HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF ALLURING KASHMIR
Kashmir did not have a single past. This article is an
attempt to cover the historical timeline of a disputed Kashmir and to cover the
journey of Kashmir becoming the Ethno-nationalist assertion from a peaceful and
happy valley.
There are two propagated pre-1947 histories of the
Kashmir Valley.
·
The first,
recounted by the minority Kashmiri Pandits, talk of the butchery executed under
Afghan rule in the 18th and 19th centuries, in which tens of thousands of them
were either brutally murdered or were forcibly converted to Islam.
·
The second is that
of the majority Kashmiri Muslims, and the discrimination they faced under the
Dogra rule from 1846 to 1947. The Kashmiri Muslims, many of whom had been
converted from Hinduism to Islam by the Afghans, were discriminated against by
the Dogra ruler.
THE
TIMELINE OF KASHMIR HISTORY-
·
In 1846, Maharaja
Gulab Singh (a Dogra ruler) bought the region of Jammu & Kashmir form the
East India Company after signing the Treaty of Amritsar
·
On seeing
illiterate and poor people in Kashmir, the British Missionaries opened several
schools and people attended too but Muslim leaders glared upon the modern
education system and as a result of which most Muslims remained uneducated.
·
In 1925, Maharaja
Hari Singh acceded the throne of Gulab Singh and people started having faith in
him.
·
In 1931, being
unhappy with the rule of Hari Singh, the Kashmiri Muslims launched and
introduced the Quit Kashmir Movement. The people were not satisfied with the
policies as they believed that the policies are prejudice against them.
·
Among them was the
Sheikh Abdullah who was a forceful orator but he rose to further prominence
when he was imprisoned in 1931 for an anti-government speech he delivered.
·
Sheikh Abdullah at
a later stage responded to the declining supports of Muslims that Kashmir has a
majority of Hindus and Sikhs who suffered at hands of an irresponsible
government. Further, communalism should be put to an end, and the approach of ‘secularism’ should be adopted.
·
In 1939, the Muslim
Conference changed its name to the National Conference, and efforts were made
to reach out to non-muslims.
·
However, the
father of Pakistan Mohommad Ali Jinnah demanded a separate homeland for Muslims
and urged for religious separation.
·
Abdullah was the
only Muslim leader who was in favor of secularism and gained popularity and
seeks the help of the Indian National Congress for defeating Maharaja.
·
In 1946, Abdullah
in his ‘Quit Kashmir’ speech rallied his people and said that the
autocracy of dogras has lacerated our
souls and so every man, woman, and child will shout ‘Quit Kashmir’
·
Kashmir became an
independent nation after the partition of India.
But then what led
Kashmir to sign the instrument of accession? What was the thought of acceding
to Pakistan? What dilemma made Kashmir have a standstill agreement with both
India and Pakistan and then after what made Kashmir surrender to Pakistan?
·
In 1947, during
the partition, Jammu and Kashmir were provided with the option to join either
India or Pakistan but Hari Singh decided to keep the state independent.
·
After Jammu and
Kashmir were attacked by Pakistan’s Pashtoon tribals, Hari Singh sought
military aid from then Governor-General of India named, Mountbatten who stated
that "It is my government's wish that as soon as law and order
have been restored in Jammu and Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invader,
the question of the State's accession should be settled by a reference to the
people."
·
In pursuance of
Mountbatten’s advice, the Indian government created a ballot for Kashmiris to
decide if they wanted to remain a part of India or Pakistan or an independent
state.
·
However, the
ballot failed to take place due to the Pakistani government, and also the
legality of India’s accession to Kashmir was questioned by residents of
Kashmir.
·
Further,
Instrument of Accession was signed by Maharaja Hari Singh in October and it was
duly accepted by Lord Mountbatten
·
The war relating
to the territorial dispute of the Kashmir was not over until the end of 1948
and the state was split between India and Pakistan.
Independent
Kashmir-
Sheikh Abdullah always wanted an independent Kashmir and for this
purpose. he chose to become a leader but due to the Pakistan invasion, he
accepted the accession of State. Abdullah stated that the union of people of
the Kashmir has been fused by the ideals and common sufferings of the community
in the wake of freedom. Further, the Kashmir always preached and praised
secularism.
In 1953, Abdullah became determined to revoke the
accession and forming an independent Kashmir but he was subsequently arrested
for being autocratic and was replaced by Bakshi Ghulam Mohommad under whom the
Constituent Assembly ratified the said accession in 1954.
Bakshi Ghulam was a leader and wanted greater autonomy
from India and was in favor of secularism.
Around the 1950s, corruption and misrule resulted in
alienation and separation of government officials and the people.
The surprising decision of making the Urdu (national
language of Pakistan) language as the state’s official language resulted in a monopoly
of government jobs and furtherance of power.
The
War of 1965-
Under the Bakshi rule, the state escalated towards
prosperity but after his retirement, the democratic government was overthrown
in 1958 in a military coup and the new leader of Pakistan named General Ayub
Khan secretly chased Kashmir.
In 1965, Pakistan all of sudden invaded Kashmir to
capture it leading to a short war. In 1972, the Shimla Agreement was signed
between India and Pakistan to resolve the differences bilaterally and not
through the third party. In nutshell, the Kashmir witnessed Islamization and
then to some extent, the Saudi influence.
Whether the
Islamization of Kashmir violated the religious sentiments of people living
there? Why there was an outbreak of violence on Kashmiri Pandits and the
temples of Hindu were destroyed by Muslims? Whether the Islamic revolution had
any relation with secularism and religious belief of people? The question is
whether the government is taking due advantage of the tolerance level of people
in Kashmir? Why Kashmir is witnessing an enduring number of protests and human
rights violations?
Well, I understand
that growing political opposition is difficult to correlate with the declining
effect of the religious rights of Kashmiris.
·
Jammu &
Kashmir acceded to Indian Union under very special circumstances in 1947 and despite
the role of Sheikh Abdullah in making Kashmir support the accession to India,
the Indian government imprisoned him from 1953 to 1975. In the interim period,
the greater part of autonomy was given to the State under Article 370.
·
Most of the steps
taken were remedial and were administrative too. The policy was enacted with the ultimate
objective to integrate the state into India and the aspirations of people in
Kashmir have not been given due prominence in the introduced policy. This
increased anti-Indian sentiments. And the election of 1987 was believed to be a
major cause for the insurgency caused in the valley from 1989 onwards.
·
As a result of
many insurgencies and counter-insurgency operations by Army, police,
para-military, and surrendered militants, the ferocious circle of violence
where about 60,000 people died.
The
insurgency laws-
The laws of insurgency such as the Armed Forces Act,
1958 was challenged on the ground that it violated international humanitarian
law and is unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the
law and laid down guidelines regarding the abuse of human rights.
Also, the act did not provide a clear definition of
the disturbed area and even a non-commissioned officer was empowered to give
directions to kill a person if necessary for the maintenance of public order.
And many other loopholes existed in the act.
The experts of the UN Human Rights Committee believed
that the act is violative of several articles of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights to which India is a signatory. The experts stated
that the act was not legal and valid on the ground that it is highly
inconsistent with the Indian Constitution (thereby referring to Article 14 and
21) even if it violates the Covenant.
However, the pattern of the destruction continued to
happen and political activists were targeted by the militants. The militant
activities destroyed property including schools, private buildings and, caused
collateral damage too. In addition to this, grave damage was caused to the
civilian population.
The
Pakistan Role-
When Pakistan failed to acquire possession of Kashmir
by force and to win the hearts of people, he adopted the approach of
communalism. To gain intelligence on the Indian army, Pakistan wanted to
sponsor the insurgency.
The Pakistani view is that they are providing moral
support to the Kashmiris in their fight for freedom against the brutal Indian
Army who commits excessive humans rights abuses on the oppressed Muslims living
in India.
The Indian perspective was that they are dealing with
a proxy war by Pakistan who has never accepted the Kashmiri's democratic
reaffirmation of their accession to India. The Kashmiris themselves are split
between supporting Pakistan, India, and independence.
However,
the series of events such as the kidnapping of the Home Minister of India and
change in the federal government, Kashmir developed a great level of confidence
and the Kashmiris were happy regarding their Independence Day which was to be
held on January 20, 1990.
But
unfortunately, several armed attacks, bomb blasts, arsons occurred in the state
thereby deprived people to celebrate their independence.
Why the Kashmiris did not want to join Pakistan? The reason was its large non-muslim majority but Pakistan overcame this problem by resorting to the mass killing of Hindus and Pakistan succeeded in strengthening its claim over the Kashmir.
The Domination &
Oppression-
More
than half of Kashmir remained free from insurgents and the Kashmiri Pandits
were settled in other parts of India due to the domination and the
discrimination faced by them.
In
1986 Jagmohan had argued that “Article 370 is nothing but a multiplying
ground for the parasites at the heart of the paradise. It skins the poor. It
deceives them with its mirage. It lines the pockets of the 'power elites.”
Even
I understand that Article 370 was an instrument of exploitation by the ruling
political entities. It made Kashmir prone to surgency and did not facilitate
national integrity. Also, it does not allow Indian enactments such as Wealth
Tax or the Gift Tax or any other beneficial laws from helping the poor
Kashmiris.
After the landmark move of revoking Article 370 of the
Indian Constitution in 2019 and denying Jammu and Kashmir a special status,
India has although escalated towards victory but still failed to ensure the
security of Kashmir and raised human rights violation concern.
India is adamant that Kashmir belongs to it. But whether this fact is true? No! If we look upon the history of the conflict, India is just having an imaginary creation of this fact as Kashmir is having a majority of Muslims which is divided into two parts, that is, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) and Indian occupied Kashmir and parts under Chinese control in the north.
HOW
TO RESOLVE THE CONFLICT?
The sole and the
only solution to end the conflict between Pakistan and Indian relating to the
Kashmir is to make Kashmir an independent nation. The following re some of the initiatives that can be
taken for the same-
·
An independent Kashmir could be created out of
the Kashmir Valley and at the same time the narrow strip of land which Pakistan
calls Azad Kashmir could be created. By doing so, the important regions of
Northern areas and Ladakh (bordering China) would come under the control of
Pakistan and India respectively.
·
Kashmir can be
converted into Independent Economic Zone where both Pakistan and India can
engage in a free trade
·
The government
should focus on improving the literacy rate and health rate of Kashmir rather
than investing billions of money to resolve the conflict. The idea is to uplift
the economy of Kashmir so to make it an independent nation.
·
The rural areas of
Kashmir should be given prominence to make agriculture a vibrant and important
part of the economy.
·
The focus should
be shifted to the center of militancy, that is, urban communities.
Therefore, to make Kashmir independent, the
participation and the aspirations of people should be given due relevance and the
state should welcome the maximum possible investment of private capital and
entrepreneurship. It should be noted that even after the centuries, Kashmir
could not create its Independent nation due to its impracticality.
REFERENCES-
1.
https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297a/Kashmir%20Conflict%20-%20A%20Study%20of%20What%20Led%20to%20the%20Insurgency%20in%20Kashmir%20Valley.pdf [Priyanka Bakaya & Sumeet Bhatti]
2.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/03/kashmir-conflict-how-did-it-start/ [Erin Blakemore]
3.
https://theprint.in/opinion/kashmir-was-never-just-a-1947-problem-it-is-a-5000-year-old-battle-of-histories/275418/ [Srijan Shukla]
4.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/kashmir-struggle-start-1947-today-190815093053238.html [Tamoghna Halder]
5.
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/4425/9/09_chapter%202.pdf
6.
https://www.cartercenter.org/documents/1439.pdf [The Carter Centre]
7.
https://qz.com/india/1682124/a-timeline-of-jammu-kashmirs-modern-history-and-article-370/ [Manavi Kapur]
8.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10576109208435908?journalCode=uter20 [Anand Mohan]
GURNEET KAUR
BBA LLB (H)
ICFAI UNIVERSITY, DEHRADUN
Disclaimer: This article is the personal opinion of the author. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any Indian Government or any other Government of the world.
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