By Nic Rasool
Jammu and Kashmir, or Kashmir, is an old Indian princely state that has faced chaos and tension for generations. The region has been formally divided into three: Pakistani-administered Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan, Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and Chinese-administered Aksai Chin. The conflict has spurred protests, terrorist acts, and rebellions, and acts as a major source of conflict between India and Pakistan.
The issues began after the Partition of India of 1947 and the formation of separate South Asian states. At the time, the subcontinent was made up of various provinces and princely states, with provinces being directly ruled by the British and princely states being ruled by a hereditary Indian monarch. Each of these respective princely states were given the option to join the newly formed Muslim-majority Pakistan, the Hindu-majority India, or to simply become a separate independent state. While the bulk of the states joined each country based on their respective religious majority, Kashmir, a predominately Muslim state ruled by Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh, remained neutral. In order to maintain trade, communications, and travel between the newly independent Jammu and Kashmir and the newly born state of Pakistan, the Maharaja signed a standstill agreement. When he attempted to form a similar deal with India, the agreement was rejected by the newly formed Indian government. Despite the Maharaja’s deal with Pakistan, the decision to remain an independent, neutral party was not a sentiment shared by all the Kashmiri people who wanted to join the Muslim-majority country.
In August 1947, in the Jammu and Kashmiri district of Poonch, a rebellion broke out against the Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh which soon spread throughout various other districts predominately in the Muslim majority Jammu region. The rebellion was violently put down by the Maharaja with support from nearby Hindu and Sikh neighbors leading to an estimated 70,000 to 200,000 deaths. This led to Islam becoming a minority religion in Jammu as many Muslims fled into Pakistan during what some consider to be an act of “revenge” for events that occurred in East Pakistan (today Bangladesh). As the violence escalated, the Maharaja sought help from the Indian government, but it would only offer aid in exchange for Kashmir’s formal accession to India, becoming an official Indian state. The agreement was made under the assumption that it would be a temporary accession before a formal referendum, and the Indian army flooded Kashmir to provide support. The rebellion ended with the Maharaja in self-imposed exile, but without a referendum to formalize the accession.
In 1958, India and Pakistan formally declared war over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the first Indo-Pakistani War. After almost a year of fighting, in 1959, the United Nations brokered a ceasefire between the combatants, drawing the line between present-day AJK and J&K, and called for the long awaited referendum, but it never came.
In 1954, the Indian government officially ratified the accession of Jammu and Kashmir, making the Indian controlled Jammu and Kashmir, J&K, a semi-autonomous state with Indian jurisdiction. Pakistan, while not formally incorporating Azad Kashmir through their constitution, also became administrators over their section of Jammu and Kashmir. Both countries allowed their respective territories, J&K and AJK, to have their own elections and form their own governments. Thus, the basis for modern-day Jammu and Kashmir was established.
The Indian government formally recognizes J&K’s special status and autonomy through Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. In addition, Article 35A, a separate constitutional article, reserved jobs, the ability to purchase and own land, and various other privileges to permanent residents of Kashmir (permanent residents including those who lived in the region as of May 1954 and those who have lived in the states for ten years since). This essentially allowed the Muslim-majority J&K to retain its demographics.
However, in August 2019, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, almost all sections of Article 370 were removed. The government argues that this was to help J&K be equal to other Indian states, though Kashmiris fear this is the BJP’s way of allowing outsiders to buy land in the region. There is a growing fear that these changes are the BJP’s way of changing demographics in J&K in order to suppress Muslim and bolster Hindu populations as part of the BJP’s Hindu-nationalist policies. In addition to the removal of Article 370, J&K has been further separated into the two union states of J&K and the newly formed Buddhist-majority state of Ladakh, another way the Indian government has changed demographics in J&K.
This is not the first time Modi’s BJP Party has been accused of Hindu nationalism. There have been incidents of lynching against Muslims suspected of slaughtering cows, a sacred animal in Hinduism, perpetrated by Hindu citizens with “delayed police investigations.” There have been incidents of history books being rewritten to exclude Muslim rulers and historical figures. Prime Minister Modi has been accused of controlling the media and using business leaders and economic policies to stall criticism against the BJP and their associate organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist paramilitary organization with many of its members in the BJP.
In response to this shift toward Hindu-centric nationalism, many Kashmiris have begun protesting. Consequently, Indian troops were moved in, around 3000 people including politicians and various figures of the Kashmiri community have been jailed, and J&K has officially been placed under lockdown with phone lines and internet access cut off. Many detainees have been moved to prisons further within India and away from their homeland. In January 2020, the lockdown was slightly eased with limited internet access being returned to major industries such as hospitals or banks, and some Kashmiri officials being released from house arrest. However, possibly thousands of other Kashmiris remain imprisoned either in their homes or centers outside of the state and human rights abuses continue to occur—all in the name of maintaining law and order.
As India becomes further divided along religious lines, as it embraces nationalism and Hindu-centric policy, as it arguably surrenders parts of its democracy, the Kashmiri people and other minorities suffer. There must be more than simple condemnations, diplomatic action should be taken to begin solving these issues.