The mass movement which erupted in Kashmir in July 2016 openly defied the subjugation of the Indian state and its military — the fifth largest in the world. The upsurge also refuted the corporate media’s portrayal of the movement as religiously motivated. This struggle is about the will and determination of Kashmir’s oppressed people to achieve their national, social, economic and cultural emancipation.
Such is the valour of this uprising that after every assault by the army, a reinvigorated wave of mass protests erupts almost instantaneously. The growing support of the rebels by the ordinary people is unforeseen.
No external power’s support can be as supportive for any insurgency as that of the indigenous population. The Hindutva rulers in Delhi and the top brass of the army are baffled and exasperated by the resilience of this new wave of revolt.
A recent Indian Express article, titled Sinking Valley, lays bare their situation; “Every element of Indian policy in Kashmir lies in tatters. The conflict seems to be going from a deep and violent conflict to a state where there seems to be a death wish all around. Security forces have no means to restore order other than by inflicting death. Indian nationalism is now more interested in showing machismo than solving real problems. There is an increasingly radicalised militancy with almost a touch of apocalyptic disregard for life. We are looking at a situation where our strategy of containment by force has failed, our political instruments are hollow, and there is a deepening death wish in the state. Kashmir is looking at an abyss.”
The upsurge has drastically shrunk the base for India-backed political parties. The option of a negotiated settlement seems to have been lost and that means Kashmir’s people are parting from India in their hearts.
Today’s Kashmir is in a state of unprecedented rebellion. It has paralysed the usual functioning of the Indian state. Paradoxically, it illustrates the success of the armed rebels in disrupting New Delhi’s rule and its counter-insurgency strategy.
Foreign countries’ and Pakistan’s involvement in Kashmir through religious jihadist groups is no secret. But what we are witnessing is that the Indian state has never felt as threatened from foreign interventions as it has from this indigenous revolt.
Terrorism from across the LoC was used as a pretext to crush the masses in the past. This time around, the passion of the current upheaval exposed these pretentions.
Previously, the Indian state gave the actions of foreign sponsored terror outfits as justifications to crush movements in Kashmir.
Individual terrorism and sectarian violence become a tool for repressive bourgeois states to divide the people and crush movements through state terrorism. The Indian state has also been fostering its own Islamic fundamentalist groups for decades. Most of these sectarian groups are used to eliminate genuine national and class activists.
In the ongoing uprising, the Indian state has committed some of the most heinous crimes against humanity but condemnations of Indian jihadi proxies by the media remain muted.
Today’s Kashmir is in a state of unprecedented rebellion. It has paralysed the usual functioning of the Indian state. Paradoxically, it illustrates the success of the armed rebels in disrupting New Delhi’s rule and its counter-insurgency strategy
The territory that comprises Kashmir is inhabited by various ethnic, religious and cultural diversities. The people living in the Valley, in Ladakh, the Jammu region and areas across the LoC belong to several ethnicities, religions and races.
A campaign centred on narrow Kashmiri nationalism which is based on geographical territory and with the aim of creating a Kashmiri independent state on a capitalist structure will inevitably end up bifurcating communities.
The failure of the nationalist parties to achieve Kashmir’s liberation has resulted in their decline, and has created space for Islamic sectarian clergy. The right of self-determination and independence, if the majority so wishes, is a genuine claim of the people of Kashmir.
The lessons from the last 70 years of the Kashmiri struggle for emancipation are that this struggle has to advocate for class unity. The Kashmiri political classes have only played in the hands of the Pakistani and the Indian states, and are accomplices in the subjugation of the Kashmiri masses.
Lenin was profound on this issue: “The recognition of the right to self-determination does not exclude either propaganda or agitation against separation or exposure of bourgeois nationalism.” The UN and other international diplomatic forums dominated by imperialism and big powers failed to move even an inch in the resolution of the Kashmir issue.
The ruling classes of India and Pakistan have strategic and monetary interests which act as obstacles to any bilaterally negotiated settlement. Wars have only further impoverished Kashmir.
Armed struggle failed to dislodge the imperial occupational states. When all options are closed, only a revolution can end the plight of the Kashmiris. For Kashmir’s liberation, collaboration between the youth and the working classes in Kashmir is crucial.
It is also necessary to link this class unity with the toiling classes in India and Pakistan for a mighty class struggle, which will eventually lead to the socialist transformation of the South Asian subcontinent.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, July 10th , 2017.