Daily Times

Colonialism may have ended but its remnants are still there. Colonial mindset has somehow influenced those states which are big and consider themselves as inheritors of the colonial legacy. India seems to one of those states whose independence although owed it to a heroic struggle by the Muslim and Hindu leadership got entangled into the colonial mindset when Congress leaders saw a lucrative business of expansion.

Emergence of India and Pakistan as two separate countries with equitable distribution of assets and territories remained a bone of contention from the beginning. Jammu and Kashmir state’s accession to either India or Pakistan, referred to the UN Security Council by India, has continued to haunt the two countries throughout their independent history, including bearing the destruction of three wars. In fact, non-resolution of the Kashmir dispute has only heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries to the extent that a small spark can turn the situation into an inferno.

Thus, the dream of a peaceful and prosperous South Asia has gone sour, primarily because the successive Indian leadership have gone back to the sovereign guarantees given by the first prime minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The following two statements by Mr. Nehru, especially in light of action taken by Modi government on 5th August last year, encapsulate the entire gamut played around Kashmir.

Indian propaganda against Pakistan’s intrusions into the occupied state also got exposed when the international media, which somehow bought Indian version after the 9/11, witnessed the plight of the common Kashmiris at the hands of Indian authorities

In his report to All Indian Congress Committee on 6th July, 1951, as published in the Statesman, New Delhi on 9th July, 1951, Nehru said, “Kashmir has been wrongly looked upon as a prize for India or Pakistan. People seem to forget that Kashmir is not a commodity for sale or to be bartered. It has an individual existence and its people must be the final arbiters of their future. It is here today that a struggle is bearing fruit, not in the battlefield but in the minds of men.”

Again, he reinforced India’s commitment to the Kashmiri people while speaking at the Indian Parliament on August 1, 1952: “With all defference to this Parliament, I should like to say that the ultimate decision will be made in the minds and hearts of the men of Kashmir and not in this Parliament or in the UN…. First of all, let me say clearly that we accept the basic proposition that the future of Kashmir is going to be decided finally by the goodwill and pleasure of its people. The goodwill and the pleasure of this Parliament is of no importance in this matter, not because this Parliament does not have the strength to decide the question of Kashmir but because any kind of imposition would be against the principle that this Parliament holds…..If, however, the people of Kashmir do not wish to remain with us, let them go by all means; we will not keep them against our will, however, painful it may be to us. We want no forced marriages, no forced unions.”

Now see what happened on 5th August last year. It is just not the “forced marriage” but a destructive colonial purge upon the hapless Kashmiris. Modi government without even consulting the Kashmiri assembly revoked Articles 370 and 35-A and put the entire pro-India leadership behind bars. And, adding insult to injury, it bifurcated the occupied state into two Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, thus not only bulldozing the Kashmiri identity but challenging the locus standi of Pakistan and China through new maps showing Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit & Baltistan (GB) as well as Aksai Chin as part of India.

The so-called Articles 370 and 35-A, which gave special status to Occupied Jammu and Kashmir remained a writing on the sand. Technically, these articles assured autonomy to the occupied state with foreign affairs, defense and communication allocated to the centre, but in actual practice it was New Delhi which always called the shots; on the slightest pretext it dismissed governments in Srinagar. Throughout Congress rule, the common refrain was: “we are a secular state and we do not believe in “two-nation” theory”, but it was okay for them to maintain their occupation on a Muslim majority state against the will of its people.

As regards achievements of Modi government on the first anniversary of re-occupation of J&K, it could be said that a major plank of Hindutva agenda has been fulfilled. Otherwise, Mr. Modi has little to celebrate except that one can witness increase in repression throughout the occupied state with worst form of curfew; military siege of Kashmiri population with concertina wires encircling streets and alleys; arrest of over 15000 Kashmiri youth; economic lockdown of population causing losses up to Rupees 40,000 crores and death of over 200 Kashmiri youth for resisting occupation. By enacting new domicile laws, allowing Indians to buy property in IIOJ&K, Modi government is trying to change Kashmir’s demography which would only enhance Kashmiri alienation. Meanwhile, Covid-19 has been used as an added tool to coerce the general populace with inadequate medical help available to patients.

On the contrary, for the first time in many decades, Kashmir dispute has received unprecedented attention from the world community. Apart from three informal sessions of the UN Security Council to discuss Kashmir situation, the international human rights organizations have expressed their grave concern over gross violation of Kashmiri peoples’ rights and extrajudicial killings. Indian propaganda against Pakistan’s intrusions into the occupied state also got exposed when the international media, which somehow bought Indian version after the 9/11, witnessed the plight of the common Kashmiris at the hands of Indian authorities. Even major Indian newspapers had to admit that Modi government’s last year action had only increased Kashmiri alienation against India while the country has been isolated in the region.

In the region, Pakistan has been a traditional rival and Indian grouse against it could be understandable. But, with China, despite boundary issues, India has been managing a substantive relationship with bilateral trade touching $ 90 billion. Obviously, China-India military standoff has been the direct result of revocation of Article 370 and issuance of new maps by India, showing Aksai Chin as part of India. Even Nepal had to lodge strong protest over the new maps which showed its region of Kalapani as Indian territory. Certainly, India miscalculated its Kashmir adventure which now the Indian media calls as “Modi blunder”.

The question is whether India can have a smooth sailing after taking a drastic step of revoking Article 370? Such measures would only encourage the extremist tendencies in the entire region including more disturbances in the occupied Kashmir; perhaps more Pulwama type suicide attacks with disastrous consequences. Indian External Affairs recently talked about “maintaining equilibrium” with China on crucial issues because the two countries have one billion plus population. It is a good proposal, but deserves equitable application in the entire neighbourhood, especially between Pakistan and India.

Write is a former Ambassador and Senior Research Fellow at IPRI