tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/kashmir-valley-67273/articlesKashmir Valley – The Conversation2023-05-16T21:17:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2051662023-05-16T21:17:26Z2023-05-16T21:17:26ZIndia is using the G20 summit to further its settler-colonial ambitions in Kashmir<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526021/original/file-20230514-23610-wsa3ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C64%2C4730%2C3127&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 2023 G20 logo on display in New Delhi, India. By attending events in Kashmir, G20 delegates are tacitly condoning India's colonial control of the region. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In September, India will host the 2023 Group of 20 (G20) summit in the capital, New Delhi. Events and meetings are already taking place in other venues around the country. Under its <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/02/28/indias-g20-presidency-will-be-a-win-for-narendra-modi">G20 presidency</a>, India will host a <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/g20-tourism-working-group-set-to-finalise-ministerial-communique-at-meeting-in-srinagar-101682417087282.html">Tourism Working Group meeting</a> in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, in late May.</p>
<p>New Delhi wants to show the world that <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/04/13/india-kashmir-g20-meeting-autonomy-repression-elections/">normalcy has returned</a> to the picturesque, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/india-mixed-reactions-to-major-lithium-discovery/a-65016836">resource-rich</a> region and that the disputed territory is <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/g20-meet-in-kashmir-inside-indias-plan-to-pitch-jk-as-a-tourist-destination-again/articleshow/99344682.cms">open to visitors</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-jammu-kashmir-gets-first-foreign-investment-dubais-emaar-2023-03-20/">investors</a>. </p>
<p>The iconic <a href="https://kashmirreader.com/2023/05/10/dal-lake-cleaning-on-in-double-shifts-for-g20-meeting-in-srinagar-officials/">Dal Lake will form the backdrop for the meeting</a>. International delegates will also visit <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/03/20/693517010/surrounded-by-military-barracks-skiers-shred-the-himalayan-slopes-of-indian-kash">Gulmarg</a>, a popular winter destination, under <a href="https://sundayguardianlive.com/news/security-increased-in-jk-ahead-of-srinagar-g20-meet">tight security provided by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs</a>.</p>
<p>The route to Gulmarg is lined with barbed wire. Armed soldiers keep watch from fortified bunkers. The resort town is near the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-263B-8246">Line of Control</a> that <a href="https://politicalandlegalanthro.org/2020/07/30/which-kashmir-pakistan-wala-ya-india-konsa-kashmir-pakistans-or-indias/">bifurcates Kashmir</a> into Indian-held and Pakistani-held areas. </p>
<p>Hosting G20 delegates in Srinagar is a step towards normalizing India’s occupation of Kashmir internationally. But Kashmiris continue to demand their right to self-determination in accordance with <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/declaration-granting-independence-colonial-countries-and-peoples">international law</a> and <a href="http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/47">United Nations resolutions</a>. </p>
<p>International attendance of the meeting will seriously undermine their efforts.</p>
<p>In Canada, the NDP has called on the federal government to <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ndp-wants-boycott-of-g20-events-in-india-s-kashmir-region-citing-human-rights-issues-1.6177173">boycott any G20 meetings that take place in Kashmir</a>, citing the Indian government’s human rights abuses. However, the Trudeau government has reportedly <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/canada-trudeau-led-govt-pushes-back-against-pressure-from-key-political-ally-to-boycott-g20-events-in-india-101670217416714.html">ignored those calls</a>.</p>
<h2>Normalizing occupation</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/srinagars-lal-chowk-readies-for-g20-summit-with-smart-city-project-officials-set-10-day-deadline-for-completion-of-works-101681367122782.html">Beautification projects</a> are underway in Srinagar on an industrial scale. These revitalization campaigns are designed to <a href="http://risingkashmir.com/kashmir-getting-ready-to-showcase-its-beauty-to-g20-delegates">create a sanitized image of Kashmir</a> for foreign delegates. The region remains troubled by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/7/8/un-report-on-kashmir-calls-for-probe-into-human-rights-violations">violence and human rights abuses</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/press-freedom-chilled-kashmir-reporting-criminalized-rcna35132">draconian media restrictions</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/21/kashmiri-journalist-irfan-mehraj-arrested-under-terrorism-charges">Human rights activists and journalists are being arrested</a> and there have been reports of hundreds of <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/former-j-k-cm-mehbooba-mufti-alleges-youth-arrests-ahead-of-g20-meeting-in-srinagar-questions-security-lapses-and-civilian-deaths-in-custody-101682795937372.html">young people being detained</a> by security forces. </p>
<p>Urban renewal in Srinagar is a tool of displacement and dislocation. I spoke with Asghar, a long-time Kashmiri resident of Srinagar, over the phone earlier this month. He described how urban redevelopment projects are changing certain sections of the city entirely. This, coupled with the government’s <a href="https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-name-changing">name-changing spree</a>, is creating a sense of alienation for locals who feel out of place in their own homeland.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526598/original/file-20230516-23757-xyaqib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A town on the banks of a lake with light blue waters. Green mountains are seen in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526598/original/file-20230516-23757-xyaqib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526598/original/file-20230516-23757-xyaqib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526598/original/file-20230516-23757-xyaqib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526598/original/file-20230516-23757-xyaqib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526598/original/file-20230516-23757-xyaqib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526598/original/file-20230516-23757-xyaqib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526598/original/file-20230516-23757-xyaqib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kashmir’s iconic Dal Lake will form the backdrop for the upcoming meeting of the G20’s Tourism Working Group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Indian government is planning to temporarily minimize the visible presence of troops in <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/explained-kashmir-the-most-militarised-zone-in-the-world/z9s3tx5cq">the heavily militarized region</a> by building <a href="https://www.news9live.com/india/j-k-smart-bunkers-to-be-constructed-in-srinagar-ahin9-2111941">“smart bunkers.”</a> These are bunkers painted in pastel tones and subtly positioned so they remain unnoticed by foreign visitors.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjxq9fD6Oz-AhWLFFkFHX9yCLYQFnoECAoQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fkashmircentral.in%2Fa-gift-of-smart-policing%2F&usg=AOvVaw3rHMSokt7ZZNdMAsoCifpq">“Smart policing”</a> is also underway. This includes security agencies monitoring social media, gathering local intelligence, and <a href="https://www.greaterkashmir.com/todays-paper/front-page/new-surveillance-system-in-offing-as-police-eye-major-reforms">surveillance through CCTV cameras and aerial drones</a>.</p>
<p>Police officers handling foreign delegates are being <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/smart-policing-slick-bunkers-for-upcoming-g-20-meeting-in-srinagar/article66759927.ece">trained to display a softer and more polite image</a>. This is in sharp contrast to the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa20/1874/2015/en/">treatment of Kashmiris by Indian security personnel</a>.</p>
<h2>G20 and tourism</h2>
<p>Founded in 2020, the G20’s <a href="https://www.g20.org/en/workstreams/sherpa-track/">Tourism Working Group</a> guides the development of local and global tourism among G20 countries with an eye to achieving the UN’s <a href="https://tourism4sdgs.org/tourism-for-sdgs/tourism-and-sdgs/">2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development</a>.</p>
<p>The G20 meeting is the first global event to be held in the Kashmir valley since India unilaterally removed the region’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/05/indias-settler-colonial-project-kashmir-takes-disturbing-turn/">semi-autonomous status in 2019</a>. Since then, the region has undergone significant <a href="https://scroll.in/article/946888/under-presidents-rule-jammu-kashmir-is-axing-1471-trees-in-designated-forests">rezoning and re-districting</a>.</p>
<p>Semi-autonomous status <a href="https://time.com/5644356/india-kashmir-article-370/">granted Kashmiris some territorial and cultural rights</a> while living under Indian rule. The designation recognized that India was only a <a href="https://adimagazine.com/articles/kashmir-a-historical-timeline/">temporary administrator of Kashmir</a>. And that <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/kashmir-in-the-aftermath-of-partition/idea-of-plebiscite-discontent-and-regional-dissidence/C848022634E0E26F304F22B0546DAD27">Kashmiris had the right to ultimately decide their own future</a>.</p>
<p>Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2018/10/11/what-is-secret-to-success-of-india-s-bharatiya-janata-party-bjp-pub-77477">Bharatiya Janata Party</a> (BJP) long opposed Kashmir’s special status. Revoking it was in the party’s <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/lok-sabha-2019/story/bjp-top-promises-1496617-2019-04-08">2019 election manifesto</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1k7gGTGuQsw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kashmir is divided by the Line of Control that separates the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled areas. It is one of the world’s most militarized regions.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tourism is big business</h2>
<p>India is seeking <a href="https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/india/tourism-revenue">to capitalize</a> on the scenic beauty of the Kashmir valley that it illegally occupies. Domestic tourists from India visited Kashmir in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-jammu-kashmir-receives-most-tourists-75-years-2022-10-07/">record numbers last year</a>. </p>
<p>Since coming into power in 2014, Modi’s government has also <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/is-india-trying-to-subdue-kashmir-through-religious-tourism--18963">heavily promoted religious tourism</a> in the disputed territory. Last year an estimated one million people from all over India <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/30/amarnath-yatra-pilgrimage-begins-amid-heavy-security-in-kashmir">attended the annual Amarnath Yatra</a>, a 43-day Hindu pilgrimage, amid heavy security.</p>
<p>With the return of <a href="http://risingkashmir.com/srinagarsharjah-direct-flight-a-runaway-success-for-economy-of-jk">direct international air travel to Indian-administered Kashmir</a> and the construction of railway infrastructure that <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/india-worlds-highest-railway-bridge-intl-hnk/index.html">connects the region to India</a>, the Indian government is determined to <a href="https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/this-village-in-jk-has-indias-biggest-international-yoga-centre/">open Kashmir to the world</a>.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the mobility of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/8/13/kashmir-srinagar-a-maze-of-razor-wires-and-steel-barriers">local Kashmiris</a> remains severely restricted. Ultimately, we must question what kind of <a href="https://jnp.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default/article/view/85/86">connectivity is desired, by whom and for what purpose</a>.</p>
<h2>Tourism and settler-colonialism</h2>
<p>The Indian government sees Kashmir as an <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jk-was-is-and-shall-forever-remain-its-integral-part-india-tells-pakistan-at-unhrc-meeting/articleshow/74318873.cms">“integral part”</a> of the country and wants to make its occupation permanent. Tourism plays a direct role in legitimizing and expanding the Indian control of Kashmiri lands.</p>
<p>Kashmir scholar <a href="https://www.unco.edu/news/newsroom/expert/ather-zia.aspx">Ather Zia</a> cautions against <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-020-00234-4">uncritically accepting tourism as a form of development</a>. Tourism in settler-colonial contexts is an extension of imperial politics. It is the process by which colonized lands are absorbed by a hegemonic state. </p>
<p>This is achieved by fostering a sense of attachment for those with little or no connection to occupied lands. The Indian government has <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/property-/-cstruction/all-you-need-to-know-about-buying-property-in-jammu-kashmir/articleshow/70695987.cms?from=mdr">weaponized the law</a> to make it easier for Indians to visit and settle in Kashmir, disavowing and erasing Indigenous Kashmiri claims to the same lands.</p>
<p>The Indian government also aims to <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/16/new-delhis-demographic-designs-in-kashmir/?link_id=25&can_id=ef6e9f45e275fbd2fe97ce05c408ec57&source=email-take-action-tell-ontario-ndp-to-apologize-to-sarah-jama-and-stand-in-solidarity-with-detained-palestinians&email_referrer=email_1911306&email_subject=take-action-canada-must-withdraw-from-the-g20-meetings-in-indian-occupied-kashmir">change the demographics</a> in the Muslim-majority region in favor of Hindus.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526020/original/file-20230513-99298-1vu8dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young woman wearing a white hijab waving a small banner with the G20 logo on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526020/original/file-20230513-99298-1vu8dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526020/original/file-20230513-99298-1vu8dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526020/original/file-20230513-99298-1vu8dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526020/original/file-20230513-99298-1vu8dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526020/original/file-20230513-99298-1vu8dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526020/original/file-20230513-99298-1vu8dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526020/original/file-20230513-99298-1vu8dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kashmiri students participate in an event ahead of the G20 Tourism Working Group meeting that will be held from May 22-24 in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Decolonizing tourism</h2>
<p>All of this raises questions about the ethics of tourism in occupied territories.</p>
<p>Indigenous governance and Native Hawaiian scholar <a href="https://www.uvic.ca/hsd/igov/people/faculty/h%C5%8Dk%C5%ABlani--h%C5%8Dk%C5%ABlani.php">Hōkūlani K. Aikau</a> and <a href="https://manoa.hawaii.edu/undergrad/honors/3980-2/">Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez</a> argue that
colonialism is the <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/2667/DetoursA-Decolonial-Guide-to-Hawai-i">ultimate breach of guest protocol that violates a welcome that was never extended</a>. By visiting areas under occupation, tourists, unknowingly or knowingly, reproduce the violent colonization of peoples and places.</p>
<p>Those visiting Kashmir must first learn about the <a href="https://standwithkashmir.org/the-kashmir-syllabus/">decolonial history of the region</a>, one that honours Kashmiri calls for self-determination and sovereignty. They must follow the principle of <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi/ethical-tourism">do no harm</a> by not visiting tourist sites or using tour operators run by Indian authorities. They should support local Kashmiri-run businesses as much as possible.</p>
<p>There is no simple resolution for tourism on occupied lands. Tourism amid settler-colonialism manifests in exploitation, dispossession, commodification and other injustices and inequities. The goal of <a href="https://floridaseminoletourism.com/centering-anti-colonial-travel/">ethical travel</a> is not immediate perfection or self-exoneration. It is an invitation to think about our own actions and complicity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Omer Aijazi receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to conduct research in Kashmir and Northern Pakistan.</span></em></p>In Indian-administered Kashmir, the Indian government is using tourism as a tactic to strengthen its colonial control of the region.Omer Aijazi, Visiting Researcher in Anthropology, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1646722021-08-24T12:17:24Z2021-08-24T12:17:24ZIndia and Pakistan fought 3 wars over Kashmir - here’s why international law falls short to solve this territorial dispute<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415876/original/file-20210812-15866-en4zio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5303%2C3386&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The scene in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, after an Aug. 10, 2021, grenade attack by militants that wounded at least nine civilians. Kashmir has experienced sporadic violence for more than seven decades, including three wars.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/indian-government-forces-are-seen-through-a-broken-glass-of-news-photo/1234603051?adppopup=true">Yawar Nazir/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An armed conflict in Kashmir has thwarted all attempts to solve it for three quarters of a century. </p>
<p>Kashmir, an 85,806-square-mile valley between the snowcapped Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges, is a contested region between India, Pakistan and China. Both India and Pakistan lay claim to all of Kashmir, but each administers only part of it.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415904/original/file-20210812-14-hduc4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Kashmir." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415904/original/file-20210812-14-hduc4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415904/original/file-20210812-14-hduc4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415904/original/file-20210812-14-hduc4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415904/original/file-20210812-14-hduc4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415904/original/file-20210812-14-hduc4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415904/original/file-20210812-14-hduc4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415904/original/file-20210812-14-hduc4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of Kashmir.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Kashmir_map_big.jpg">Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, 2002, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the British rule of India, <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/08/kashmir-and-the-forgotten-history-of-indias-princely-states/">Kashmir was a feudal state with its own regional ruler</a>. In 1947, the Kashmiri ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, agreed that his kingdom would join India under certain conditions. Kashmir would retain political and economic sovereignty, while its defense and external affairs would be dealt with by India.</p>
<p>But Pakistan, newly created by the British, <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/india-pakistan-war">laid claim to a majority-Muslim part of Kashmir along its border</a>. India and Pakistan fought <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/conflict-between-india-and-pakistan">the first of three major wars</a> over Kashmir in 1947. It resulted in the creation of a United Nations-brokered “<a href="https://unmogip.unmissions.org/background">ceasefire line</a>” that <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-263B-8246">divided Indian and Pakistani</a> territory. The line went right through Kashmir. </p>
<p>Despite the establishment of that border, presently known as the “Line of Control,” two more wars over Kashmir followed, in 1965 and 1999. An estimated <a href="https://uca.edu/politicalscience/dadm-project/asiapacific-region/indiakashmir-1947-present/">20,000</a> people died in these three wars.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/international_law">International law</a>, a set of rules and regulations created after World War II to govern all the world’s nation-states, is supposed to resolve <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1227&context=dlj">territorial disputes</a> like Kashmir. Such disputes are mainly dealt with by the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0962629895001115">International Court of Justice</a>, a United Nations tribunal that rules on contested borders and war crimes. </p>
<p>Yet international law has repeatedly failed to resolve the Kashmir conflict, as my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Tpv9XxcAAAAJ">research on Kashmir and international law</a> shows.</p>
<h2>International law fails in Kashmir</h2>
<p>The U.N. has made many failed attempts to restore dialogue after fighting between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which today is home to a diverse population of <a href="https://www.populationu.com/in/jammu-and-kashmir-population">13.7 million</a> Muslims, Hindus and people of other faiths.</p>
<p>In 1949, the U.N. sent a <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/unmogip">peacekeeping mission to both countries</a>. U.N. peace missions were not as robust as its peacekeeping operations are today, and international troops proved unable to protect the sanctity of the borders between India and Pakistan.</p>
<p>In 1958, the <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/group/tomzgroup/pmwiki/uploads/2626-1952-10-K-a-AJG.pdf">Graham Commission</a>, led by a U.N.-designated mediator, Frank Graham, recommended to the U.N. Security Council that India and Pakistan agree to demilitarize in Kashmir and hold a referendum to decide the status of the territory. </p>
<p>India rejected that plan, and both India and Pakistan disagreed on how many troops would remain along their border in Kashmir if they did demilitarize. Another war broke out in 1965. </p>
<p>In 1999, India and Pakistan <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/all-you-need-to-know-about-kargil-war/kargil-vijay-diwas/slideshow/59772216.cms">battled along the Line of Control in the Kargil district of Kashmir</a>, leading the United States to intervene diplomatically, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/07/24/how-the-1999-kargil-conflict-redefined-us-india-ties/">siding with India</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45877">official U.S. policy</a> has been to prevent further escalation in the dispute. The U.S. government has offered several times to facilitate a <a href="https://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/upload/wanis-third-party-mediation-over-kashmir.pdf">mediation process over the contested territory</a>. </p>
<p>The latest U.S. president to make that offer was <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/india/2019-07-30/united-states-cant-solve-kashmir-dispute">Donald Trump</a> after <a href="https://theconversation.com/kashmir-conflict-is-not-just-a-border-dispute-between-india-and-pakistan-112824">conflict erupted in Kashmir in 2019</a>. The effort went nowhere. </p>
<h2>Why international law falls short</h2>
<p>Why is the Kashmir conflict too politically difficult for a internationally brokered compromise? </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414025/original/file-20210731-17-3305gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Newspaper clipping from the Hindustani Times with headline 'KASHMIR ACCEDES TO INDIA'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414025/original/file-20210731-17-3305gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414025/original/file-20210731-17-3305gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414025/original/file-20210731-17-3305gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414025/original/file-20210731-17-3305gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414025/original/file-20210731-17-3305gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414025/original/file-20210731-17-3305gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414025/original/file-20210731-17-3305gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The maharaja of Kashmir agreed to join India in 1947.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For one, India and Pakistan don’t even agree on whether international law applies in Kashmir. While Pakistan considers the Kashmir conflict an international dispute, India says it is a “<a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kashmir-a-bilateral-issue-india-tells-us-after-trump-offers-help-1639126-2020-01-22">bilateral issue</a>” and an “internal matter.” </p>
<p>India’s stance narrows the purview of international law. For example, regional organizations like the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation cannot intervene on the Kashmir issue – by convening a regional dialogue, for example – because <a href="http://www.covid19-sdmc.org/sites/default/files/charter.pdf">its charter</a> prohibits involvement in “bilateral and contentious issues.”</p>
<p>But India’s claim that Kashmir is Indian territory is hotly debated. </p>
<p>In 2019, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49234708">the Indian government abolished</a> the <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c06adb33c3a53e7dfe35baa/t/5e53eb9f1408117e3ba815ef/1582558112461/Mariya+SC+Kashmir.pdf">1954 law that gave Kashmir autonomous status</a> and militarily occupied the territory. At least <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/9/india-soldiers-kashmir-burhan-wani-anniversary">500,000 Indian troops</a> are in Kashmir today.</p>
<p>Pakistan’s government denounced the move as “<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/05/article-370-what-is-happening-in-kashmir-india-revokes-special-status.html">illegal</a>,” and many Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control say India violated its 1947 accession deal with Maharaja Singh. </p>
<p>The U.N. still officially considers Kashmir a <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/analysis/kashmir-and-the-un-security-council/1971039">disputed area</a>. But India has held firm that Kashmir is part of India, under central government control, worsening already bad relations between India and Pakistan.</p>
<h2>Military coups and terror</h2>
<p>Another obstacle to peace between the two nations: Pakistan’s military. </p>
<p>In 1953, Indian Prime Minister <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/did-jawaharlal-nehru-mishandle-kashmir/story-Vvo1NBt6ZMbFT86wJ1dINP.html">Jawaharlal Nehru</a> and Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Bogra agreed in principle to resolve the Kashmir problem through a U.N. mediation or with an International Court of Justice proceeding. </p>
<p>That never happened, because the Pakistani military overthrew Ali Bogra <a href="https://theprint.in/india/governance/as-pakistan-votes-today-theres-hope-that-finally-a-pm-will-complete-a-full-term/87962/">in 1955</a>.</p>
<p>Several more Pakistani military regimes have interrupted Pakistani democracy since then. India believes these non-democratic regimes lack credibility to negotiate with it. And, generally, Pakistan’s military governments have preferred the battlefield over political dialogue. </p>
<p>Terrorism is another critical factor making the Kashmir situation more complex. Several radical Islamist groups, including Lashkar-e-Toiba and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47249982">Jaish-e-Mohammed</a>, operate in Kashmir, based primarily on the Pakistani side. </p>
<p>Since the late 1980s the terrorist groups have conducted targeted strikes and attacks on <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/18/asia/india-kashmir-attack/index.html">Indian government and military facilities</a>, leading the Indian military to <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/army-conducted-surgical-strikes-on-terror-launch-pads-on-loc-significant-casualties-caused-dgmo/articleshow/54579855.cms?from=mdr">retaliate in Pakistani territory</a>. Pakistan then alleges that India has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/14/india-pakistan-repeat-war-of-words-over-cross-border">breached the borderline</a>, defying international treaties like the <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/its-time-for-india-and-pakistan-to-walk-the-talk/article28739436.ece">1972 Simla Agreement</a> to conduct its anti-terror attacks. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Soldiers stand in a military truck with big mountains in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415899/original/file-20210812-18-a5vp1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415899/original/file-20210812-18-a5vp1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415899/original/file-20210812-18-a5vp1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415899/original/file-20210812-18-a5vp1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415899/original/file-20210812-18-a5vp1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415899/original/file-20210812-18-a5vp1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415899/original/file-20210812-18-a5vp1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">India has increased its military presence in Kashmir to at least 500,000 troops.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/indian-army-convoy-carrying-reinforcement-and-supplies-news-photo/1228312306?adppopup=true">Yawar Nazir/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Intractable struggles</h2>
<p>In many cases, treaties and international court decisions <a href="https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/1/issue/1/enforcing-international-law">cannot be enforced</a>. There is no international police force to help implement international law. </p>
<p>If a country ignores an International Court of Justice ruling, the other party in that court case may have recourse to the Security Council, which can pressure or even <a href="https://www.un.org/en/our-work/uphold-international-law">sanction a nation to comply with international law</a>. </p>
<p>But that rarely happens, as such resolution processes are highly political and any permanent Security Council member can veto them. </p>
<p>And when conflicting parties are more inclined to view a conflict through the lens of domestic law – as India views Kashmir and Israel views the Palestinian territories – they can argue that international law simply does not apply. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Kashmir is not the only contested territory where international law has failed. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-world-stop-israel-and-hamas-from-committing-war-crimes-7-questions-answered-about-international-law-155105">Israeli-Palestinian conflict</a> over the Gaza and West Bank territories is another example. For decades, both the U.N. and the United States have repeatedly and unsuccessfully intervened there in an effort <a href="https://theconversation.com/apartheid-claim-israel-and-the-verdict-of-international-law-160069">to establish mutually acceptable borderlines</a> and bring peace. </p>
<p>International law has grown and strengthened since its creation in the 1940s, but there are still many problems it cannot solve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bulbul Ahmed does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Kashmir has been in conflict since 1947, despite repeated UN and US interventions. An expert in security studies explains why international law has failed to keep the peace.Bulbul Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Security and Strategic Studies, Bangladesh University of ProfessionalsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1257002019-10-28T20:33:33Z2019-10-28T20:33:33ZIn India, Modi’s nationalism quashes dissent with help from the media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298623/original/file-20191024-170449-imadt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=155%2C146%2C5449%2C3405&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Before the election that secured his second-term victory, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to the crowd during a political campaign road show in Varanasi, India.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/ Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This summer, Narenda Modi’s government, emboldened by its phenomenal success in the Indian national election, announced it had revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. This signalled the fulfilment of the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party‘s (BJP) historical-ideological agenda of creating one nation, one India. This agenda is the pursuit of Hindu nationalism which has consistently remained the BJP’s ideological foundation since 1947 in post-independence India.</p>
<p>In 1950, India was the first country to experiment constitutionally with multicultural democracy (an attempt to reconcile individual and collective rights plus the creation of a federal asymmetry). It has now become the <a href="http://theconversation.com/modi-ushers-in-a-new-intolerant-india-and-revokes-multicultural-democracy-121688">first country to kill that experiment, legally and constitutionally</a>.</p>
<p>More significantly, the BJP has turned its historical-ideological platform into a populist mission. The BJP has seemed to silence its critics by invoking a populist rhetoric of protecting India and Kashmir against both internal and external security threats and from a corrupt leadership. </p>
<p>We have seen those who question the BJP’s actions and its total clampdown on the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/10/03/deconstructed-podcast-kashmir-india-arundhati-roy/">publicly shamed as being anti-national</a>. They have been accused of encouraging Pakistan in its cross-border terrorism activities and obstructing the government’s efforts to “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/02/03/what-these-four-global-leaders-have-in-common-with-trump/#5756faef4960">drain the swamp</a>” of corrupt politicians. Punitive populism is fully operational in Modi’s new India.</p>
<h2>What is punitive populism?</h2>
<p><a href="https://upittpress.org/books/9780822945826/">Punitive populism</a> is a political strategy that is used by political leaders in many countries. It refers to leaders’ use of tough-on-crime rhetoric and policies to win elections and gain popular support. </p>
<p>While this concept has developed out of the criminology literature and is, thus, focused on crime, we suggest here that the strategy is consistent with attempts to make many other types of groups into security threats. The populist leader first creates the “people” through rhetoric and symbolism. The rhetoric represents diverse public demands that have resulted from some sort of rupture with the past (for example, the partition of India in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan, or in many other countries, including the United States, the implementation of neoliberal economic policies). </p>
<p>Next, the leader uses what Argentine political theorist Ernesto Laclau calls an “<a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2811-on-populist-reason">empty signifier</a>” to unite these disparate demands around a single vague idea that justifies a punitive response. This could be, for example, security, tough-on-crime concepts or even human rights (such as the human right to security). The leader then juxtaposes the people or citizens with criminals who threaten the security of the former. </p>
<p>The leader offers solutions to the people’s insecurity that are not based in criminological research or human rights commitments but are in direct response to the leader’s perceived or constructed idea of public opinion demands. </p>
<p>The policies and rhetoric call for, among other things: more police on the streets and with more powers to use discretion and possibly violence, more criminal laws, less oversight of the police and harsher punishments for those judged by courts to be criminals. </p>
<p>It is correlated with a significant rise in prison populations.</p>
<h1>Modi’s security rhetoric</h1>
<p>The Modi government has seemed to have convinced the Indian public that its decisive Kashmir action protects India against both internal and external security threats, and that the BJP is being appropriately tough on Kashmir, Muslims and Pakistan. In this populist agenda, the Modi government has deemed Kashmiri Muslims as symbols of terrorist violence or as operating with zealous Islamic religiosity through seditious activities. </p>
<p>This is effectively a deployment of Kashmiri Muslims as the embodiment of the enemy. The public’s response is evident in millions of Indians adopting Twitter hashtags <a href="https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/960901461935706112#_blank">#ServeIndiaNotPak</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/republic/status/867430844352180225#_blank">#NationLovesIndianArmy</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/republic/status/1037245660217651201#_blank">#KashmirForAll</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/republic/status/868855221413335040#_blank">#IndiaAgainstAntiNationals</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, as reported in the book, <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/majoritarian-state"><em>Majoritarian State</em></a>, the public is being told that “economic well-being requires a strong nation, which requires, in turn, overcoming hurdles to the nation’s strength such as minority appeasement, anti-nationalism,” or stone-pelting Kashmiri youth. </p>
<p>Punitive populism is evident in <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/amit-shah-kashmir-article-370-move-tribute-to-indian-soldiers-1604671-2019-09-30">India’s Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks in <em>India Today</em></a>: “Kashmir will now move on the path of development. If anyone tries to create any disturbance in Kashmir, remember our soldiers are standing by.” </p>
<p>The Modi government has been defending its total two-and-a-half-month clampdown in the Kashmir valley precisely for two reasons: preventing violence against civilians and convincing the Kashmiris that this decision will bring them economic well-being and prosperity. It proudly claims that since this decision was taken, not a single life was lost in the valley. </p>
<p>Of course, there is no violence when eight million Kashmiri Muslims have been living under security lockdown, with no internet connectivity, draconian restrictions on the movement of the people and gatherings and with more than 3,000 people in jails. For all that, the Modi government seems convinced that the Kashmiri public, upon reflection, will come to believe that Article 370 was responsible for keeping them economically backward.</p>
<p>In punitive populism half-truths often become full truths. The BJP unrelentingly repeats its claim that the revocation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir was done to provide gender equality. They claim it was meant to give women of the state the same rights to acquire property and seek employment as their counterparts in the rest of India and the male permanent residents of the state enjoy. </p>
<p>It is correct that until 2002, the female citizens of the state who married a non-permanent resident lost their status as citizens. However, in 2002 the Jammu and Kashmir High Court declared that a daughter of a permanent resident, by marrying a non-permanent resident, cannot thereby lose her permanent residency. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298621/original/file-20191024-170499-mf230s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298621/original/file-20191024-170499-mf230s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298621/original/file-20191024-170499-mf230s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298621/original/file-20191024-170499-mf230s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298621/original/file-20191024-170499-mf230s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298621/original/file-20191024-170499-mf230s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298621/original/file-20191024-170499-mf230s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supporters of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party celebrate outside their party office in Mumbai, India, Oct. 24, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h1>Homogenization of public opinion</h1>
<p>Similarly, with regard to economic development, the Modi governments’ characterization is not even half-true. The Indian government’s own poverty statistics for 2011-12 show that the Jammu and Kashmir poverty level, at 10.4 per cent, is actually much lower than the 21.9 per cent in the rest of India. A similar differential appears in terms of employment levels.</p>
<p>Finally, punitive populism benefits from a largely favourable relationship with the media. A neo-liberalized media system <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Tough_on_Crime.html?id=ZOXDwQEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">encourages journalistic practices that decrease the role of the media in holding leaders to account</a>. Reporting then serves to homogenize public opinion for the Modi government and against Muslim Kashmiris.</p>
<p>In India, significant private and corporate funding supports the Indian news media which has developed a cozy relationship with the Modi government. <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/television/top-stories/story/article-370-scrapped-here-s-how-tv-celebs-reacted-to-the-decision-1577509-2019-08-05">Almost all mainstream TV news channels have celebrated and endorsed the actions of the current government</a>, each outdoing the other in vaunting the government’s patriotic and nationalist credentials. </p>
<p>The rare channel that has <a href="https://qz.com/india/1570899/how-narendra-modi-has-almost-killed-indian-media/">dared to be critical of the Modi government has found itself denied access to the government and to information</a>.
That dissent or criticism of the government is construed as an anti-national activity, which has so far seemed to have pushed the Indian media to submissiveness and self-censorship.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125700/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reeta Tremblay has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) on her research on Kashmir . </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle D. Bonner has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for her research on punitive populism. </span></em></p>India’s Modi government has used populist rhetoric to scare the public and turn Kashmiri Muslims into symbols of terrorist violence. The news media in India seems to be following along.Reeta Tremblay, Professor, Political Science, University of VictoriaMichelle D. Bonner, Professor, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1219252019-08-21T15:28:55Z2019-08-21T15:28:55ZKashmiris are living a long nightmare of Indian colonialism<p>India’s decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in early August, and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/opinion/sunday/kashmir-siege-modi.html">repression and communications blackout</a> that followed, is another step in India’s long history of colonising Kashmir.</p>
<p>Narendra Modi’s administration effectively annexed Kashmir by abrogating Article 370 of the Indian constitution, adopted in 1954 to guarantee Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status. But this semi-autonomy has been a <a href="https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/deception-on-article-370/">hollow shell</a> which has allowed India to engage in <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-kashmiri-novelist-on-a-state-under-siege">torture</a>, <a href="http://jkccs.net">extrajudicial killings and mass disappearances</a>. </p>
<p>Scholars of Kashmir have called this process a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/34100292/Constituting_the_Occupation_Preventive_Detention_and_Permanent_Emergency_in_Kashmir">constitutional occupation</a>, and see the repeal of Article 370 as a “<a href="https://theglobepost.com/2019/08/16/kashmir-culmination-plan/">decades-long plan</a>” to annex Kashmir. </p>
<p>Though not unexpected, the annexation was shocking. At midnight on August 4, ten days before the 73rd anniversary of its independence, India intensified its military grip over the people of Kashmir. It deployed <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/932596/additional-troops-deployed-in-kashmir-due-to-internal-security-situation-says-centre-reports">thousands of extra troops</a> in Kashmir, in addition to the half a million already present. </p>
<p>Since then, there has been a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/08/kashmir-communications-blackout-is-draconian-says-un-envoy">widespread communications blackout</a>, with internet, mobiles phones, landlines, television and radio cut. Harsh curfews were imposed on Kashmiris, the local police were disarmed and at least 4,000 people <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/at-least-4000-held-in-kashmir-since-autonomy-was-stripped">were arrested</a>, including Kashmir’s political leadership and civil society. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-colossal-blunder-in-kashmir-121657">India’s colossal blunder in Kashmir</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On August 14, a four-person fact-finding mission to Kashmir collated <a href="https://countercurrents.org/2019/08/kashmir-caged-fact-finding-report">reports</a> of night raids, abduction of young boys, sexual assault of women, torture, and a lack of access to food and medicine. Kavita Krishnan, a rights activist who was part of the team, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/kashmir-government-arresting-children-article-370_in_5d5388c3e4b05fa9df0696fd">stated</a>: “Frankly, it looks like occupied Iraq or occupied Palestine.” </p>
<p>Some restrictions on movement <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/19/kashmir-parents-defy-authorities-to-keep-children-out-of-school">eased</a> on August 19, but Kashmiris remain in a state of siege. </p>
<h2>Pursuit of self-determination</h2>
<p>Kashmiris have been living with widespread and systematic human rights violations for the past three decades, most recently highlighted in reports by the UN Office of the High Commissioner in <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23198%20">2018</a> and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24799&LangID=E">2019</a>. These reports address the situation on both sides of the Pakistani and Indian line of control in Kashmir, though India’s brutalisation of Kashmiris is striking. </p>
<p>While Kashmir is considered an international territorial dispute between Pakistan and India, for Kashmiris their struggle is one <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/international-community-must-intervene-kashmir/">of self-determination</a>. </p>
<p>At the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-81766">Partition of British India</a> in 1947, Kashmir’s independent princely ruler, Maharajah Hari Singh, signed an <a href="https://theglobepost.com/2019/08/12/kashmir-india-resistance/">Instrument of Accession</a> with India. He was under pressure from a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21567689.2013.838477">Kashmiri rebellion</a> against his unpopular rule, but did not ask his people what they wanted. The accession was based on the promise that Kashmiris would have a <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/nehru-never-kept-his-promise-on-kashmir/article28919026.ece">plebiscite or referendum</a> to decide their political future. </p>
<p>Between 1948 and 1957, following a war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, <a href="https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/sasia.htm">UN resolutions</a> reaffirmed the right of Kashmiris for a free and fair referendum. But they have never been granted one. Now India’s revocation of Article 370 is an attempt to transform Kashmir’s unresolved international status into a domestic issue. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>To find out more about the history of Kashmir, <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-part-3-kashmir-115733">listen to episode 3 of India Tomorrow</a>, a special podcast series from The Conversation’s podcast, The Anthill.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Post-colonial colonialism</h2>
<p>The case of Kashmir is immensely significant for scholars of colonialism in all its forms. In my own <a href="https://www.academia.edu/34462054/Imperialism_Colonialism_and_Sovereignty_in_the_Post_Colony_India_and_Kashmir">research</a>, I’ve argued that India’s colonialism of Kashmir demands a recalibration of one of the central tenets of these studies: the division of the world into the Europe that colonised, and the non-Europe that was colonised.</p>
<p>This doesn’t mean ignoring the legacy of European colonialism. Major colonialists such as the British, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch and Belgian powers changed the world forever through conquest of territory, slavery and dispossession of non-European peoples. We continue to inhabit a world whose knowledge, political and legal systems are structured by these colonial legacies. </p>
<p>Post-colonial nation-states such as India continue to use <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/sedition-law-modi-govt-retain-provision-anti-national-elements-1560982-2019-07-03">British colonial laws</a> to crush any dissent for rights or justice. Modi’s current Hindu nationalist government draws on these laws and extends them as it undermines the rights of <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/news-analysis/story/draft-indian-forest-amendment-bill-2019-arming-state-to-undermine-rights-and-wellbeing-of-tribals-1578054-2019-08-07">tribal people</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/religious-hatred-muslim-man-india-lynched-video-190624141020360.html">religious minorities</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/opinion/india-elections-dalits.html">Dalits</a> and <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/india-bjp-rape-and-status-of-women/">women</a>. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-of-hindu-nationalism-india-tomorrow-part-2-podcast-transcript-115505">Hindutva, or Hindu nationalist</a>, ideology which Modi’s BJP party espouses was born in the matrix of British colonialism and inspired by European fascism in the early 20th century. </p>
<p>But the case of Kashmir demonstrates India’s own long history of colonialism. India’s latest move also abolished Article 35a of the Jammu and Kashmir state constitution, meaning non-Kashmiris are now allowed to buy land, hold jobs and further colonise Kashmir’s rich resources. As historian Hafsa Kanjwal argues, the influx of Indian settlers is designed to change Kashmir’s demography and may lead to ethnic cleansing, inaugurating India as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?destination=%2fopinions%2f2019%2f08%2f05%2findias-settler-colonial-project-kashmir-takes-disturbing-turn%2f%3f">settler-colonialist</a> state in Kashmir. </p>
<p>India is already part of an <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/focus/2010/07/2010719123045648156.html">unwritten alliance</a> with other settler-colonial states, such as Israel and the US, based on a destructive <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190712-israel-arms-company-signs-100m-missile-deal-with-india-army/">arms trade</a>. Both states were created through a history of massacres and violent dispossession of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/thanksgiving-annual-genocide-whitewash-171120073022544.html">Indigenous</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/50-years-israeli-occupation-longest-modern-history-170604111317533.html">Palestinian</a> peoples. </p>
<p>In explaining its decision to revoke Articles 370 and 35a, India has used the language of counter-terrorism that has become so common since 9/11, coupled with the promise of <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/933603/mukesh-ambani-promises-investment-in-j-k-and-ladakh-says-reliance-will-create-special-task-force">corporate development</a>. These are two classic colonial justifications reframed for a 21st-century lexicon.</p>
<p>Research and resources about India’s colonial occupation of Kashmir, and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/38027955/_Rebels_of_the_Streets_Violence_Protest_and_Freedom_in_Kashmir">Kashmiri resistance</a> to it, are now available at <a href="http://www.inversejournal.com/2019/08/17/thekashmirsyllabus-a-list-of-sources-for-teaching-and-learning-about-kashmir/">#TheKashmirSyllabus</a>, while updates about the current military blockade are available from the <a href="https://kashmirscholarsnetwork.org">Kashmir Scholars Consultative and Action Network</a>. </p>
<p>The full consequences of the <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/kashmir-article-370-ladakh-pakistan-china-russia-united-nations-world-and-valley-5915532/#comments">geopolitical tinderbox</a> created by India’s move are still emerging. While the international community urges <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/concern-kashmir-lockdown-hundreds-reported-arrested-190808200958052.html">restraint</a> and <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1044401">bilateral dialogue</a> between India and Pakistan, Kashmir’s right to self-determination must now take centre stage. Kashmiris continue to experience an unbearably suffocating <a href="https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/states-of-kashmir/">state of siege</a>, and they speak of <a href="https://caravanmagazine.in/conflict/one-solution-gun-solution-gun-solution-kashmir-in-shock-and-anger">resistance</a>, come what may.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Goldie Osuri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The situation in Kashmir shows that colonisation isn’t just done by Europeans – India has a long history of it too.Goldie Osuri, Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1218332019-08-15T20:12:09Z2019-08-15T20:12:09ZWhat’s behind the protests in Kashmir?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288020/original/file-20190814-136230-16iuqv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kashmiri Muslims shout slogans during a protest after Eid prayers in Srinagar.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Kashmir/3f8cebb4b6cc43428f88db5b93d4b993/33/0">AP Photo/ Dar Yasin</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>India recently enacted a law which will end a special autonomous status given to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, known in the West as simply “Kashmir.” </p>
<p>Amit Shah, India’s minister for home affairs, <a href="https://qz.com/india/1681325/india-scraps-article-370-that-gives-special-status-to-kashmir/">announced in Parliament</a> that the Bharatiya Janata Party government was revoking Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in the name of bringing prosperity to the region.</p>
<p>Since 1954, this article has <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/article-370-9780198074083?cc=us&lang=en&">governed federal relations between India and Kashmir</a>, India’s only Muslim majority state. </p>
<p>I’m a scholar of South Asian politics and have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139019477">written extensively</a> on the evolution of the India-Pakistan conflict in Kashmir. </p>
<p>Article 370 is woven into that history. </p>
<h2>History of Kashmir’s autonomy</h2>
<p><a href="https://in.news.yahoo.com/article-370-35a-history-origin-provisions-132348359.html">Article 370</a> originated in the particular circumstances under which the former prince and last ruler of Kashmir acceded to India shortly after the partition of the British Indian Empire into the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947.</p>
<p>The prince, or maharaja, <a href="https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/full-text-a-mission-in-kashmir.html">agreed to have Kashmir become part of India under duress</a>. His rule was threatened by an insurrection supported by Pakistan.</p>
<p>Article 370 was designed to guarantee the autonomy of the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/kashmir-special-status-explained-articles-370-35a-190805054643431.html">Muslim majority state</a>, the only one in predominantly Hindu India. The clause effectively limited the powers of the Indian government to the realms of defense, foreign affairs and communications. It also permitted the Kashmiri state to have its own <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-with-jammu-kashmirs-special-status-scrapped-the-flag-it-no-longer-has-5882212/">flag</a> and <a href="http://www.jklegislativeassembly.nic.in/Costitution_of_J&K.pdf">constitution</a>.</p>
<p>More controversially, Article 370 prohibited non-Kashmiris from purchasing property in the state and stated that women who married non-Kashmiris would <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40897522">lose their inheritance rights</a>.</p>
<h2>Changes over time</h2>
<p>But the independence of the Kashmiri state has been declining for decades. Beginning in the early 1950s, a series of presidential ordinances, which had swift effect much like American executive orders, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/indo-pakistani-conflict/oclc/463849">diluted the terms of the article</a>.</p>
<p>For example, in 1954, a presidential order extended Indian citizenship to the “permanent residents” of the state. Prior to this decision the native inhabitants of the state had been considered to be “<a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9231-6">state subjects</a>.”</p>
<p>Other constitutional changes followed. The jurisdiction of the Indian Supreme Court <a href="https://books.google.co.in/books?id=BfxtAAAAMAAJ">was expanded to the state</a> in 1954. In addition, the Indian government was granted the authority to declare a national emergency <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Kashmir_Article_370.html?id=DMEMAAAAIAAJ">if Kashmir were attacked</a>.</p>
<p>Many other administrative actions reduced the state’s autonomy over time. These have ranged from enabling Kashmiris to participate in national administrative positions to expanding the jurisdiction of anti-corruption bodies, such as the Central Vigilance Commission and the <a href="https://www.sbirealty.in/property/doc/CGST_Act_2017.pdf">Central Goods and Services Act of 2017</a>, into the state.</p>
<h2>What it means for India and the world</h2>
<p>What has happened as a result of the move to revoke Article 370? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288021/original/file-20190814-136217-1k7uv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288021/original/file-20190814-136217-1k7uv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288021/original/file-20190814-136217-1k7uv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288021/original/file-20190814-136217-1k7uv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288021/original/file-20190814-136217-1k7uv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288021/original/file-20190814-136217-1k7uv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288021/original/file-20190814-136217-1k7uv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kashmiris living in New Delhi gather for a function to observe Eid al-Adha away from their homes in New Delhi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Kashmir/af8c1e6587ec43cc95190ec1cfea6d98/49/0">AP Photo/Manish Swarup</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The decision has been met with considerable unhappiness and resentment in the Kashmir Valley, which has a <a href="https://globalvoices.org/specialcoverage/the-kashmiri-people-versus-the-indian-state/">Muslim population close to 97%</a> – versus <a href="https://www.census2011.co.in/data/religion/state/1-jammu-and-kashmir.html">68% of the population of the state as a whole</a>. The government of Jammu and Kashmir, meanwhile, does not have the legal power to challenge the move.</p>
<p>China and Pakistan have expressed displeasure.</p>
<p>Pakistan has long maintained that <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/india-china-media-after-article-370-abrogation_in_5d525555e4b0cfeed1a245a9">it should have inherited the state</a> based upon its geographic contiguity and its demography. </p>
<p>India and Pakistan have fought <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/conflict-unending/9780231123693">three wars over Kashmir</a>. While I don’t believe Pakistan will initiate another war with India over this issue at this time, I doubt it will quietly resign itself to the changed circumstances. At the very least, it will seek to draw in members of the international community to oppose India’s action, as it has sought to do in the past.</p>
<p>China, which considers Pakistan to be its “<a href="https://thediplomat.com/2015/03/china-and-pakistans-all-weather-friendship/link">all-weather ally</a>,” has stated that the decision was “<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3021712/china-calls-indias-move-scrap-kashmirs-special-status-not">not acceptable and won’t be binding</a>.”</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121833/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sumit Ganguly receives funding from the US Army War College, the Smith Richardson Foundation and the US Department of State. </span></em></p>India recently revoked a special provision that ended the autonomy of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Here’s the history of the constitutional provision, Article 370.Sumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1204122019-08-08T21:04:23Z2019-08-08T21:04:23ZCall the crime in Kashmir by its name: Ongoing genocide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287382/original/file-20190808-144888-d3v005.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5184%2C3406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Indian paramilitary soldier checks the bag of a Kashmiri man during curfew in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir. The lives of millions in India's only Muslim-majority region have been upended recently.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/30/asia/kashmir-explainer/index.html">The Kashmir conflict</a>, referred to as a “territorial dispute,” has been central to tense relations in Asia for more than 70 years, particularly between the two nuclear powers of India and Pakistan.</p>
<p>Tensions have escalated between the countries many times in the past and have sometimes resulted in military confrontation.</p>
<p>Kashmiris are an Indigenous people living under colonial occupation who have been fighting for their right to practise sovereignty through self-determination and self-government. Multiple colonial borders run through the Kashmiri peoples’ territories (Indian, Pakistani and Chinese), separating families and friends. </p>
<p>Kashmir is the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ranisingh/2016/07/12/kashmir-in-the-worlds-most-militarized-zone-violence-after-years-of-comparative-calm/#5ff588423124">most militarized region in the world</a>, with more than half a million armed Indian troops deployed in the Indian-administered Kashmir over the past 30 years. </p>
<p>They are occupying Kashmir through use of colonial war measures acts, including the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/10/19/india-repeal-armed-forces-special-powers-act">Armed Forces Special Powers Act</a>, the <a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b52014.html">Public Safety Act</a> and martial laws that have given Indian troops complete impunity. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf&action=default&DefaultItemOpen=1">Gross human rights violations</a> have occurred under their watch, according to a 2018 United Nations report. They include <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf&action=default&DefaultItemOpen=1">gang rapes by military</a> and mass disappearances of approximately <a href="http://apdpkashmir.com/">8,000 to 10,000 people</a>. As many as <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-36624520081121">100,000</a> Kashmiris have been killed and several thousand <a href="http://jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TORTURE-Indian-State%E2%80%99s-Instrument-of-Control-in-Indian-administered-Jammu-and-Kashmir.pdf">wounded, blinded and maimed, including through torture tactics in custody</a></p>
<p>As a result of the war, hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri (Muslims, as well as Sikhs and Pandits) have left Kashmir, and become internationally displaced and dispossessed following the 72-year Indian occupation.</p>
<h2>India’s latest invasion</h2>
<p>On <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/06/india-kashmir-crackdown-region-delhi-autonomy">Aug. 4, India ordered all tourists and outside students to leave Kashmir effective immediately</a>. They simultaneously implemented emergency measures to protect tourists and Indian Hindu <em>yathris</em> doing an annual Hindu pilgrimage. It also airlifted almost 10,000 more soldiers into Kashmir within a matter of two days. </p>
<p>Approximately 28,000 additional armed troops then invaded Kashmir Valley in trucks and tanks.</p>
<p>On <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/india-abolishes-kashmir-special-status-rush-decree-190805061331958.html">Aug. 5</a>, the Indian Home Minister Amit Shah told parliament that the president had signed a decree abolishing Section 35a and Article 370 of the Indian constitution.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-revokes-kashmirs-autonomy-risking-yet-another-war-with-pakistan-121485">India revokes Kashmir’s autonomy, risking yet another war with Pakistan</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Indian government eliminated Kashmir’s special status in an effort to assimilate the Kashmiri people, extinguish their unique Indigenous title to land and claim their land as federal territory. This obliterated any last set of rights Kashmiris enjoyed as a semi-autonomous people in the Indian union of states. </p>
<p>Jammu and Kashmir State <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/parliament-approves-bill-for-bifurcation-of-j-k-into-two-union-territories-1565067616715.html">has been bifurcated</a> into an Indian federal union territory. </p>
<p>These unilateral moves by the Indian state obliterate the rights Kashmiris had as citizens of India as well as their Indigenous rights. Under the <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html">United Nations Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP)</a>, India is obligated to ensure decisions pertaining to Kashmiri are made with them, using the principle of <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/2016/10/free-prior-and-informed-consent-an-indigenous-peoples-right-and-a-good-practice-for-local-communities-fao/">Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC)</a> that recognizes Kashmiris as a sovereign Indigenous people.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html">UNDRIP</a> was <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html">adopted and signed</a> by India, China and Pakistan in 2007.</p>
<h2>Millions under house arrest</h2>
<p>Since Aug. 4, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/reason-fear-safety-kashmiri-india-190805143607160.html">India has eliminated all access to and communication with Kashmir</a>. The internet, mobile and landlines have been severed, and <a href="https://www.census2011.co.in/census/state/jammu+and+kashmir.html">14.7 million people</a> have no access to essentials like food and medical support while Indian advances to take full control of their land using military power.</p>
<p>Aside from extremely rare media, Kashmiris have not been able to communicate with each other or with the outside world. The entire Jammu and Kashmir region is essentially imprisoned under house arrest.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9780199455263/Article-370-Constitutional-History-Jammu-0199455260/plp">Since 1949, Article 370</a> has granted the state of Jammu and Kashmir semi-autonomous constitutional status. Under its provisions, the region has its own legislative assembly, constitution, flag and independence in all matters except communications, foreign affairs and defence. </p>
<p>Revoking this status is the latest attempt to annihilate the Kashmiri people, extinguish their rights and eliminate their linguistic, social, cultural, economic and political existence as Indigenous people. The legality of dissolving the special status is being challenged by India’s <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/kashmir-article-370-scrapping-constitutional-expert-reacts-noorani_in_5d47e58de4b0aca341206135?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMZkO9yMPVYiRtn0IlbBjgvJRyJ-7UDrHxoR2feaA9nrwGwQbc-YkQpzl7OLAwLbYFuQVJVuc_PPzWk0d9f6D-e5zrEMNcDGCnHQXBYbz6WHAX5VGNMFiTKBpPUVZD5GA30TvXZ-r9vigm0w2_lJ1Q5T-TvBvjqJ2XL_lvGy5X1K">legal and constitutional experts</a>, and goes against the country’s Supreme Court rulings of recent years.</p>
<p>With these recent changes to Article 370 and Section 35a, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/05/indias-settler-colonial-project-kashmir-takes-disturbing-turn/?noredirect=on">India permits</a> the permanent <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/and-kashmiris-shall-immediately-cease-to-exist-28778">settlement</a> of non-Kashmiris in Kashmiri land. Membership and settlement had previously been determined by the Kashmiri constitution. Non-Kashmiris are now allowed to purchase, acquire and permanently settle on land in Kashmir. </p>
<p>Under these changes, the <a href="https://medium.com/@hotgossips/who-are-gujjar-bakarwals-a6b0b4c72ece">Gujjar-Bakarwal</a> people in Kashmir, for example, are immediately at greater risk. They migrate seasonally with animals on pastoral grounds, caring for both the animals and the land. India’s laws concerning land as individual property will not permit them to continue living on the land as they’ve historically done.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287349/original/file-20190808-144873-da5sl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287349/original/file-20190808-144873-da5sl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287349/original/file-20190808-144873-da5sl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287349/original/file-20190808-144873-da5sl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287349/original/file-20190808-144873-da5sl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287349/original/file-20190808-144873-da5sl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287349/original/file-20190808-144873-da5sl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Gujjar-Bakarwals are seen in this 2004 photo taken in Kashmir.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These changes will also result in a reconfiguration of the population in Kashmir. Kashmiris have long speculated that India intends to settle military and paramilitary families in Kashmir. As a Kashmiri, I have personally already seen semi-permanent military colonies in Kashmir.</p>
<h2>Using an Indigenous framework</h2>
<p>Indigenous peoples in Asia like the Kashmiri have long faced threats to their existence and their inherent rights, <a href="https://www.adb.org/publications/land-and-cultural-survival-communal-rights-indigenous-peoples-asia">particularly “relational” land rights</a>, as colonizing relations between Indigenous peoples and settler nations make land encroachment profitable and treat Indigenous lives as disposable. </p>
<p>Media, academics, legal and policy analysts barely touch on Indigenous rights, as outlined in the UNDRIP, when discussing Kashmir. But the Indigenous rights framework is necessary to accurately assess the distinct set of rights abuses Kashmiris face. India is in violation of multiple international human rights conventions and declarations it’s signed that apply to Kashmir. </p>
<p>Under UNDRIP, India is obligated to consult with Indigenous people rather than make decisions that impact them unilaterally, and to grant them the greatest possible opportunity for self-government and self-determination. </p>
<p>This right of Kashmiris to determine their future was also affirmed by a <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9780199455263/Article-370-Constitutional-History-Jammu-0199455260/plp">UN resolution on Kashmir in 1948</a>. But this resolution limited self-determination to a decision on whether to accede to India or Pakistan. </p>
<p>There has been a reluctance to use the term genocide to describe the events that have unfolded in Kashmir over the decades. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287437/original/file-20190808-144868-1jqbtid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287437/original/file-20190808-144868-1jqbtid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287437/original/file-20190808-144868-1jqbtid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287437/original/file-20190808-144868-1jqbtid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287437/original/file-20190808-144868-1jqbtid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287437/original/file-20190808-144868-1jqbtid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287437/original/file-20190808-144868-1jqbtid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this May 2018 photo, supporters of separatist People’s Political Party (PPP) Leader Hilal Ahmad War hold banners and shout slogans during a protest against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Srinagar in Indian-controlled Kashmir.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the <a href="https://www.un.org/ar/preventgenocide/adviser/pdf/osapg_analysis_framework.pdf">legal definition of genocide</a> fits. The Kashmiri people have been targeted for a demographic transformation on their territory by an outsider group by introducing mass permanent settlements of outsiders. The outsider group is the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/06/asia/kashmir-india-modi-analysis-intl-hnk/index.html">Hindu nationalist</a> Indian state under the leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4b68c89c-711c-11e9-bf5c-6eeb837566c5">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</a>.</p>
<h2>Targeted for being Muslim</h2>
<p>As a group, Kashmiris are additionally being targeted because they are predominantly Muslim as well as culturally and linguistically distinct. Muslims are <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/divisive-policies-india-hurt-economic-growth-190306214221486.html">treated as threats in India,</a> including in Kashmir. They have been targeted for elimination in part through military force and <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/jammu-and-kashmir-suffered-rs-16000-crore-loss-during-kashmir-unrest/articleshow/56446043.cms?from=mdr">economic oppression</a>.</p>
<p>Kashmiri youth have been <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jk-cops-disguise-as-stone-pelters-to-catch-real-culprits/articleshow/65728947.cms">criminalized and put into state custody</a> for “reform” programming for throwing stones to protest <a href="https://books.google.co.in/books?id=BvpUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">the injustices they face</a> and the impunity of the Indian military. This treatment is a violation of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">UN Convention on the Rights of a Child</a>.</p>
<p>Refusal to call out genocide has happened before, in Nazi Germany, Rwanda and elsewhere. The <a href="https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%2078/volume-78-i-1021-english.pdf">United Nations Convention on Genocide</a> states that it must never be permitted again. The convention also states that at-risk groups must be protected. </p>
<p>Instead, there has been an eerie silence from world leaders on naming the unfolding crime in Kashmir.</p>
<p>Kashmiris have been the guardians, gardeners and caretakers of Kashmiri land, water, each other and non-human life. Regardless of colonial borders, what is most fundamental is what Kashmiris, as a sovereign Indigenous people, want. </p>
<p>According to a popular Kashmiri protest chant that has reverberated through Kashmiri history:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>“Jis Kashmir ko khoon se seencha! Woh Kashmir hamara hai!”</em> “The Kashmir that has been drenched in our blood! It belongs to us, the Kashmiris!” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Binish Ahmed does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While the world avoids calling the crime by its name, Kashmiris are facing an ongoing genocide.Binish Ahmed, PhD candidate, Public Policy, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1157332019-04-23T15:45:55Z2019-04-23T15:45:55ZIndia Tomorrow part 3: Kashmir<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269984/original/file-20190418-28084-nqn8uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>As campaigning was gearing up for the 2019 Indian elections, there was a dangerous escalation in the long-simmering conflict between India and Pakistan. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/indian-security-forces-killed-kashmir-blast-reports-190214110644498.html">An attack</a> on an Indian military convoy in Pulwama in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in February 2019 killed more than 40 security personnel. </p>
<p>After a Pakistani-based militant group <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47249982">claimed responsibility</a>, India responded by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47366718">launching air strikes</a> against suspected militant targets across the border in Pakistan and the world worried about the risk of war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The tension eventually diffused, but it was a stark reminder of the ongoing conflict and what it means for India. </p>
<p>In the third episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-a-podcast-series-from-the-anthill-episode-guide-114654">India Tomorrow</a>, a series from The Conversation’s podcast The Anthill, we focus on Kashmir: its history, the lives of its people, and the conflict over its future.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://player.acast.com/5e3bf1111a6e452f6380a7bc/episodes/5e3bf133659d595770f8b910?theme=default&cover=1&latest=1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="110px" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-anthill/id1114423002?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321534/original/file-20200319-22606-q84y3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=182&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/265Bnp4BgwaEmFv2QciIOC?si=-WMr1ecDTsO_6avrkxZu8g"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321535/original/file-20200319-22606-1l4copl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=183&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<hr>
<p>Kashmir has been the cause of tension between Pakistan and India since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-81766">Partition of India</a> in 1947. Sarah Ansari, a historian at Royal Holloway, University of London, explains what happened during Partition and why Jammu and Kashmir became a source of conflict. We also explore the significance of Article 370, the part of the Indian constitution which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir – and why some Indians <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/lok-sabha-2019/story/bjp-manifesto-2019-no-article-370-article-35a-1496655-2019-04-08">want to scrap it</a>. </p>
<p>Ather Zia, an anthropologist at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, explains what Kashmir means to her, and what life is like for Kashmiris today. “It’s my homeland and it’s also a place which is an open prison currently because of the situation that is prevailing,” she says. “People are living, but it’s under heavy repression.” She explains how her research is showing many Kashmiris have a long-held desire for independence. </p>
<p>We also find out what has happened in Kashmir since 2014 when Narendra Modi became prime minister of India, and his BJP party entered into a ruling coalition in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Sita Bali, a lecturer in international relations at Staffordshire University, says she thinks that the escalation – and subsequent de-escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan – could <a href="https://theconversation.com/kashmir-india-and-pakistans-escalating-conflict-will-benefit-narendra-modi-ahead-of-elections-112570">benefit Modi</a> in the 2019 elections. And she explains what the nuclear element of the ongoing conflict means for the region: “This Pakistan problem, or the Kashmir problem, whichever way you choose to look at it, has always stood in the way of India’s relations in the whole region.”</p>
<p>You can read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/kashmir-india-tomorrow-part-3-podcast-transcript-115732">transcript of this episode</a> here, and also find out more about past and upcoming episodes in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-a-podcast-series-from-the-anthill-episode-guide-114654">series episode guide</a>.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://confirmsubscription.com/h/r/23816052A5FFA0842540EF23F30FEDED">Subscribe to our Anthill podcast newsletter to hear about new episodes as soon as they drop.</a></em></p>
<p><strong>Credits</strong></p>
<p><em>The Anthill is produced by Gemma Ware and Annabel Bligh. Editing by Alex Portfelix. Thank you to City, University of London’s Department of Journalism for letting us use their studios to record The Anthill.</em></p>
<p><em>Picture source: <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-mountain-view-sonamarg-jammu-kashmir-657391570?src=iKqyP7mSQFggecLhR1fF8A-1-0">khlongwangchao via Shutterstock</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Music: <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/Living_With_Trauma/Lee_Rosevere_-_Living_With_Trauma_-_05_Intervention">Intervention by Lee Rosevere</a>, <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tranko/VA_-_Clinical_Jazz_excerpt_3/Flying_Cat_amp_Sitar">Flying Cat & Sitar by Tranko</a>, and <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/Super_1222/07_Endeavour">Endeavour by Jahzzar</a> all via <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/">Free Music Archive</a>.</em></p>
<p><strong>Archive news clips:</strong></p>
<p><em>Hum kya chahty Azadi (Kahmir), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGcBZVCBSDQ">Mohtsim Billah</a></em></p>
<p><em>Narendra Modi’s first visit to Jammu and Kashmir as PM, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBp9QVBdPFc">Times Now</a></em></p>
<p><em>Kashmir witnesses worst violence in six years, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQXa6VS3Dts">Al Jazeera English</a></em></p>
<p><em>India Cheers Return Of Air Force Pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxnMK3Xb73U">NDTV</a></em> </p>
<p><a href="https://pca.st/5Hul"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321533/original/file-20200319-22598-afljnr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Pocket Casts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Anthill-id2625863?country=gb"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321531/original/file-20200319-22632-t8ds9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL3VrL3BvZGNhc3RzL3RoZS1hbnRoaWxsLnJzcw%3D%3D"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation/the-anthill"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> </p>
<p><a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-Podcasts/The-Anthill-p877873/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a> <a href="https://radiopublic.com/the-anthill-GOJ1vz"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Indrajit Roy receives funding from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annabel Bligh works for The Conversation.</span></em></p>We focus on Kashmir in the third part of our India Tomorrow podcast series: its history, the lives of its people, and the conflict over its future.Indrajit Roy, Lecturer in Global Development Politics, University of YorkAnnabel Bligh, Host of The Anthill Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1157322019-04-23T15:45:51Z2019-04-23T15:45:51ZKashmir: India Tomorrow part 3 podcast transcript<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270434/original/file-20190423-175524-3k25ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-mountain-view-sonamarg-jammu-kashmir-657391570?src=iKqyP7mSQFggecLhR1fF8A-1-0">khlongwangchao via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is a transcript of part three of The Anthill’s podcast series, India Tomorrow. <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-part-3-kashmir-115733">Listen to the full episode here </a> and also find out more about past and upcoming episodes in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-a-podcast-series-from-the-anthill-episode-guide-114654">series episode guide</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://player.acast.com/5e3bf1111a6e452f6380a7bc/episodes/5e3bf133659d595770f8b910?theme=default&cover=1&latest=1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="110px" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-anthill/id1114423002?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321534/original/file-20200319-22606-q84y3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=182&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/265Bnp4BgwaEmFv2QciIOC?si=-WMr1ecDTsO_6avrkxZu8g"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321535/original/file-20200319-22606-1l4copl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=183&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Gemma Ware</strong>: So what is Kashmir, what’s it like and what does it mean to you?</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ather-zia-725152">Ather Zia</a></strong>: Kashmir to me means home, which is where I was brought up. It’s my homeland. And it’s also a place which is an open prison currently because of the situation that is prevailing. And the situation is that of an occupation that Indian military has imposed on the region since 1947. And since 1989 what’s happened is that there is direct military violence that is exacerbated each year. People are living, but it’s under heavy repression.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: This is Ather Zia, an assistant professor of anthropology and gender studies at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley. She spoke to our producer Gemma Ware.</p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong> When you walk the expanse of Kashmir, there is no road, there is no alley, there is no street where you cannot be stopped.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Since 1990, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which Ather calls Indian-administered Kashmir, has been under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. This is a law which was introduced after an insurgency began in 1989. Ather says the act gives the Indian military sweeping powers over property and life. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: So anyone is a suspect at any point in time and can be killed, can be disappeared, can be arrested, can be tortured without any accountability and that is what has been happening.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Ather is a founding member of a group of scholars called the Critical Kashmir Studies Collective, which looks at Kashmir from the viewpoint of Kashmiris themselves. She studies daily life there.</p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: So living in Kashmir is very very difficult because it’s not a regular, normal life. When you live under militarisation, you’re under constant surveillance. I might give you a small example that if guests come into your home, you have to declare who is coming and you have to go to the local police station. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Everyone is required to carry an ID card with them, and can be asked to produce it at any moment. There is no privacy, even in your home, Ather says. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: The government forces can barge into your home at any given point in time, say that you are under suspicion, or we suspect something, or there’s actually something happening. So there is no privacy. There is surveillance. And someone is watching you 24/7. And then also the limits and constraints to movement but also to life and to expression.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>India Tomorrow intro music</em></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: You’re listening to India tomorrow, a series from The Anthill podcast, brought to you by The Conversation. I’m Annabel Bligh from The Conversation.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/indrajit-roy-312163">Indrajit Roy</a></strong>: And I’m Indrajit Roy, lecturer in politics at the University of York.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: In this episode, part 3 of our series on India, we’re going to be focusing on Kashmir. Its history, its people, and the conflict over its future. To follow this episode, you don’t need to have heard the first two parts of our India tomorrow series. But we do hope you’ll check them out – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-part-1-fake-news-and-the-battle-for-information-113579">first is on fake news and the battle over information in India</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-part-2-the-politics-of-hindu-nationalism-115494">second is on the politics of hindu nationalism</a>, which has been central to the BJP government’s platform.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: We weren’t initially planning to do an episode on Kashmir. But as we were putting this series together, Kashmir hit international headlines after a suicide bomb attack there killed 40 Indian security forces, and the Indian military responded by bombing militant targets in Pakistan. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Yes, we’ll be hearing more about that later. But first, we thought it was important to find out how we got here and where the conflict between Pakistan and India over Kashmir came from.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: Kashmir is a region on the border with India and Pakistan, divided between the two countries, but claimed in full by both. To understand the roots of the Kashmir conflict, we need to go back to the 1940s and the violence, bloodshed and heartache of what’s known as the partition – the sudden and cataclysmic division of Britain’s Indian empire into the two separate independent states of India and Pakistan. </p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sarah-ansari-393469">Sarah Ansari</a></strong>: The speed with which independence took place had a lot to do with the changed position of Britain after the Second World War. But partition took place because of the inability of the main parties involved – the British, the Congress and the Muslim League – to reach a compromise solution that would keep India united at independence. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: This is Sarah Ansari, professor of history at Royal Holloway University of London, who researches the history and the legacy of partition. </p>
<p><strong>Sarah Ansari</strong>: The decision to grant independence to British India was finally agreed in February 1947, with the proposed date by which this should have happened being June 1948. However, in June 1947 plans were speeded up considerably and the date for independence was brought forward to August 15 1947. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Decisions had to be made very quickly, Sarah says. Including where the dividing line between the two countries would be. A British judge called Cyril Radcliffe was brought out to India to draw it up, but he only had a few weeks to identify and secure agreement from all sides. And he later admitted he’d relied on out-of-date maps and census materials. The result was that two key provinces, Punjab and Bengal were each split in two. Sarah says that religious concerns were central to partition and what happened after it. </p>
<p><strong>Sarah Ansari</strong>: Large numbers of Indian Muslims felt sufficiently concerned about what the future political arrangements in India would mean for them as a perpetual minority, let’s say, within this new political unit. And it was that concern that the Muslim League was able to tap into and win support from in its negotiations with the British and the Congress over what would happen at independence. However we must be careful that we don’t assume that firstly all Muslims in India before August 1947 supported partition. That was definitely not the case. And it was only very late in the day that the Muslim League was able to win support from majority Muslim provinces for this, I suppose, kind of negotiated outcome.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: So, Indrajit, it wasn’t simply a case of a Muslim-Hindu divide? </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: No. As Sarah says, it was definitely not the case that all Muslims in India supported partition. It’s very hard of course to know the exact numbers that supported it. Many Muslims, chose to stay in India and not to migrate at all to Pakistan which is why today they make up such a substantial minority of about 14% of India’s population, according to the 2011 census. What we do know is that partition brought with it a huge amount of uncertainty and violence in a summer of intense confusion and human suffering. </p>
<p><strong>Sarah Ansari</strong>: We don’t know how many people precisely migrated, but maybe as many as 14m people uprooted themselves and crossed what they thought were going to be the new borders in order to reach a place of greater safety. So that’s probably still the largest migration that the world has yet seen. And as part of that, large numbers of people died – maybe as many as a million. I mean the figures are not precise because of the, I suppose, confusion of the of the time itself.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: But what about Jammu and Kashmir? At the time of partition the area was a princely state. Under the plans drawn up by the British, princely states would initially have the right to remain independent, or to join India or Pakistan. It was up to each ruler to decide the future of their territory and its people. Sarah explains. </p>
<p><strong>Sarah Ansari</strong>: In the main, this proved relatively unproblematic, especially where there was a clear, as people describe it, geographic compulsion. Or where the wishes of the ruler and his subjects were straightforwardly aligned in terms of religious identity. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Sarah says that, in the end, those princely states that had perhaps considered remaining independent, found it impossible in practice to do so. </p>
<p><strong>Sarah Ansari</strong>: So the vast majority of princely states acceded to either India or to Pakistan by the agreed deadline. But problems arose where or when the ruler and his subjects disagreed. And so Jammu and Kashmir was one of a small number of princely states where this proved to be the case.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: The ruler at the time, Maharajah Hari Singh, was a Hindu, but the population of Jammu and Kahsmir had an overall Muslim majority. </p>
<p><strong>Sarah Ansari</strong>: The Maharajah initially chose to remain independent, signed what was known as a standstill agreement, at least with Pakistan. It hadn’t managed to do that with India, which kind of paused the process until a decision had been made. But protest uprisings, combined with tribal military-backed incursions from Pakistan, or the Pakistani side of the new border, led him, the Maharajah that is, to request intervention from the authorities in Delhi. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: What happened next is controversial, says Sarah, because there is disagreement over whether the Maharajah signed what was called the instrument of accession to join with India before or after India sent in troops. In any case, Pakistan contested Kashmir’s accession to India and a war ensued. India’s prime minister at the time, Jawaharlal Nehru referred the Kashmir issue to the UN, which got involved to try and find a way through the conflict. A ceasefire was agreed in early 1949, which created the ceasefire line, later known as the “line of control”. That’s the dividing line between Pakistan and India in Kashmir that still exists today. </p>
<p><strong>Sarah Ansari</strong>: The outcome was, in due course, that the western portions of his territory, Jammu Kashmir, came under Pakistani control – so today known as Azad Kashmir and also Gilgit-Baltistan – while the remainder constituted the Jammu and Kashmir state as it later came to be known that remained within the Indian framework.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: Sarah says that the fact India and Pakistan found themselves fighting a war over Kashmir so soon after independence had significant long-term consequences for both countries. From the get go, they were on a war footing. </p>
<p><strong>Sarah Ansari</strong>: It meant on the one hand that right from the outset Pakistan spent a huge proportion of its of its revenue, its GDP, on military-related development which I think hindered all sorts of other kind of state building programmes. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: The border tensions with Pakistan have also contributed to India’s rationale for keeping such a large army of around 1.4m active service personnel. In 2017, according to the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/05/india-worlds-biggest-defence-military-spender/">Stockholm International Peace Research Institute</a>, India spent US$63.9 billion on defence, making it the fifth-highest spending military budget in the world, behind the US, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: But what about Kashmiris? This is the question around which Ather Zia has focused her research. For Kashmiris, she says, history is ever present, and dominates the way they think about the future. A central issue, the bone of contention as it were, is India’s promise of a plebiscite, to the people of Jammu and Kashmir – a referendum on their future.</p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: And the fact is that the plebiscite has not been conducted so far and people in every decade, in my field at least, Indian-administered Kashmir, have been seeking that plebiscite one way or the other. But what has happened since 1947 is that the dialogue or the narrative around plebiscite got has gotten really, really diluted.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: India’s offer of a plebiscite was subject to Pakistan withdrawing troops from the western portion of Jammu and Kashmir. The ceasefire terms mandated that both sides withdraw their troops from the state. Neither side agreed, effectively killing the idea of a plebiscite. Elections were held in 1951 to convene a constituent assembly for the state, something like its own local parliament.</p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: And at that time you have evidence and you have the UN telling India that you cannot do this you can’t hold these elections because the case is sub judice. India responds saying that we are doing this for temporary governance and plebiscite is on the table still.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: As a matter of fact, journalists and academics covering that period suggest that those elections were completely rigged in favour of the Congress Party’s ally in Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference, that was keen for the state to join India.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Contrary to a wider Indian narrative, which argues that Kashmiris only began wanting independence in 1989 when the armed insurgency began, Ather stresses that Kashmiris had actually been resisting for decades – even before partition in 1947. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: So we have to understand, while India was fighting for its independence, Kashmir was fighting for its own independence from local tyrannical monarchy. And Kashmiris were fighting what they at that time called “quit Kashmir”. So they were asking the monarch to quit Kashmir and to establish a sovereign democracy. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: But despite this much longer history of resistance, and despite Kashmiris’ desire for a referendum on their future, it has never happened. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: So India kind of has sidelined and it has pushed the idea of plebiscite and referendum on the backburner, saying you know we have been doing elections since 1951. So the plebiscite is gone now. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: Ather is about to publish an edited volume of research on how Kashmiris in every decade since partition have kept on talking about the promise of a referendum. Today, that desire for independence has not abated, she says. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: And what other colleagues of mine who work in the same area have found, and what also some surveys and different researchers who have worked for some media groups have found, is that more than 70% of the people of the region support independence and there is a section which supports a merger with Pakistan. And of course there are people who are collaborating with India currently and who are running the pro-India politics and who are also pushing for integration with India to the resistance of the masses. So what we find is that there is a lot of sentiment for independence or what Kashmiris call Azadi which is the Urdu and Kashmiri word for freedom. And freedom for Kashmiris means freedom from India on this side of the line of control, where I work, the Indian administered Kashmir. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Ather says history is very present in the everyday lives of Kashmiris. Even the children. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: If you ask any child across the world like, “What do you want?” They might want toys. But one of the major slogans in Kashmir is Hum Kya Chahte, which means, “What do you want?” And people say, “Azadi.” So that’s kind of a rhetorical thing. And even the little kids say like, “What do we want? We want Azadi.” So it’s become a cultural motif. The resistance in Kashmir is very, very cultural. It’s woven into the daily life.</p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: The tragedy is that no one really pays attention to the historic political struggle of Kashmiris and everything goes to this post-colonial idiom where you look at big countries and you think about their territorial dispute not thinking about whose territory are we talking about. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: In <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-part-2-the-politics-of-hindu-nationalism-115494">our last episode</a> we heard about the ideology of Hindutva, and how central the idea of a Hindu nation is to the BJP, the party of Narendra Modi and the family of organisations of which it is a part. Such Hindu nationalist ideology impacts the BJP’s position regarding Kashmir – and Pakistan. </p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sita-bali-155071">Sita Bali</a></strong>: The BJP has its roots in a rightwing movement called the Jahn Sang which was present during just after partition and it also traces its roots back to some of the more right wing and the more stridently Hindu voices at the time of partition, like the Hindu Mahasabha.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: This is Sita Bali, a lecturer in international relations at Staffordshire University. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: So for the BJP and for that whole group of organisations, in a sense, partition is a kind of incomplete process because while most of the Muslims of India have not left to go live in Pakistan, most of the Hindus of Pakistan have come to live in India.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: A particular issue is around what’s called Article 370, part of the Indian constitution which gives a special status to Kashmir. Indrajit, why is it so controversial to some Indians?</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: That’s a tricky one actually. Article 370 of the Indian Constitution allows the state of Jammu and Kashmir a greater degree of autonomy compared to other Indian states. The article says that the Indian government has control over defence, external affairs, currency and communication, but on all other matters the state of Jammu and Kashmir can take its own decisions. Indian laws can only be applied to the state with the agreement of the state’s legislative assembly. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: For example, the Indian government cannot alter the boundaries of the state or make new provinces, as it can with other Indian states. Of course, in all this, we shouldn’t forget that people are constantly moving about. There’s a steady circulation of “ordinary” people, if you will, between Kashmir and the rest of India. Kashmiri students study in various Indian cities. Labour migrants work in Kashmir. As it happens, my own research on labour migration in India suggests that labourers from Bihar state in eastern India have never felt particularly discriminated against when they go to work in Jammu and Kashmir.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: So in terms of this, Article 370, gives Kashmir special status, do some people and politicians in India want to get rid of it altogether?</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: Kind of. Now, to be honest, the Indian government has been quietly eroding the special status provided under Article 370 for a long time, not just under the BJP but also under the Congress. But the BJP would like to see the article completely scrapped as it considers it to be a barrier to the complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir into India. And as you can imagine, political parties in the state are vehemently opposed to it. They say, and from a legal point of view they may have a point, that Article 370 is the link between India and Jammu and Kashmir. If you get rid of Article 370, then the legal basis of Jammu and Kashmir joining India is scrapped. That’s one reason most political parties in India tend to keep quiet about Article 370. Even one of the BJP’s own allies recently warned against removing the special status for the state. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: OK, so that’s the legal position. But what about feelings of security? How serious a security threat is Kashmir to India? </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: Look, Kashmir is not the only insurgency that the Indian government confronts. You know, there have been insurgencies in the north east, in central and eastern India where the Maoists have been operating for decades. But the situation in Kashmir presents a special threat because of the ways it has been linked to Islamic terrorism.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: And why’s that? Where’s this link to Islamic terrorism come from? </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: Here we have to zoom out of Kashmir a bit and look at the region more broadly since the 1980s. Now you remember the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? And remember that Islamic freedom fighters were drafted by the United States to wage a jihad against the Soviets. Pakistan of course gladly hosted these guys because it meant aid and weapons. The Soviet defeat emboldened the jihadists, and Pakistan happily directed them towards its old friend India. The infiltration of the jihadi element was new and unprecedented. The Kashmiri struggle against Indian high-handedness had so far been peaceful. But it took a violent turn in 1988, after armed groups began to exploit local resentment – and make no mistake, there was enough grounds for local resentment – against what now came to be called Indian occupation. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Ok. So actually the last time the BJP was in power in India, under the prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, there was a considerable escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan. Sita Bali told us that when Vajpayee initially came to power, there had been some hope he may have been able to make peace. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: And there was a time when people really believed – both in India and Pakistan – that because the BJP were the more extreme element in India, in terms of their hard line on Pakistan and on Kashmir, that actually if peace was to be made between India and Pakistan on this matter that it was more likely to come from the BJP because they were the more extreme. I mean, if the Congress made some sort of peace, the BJP would come in and say it wasn’t good enough for them. Whereas a peace made by the more extreme right will likely satisfy everybody. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: When a bus service was opened between India and Pakistan, Vajpayee was on the first service. There was a lot of optimism. But Sita says all that soon dissipated after it emerged that Pakistan had been preparing for what’s been called the Kargil invasion, a border dispute high up in the mountains in an area called the Siachin Glacier. The Kargil conflict was made all the more dangerous because both countries had tested nuclear weapons in 1998, the year before. For India, it was a hard fight to win. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: This was in a sense India’s first TV war. And so you saw people being killed up there of course and then you saw the body bags come down and be put into boxes and boxes covered with the Indian flag then being dispatched to all corners of India. You know all over the place. And so there is a real kind of build up of nationalism in India.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: The Kargil conflict started in May and ended in June 1999 when India’s military forced a withdrawal of Pakistani militants back across the line of control. But it left an uneasy sense of peace, and since then there have been continuous skirmishes across the line of control. </p>
<p>So let’s fast forward to 2014, and the election of Narendra Modi as prime minister of India. Sita says that Modi came to power saying he’d be much stronger on the Kashmir issue.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: So of course removing Article 370 was a key BJP manifesto promise because of, you know, the idea in the BJP that this article was a barrier to the state’s integration into India. But Modi also promised that he would defend the interests of Kashmiri Pandits, the valley’s Hindu minority that had been forced to flee to other parts of the country when militancy took over the state in 1989. Modi said that at the very least he would ensure the rehabilitation of the Pandits within the state. The BJP was of course exploiting the emotive issue of Kashmiri Pandits for its own electoral advantage because five years down the line, it has not had much to show for itself.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: After Modi was elected, he went to Kashmir, to see how people there would react to him. Kashmir went into shutdown. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: Because what he was suggesting essentially was that any problems in Kashmir were largely to do with Pakistan, that Kashmir was an integral part of India. There was no recognition for the fact that Kashmir has a special status in the Indian constitution; that it was India’s Muslim majority region. There was no other in India like this and that therefore the special status meant something to the, particularly, the Muslims of Kashmir.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: To be fair, Modi did seem to strike a chord with the electorate in Kashmir. The BJP made some noise about reviewing the act which gives the Indian military sweeping powers over people’s lives that Ather spoke of earlier. Elections to the state assembly were held in December 2014, soon after the BJP stormed to power in Delhi. Turnout was a record 65%, among the highest in India and certainly the highest in the state since militancy erupted in 1989. </p>
<p>As it happened, the BJP did rather well in these elections, especially in the Jammu region, which has a Hindu majority. Another state party called the People’s Democratic Party, or PDP, won the majority of seats in the Kashmir valley, which has a Muslim majority. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: And so then what happened?</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: The negotiations that followed were fun to watch. On the one side, you had the PDP, you see, which was committed to keeping Article 370; party leaders had sometimes been called “soft separatists”. On the other hand, you had the BJP, which you know, has always been in favour of scrapping Article 370. So, thanks to some skilful negotiations, and you know out-of-the-box thinking, you had these two parties with opposing ideologies tied together in a coalition. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: So people were quite optimistic, because you know with the BJP that if they’re in power at the centre and they’re in power at the state assembly level then you’ve got a better chance of getting things through from the state assembly to the centre and back. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: But Sita says it turned out the BJP didn’t really have a plan for Kashmir. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: The BJP’s plan was non-existent in that they decided that they would treat Kashmir purely as a law and order problem – as a security problem.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: In July 2016, mass demonstrations erupted in the Kashmir valley after the leader of an armed group was killed by Indian security forces. The protesters were met with force. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Today, Ather Zia says that daily human rights violations in Kashmir are at an all time high. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: In June 2018, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf">published a report</a> on Indian-administered Kashmir as well as Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Gilgut and Balistan talking about the human rights violations in the region. What the report established was that since 2016 the human rights record of the Indian Army has really touched an all time low.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: The UN report was the first ever on human rights violations in Kashmir. It was carried out remotely as investigators weren’t given full access by either India or Pakistan. The authors cited civil society reports that 145 civilians were killed by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir between mid-July 2016 and the end of March 2018. Ather says that while cases of Kashmiris “disappearing” may have lessened in recent years, other human rights violations have increased. In particular, she points to large numbers of people being blinded by government forces.</p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: Basically the world’s first mass blindness happened in Kashmir because the government forces are using shotgun pellets, which is also erroneously called pellet guns and it kind of makes the Western audience think that it’s very small something like a BB gun of some sort, but this is actually a shotgun and it fires pellets very fast.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: The UN cited official figures reporting that 17 people were killed by these shotgun pellets between July 2016 and August 2017. And more than 6,000 people were injured by the pellets between 2016 and March 2017. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: In late 2017, the BJP coalition with Kashmir’s PDP collapsed, and the state was governed directly from Delhi. Ather says the BJP is now openly attacking those parts of the Indian constitution that protected Kashmir’s autonomy and special status. For instance, there’s currently a case before the Indian Supreme Court aimed at getting rid of Article 35a.</p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: That’s an article that kind of ensures Kashmir’s territorial autonomy which means that people who are not Kashmiri residents do not have the right to franchise, and they don’t have right to property inside Kashmir. So it looks like a very discriminatory act and it has also been portrayed as a gender discrimination act. But the fact is that this is a protection of a territorial sovereignty of a region to which you have a certain access. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: Ather says Kashmiris are still anxiously waiting for news from the supreme court. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: And they are really really worried that it might be taken away from them. And there are political analysts inside Kashmir who have called this demographic terrorism. That if this is taken away and there is an influx of Indian businesses and Indian, you know, just citizens inside Kashmir and taking the property and you know all sorts of demographic changes it is going to change the situation inside Kashmir. And it is going to kind of tip the scales in favour of India. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: In early 2019, the situation in Kashmir suddenly made news around the world again. A suicide bomb attack in mid-February killed 40 Indian paramilitaries travelling in a convoy in Jammu and Kashmir at a place called Pulwama. A Pakistan-based military group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, claimed responsibility. A few days later, Indian planes launched strikes on what it said were Pakistani militant bases on the Pakistani side of the border in Balakot. An Indian pilot whose plane was shot down, was returned by the Pakistanis a few days later. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: Not only did it de-escalate the situation but it also, I think handed a bit of a publicity coup or made Pakistan look very much the more magnanimous, the more peace seeking, whereas it made India look like India was more gung-ho and warlike. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: We asked Sita Bali what this escalation – and subsequent de-escalation – of the conflict with Pakistan means for Modi politically, in the run up to the elections. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: I think that, there being a tense situation with Pakistan where Modi can stand up to them and can look tough and look hard and so on, is very helpful to his election prospects, because it plays into that sense that the BJP and Modi are the tough guys, the Congress is kind of weak and wimpy. And you know they’ve been in power for so many years and they’ve never sorted it out. So I think it’s going to help Modi if the situation in Kashmir is not peaceful or is not settled for the moment. And it isn’t.</p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: It’s worth remembering also that the nuclear issue is always there in the backdrop of the tension between India and Pakistan. Both countries have nuclear weapons, but while India has declared that it won’t use them in the first instance, Pakistan hasn’t. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: Well, logically it should actually rule out things like an Indian armed response to an act of terrorism within Kashmir. Because on one argument you could say that because Pakistan has not committed itself to no first use, it has increased its ability to do things that might annoy India, and to have some cover, because India will think very hard before responding militarily simply because Pakistan can escalate the problem at any time that it wants, without breaking any commitment that it has made in the past. So arguably this works to Pakistan’s advantage. </p>
<p>However, I also think that in the end if it came to it, a commitment that India has given to the international community, if we ever came to a point where India genuinely believed that it was in their interest to use that nuclear weapon first, never mind that it meant breaking a commitment, I think that they would probably do it, particularly under a BJP government. </p>
<p>So I think at the moment in a way what we’ve got is a situation where both sides’ nuclear weapons are cancelling each other out and we are going ahead with a conflict, or behaving in a conflict, very much like the nuclear weapons don’t exist. Except that both countries are quite careful not to escalate too much.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Sita says that while both sides are constrained by their nuclear capabilities, India is more constrained because it sees itself as a more responsible player on the international stage. But there is a wider regional dynamic at play too.</p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: This Pakistan problem, or the Kashmir problem, whichever way you choose to look at it, has always stood in the way of India’s relations in the whole region. Because in the whole region you have to think of, first, all the countries of South Asia. And India is surrounded by these countries. It has a common border with so many of the countries of south Asia, none of whom have a common border with each other, and all of whom are far far smaller than India. So India is already susceptible to the perception that because she is the biggest, which she is by a long shot, that she is a bully in the region. And that Pakistan, in the regional balance of power, Pakistan refusing to accept Indian hegemony is one of the things that, quietly, all of the other countries of South Asia would support. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: And then there is China. </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: China is an established, longstanding and close ally of Pakistan. And they have supported Pakistan. Even right now, for example, over the issue of declaring the Jaish-e-Mohammed a terrorist group and banning them and freezing their assets and all the usual things that happen in the UN when somebody is declared a terrorist group, China is resisting. And it’s taking Pakistan’s side in this argument.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Our producer Gemma Ware put one last question to Sita, about how concerned she is now, after the Pulwama attack and Indian air strikes. </p>
<p><strong>Gemma Ware</strong>: So in terms of where we are now, are you worried? Is this a very concerning moment for you? You’ve been studying this region for a long time. Is this just part of the ebb and flow of, unfortunately what the Kashmir and the India-Pakistan conflict are? Or is this a particularly worrying moment for you? </p>
<p><strong>Sita Bali</strong>: No, I think Kargil was more serious than this. Because it was the first time we had been skirmishing after the establishing of nuclear weapons on both sides. What is worrying about this is not so much to do with Pakistan and nuclear weapons and so on, what is worrying about this at the moment is the future of Indian Kashmir. Because ultimately if the people of Indian Kashmir decide that they do not want to be a part of India then all bets are off in terms of what Pakistan will do as well. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: For Ather, the international attention on Kashmir once again takes the focus away from the suffering of the Kashmiris. Her collective of Kashmiri scholars have been trying to fight the notion that the Kashmir conflict is merely a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: That is an aspect. But it is also an issue of democratic sovereignty of a certain people and political consciousness, which has not only strengthened, but it has evolved and emerged in different ways over the last 70 years. </p>
<p>I kind of like to see it as that the Kashmiris are doing all the dying. This has been noted by many people before. And all we are talking about is India and Pakistan. So we have to see the human cost. Who is paying the human cost when the strikes were happening from India and Pakistan? And all of that is going on very recently. We kind of forgot in the middle that it was a Kashmiri who became the human bomb. And the question was not asked like, what happened there? Why is Kashmir becoming a lab for making militants? Because there are no policies for a just peace.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: It’s their future, says Ather. </p>
<p><strong>Ather Zia</strong>: Kashmiris are the most canny and most political of peoples. And if you go to any street corner you will see the most evolved narrative and political narrative on Kashmir from everyone. Because that’s what they live every day. And after what happened very recently there was some interest in, “hey, let’s think about what’s happening to Kashmiris”. But then after a while everything went back to thinking about how can we bring the two countries to the table. And the Kashmiris again got snowed under that narrative because it’s a post-colonial reality that we are thinking about big nation states and we’re not thinking about peoples, we’re not thinking about cultures. So that’s something that we need to keep in mind. We need to have the Kashmiri vantage. Without that everything is incomplete.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: That’s it for this episode of India Tomorrow from The Anthill. In our next episode, we’ll be looking at the changing role of women in Indian society. </p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/charu-gupta-725231">Charu Gupta</a></strong>: Love Jihad was actually a jihad against love. It was a war against love you know it was this kind of mythical and violent campaign. It was emotive. It was a political fantasy.</p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: That’s in part 4 of this series from The Anthill, India Tomorrow. Do subscribe to The Anthill podcast so you don’t miss out. You can also sign up to our Anthill newsletter, by clicking the link in the show notes. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: You can read more of The Conversation’s coverage of India by academics around the world on <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk">theconversation.com</a> or follow us on social media. If you’ve got any questions about issues we’ve been discussing in this series, please do get in touch via email on podcast@theconversation.com or on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/anthillpod">@anthillpod</a>. We’ll be putting your questions to a panel of academics we’re lining up to discuss the election results at the end of May. And you can find a transcript of this episode, and other episodes in this series, on <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk">theconversation.com</a>. </p>
<p>A big thanks to all the academics who spoke to us for this episode and to the journalism department at City University for letting us use their studios. The Anthill is produced by Gemma Ware and me, Annabel Bligh. Sound by Alex Portfelix.
Lastly, an extra big thanks to my co-host, Indrajit Roy. </p>
<p><strong>Indrajit Roy</strong>: Thanks Annabel. See you next week. </p>
<p><strong>Annabel Bligh</strong>: Thanks for listening. Goodbye.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115732/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
This is a transcript of episode three of The Anthill podcast series India Tomorrow on Kashmir.Annabel Bligh, Business & Economy Editor and Podcast Producer, The Conversation UKGemma Ware, Head of AudioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1128242019-03-04T20:41:43Z2019-03-04T20:41:43ZKashmir conflict is not just a border dispute between India and Pakistan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261726/original/file-20190301-110150-tu6era.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indian soldiers arrive at the wreckage of an an Indian helicopter that crashed on the Indian side of Kashmir on Feb. 27, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/The-Week-That-Was-In-Asia-Photo-Gallery/cf3b18ffec9149f881f9ab25289b1812/28/0">AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tensions between India and Pakistan have diminished in recent days after <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/india-pakistan-tensions-latest-updates-190227063414443.html">repeated military clashes in Kashmir</a> led to fear that the two nuclear powers could be on the verge of war. </p>
<p>Kashmir is a disputed territory divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in its entirety by both sides.</p>
<p>The latest Kashmir standoff was triggered by a Feb. 14 suicide bombing by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47249982">Jaish-e-Muhammad</a>, a militant group with <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/profile-jaish-muhammad-190215061851082.html">links to al-Qaida</a> and founded by the Pakistan-based cleric Masood Azhar. More than 40 Indian soldiers died. </p>
<p>India blamed Pakistan for providing moral and material support to the terrorist organization, which is banned in Pakistan but <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world/pakistan-didn-t-detain-masood-azhar-after-pathankot-attack-report/story-QlXZi7xMlPtaPNF1ZVg1NJ.html">operates openly there</a>. On Feb. 26, India launched <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistan-says-indian-jets-dropped-bombs-but-caused-no-damage-11551158468">air strikes</a> against Jaish-e-Muhammad’s training camps on the Pakistani side of Kashmir. </p>
<p>Pakistan retaliated, claiming to have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/27/india/india-pakistan-strikes-escalation-intl/index.html">shot down two Indian fighter jets</a> on Feb. 28. Indian sources said that just one Pakistani jet and one Indian jet had been downed, and an Indian pilot taken hostage by Pakistan.</p>
<p>Pakistan has since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/world/asia/pakistan-india-pilot-kashmir.html">released the pilot</a>, soothing tempers – for now, at least. </p>
<h2>Why Kashmir?</h2>
<p>The Kashmir issue has caused tension and conflict in the Indian subcontinent since 1947, when independence from Britain <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/asia/india-pakistan-independence-timeline/index.html">created India and Pakistan</a> as two sovereign states.</p>
<p>Jammu and Kashmir – the full name of the princely Himalayan state, then ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh – <a href="https://theconversation.com/kashmir-india-and-pakistans-escalating-conflict-will-benefit-narendra-modi-ahead-of-elections-112570">acceded to India</a> in 1947, seeking military support after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1947%E2%80%931948">tribal raids</a> from Pakistan into the state’s territory. </p>
<p>The two countries have fought <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/south-asian-history/kashmir-history-politics-representation?format=PB#K7iOgJparKKAsCkw.97">three wars</a> over the region since.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261917/original/file-20190304-92277-1fhmsei.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261917/original/file-20190304-92277-1fhmsei.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261917/original/file-20190304-92277-1fhmsei.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261917/original/file-20190304-92277-1fhmsei.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261917/original/file-20190304-92277-1fhmsei.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261917/original/file-20190304-92277-1fhmsei.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261917/original/file-20190304-92277-1fhmsei.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261917/original/file-20190304-92277-1fhmsei.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The internal divisions of Kashmir.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Kashmir_map.jpg">Central Intelligence Agency</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first, which began in 1947, ended with the partition of Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan under a <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/mission/past/unipombackgr.html">1949 United Nations-brokered ceasefire</a>. Wars in 1965 and <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2009/07/26/how-should-we-celebrate-the-kargil-war/">1999</a> ended in stalemate. </p>
<p>But Kashmir is not simply a bilateral dispute between India and Pakistan. </p>
<p>As illustrated in my recent <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/south-asian-history/kashmir-history-politics-representation?format=PB#K7iOgJparKKAsCkw.97">edited volume on the history of this contested territory</a>, Kashmir is a multi-ethnic region with several internal subregions, whose inhabitants have distinct political goals.</p>
<p>Pakistani Kashmir consists of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, jurisdictions that want to become formal provinces of Pakistan to gain more political autonomy over their internal affairs. </p>
<p>Indian Kashmir includes Jammu, Ladakh and the Kashmir Valley. While the first two regions desire to remain part of India, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kashmir-poll/majority-in-kashmir-valley-want-independence-poll-idUSDEL29179620070813">Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley</a> wants independence from it.</p>
<h2>A many-sided conflict</h2>
<p>The desire for autonomy in different areas of Kashmir has led to repeated uprisings and independence movements. </p>
<p>The most prominent is a violent <a href="http://www.currenthistory.com/Article.php?ID=1400">insurgency against Indian rule in the Kashmir Valley</a> that began in 1989 and has continued, in ebbs and flows, over the past three decades. Thousands have been killed.</p>
<p>The Kashmir Valley has become a militarized zone, effectively occupied by Indian security forces. According to the United Nations, Indian soldiers have committed numerous <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/14/india-act-un-rights-report-kashmir">human rights violations there</a>, including firing on protesters and denying due process to people arrested. </p>
<p>The UN also cites Pakistan’s <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf">role in the violence in Kashmir</a>. Its government supports the movement for Kashmir’s independence from India by providing <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520274211/body-of-victim-body-of-warrior">moral and material support to Kashmiri militants</a> – allegations the Pakistani government <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/why-pakistan-has-not-been-able-to-rein-in-anti-india-militants/2019/03/01/7c3549a8-3ae1-11e9-b10b-f05a22e75865_story.html?utm_term=.ba60b89a081a">refutes</a>. Pakistan also <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/30/india-and-pakistan-arent-ready-for-another-terrorist-crisis/">tacitly supports</a> the operations in Kashmir of non-Kashmiri extremist groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad. </p>
<p>As a result, consecutive Indian governments have managed to write off unrest in the Kashmir Valley as a byproduct of its territorial dispute with Pakistan. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261972/original/file-20190304-92298-thcsd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261972/original/file-20190304-92298-thcsd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261972/original/file-20190304-92298-thcsd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261972/original/file-20190304-92298-thcsd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261972/original/file-20190304-92298-thcsd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261972/original/file-20190304-92298-thcsd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261972/original/file-20190304-92298-thcsd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261972/original/file-20190304-92298-thcsd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">India’s Kashmir Valley.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Kashmir.Valley.original.11730.jpg">Ishan Singal</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In doing so, India has avoided addressing the actual political grievances of Indian Kashmiris.</p>
<p>An entire generation of young Kashmiris have been raised during the 30-year insurgency. They are deeply alienated from India, research shows, and <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15810.html">view it as an occupying power</a>.</p>
<p>Militant groups in the region tap into this discontent, recruiting young people to use violence in their quest for Kashmir’s freedom. Indeed, the man who under the auspices of Jaish-e-Muhmamad blew himself up in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/14/indian-paramilitaries-killed-in-suicide-car-bombing-in-kashmir">Feb. 14 suicide bombing</a> of the Indian military convoy was a young Kashmiri.</p>
<h2>Ending the conflict</h2>
<p>Tensions in Kashmir may have subsided, but the root causes of the violence there have not.</p>
<p>In my assessment, the Kashmir dispute cannot be resolved bilaterally by India and Pakistan alone – even if the two countries were willing to work together to resolve their differences. </p>
<p>This is because the conflict has many sides: India, Pakistan, the five regions of Kashmir and numerous political organizations.</p>
<p>Establishing peace in the region would require both India and Pakistan to reconcile the multiple – and sometimes conflicting – aspirations of the diverse peoples of this region. </p>
<p>Only when local aspirations are recognized, addressed and debated alongside India and Pakistan’s nationalist and strategic goals will a durable solution emerge to one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112824/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chitralekha Zutshi has received funding from the American Institute of Indian Studies and the National Endowment for the Humanities. </span></em></p>India and Pakistan have been fighting for control over Kashmir, an 86,000-square-mile territory in the Himalayas, for seven decades. But the people of Kashmir have their own political goals too.Chitralekha Zutshi, Professor of History, William & MaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.