keeps violating the region of its basic human rights, shutting down hospitals using extreme measures to silence even peaceful protests.
Source: Arab News
Kashmiri protesters, some of them holding black flags, shout slogans in Srinagar on Saturday
In this whole retrospect in trying to analyze the situation in Kashmir we always forget the one thing that matters more than anything else and that is the voice of the Kashmiris. A vote was supposed to be held that was to determine the outcome of Kashmir a vote that would help its people decide on what they wanted to choose. Not stripping them of their identities, forcing a foreign language and a foreign culture on them and firing back on any peaceful protests fighting for their basic human rights with barbaric measures. The Kashmiris deserve their voices to be heard and yet they are being squeezed between this conflict for land and not even its people, a disputed territory they call it what do they need with millions of innocent Kashmiris who just want to live their lives peacefully, yet they are forced in this conflict. Schools being destroyed, set alight so the new generation wont be educated enough and stand up to this manifesto regime. India and Pakistan have both done their equal parts to ruin Kashmir, Pakistan instigating youngsters to pick up arms wreak havoc in the region, India doubling down on the people of Kashmir forcing them to pick up arms in the first place. Both sides only interested in the strategic benefits the area holds and not in any way interested in the benefit of the Kashmiri people.
Source: Al Jazeera
There’s so much we can do to help the Kashmiri people, writing letters to your senate, getting the attention of the media and signing petitions addressed to the UN inquiring about the supposed referendum that was supposed to decide the outcome of Kashmir. The Kashmiri people need our help and I suggest everyone to please make an effort to try to do anything they can to help the people of Kashmir in any way they can. This is no the time to sit silent enough damage has been done in the past 70 years, the Kashmiris have suffered enough by the hands of both the nations and its time to take a stand for humanity and for Kashmir.Â
