by Nuha Naseer
Dating back to August of 1947, tensions between India and Pakistan have been recognized worldwide ever since the infamous partition initiated by the British, who ruled India for over 200 years. With almost 1 million deaths, when India gained freedom from being under colonial rule, the country was split with religion being a huge contributor: Muslim dominated regions eventually formed Pakistan, and Hindu dominated areas remained a part of India. Kashmir, a Himalayan and mountainous region, has been a catalyst for conflict between these two nuclear armed countries ever since. After being fought over for many years, Kashmir was divided into India administrated Kashmir and Pakistan administered Kashmir, with back up from the UN (although China also owns a small portion of territory).
Article 370 of the Indian Constitution gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir formalized autonomy and special status in 1957: they had their own body of law and system of rules and were free to follow their own constitution. These laws also applied to the Indian administrated regions of Kashmir; the power and control that could be enforced by the Indian government was limited and kept to a minimum. Although initially a temporary solution until a long-term decision was made regarding the rule of Kashmir, the Supreme Court of India declared that Article 370 had become a permanent arrangement. However quite evidently, the pressures of the conflict surrounding Kashmir are still very high with the Prime Minister of India, Modi, still looking for the territory’s “the full integration into India” throughout his re-election campaign. He recently revoked the article with a vote winning 352 to 72, causing major uproar not only in Kashmir, but in Pakistan too: when Modi announced this controversial news, it stimulated a considerable amount of unrest and triggered protests to take place all over Pakistan, since for them, India broke a bilateral truce. Instead, by revoking article 370, the Indian government claims that the economy of Kashmir will begin to improve as more investments will be encouraged in a state that has “been lagging behind for decades”. On the contrary, many social activists and humanitarians believe Kashmir is now an area run by fear with the shutdown of communications and the imposition of a strict curfew that has accompanied the revocation in August.
A number of third parties have gotten involved in this conflict since, especially the USA. It has been putting pressure on India to negotiate with Pakistan who is rigid in its objections to any and all external pressures and insists this is a bilateral issue and not an international one. As a result, India has refused the USA’s offer of mediation regardless of the fact that the USA has demonstrated its intentions to withdraw from Afghanistan, which could lead to a spike in terrorism in Kashmir, like it has once before.
As a result of both countries’ adamance, it is clear that the future holds nothing but conflict regarding Kashmir. “We will fight to the last drop of our blood. It will be a war that no one can win, I’m not doing nuclear blackmail, I’m appealing to common sense. Is the world prepared for the worst?” These are the words of Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan, clearly evidencing that this dispute is major, and it will affect people on a global scale especially if nuclear weapons are involved. Finally, this conflict is relevant worldwide for a reason that is even supported by the UN, and that is that human rights are currently being severely violated in Kashmir: “the security lockdown and restrictions that have been introduced are deeply concerning and will exacerbate the human rights situation.”
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