Kashmir – India’s Palestine
By K. Rizwan Kadir
Chicago, IL
February 5, 2011 marked the Kashmir Solidarity Day, an annual gesture of support espoused by Pakistanis globally since 1991. The Day’s observance is not just symbolic; Pakistanis have a passionate love affair with Kashmiris and Kashmir since independence.
The emotional ties grew stronger with the spread of Kashmiris in major parts of the developed world. The occasion also calls for Pakistanis worldwide to reflect on the lack of resolution of the Kashmir issue. Kashmiris, as well as Pakistanis, have been stymied in their diplomatic endeavors for over six decades. However, the ultimate responsibility for finding a solution rests with the Kashmiris themselves.
The Kashmir issue appears in and out of international limelight, and features most prominently in the context of terrorism and violence within India, which is in direct response to the Indian Army’s substantial presence in Kashmir. While no Muslim can justify terrorism to meet political ends, one cannot be oblivious to how the circumstances are used as recruiting grounds for the frustrated youth.
Most analysis of the problem begins with a historical background – an approach that has long run its course, and notwithstanding its academic value, the situation calls for a pragmatic approach. Very succinctly, at the end of the British rule in India, the provinces were given the right to accede based on religious majority. The 500-plus princely states were also afforded the same option. However, Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir, at Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s insistence, and collaboration with Sheikh Abdullah’s National Conference, ratified a resolution to accede to India. That led to a civilian militant effort to overtake Srinagar, which, short-circuited by the Indian Army’s invasion, managed to create an Azad Kashmir. Subsequent UN resolutions called for a plebiscite once peace is restored in the valley. The plebiscite and any referendum to gauge Kashmiri people’s desires did not take place, nor will they ever, as India will always resort to the lack of peace clause to prevent any such measures.
The futility of the demand for self-determination: Nonetheless, in spite of Indian non-cooperation, the Kashmiri politicians, people, and their supporters have been demanding the right to self-determination to decide their destiny. Kashmiris and their representatives worldwide have always looked up to an outside mediator – the gamut runs from the EU to the US to various Muslim countries – to somehow engender this elusive right of self-determination for them. However, India has kept these international entities at diplomatic bay by asserting the issue being an internal one.
Now, it’s high time that both the Kashmiri people and their leaders worldwide decide on their own destiny.
Taking the ownership of finding a resolution by the Kashmiris themselves, as opposed to waiting for India to grant them that right, switches the decision-making onus on to us, whether we live outside of Kashmir or in Pakistan. The All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, as an umbrella organization, along with various legitimate Kashmiri representative organizations globally can poll its own membership and based on the people’s choices, make the resolution to pursue that path. Needless to say, no decision will be justifiable unless it secures a place for Kashmir’s non-Muslim minorities.
Once the Kashmiris demonstrate a resolute determination and a crystal-clear mandate, the rest of the world will support them. This lack of a singular focus has prevented non-Muslims globally from fully embracing the Kashmiri cause. Similarly, such an imperative will allow the Kashmiri Diasporas in the West to have a compelling reason for their legislators to support the people’s choice.
The timing for such a resolution couldn’t be better. With freedom cries raging from Tunisia to Egypt, the world opinion can be easily mobilized to this long-simmering struggle. The Western governments will no longer be able to support people’s movement in the Middle East, and yet turn a blind eye to the Kashmiri one.
Moreover, a resolute people with a collective focus will marginalize the raison d’être of the extremists’ agenda and defang their strategy of rendering a thousand cuts to India. An alternative (and bleak) scenario foresees extremists continuing to use lack of political solution to recruit from their desperate youth. The end result will not be much different than the present-day Palestine, where we have moved so far away from the original issues that only a Solomonic solution can pose a ray of hope – and that’s not in the offing. In Kashmir, however, taking charge and deciding our own destiny will be a game-changer, inshaAllah.
(The writer, a Kashmiri-American, is President of the Pakistan Club at the University of Chicago’s School of Business)
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