Mumbai Violence and Kashmir
By Naveed Khan
San Jose, CA
While fully condemning the violence and carnage against civilians in Mumbai, one just can and must not ignore the root cause of rising militancy against India and expect that such events will not be repeated again.
There is little doubt in my mind that the problem stems from the festering unresolved dispute of 1947 partition that created two independent states of India and Pakistan. While most of the other territorial, administrative and financial issues were resolved with genuine alacrity and some determination, Kashmir has proven to be an intractable and irresolvable issue. Three full-scale wars, multiple attempts at infiltration, periods of rapprochement intermixed with appeasement and savage brutality, have not brought an honorable solution to this quarrel.
The fact is that 61 years latter, there seems a little chance of a solution that would satisfy the three interceding parties, Indians, Pakistanis and Kashmiris. The UN passed a resolution in 1948, promising a free and fair referendum to Kashmiris so that they could determine their own future. Indian Hindus have special reverence for Kashmir because of the presence of their religious symbols in the area, Pakistanis want it to be part of them because a majority of Kashmiris are Muslims and Kashmiris just want a simple and honorable solution so that they could live a life of honor and dignity. Indians see control of Kashmir inseparable from their national security and integration of a secular society; Pakistan sees it as an unfinished agenda of partition as the fundamental tenant of division was religion. Most Pakistanis feel bitter and consider India's military control of Kashmir as disgraceful and justify militancy to win freedom for the Kashmiris. Pakistan also fears that India one day would block water for the rivers that flow through its territory and originate in Kashmir and therefore deem control of Kashmir as vital for their economic survival.
With entrenched positions and so much of history, often bloody and savage and immense mistrust between the two nations, I feel that overt and covert wars to damage each other would continue. To stop the repetition of such carnage as we witnessed in Mumbai, a resolution of Kashmir dispute is indispensable. It is for the international community to step up and help the two countries in an amicable resolution of this dispute, as they have not shown wisdom and prudence to find a solution. India with the ambition to become a world power and Pakistan with the ambition to lead the Islamic world, collectively do not have the knowledge, power and courage to settle the Kashmir dispute. It is imperative for the global leadership to step in and conjure up a solution that the three parties be forced to accept. Resolution of Kashmir dispute would take away the raison d’être and legitimacy from the militants in the region.
The Mumbai carnage is reprehensible, its repercussions are unimaginable and its potential to spill into a major conflict is unacceptable. The world needs to resolve disputes and not to let them fester into unmanageable conflicts. President-Elect Obama in speeches after his elections had alluded to disastrous effects of unresolved disputes and advocated a resolution of Kashmir dispute to quell militancy in the region of Pakistan-Afghanistan-India.
