Kashmir issue

Introduction
“how carelessly imperial powers vivisected ancient civilizations.
Palestine and Kashmir are imperial britan’s festered, blood-
drenched gifts to the modern world.” Ardundhati Roy

Homes dynamited, children orphaned, women widowed and

half-widowed, eyes blinded, legs amputated, basic facilities
destroyed, human rights violated, political rights trampled on,
legal rights usurped; this is the valley of Kashmir the present
state of which is exposing the reality of the United Nations
Charter. It lays bare the liberal values of Western democracies,
the jurisdiction of international court of arbitration, the powers of
Amnesty International and lofty slogans of numerous global
institutions. Kashmir is the world’s bloodiest dispute that has
claimed the lives of at least 96,000 people since January 1989.
Besides, more than 20,000 women have been rendered
widows in this prolonged conflict while 215,000 children have
been orphaned owing to worst form of India’s state terrorism.
Although the decades-old neglect, discrimination and
suppression of Kashmiri identity coupled with the power-centric
approach of successive regimes in India gave birth to an armed
resistance, or more rightly the freedom movement, in 1989, the
post-Burhan Wani era can particularly be cited as the most
transformative phase in this stretched struggle of the Kashmiris
who only demand that their right to self-determination be
accepted and accorded to them. Tech-savvy youth, mostly
college and university students, has made the freedom struggle
highly visible in international media. Images of stone-pelting
girls have further attracted the attention of the international
community to the festering wound of Kashmir. This renewed
focus warrants discussion on the possible alternatives to
resolve this issue. In this regard, a brief overview of the
historical developments would help better understand this
conflict.
Location: land locked lies in the north-western part of Indian
subcontinent. It has Uyghur and Tibet (china), Himachal Pradesh and
Punjab in south(india). Northwest Afghanistan and west by Pakistan.
84471 square miles
Background of the conflict
“At the very heart of the matter is the decision made by
maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir in October 1947 to accede to
India. From this all else has flowed; and its consequences are
with us still” (Kashmir a disputed legacy 1846-1990 by
Alastair Lamb)

‘sell’ of Kashmir by the British Raj to Maharaja Gulab Singh,

the Dogra ruler of Jammu, Ladakh and Baltistan, under the
Treaty of Amritsar (1846).
for the services he rendered for the British East India Company
in its Afghan expeditions and for the critical role he played in
protecting the British interests in Punjab.
 Youth furiously resisted this and rose for their political,
legal, religious and economic rights.
 first organized political movement in Kashmir started
in 1932 under the leadership of Sheikh Muhammad
Abdullah when he established a political party “Muslim
Conference” which was later renamed as National
Conference in 1939 under the influence of Jawaharlal
Nehru
 split in 1942

 Then came the tumultuous years of 1947 and 1948! The

partition; the unjust demarcation of boundary line in the
form of Radcliffe Award that also provided India with a
land route to Kashmir
 standstill agreement with Pakistan by Maharaja Hari
Singh on August 12, 1947
 Poonch Rebellion June 1947

 Instrument of Accession(October 1947) with India by

Maharaja;
  Validity of instrument of

In spite of the best efforts I was not able to see the original
document anywhere” Alastair Lamb.
He furthers argues that is was humanely impossible for
the menon to have shuttled between dehli, jammu and
sirinagar and get the signature of maharaja and handover
the document to lord Mountbatten in a single day.
 Operation Gulmarg

 UN-sponsored ceasefire; and UN Security Council’s

resolutions (39 & 47) pledging a plebiscite to determine
the public opinion for deciding the future political status of
Kashmir,
 Indian government blatantly reneged on this promise
when the country’s parliament passed a bill in 1965
whereby Kashmir was declared a province and an integral
part of the Indian Union.
India took the issue to UN on 1 Jan 1948
 Dixon’s report ( Sep 15, 1950)
 Liaqat Nehru meeting in London
 Chou en Li support for Kashmir cause
 Ayyub khan meeting with Indian premier Nehru
 Ayyub khan met all bahadur shastri in lahore
 Six rounds of talks on Kashmir in Bhutto’s era
 Second indo Pak war, sheikh Abdullah visit and
arrest(May 8, 1965)

Indira-Sheikh Accord in 1975

 The dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971
 disaffection and frustration arising out of the Accord
 denial of right of self-determination to Kashmiris
 rigged election in 1989
 900,000 armed officials –90:1200, a record in Guinness
Book of World Record.
  Simla accord( signed on the night of 2-3 July)
 Lahore declaration (20 Feb,1999)
 Kargil war May 1999
 Jammu Kashmir assembly’s autonomy resolution
 Mumbai Attacks in November 2008
 PSA and AFSPA
 Amnesty International report(2016): more than 10,000
people are missing,22,826 women widowed, 10,717
Kashmiri women have been gang raped. 107,591 children
orphaned.
 In 2016 New York Times labelled the year 2016 as the “
year of dead eyes” in Kashmir
 Jammu and Kashmir received 10% of central Grants given
to provinces having the population only 1% of total Indian
population
Sheikh Abdullah wrote in his auto biography” the blazing
chinar” that centre treats Kashmiri CM as chaprasi(peon)
stances of Pakistan and India

 India claims sovereignty over all parts of J&K on the basis

of the legality and validity of the so-called Instrument of
Accession
 Constituent Assembly and the constitution of IOK does
also validate the accession.
 UNSC resolutions 39 and 47 under non-binding Chapter 6
of the UN Charter, as well as the demographic and
geographic changes in the region have diluted their
relevance to resolving the issue.

 Simla Accord wherein both countries agreed to resolve the

Kashmir dispute bilaterally.
 UN’s decision to remove Kashmir from its unresolved
agenda in 2010 further augmented the Indian stance.
 Pakistan, however, challenges the validity and legality of
the Instrument of Accession and cites the circumstances
under which it was signed as a primary reason.
 conspiracy hatched by India, Maharaja and Lord
Mountbatten.
 Instrument was signed only to have a provisional
arrangement and the condition of plebiscite to determine
the popular will was part of the agreement.
 Maharaja had also signed the Standstill Agreement with
Pakistan, his act of calling Indian Army for help was
irrational and uncalled for, let alone being illegal or
unconstitutional.
 lost a major part of his state and, hence, lost authority to
decide the future of the lost territories.
 Pakistan highlights also the continuous violation of human
rights in Kashmir under the draconian laws like Armed
Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act that
empower security forces to detain, blind and even kill the
locals with impunity.

 first-ever UN Human Rights Commission Report on

Kashmir

 extremely low turnout in elections – only 4.2 percent in the

most recent Local Bodies Election (October 2018)
 Pakistan considers Kashmir as the unfinished agenda of
partition that needs immediate intervention of international
community.

The current situation

 Burhan wani (08 July 2016)
“In case the process( of challenging article 371) continued,
there would be no one in Kashmir to shoulder the
tricolour” 28 July 2018
Reid Ra’ad Al Hussein report
5th Aug 2019: India scrapped article 370 by passing Jammu and
Kashmir Registration bill which splits the occupied region in two
divisions i.e Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, pitting them under
governor rule.

16 Aug, 2019: UNSC reviews situation in IOJK (sole purpose) which

happened with a gap of 48 years- last such meeting happened in
1971. Last sole meeting of UNSC on Kashmir was in 1965

23 Aug 2019: satyapal Malik to be first governor of j&k

31 Oct 2019: Radha Krishna Mathur was chosen as lieutenant

general of Laddakh

15 Jan, 2020: UNSC reviews situation in IOJK.

05 fab: PM announced that a committee would be constituted to

make headway in resolving the longstanding Kashmir issue.

05 Feb: Debbie Abraham was denied entry into New Delhi because
she was speaking about Kashmir. She chairs a parliamentary
committee on the disputed region of Kashmir and is MP of labour
party of UK.

Jan 25 to Feb 5, gov’t observed an eight-day Kashmir day campaign

01 April;  A person who has resided in Jammu and
Kashmir for 15 years will now be able to call the
occupied territory his or her place of domicile, the
Indian government stated in a gazette notification on
Wednesday.
02 April:MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and
Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan and
Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider have strongly
condemned India’s move to grant domicile to non-
Kashmiris, predominantly Hindus, and called upon
the international community in general and the
United Nations (UN) in particular to take stock of the
unwarranted and arbitrary move regarding an
internationally acknowledged disputed territory.
04 AprilThe OIC “condemns the promulgation of illegal
‘Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Order 2020’ by
India which is an attempt to alter demographic and
geographic status of the Indian occupied Kashmir

suggestions
Maintaining status quo: It implies continuing with the
administration of a major part of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh
by India and the administration of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-
Biltistan by Pakistan. Though India claims the whole of
Kashmir, it has shown its willingness to turn the de-facto Line of
Control into a de-jure international border. This proposal has
the backing of UK and USA. Pakistan vehemently opposes this
option as it would be tantamount to its surrender before India
and ignoring the aspirations of the people of Kashmir who have
been fighting against India since partition.
Establishment of an independent J&K: This option is also
put forward as a possible alternative solution. This too, has
several drawbacks as a financially weak, militarily vulnerable,
socially fragmented and politically and administratively
inexperienced state of Jammu and Kashmir will have to spend
massively to defend itself against nuclear armed Pakistan and
India and it would drain its resources massively. Moreover, the
independence of J&K would necessitate the surrender of
Pakistan-administered and Indian-occupied territories to the
nascent state and given the strategic assets both states have in
these areas, it is next to impossible that this would ever
happen. The fear of balkanization of India and consequent
regional instability would also bar international community to
back this option.
Trifurcation: Another option is trifurcation of the state of
Jammu and Kashmir. Under this proposed arrangement,
Jammu, having 66 percent Hindu and 30 percent Muslim
population, and Buddhist Ladakh would be given to India and
Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas (Gilgit-Baltistan) would
continue to be administrated by Pakistan. This scenario
apparently seems most feasible as every party involved would
get some share of the pie and the continuously suffering people
of Kashmir would get liberation from India. Though Pakistan is
least expected to object to this proposal, the most likely
resistance would come from Hindu hardliners and hawks in
Indian governments who would resist any move that would
deprive India of the strategically important territory. With
approximately 1800 square miles landmass, independent
Kashmir would be the smallest state of South Asia that would
have to exploit its potential in tourism, handicraft and
agriculture to sustain itself economically. This proposal is
considered by many the best alternative. But, it does require
some tweaking to be acceptable to all the stakeholders.
Chenab Formula: It is also a serious suggestion to resolve the
Kashmir dispute. This formula discusses the division of Jammu
& Kashmir along the river Chenab. This would divide the region
into religiously-distinguished areas where India would get
Hindu-majority areas and Pakistan would get Muslim-majority
areas. This arrangement would require voluntary surrender of
major portion of Indian-occupied Kashmir and one cannot find
any incentive which would compel India to contemplate to take
such action.
In 2006, the then President of Pakistan, General Pervez
Musharaf, came with some historically unprecedented
suggestions to settle the issue. These suggestions, also known
as Musharraf’s four-point formula, included the status quo of
LoC with free movement of people and ideas on both sides of
the border (soft borders); the self-government or autonomy in
both sides of Kashmir but not independence; the phased
demilitarization of the region; and a joint supervisory
mechanism with representation of Pakistan, India and Kashmiri
leadership to implement these steps smoothly. Though this
proposal met with refusal from India and acceptance from
Hurriyet leadership, Pakistan had shown considerable flexibility
in its stance by not inviting UN intervention, seeking self-
government rather than self-determination, and minimizing its
control over Azad Kashmir. In this regard, it is also worth-
mentioning that a noted Indian journalist Barkha Dutt has
disclosed in a tweet that PM Imran Khan has hinted at adopting
the Musharraf formula to resolve the Kashmir dispute, provided
that India responds favourably to the peace initiatives taken by
PTI-led government.
Ever since the partition, Kashmir has been the bone of
contention between Pakistan and India and hitherto an
insurmountable impediment to benefitting from the huge trade
and economic potential that can be exploited through peaceful
coexistence. Now that the PTI-led government seems willing to
make peace and exploit the bilateral trade potential, it is high
time the Indian government abandoned its myopic and vote-
bank-driven foreign policy so as to move forward to avail this
golden opportunity to resolve this long-standing issue, once for
all, so that our future generations may taste the fruits of
prosperity and development.