Is Kashmir a foregone conclusion for India?

By:   Ameer Tarin   March 19, 2023

Professor Dibyesh Anand, Head of the Department of Politics at the University of Westminster way-back on April 16, 2015 tweeted “The sight of few green flags, of a neighbouring country, in Kashmir upsets Indian nationalists more than the sight of red blood of unarmed Kashmiris spilled by their own army”.

Any sane person will welcome the peace initiative but peace can be a reality following the principle of reciprocity. The advocacy of hope for peace was put to test in Kashmir in October 1947, the wars fought in 1965, 1971, Kargil war, Haji Pir (January 06, 2013) and Mr Modi’s version of surgical strikes of yesteryears. Kashmir uprising may have had its infirmities but return to a peaceful struggle in 2010 smashed the Indian sponsored terrorism narrative to smithereens.

The two pronged onslaught from Pakistan’s eastern and western borders had made things worse as India became more threatening and damaging. Preceding just concluded US backed NATO powers in Afghanistan; India felt more powerful, belligerent and encouraged when all super powers were at its back to legitimize all that India loves and cherishes to do. Like they say enemy’s enemy is a friend.

It is widely understood that India received all this help not because India is really ‘incredible’ but the need of stinking rich powers having political and economic appetite satiated by bleeding the friendly victims white and in some cases becomes a never ending story.

The latent sly and crafty ability of Modis, Mahasabhas, Bajrangdals, Sangparivars and last but not the least Shivsenas, is showing no signs of any decrease or diminish. Muslim world in general and Pakistan in particular should have no difficulty to understand that enemies do turn into friends but a Shatru (enemy) in the Indian dialect will remain a Shatru as long as a political status quo is maintained in Kashmir.

All bi-lateral relations developed on Indian terms would definitely guarantee peace. One thousand years Muslim rule and creation of Muslim Pakistan a compulsive Indian nostalgia, as believed, remains an agenda to undo. The circumstantial political plan helped on international level is a source of strength and encouragement to execute using India’s own or borrowed military power and resources.

Muslim memory should not be that short so as to forget outstanding feats performed in Kashmir (one hundred fifty thousand men, women and children dead and buried, hundreds of rapes, millions worth of property razed to ground), Emperor Babar’s monumental Mosque turned into a mound of rubble, Selampur, Meerut, Jabalpur, Aligarh, Agra, Jaipur, Lucknow, Thana and Bhiwindi in Bombay and to top it all the gory details on display in the kingdom of Modi’s Gujarat.

American historian Stanley Wolpert, in his book, Partition of India writes “when Jawaharlal Nehru was informed of what his high commissioner in Karachi had proposed, he expressed amazement”. India’s first high commissioner, Sri Prakash told Lord Mountbatten that for the sake of peace all around, the best thing India could do was to hand over Kashmir to Pakistan.

In a sharp letter to Sri Prakash, a worried Nehru wrote, “I was amazed that you hinted at Kashmir being handed over to Pakistan….If we did anything of the kind our government would not last many days and there would be no peace….it would lead to war with Pakistan because of public opinion here and of war-like elements coming in control of our policy“.

Wolpert further writes “Mountbatten’s frenzied plans had blinded him (Nehru) to the wretched realities of partition’s monstrous problems, the cause of so many deaths and sixty more years at least of fighting and hatred.”

Pakistan’s army dauntlessly has been at the helm since its inception and it still is but Indian army maintains its holy-cow status even after its outstanding feats performed in Kashmir, Assam, Christian belt of North-East, Naxalite and Maoist areas of central India, Punjab, and Mizoram; a few glaring examples an ample proof that the army rules the roost in India with impunity.

Kashmir is like a bone dangerously stuck in horizontal position in India’s throat. India tried all known methods to coerce, intimidate and subjugate Kashmir State for the last 75 years of occupation. Be it Pandit Nehru or down the line Narendra Modi, all the governments installed from Delhi worked on one point agenda to annex Kashmir by hook or by crook.

BJP stalwart Murlimonohar Joshi on January 26, 1992 unfurled Indian national flag in Kashmir’s Lal Chowk escorted by a few battalions of Indian army. Kashmir turned into a ghost town and the populace confined behind the closed doors made Joshi look like a laughing stock.

Be it butcher Jagmohan Malhotra who wiped out 2 generations of Kashmir State or fascist Ajit Doval boastfully roamed around in Lal Chowk on the morning of August 12, 2019 to browbeat defenceless Muslim majority State conveying a message that India has taken over Kashmir using its military might.

The futile exercises have been going on for decades even to trick the international community that Kashmir is a foregone conclusion and India is in full control. India even tried to show a display of some non-entity diplomats, arranging their visit to Kashmir amid heavy deployment of troops to show all that India was doing is legal and legitimate. But to India’s predicament no one on the international level accepts Indian fallacy and stubborn attitude.

Now that India realises that Kashmir is out of bounds even for So called ‘Gandhi Peace Foundation’ and yet it harps on holding controversial G-20 Meet to hope against hope. The STATE OF KASHMIR has made it abundantly clear that India is in illegal occupation and must quit without any further delay.

The international community and the United Nations Security Council has been continuously impressing upon India to heed the call and honour the commitment Indian leaders and the UN have made to the people of Kashmir. Turning a deaf ear to this human problem can escalate into a serious situation in the region and on global level as well.