A Crash Course on Kashmir

Kashmir – the flashpoint of the subcontinent. Over the past couple years, a dizzying amount of articles and videos have tried to explain Kashmir through a Western lens. The problem is they always focus on the trees and miss the vast and storied forest present in this beautiful land. Context and history are paramount to understanding the enigma of Kashmir.

So let’s dive in and get the big picture.

The Retreat of Sages

The ancient Hindu tradition of sanyās or renunciation of the worldly life frequently had mendicants leave their homes to the wild jungles, rivers, or most sacred of all – the mountains. The Himalayas formed the holiest mountain chain for all Dharmic peoples, and Kashmir was one of the northern most points of the range.

The name “Kashmir” has a few proposed etymologies but 2 are the most popular. One means desiccated land (Ka – shimeera in Sanskrit), while the other has a bit of a deeper meaning. It is said that Kashmir is named after one of the most ancient and revered sages in Hinduism – Kashyap. Kashyap is mentioned in the Vedas as well as various other most ancient texts of Hinduism, while the geographic area of Kashmir is mentioned in the Mahabharata and Puranas. The Greeks refer to the region as Kasperia, further pointing to a possible Kashyap origin.

The overall point of this dancing around naming is the fact that Kashmir has always been an integral and important part of Indian civilization and the concept of Bharata, a united Indian polity.

As time went on, both Hinduism and Buddhism were patronized and thrived in the area. A classic Indian pluralism flourished as Kashmir became a seat of learning, arts, and culture in the subcontinent.

Kashmir would get periodically invaded from Central Asia as time went on, but invaders seldom left much of a lasting influence they would either adopt local Indian customs and philosophies or just be pushed back by another Indian king.

This changed with the advent of Islam.

A New Frontier

Islam entered in the 14th century through conquest. Some Sultans would be more open to syncretism while others would enforce more extreme versions of Islam as they lead forced conversions, temple destruction, and Hindu genocide. Sultan Sikandar would even be known as But-Shikan or the “idol breaker” for his particular penchant to deface and destroy Hindu temples.

Across Kashmir, temples were destroyed and forced conversion occurred to destroy Hinduism and establish Islam. The Mughals also would not spare the native Hindus as they went on to continue persecution especially during Aurangzeb’s rule where the 9th Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, would sacrifice himself defending Kashmiri Hindus from Aurangzeb’s “convert or die” commands.

Eventually, Sikhs would come to rule Kashmir through Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s armies. While previous Muslim rulers performed temple destruction, forced conversion, taxes on non-Muslims, and civilian Hindu killings, the Sikh Empire enacted laws banning cow slaughter, banning the Muslim call to prayer, and returning the favor of extra taxes on Muslims. While persecution existed in both Muslim and Sikh regimes, violence was greater in the earlier Islamic rule as evidenced by the wanton destruction of temples and forced conversions; something the Sikhs did not engage in when it came to mosques and Muslims.

The Sikhs would later war with newcomers – the British – and lose. British allies, the Hindu Dogras, would now rule Kashmir and its surrounding areas as a princely state. This was one of the early examples of British divide and rule. A policy that would scorch the subcontinent.

The Dogras would expand Kashmir into an ethnically and religiously diverse state. While most of the population was Muslim, it was divided by ethnic lines and into Shia and Sunni groups. In addition, Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists formed significant parts of the population.

Even at this point, Kashmir was never cut and dry.

The Raja’s Rise and Fall

The Dogras ruled Kashmir and its adjacent regions (Jammu, Ladakh, Gilgit, Baltistan) for decades during the British Raj. It was fairly stable with a few liberal reforms for women and lower castes, but the majority Muslim population had an uneasy relationship with its Hindu rulers.

Partition time was when the relationship soured completely. Pakistan was born as an Islamic State where non-Muslims would be second class citizens; and as time has proven, they have been wiped out from the country. With the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir having a majority Muslim population, it would be natural to join them right?

The problem comes in a moment where India chose to honor its pluralistic heritage by deciding to create a secular nation. India would be open to all religions, including the Muslims of Kashmir. This posed a division of thought and philosophy. And these divergent ideologies can be clearly seen in the trajectory of Pakistan and India today reflected in their cultural, economic, and political situations.

Jinnah’s call for riots on Direct Action Day lead to massive Muslim violence on their Hindu neighbors across India. This event consolidated the need for a partition as old wounds had been torn open. Now the subcontinent itself would be torn apart. As partition occurred, each of the princely states of India were given a choice – accede to India, Pakistan, or remain independent.

Hari Singh, ruler of Kashmir, chose to remain independent as Pakistan’s founder, Jinnah, had given him his word that Pakistan would have a friendly relationship with him (spoiler alert – Jinnah lied). As partition violence intensified, Hindu and Sikh refugees poured into Kashmir and the Dogra army became incensed at the stories they heard. The partition’s violence then spilled into Kashmir as Hindus and Sikhs fought their Muslim neighbors. Sadly, even Hari Singh’s army participated in the violence as emotions spun out of control.

As both India and Pakistan coveted Kashmir, eventually Pakistan would send Pakistani backed Pashtun militias to invade Kashmir for annexation. Even in birth, Pakistan’s first action was to sponsor terror. Hari Singh faced a Pakistani Army and Pashtun militias at his doorstep and eventually called for help from India. India would agree only on the condition of annexation, and Hari Singh legally complied to accede to India. According to the rules of partition agreed by both parties, Jammu & Kashmir had joined the Indian Union.

The Indian Army would sweep in but the conflict would stay at a deadlock with India controlling the central and eastern parts (Jammu, Ladhak, and a chunk of Kashmir) of the old kingdom while Pakistan controlled the western parts (Gilgit, Baltistan, and the other part of Kashmir).

Tit for Tat

As a line of control was established after the 1948 war, India went to the UN to demand a resolution. The UN formulated a plebiscite with the condition of withdrawal of all foreign entities from Jammu & Kashmir. Neither Pakistan or India withdrew out of suspicion of each other.

Now with the unease in Kashmir still ripe in the aftermath, a few concessions were put in place to ease the tensions between India and Jammu & Kashmir. Article 370 was enacted to give strong autonomy to Kashmir with its own legislation, constitution, and laws. One of these special laws was Article 35A.

35A would form the bedrock of discrimination as it barred all non-permanent residents from owning land in Kashmir. And as land is power, this disenfranchised foreigners. Furthermore, 35A allowed the local Kashmiris to identify who they defined as a permanent resident or Kashmiri. One of the special provisions was that the children of Kashmiri women who married non-Kashmiris could not be counted as a permanent resident. So in effect, this law was patriarchal, ethnically discriminatory, and eventually would extend to religiously discriminatory as the flames of extremism rose.

On Pakistan’s side, demographic change became an official policy. Punjabi Pakistanis would be encouraged to settle in Kashmir while the northern regions were split off and administered separately. Kashmir in Pakistan had no special privileges as Indian Kashmir did.

India and Pakistan would fight several more wars in 1965, 1971, and 1999. India would repel Pakistani invasions in 1965 and 1999, but it was 1971 that was most pivotal. As 1971 wasn’t over Kashmir, it was over a then rebelling East Pakistan; a region that would soon become Bangladesh.

India would enter the fray in the 1971 war and humiliate Pakistan. Pakistan, the sole reason for the partition of India would now be cleaved in half by India itself. 90,000 Pakistani soldiers were captured by the Indian Army and Pakistan was forced to surrender the war. This humiliation would be the catalyst for the next part of our story: revenge.

Jihad

Pakistan’s new aim after 1971 was to rapidly purge itself of all its “infidel” influences IE its Hindu and Indian ancestry. It reformed education, culture, and religious matters to emphasize a more Arab version of Islam and diminish many native markers. With this embrace of a more extreme version of Islam, Pakistan then turned its eyes to Kashmir. Pakistan launched a propaganda and slow churned infiltration into Kashmir in order to radicalize the population to rebellion.

In 1989, these endeavors culminated with the kidnapping of Rubaiya Saeed, the daughter of India’s then Home Minister, by Kashmiri terrorists. The Indian state would capitulate and release captured terrorists for Rubaiya.

History tells us that appeasing violent people just leads to more violence. They grow emboldened and want another piece of land, wealth, or destruction. This happened in Kashmir.

Militancy and radicalism exploded as they saw their methods gain fruit; and it reached its zenith in 1990, when Kashmiri Hindus were threatened to convert, be killed, or leave the valley. As the world stood by, 600,000 Kashmiri Hindus would be forced to leave their ancestral homeland, the land of Maharishi Kashyap, to find refuge in the rest of India. Mosque loudspeakers bellowed commands for their exodus, while pamphlets were passed encouraging jihad. A famous chant formed urging the Kashmiri Hindu men to leave but their women to stay behind; so they could be abused and converted by the Muslim radicals.

Now, this exact moment is when everything changes in Kashmir. The veil of an ethnic struggle was removed; the face of extremism was available for all to see. The goal of Kashmiri separatists was to establish an Islamic State.

India now had its casus belli.

The Indian state would now crackdown on the increasingly belligerent Kashmiri population. Various humans rights abuses have been reported on both sides of the Indian and Pakistani border, but it seems much more attention has been put on India amongst major outlets. Whether that is deserved or not is one’s own call.

Jammu & Kashmir would be ruled by dynastic parties that encouraged separatism while leeching the wealth from the general populace. While Kashmiri leaders would encourage madrasa education, they would send their own children to private schools in London and America. As time went on, extremism would further with now even al-Qaeda and ISIS flags becoming a sight amongst Kashmiris and especially prominent at the funerals of terrorists (or freedom fighters depending on who you ask).

A New Dawn

Conflict intensified in the later years of Narendra Modi’s first term as more terrorists were killed in the valley. Tensions between India and Pakistan would also sour during this point with terror attacks on the Hindu Amarnath pilgrimage, at Uri, at Pathanthok base, and Pulwama earlier this year. With India deviating from extreme restraint previously, retaliation occurred in the form of cross border raids post Uri and an airstrike post Pulwama. Pakistan would deny the cross border raids occurred and said the later airstrike missed its target and no one was hurt. The problem was that Pakistan barred off the supposed strike site (a terror camp/madrasa) for 43 days until finally allowing the media and UN to see for themselves. You can be the judge there.

Now we come to the present.

A massive influx of troops and equipment has created a war-like situation in Indian Jammu & Kashmir. Rumors swirl of a trifurcation into Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh as separate states or territories. Some others say article 370 and 35A will be removed. Others press further and allege a liberation of Pakistan occupied Kashmir. But what about the Kashmiris?

The main problem with the Kashmiris is the intense and violent radicalization that has swept the populace. Ever since the 1990 cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus, extremism has dominated the culture. While in Pakistani Kashmir, Punjabis have migrated and diluted native populations. Should the world reward this new demographic cleansing and settling with a right to self-determination? Let alone considering the ISIS flags on full display at various religious and political events. Is this the Kashmir that should be born?

A Kashmir that changes its Hindu ancestral names of towns, geography, and customs to names inspired from a desert peninsula thousands of miles away. A Kashmir that destroys the temples of its ancestors and shows little regard for its ancient culture prior to when an ideology was forced upon their minds at the tip of a sword. Should the Kashmiri Hindus who have kindled the flame of Kashyap have no say in their ancestral land?

Kashmir has decisively morphed into an ideological and religious battle, not an ethnic one. That being said, an apt parallel for the secession movement can be seen in the American South’s secession from the Union in the late 1800s. The Confederacy seceded from the Union in order to be a slave state founded on white supremacy. The Kashmiri secession movement is based solely on the mission to establish an Islamic State founded on Islamic supremacy. In both cases, the movement for “freedom” was based on violence and bigotry. And in both cases, the secession was morally and politically abhorrent. This central analog should be kept in mind when discussing Kashmiri separatism.

What history shows us is that Kashmir has been an integral part of India for thousands of years. Now a new India has emerged that is yearning to fully embrace Kashmir just as it had in the past.

UPDATE

As of August 5th, 2019, the Indian government has removed Article 370 and 35A by Presidential order and Rajya Sabha. Jammu & Kashmir have been bifurcated into 2 separate Union Territories – Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir. The Indian government has instituted a strict curfew and lockdown in the valley to ensure order and upend terror elements.

The situation continues to develop, but the move has been enthusiastically praised across India.