GEOPOLITICS OF KASHMIR

- KARTIK ARYA

After having fought three wars over the territory, ownership and jurisdiction over the state of
Jammu and Kashmir. After having spent lakhs and crores of rupees. After having lost
countless soldiers and ruining thousands of lives. After ruining the lifestyle and scaring the
whole state and perhaps the whole country for countless years, we are still nowhere.
While for most of us who are not directly linked to the state or have any ancestors in or from
the state then the issue of Kashmir may just be a question of whether it is a part of our
country or not or how much of a security threat it has become for the entire nation. The real
people impacted by the actions of the leaders of the so called largest democracy are the ones
who have to live there. Innocent people who have nothing to do with terrorism and just want
to live their life peacefully who are so frustrated by now that they just want to be left alone. A
couple of years back I had the opportunity to visit the state and during my interaction with a
tour guide, I asked him what he feels about how the situation is being dealt with and how
their life is impacted by it. All he had to say to me was that he never wanted to be an illiterate
person but, he grew up at a time when a significant chunk of his childhood was gone in
battling curfews and all he was left as was an illiterate man.
It is a well known fact that India is a Hindu dominated country 1, While the Kashmiri Pandits
in Jammu and Kashmir were a minority and the Muslims used their dominance in their region
to either kill, convert or flee the Kashmiri pandits in the 1990s. It is Legally and ethically
wrong to have to leave your birthplace and just have your whole community being wiped off.
while the supreme court in its judgement of All India Kashmiri Swaraj VS Union of India
stated that “ We accordingly transfer this petition to the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir
with a request to the Chief Justice of that Court to assign the matter to an appropriate Bench
so that the same are disposed off as expeditiously as possible. ” 2 The supreme court chose to
refuse to take any side on this and played it safe seeing the grave importance of the issue to
both the sides and dispensed the matter to the high court of Jammu and Kashmir to be dealt
with. I think the Supreme Court being the apex court should have ordered for the
rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits and justice for Kashmiri Pandits would have been
served

The supreme court in its recent judgement held that Article 370 which was meant to be
a temporary provision is permanent now 3 According to me, giving it permanent status is
not right because the act itself states it as a temporary provision and that tells us that the
founding fathers never wanted to give the special status to the state forever and perhaps that
1
https://www.census2011.co.in/religion.php
2
All India Kashmiri Swaraj VS Union of India ( 2016 ), S.C India
3
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/153910827/
is right too because giving it special status and privileges is not fair to the other twenty eight
states who have no such special provision. Perhaps the question arises if the supreme court
did its original job of interpretation correctly or not. Apart from that, I think that in reality
that this article only exists only to make the people of Kashmir feel “Indian” but this article is
perhaps the only reason why the state is discriminated or treated differently.
While both countries have their part of Kashmir, Militancy remains an important issue
disrupting the peace of the valley and in order to counter the insurgency Indian army uses the
Armed Forces Special Powers Act ( AFSPA ) to tackle the insurgencies. Indian army in its
effort to curb the non state actors calling for freedom goes a step ahead and on multiple
occasions has been accused of harming citizens as well. As stated in a UN Human rights
report report as well “In responding to demonstrations that started in 2016, Indian
security forces used excessive force that led to unlawful killings and a very high number
of injuries”. 4AFSPA is perhaps the major cause of rebellion shown by the masses of
Kashmir to side with Pakistan which in a way forces them to pick up arms and revolt against
their very own nation. The people who are labelled as the cause of disruption and feeling of
anti national are actually victims of the cruel acts committed by the Indian army against
civilians.

Another prominent issue affecting the state is Non State actors and State Sponsored
Terrorism. I think non state actors arise out as a consequence to AFSPA which has violated
numerous human rights and turned a major portions into rebels. Whether they can be called
Terrorists or not is a very debatable issue. Because the definition and meaning of terrorism
differs from understanding to understanding. I think spreading of violent propaganda against
the state goes a step ahead of being rebellious and becomes terrorism because violent
propaganda against the state leads to causing harm to people.

All things considered, we have brilliant thinkers and experts on the issue, who have seen the
changes the state has gone through over the years and these people know and understand the
problems of a common Kashmiri but the problem is politicised enough that all political
parties just want to control the narrative on the Kashmir debate. Nobody really seems to be
interested in actually solving the issue, because if we really wanted a settlement, then there is
no chance that we couldn’t have solved this “territorial” dispute over the course of 71years.
Till now, all those soldiers who gave their life fighting for this nation, all those lives have
gone in vain. They only way we can honour their work is by coming up with a solution and
living up to our end of the bargain

WORD COUNT – 1030

4
https://in.reuters.com/article/india-kashmir-pakistan-un/u-n-calls-for-inquiry-into-human-rights-violations-
in-kashmir-idINL8N1TF6AO