Kashmir Through The Eyes Of A Pakistani-Indian

Alisha MALHOTRA
Nov 3 · 3 min read

One of the underlying causes of conflict between Pakistan and India for the past seventy years or so, Kashmir’s autonomy and ‘ownership’ has been constantly disputed. There’s a multitude of opinions on whether Kashmir should belong to India, Pakistan, or instead be its own completely independent state, depending on whom you ask. Tensions certainly arise between Pakistanis and Indians when the topic is discussed online, with harsh insults and exaggerated claims being thrown about by both sides.

I’m sixteen, and the subject of Kashmir has been a controversial topic of discussion for as long as I can remember. So, when the Indian government decided to revoke Kashmir’s special status on August 5th, it sent ripples throughout the Indian and Pakistani communities.

What was the reason behind this? Revoking Article 370 was a part of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s 2019 election manifesto, as they had opposed it for a long time — especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They claimed that to fully integrate Kashmir, the article must be revoked. And so, once they’d returned to power wit9h a massive mandate in the April-May general elections, revoking Article 370 was of utmost importance to the government.

It appears that people fail to take into consideration the fact that India, one of the largest democracies in the world, committed a largely undemocratic action by not acknowledging the rights of the citizens of Kashmir when revoking Article 370. Indeed, the fact that approximately 500,000 soldiers have been deployed, allegedly to ‘maintain peace’, is one that reflects on India rather negatively.

On top of a communications blackout, stories of ongoing violence have been reported to BBC: villagers have been beaten by sticks, electrocuted and tortured by members of the Indian military. When thousands of peaceful demonstrators were marching the streets of Srinagar on the 9th of August, the Indian army opened fire. This is a blindingly clear violation of human rights, and yet it is supposedly justified by the excuse that ‘stone throwers’ must be suppressed.

This is foolish in its transparency — that is, the idea that such an overwhelmingly dominant force in a comparatively small state is merely to prevent small outbreaks of violence.

Something needs to be made clear. There is no logical way that 500,000 soldiers, all of whom are heavily armed, are required to contain a few young men holding nothing but stones.

Kashmir is currently the most militarized zone in the world, and for what?

Another constituent to be observed is the fact that a large proportion of India’s mainstream media seems to agree with the tearing down of Article 370. The only news outlets that are seemingly against the act are internationally based, and so these Indian media sources possess an inherent bias towards the Indian government’s actions. This propagation of bias seeps into the minds of the individuals who consume such media, which has the result of influencing their opinions on a matter that is far more complex than the media makes it out to be.

When people simply parrot what they’ve read from a single media source, misinformation spreads like wildfire.

This incites ideals of nationalism — not to be confused with patriotism — and in the case of the Hindu nationalism stemming from the conflict surrounding Kashmir, there have been serious consequences. Muslims in India have been both verbally and physically assaulted under the guise of ‘nationalism.’ Islamophobic notions have pervaded the conversation about Kashmir.

So, what now? Kashmiris are still being deprived of their human rights, and there is no concrete plan set in place for what will happen to them. But moving forward, it remains vitally important that we allow the Kashmiri people to have a voice and speak up for themselves. Although the Indian government may try to silence them, Kashmir must remain defiant in the face of this oppression.

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