Shahzeb Khan
MARCH 23 and 14 August, Pakistan Day and Independence Day respectively, are dedicated to the celebration of our very nationhood. But this year, both commemorations have been marred by concurring events surrounding the disputed region of Kashmir. In the days preceding 23 March, Pakistan was on the brink of war with India after Indian warplanes crossed the Line of Control on 27 February. Now, days before 14 August, another crisis has erupted in the form of India abrogating Article 370 of its constitution on 5 August 2019, revoking Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and creating another threat of Indo-Pak war. Simultaneously, India has put Kashmir under lockdown, halting all communication and transportation for civilians. Thus on Pakistan’s Independence Day 2019, India’s control of Kashmir takes a turn for worse.
The two political calamities accompanying our national days serve as a reminder to us that one of the world’s great political tragedies, the division of Kashmir, has made the people of Kashmir suffer for seven decades and influenced the entire course of Pakistan’s history. The recent developments indicate that matters are coming to a head between two nuclear armed South Asian states. The Kashmir conflict is deeply rooted in the past. It can be considered a hold-over from events that occurred far back in time. Kashmir was under the rule of the Sikh Empire in the early 19th century when the British went to war with them in 1846. The British took over Kashmir and gave it to the Hindu Dogra clan as a reward for collaborating in the war. So Kashmir had a Hindu ruler when the Partition of India came in 1947. He did not want to join Pakistan, even though his people did. An uprising against his rule made him join India, Pakistan intervened and won part of Kashmir’s territory during war in 1948, and Kashmir has been divided ever since.
Kashmir is the way it is only because it fell into Indian hands once and they do not want to let go. Peace will not prevail in South Asia unless Kashmir dispute is resolved. From America’s federal centralization and ban on slavery after the Civil War, to the collapse of Communism in Europe, history shows that when an entrenched conflict is resolved, the change is etched in stone. The possession of nuclear weapons by both India and Pakistan makes war mutually destructive. It seems all hope rests on popular resistance in India-occupied Kashmir itself. It can be non-violent, like the civil disobedience campaign of Gandhi against British rule. Modi’s style of rule renders armed resistance a greater possibility though. Kashmir’s mountainous terrain also lends itself to armed resistance. In fact, Kashmir and so many other areas in the British Raj were left as princely states because they were too remote and far out of reach for the British to subjugate.
Under BJP, India is moving towards Hindu fundamentalism and away from being a secular, tolerant country in which the control of Kashmir could be more easily legitimized. The Kashmiri separatist movement is therefore likely to become more intense. The movement in Kashmir may also get support from the rest of India’s huge Muslim population, as Modi’s agenda and behaviour has created a discriminatory environment for all Muslims inhabiting other parts of India. Widespread resistance movements blossom as time goes on. The success of the 1989 revolutions against initially brutal and suppressive communist rule in Eastern Europe is an example from recent history. Mindful of this, after repealing Article 370, India has put Kashmir on emergency lockdown, taking away internet, cell phone, landline and cable services and forbidding civilians to travel on Kashmir’s main roads, which are reserved for security personnel only. This is an environment in which the clamour for freedom only escalates. It is highly unlikely that India can keep clinging forever to such desperate measures. The day that Kashmir will be freed seems inevitable.
Pakistan’s support can be critical to Kashmiri people getting their freedom. Kashmiris cannot mobilize the Security Council or regional organizations like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Pakistan can on their behalf. Pakistan can invoke UN’s Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine and even the Convention on Chemical Weapons, should Modi turn to more criminal methods in his bid to crush Kashmiris. Pakistan can lodge the case for Kashmiri people at the International Court of Justice. When the issue of Kashmir is resolved, not only the people of Kashmir, not only Pakistan, but all of South Asia can take the road to peace and progress. The day that Kashmir wins its freedom is the day that Pakistan will become a full nation at last and will itself be free to chart its course in the world as it wants. The day Kashmir is liberated from India can thereafter be celebrated in Pakistan forever, along with 23 March and 14 August, as Pakistan’s third commemoration of the completion of its nationhood.
—The writer is freelance columnist, based in Islamabad.
