This blog was originally written here.

Before I delve into the overtly complex issue, it is important to have a glimpse of how beautiful the valley is. Sonmarg

This image was clicked in Sonmarg, about 80 km north-east of Srinagar, in June 2018

Lately, I have been very interested in reading about the history of India and how the modern day India was built. As a good starter with adequate bits and pieces of information, I would definitely recommend reading First Draft: Witness to the making of Modern India by B.G. Verghese. I spent quite sometime reading it in Summer and absolutely fell in love with the book. Although the book aims to be an autobiography of the author, but Shri Verghese’s involvement in various processes happening in the young India, make it an appropriate book to know more about how India was shaped. In any case, this article is not about the eminent journalist, but about the Kashmir Issue. This article is partly drawn from what I read in his book and elsewhere, and partly on what I heard from people of Kashmir (mainly Srinagar) during my recent trip to the valley.

The story of Kashmir dates back to the defeat of the Sikh forces led by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and Gulab Singh becoming the Maharaja of Kashmir, but that would make this article too lengthy. It was during the independence of India in 1947 that the real problem started. Based on Churchill’s plan to divide British India into India and Pakistan, Lord Mountbatten of Burma executed this scheme in little time with meager resources. During the partition, the princely states like Jammu and Kashmir, Jhunagarh, etc., had the option of either joining India or Pakistan or stay independent. Kashmir, consisting of 77 percent muslim population, but being ruled by a Hindu ruler, Raja Hari Singh, decided to stay independent, and not join any of the country. Seeing this, Pakistan decided to invade Kashmir; although I fail to understand here, how do people think that invading a country and killing its people, to save its people based on religious divisions, would help either the people or the country in general. Is this not obvious, that it would cause mass massacres, loss of life and property, and render myriads homeless. How can war be a solution to ameliorate the situation? But illiteracy and poverty in both the countries is enough of a factor to motivate or brain wash masses for materialistic gains of a few.

Panicking after the attack, Raja Hari Singh called on to India for help. The situation was exacerbated by US intervening from Pakistan’s side, supplying military equipments. Looking at this, Raja Hari Singh asked Nehru to help his army, by sending Indian Army to combat with the Pakistani troops. Nehru, in this scene is believed to be acting like an opportunist and asked Raja Hari Singh to accede to India, to become part of India, before he could help him with the Indian Army. The reason why Nehru did this is not exactly clear, but some attribute it to Nehru’s Kashmiri roots, while others to his vision of Kashmir being captured by Pakistan. In any case, Raja Hari Singh agreed to being part of India and Nehru sent Indian Army to fight the invasion.

The story takes interesting turns, when after the ceasefire, the Indian Army never left the scene till this day. Deployment of army in Kashmir takes up one of the biggest piece in the pie of Indian defence budget, and the Indians (including Kashmiris) are definitely not happy about it. However, it is important to understand why does army still remain there and why India still does so much to protect the state. It so happens that Kashmir is a landlocked state, which has to depend on its neighbours for mobility, at the least. Leaving aside a question of resources, there wasn’t enough available at hand to form an army of independent Kashmir, that would be able to fight such invasions (and/or uprisings to join either country) in the coming years. Even till today, there is no guarantee that if Indian Army leaves Kashmir, it would be able to sustain and protect itself from the attacks and terror. This leads to another aspect of Kashmir, which is livelihood for most common masses, tourism. Kashmir is so beautiful, that you might skip a beat gazing at its calm and serene mountains, lakes and colours. If Kashmir is taken up by the militants, and if there prevails terrorism in the valley, most of these common masses would be jobless. It is the fact that they are protected and there remains law and order, which is why people still want to visit the valley. Kashmiris are one of the most friendly people I have met. If you are a tourist there, nobody would look at you from a hatred perspective, and would inturn be welcoming for you to try their culture, food, etc. This, in a way, has also kept the stove burning in a lot of households.

Another widespread anger uprising against the army in the valley, is that of soldiers raping the women. The first incident surfacing in the country was that of the villages of Kunan and Poshpora, where Vergese describes nothing had happened. In the common grapevine, what comes out is that a few militants had opened fire on Indian soldiers, which led to mass searches in the village, with all the men being gathered for interrogation and search, while soldiers went and searched the homes. The area is believed to be completely locked down. That night, it is believed, the soldiers entered houses and mass-raped about 30-35 women. Verghese writes that he visited the valley from an independent point of view to investigate into the case, but didn’t find anything. Even the medical examination of raped women didn’t prove anything about the incident. The high court dismissed the case, since no provable evidence was found in the case, and not sure if such a thing happened or not. However, an interesting noticeable thing is found on Wikipedia page, about a local Islamic militant commander, who in an interview to New York Times said that his organisation was broadcasting on loudspeakers that the soldiers should convert to Islam. It is important to ask the people who promote and support such a propaganda, that if you rape someone and then convert to their religion, does that mean you have done the right thing? Why are they so keen on proselytising people to take up their religion. Even if such a shameful activity happen, the people involved should be punished, and not converted to Islam so that it no longer remains a sin. If a bad incident has happened, irrespective of religion, it needs to be corrected using other means. How would conversion to Islam bring justice to the women whose dignity was challenged?

I am not denying the fact that there haven’t been any incidences like this in the valley, in the past or present, but that is happening by a handful of corrupt and shameful individuals, who should be prosecuted (I do not even mind the prosecution/execution being a public one, since the country needs that), but this should not be the reason why you should start hating the army. Unfortunately, politicians in the yesteryears have convoluted the situation so much that it is now hard to bring Kashmir to the ‘normal’ situation. The silver lining is that there still is some bit of democracy, and the valley is being guarded. There are people standing outside almost every door in Kashmir, but they are soldiers and not militants.

There are people in Kashmir who instigate such bigotry, and propagate hatred against the non-Kashmiris or against people of other religions. However, the the truth still is that those few people who run these dirty games, are the ones who want to enjoy the power and an authoritarian status in the valley, without realising the true needs to the masses. These people have their own kids somewhere in a foreign land, with the money they get to keep these mobs running. Their kids are the ones enjoying the western lifestyle, getting world-class education, living a life of comfort and luxury, but the youth of Kashmir, which has so much of potential to excel, is left to bunk school and stone-pelting. I have had a first-hand account of this from a Kashmiri friend of mine. The amount of bipartisanship they have created, is so dense now, that it unfortunately now sits in the mind of the millennial youth, holding them back from progressing. Sometime back, when a westerner had asked another Kashmiri friend of mine about where he comes from, my friend replied Kashmir. As the conversation progressed into a discussion, my friend unfortunately told that Kashmir was not a part of India, while he still enjoys the privilege of having an Indian passport, which gives him easy access to various countries, given India’s good international relations.

Kashmir, on the other hand is also a security concern for India, from the standpoint of national security. Kashmir being a landlocked state, would have to keep its international borders open for its neighbours, in order to maintain good relations with them. Having national borders open to both India and Pakistan, would raise serious concerns on the security of India. It would be an easy route for militants to Infiltrate India. Pakistan, has lately been a breeding ground for many terrorist organisations, with widespread support from Pakistani Military and ISI, which has created serious problems in their country as well. Even their people want peace and unity, as was a century before, but it is the own ulterior motives of the powerful few which put the masses in trouble with bad decisions. It is not just Pakistan that might infiltrate India, it is also the other neighbour, China, that might try to infiltrate the country. In the past, there have been instances of China supporting Pakistan against India, with Pakistan even agreeing to a Chinese military base in Pakistan. Lately, Chinese soldiers have had a direct face-off with Indian soldiers in the northeast. Opening borders of Kashmir, would provide an easy access via Aksai Chin.

Now, coming to the big question of what do people of Kashmir want. While visiting the valley in the summer, I had a chance to talk with the common Kashmiris, coming from a wide variety of backgrounds, ranging from cleaners, cooks to PhDs. Based on my interaction, the people in the uneducated strata were totally convinced that Kashmir should be independent and function as a nation-state (which he did not know the meaning about). They just had the word “Azad Kashmir” stuck in their minds, and some also had an illusion that people on the side of PoK were happier and leading better lives. However they were not at all sure about if they have some basic necessities of life or not. They had the illusion that the people on the other side were leading more peaceful lives, and were completely unaware about how the law and order is, or what would it be living without the basics of life. They were also completely oblivious of the fact as to what would be an alternate occupation if Kashmir splits, given the anticipation that tourism would be badly hit, and most of them are either guides, drivers, shikara riders, or related to hospitality in any form. They did not have an idea about how would the foreign footfall, that happens through India at present be affected, given the number of westerners visiting India far exceeds Pakistan. When asked about these basic questions and how being part of a bigger nation is actually helping them in direct and indirect ways, they did not have counter reasoning to it, and said that it gives them a new perspective. However, they were still quite concerned about the Article 370 and Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which in my view is a legitimate concern. In every country, the military and other decision makers should be accountable and answerable to the people. During my discussions with the people of the educated strata, they seemed to have a much better view of the situation, and did seem to acknowledge all these facts. They were aware of how being a part of India, or for that matter any big country, actually benefits the people of the place.

All in all, Kashmir is a fairly complex issue, which can be solved by taking some steps to bring peace to the valley. A good start to that would be to educate people about things, all the matters, both good and bad, in a neutral way, and then let them decide. There is of course army deployed, in large numbers, but then the situation should be so formed that the army is not increased, if not called back. Also, there need to be stricter checks and balances on people who instigate the mobs and brainwash people with false news and hopes. There should be freedom of speech given to the people, and they should be able to criticise the government freely. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act should be relaxed to the extent that soldiers (who are still accountable for their activities), have a representative from the common population for the hearing or trials. All these steps need to be taken slowly and steadily, and things will not change overnight, but they can definitely be changed.