Indian Policy in Kashmir

EVEN as the USA and its terror companions unleash immeasurable loses to Muslims in terms of lives and properties under their “suspected” terrorism activities, India, a hegemon in Asia, ill-treats Muslims in India as well as Kashmir and has already converted the valley into a fenced cantonment of New Delhi. Many schools and even hospitals are being been occupied by the army and related establishment. People who struggle for Independence of their nation have been at the receiving end. Although there are several groups fighting for the cause in their own ways, depending on the circumstances created for them by India, the actual freedom is yet to arrive. Genocides and destruction take place sector by sector in Kashmir.

The cruelty attached to New Delhi's attitude to the Kashmiris is a known fact and India does not want to alter the policy even as Kashmir is in weak disposition. The Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference (G) S.A.Geelani rightly lambasted Indian attitude to Kashmiris, rightly accusing Indian Army of committing “loot and plunder” in Sopur and Pattan encounters, for instance. Indian forces were inflicting massive and irrecoverable damage to the economy of Jammu and Kashmir, and making the people of Valley financially unstable. “The occupational forces were involved in loot, plunder and damage of the properties worth crores of rupees of civilians during Sopur and Pattan, it becomes responsibility of government of India to compensate the victims,” Geelani told reporters at his Hyderpora residence in Srinagar, where he has been put under house arrest for the past many days. Property worth Rs 2, 96, 56324 has been damaged and looted in Sopur by troops, and in Pattan the victims have suffered a loss of Rs 36, 70,000. The damages could be ever more and worse. Forty-seven residential houses have been partially or completely damaged in Pattan whereas dozens of shops have been looted. More than 50 houses and shops have been looted or damaged by the troops. The forces are deliberately torching the houses even if they are not involved in encounter. Geelani contented that India and their agents are using power to suppress the voice of Kashmiris because they don’t have any argument to their claims on Kashmir. Many houses were also gutted in my ancestral village Dooru recently.

Arrests are so routine a matter in the valley that any one could be picked up any time in Kashmir, without assigning any reasons. Since 2004 Geelani has been placed under house arrest 72 times. No other pro-freedom leader has been meted with such treatment in modern times. They are targeting me to stop from reaching out to my people. This shows how much venom they posses against me.” “So far, 17 attempts have been made on my life but I am safe and sound by the grace of Allah,” Geelani said. World, including neighbor India, made a huge noise when Ms. Benazir Bhutto was kept under house arrest in Pakistan. But what has been happening to Kashmiris ever since their country was annexed by India after its own independence in 1947..the re-Independence struggle launched by Kashmiris has been cleverly converted into a “terrorist struggle” by occupying Indian government and Muslims are being killed en-masse there in a sustained manner. But the world has conveniently closed its eyes on that cruelty, though death tally put at 80 thousands and destroyed properties worth billions and billions of dollars. As if, the death toll is not enough!

People of Kashmir consider Geelani is a sincere, capable and courageous leader who has been constantly influencing the Kashmiri youth with his sincerity of purpose perseverance and steely determination inspired by his leadership and indomitable fighting spirit which has kept the flame of the struggle for the Kashmiris right of self-determination burning in the hearts of the millions of the freedom-loving people of the State. Geelani, according to the available sources, is one of the renowned leaders of the Freedom Struggle of Jammu & Kashmir under the umbrella of All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference. He is one of the few leaders of the Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir who raised his voice effectively and forcefully against the Indian occupation. He has spent 14 years of his life in prison and has thus become one of the few public leaders to spend so long a period of his life in prison. He is one of the few persons who strengthened the Freedom Struggle in Kashmir and is, again one of the few persons who have been leading the freedom forces quite admirably. During the past 50 years he has manfully braved persecution and faced tremendous difficulties. And no one seems to be bothered abut the plight of Kashmiris in New Delhi talking about democracy and “terrorism”

The Army cordoned off many areas in Sopur and Pattan where encounters were on for days. Except for soldiers nobody could have even imagined to put their lives in risk and loot the shops and houses in broad daylight,” Geelani said, adding, “It is a matter of common sense to understand that in a place where the cordon by troops is so tight that even a bird is not allowed to enter how can we expect a civilian to break the cordon and dare to loot the areas.” He said, “If only one or two houses are involved in encounters at any place, this is but natural that those houses will suffer the damage but why are surrounding houses deliberately set on fire and their properties damaged. What is government trying to prove by these acts?”

Geelani said forces in any country are said to be the disciplined lot. “But see what the Indian forces are doing to Kashmiris. Looting and damaging the life long earnings of Kashmiris. The troops have now lost their moral duties and it is a serious concern for us and unfortunate for India. These troops claim to be the disciples of Shri Ram Chandra who in fact was a man of principle but do they follow what they claim?” Geelani said. Troops are targeting residential areas only out of frustration because people continue to fight for their right to self-determination. Our cultural, religion, civilization, lives, properties…are not safe in this atmosphere of occupation. These troops are like Narendra Modi of Gujarat who has no value for humanity.

Geelani said, “not only houses, forests also set on fire in a planned manner. If the United Nations could be concerned about the imposition of emergency in Pakistan by President Pervez Musharraf, why have they adopted soft stand on the Kashmir issue?” he asked. Geelani seeks compensation for “encounter” victims. UN, UNSC, UNSC-5 and other regional organizations like Commonwealth have been silent abut he Kashmir’s re-Independence, though they do occasionally condemned earlier. Sept 11 has been used by India to argue the Kashmir case in its own favor calling the Kashmiris terrorists and suspected and potential ones. A supporter of the Kashmir cause, USA has also thus been made silent on Kashmir of late.

BACKGROUND

It is unfortunate that immediately upon obtaining its independence, India went on annexing its neighbor Kashmir by citing Pakistan. The UN Security Council on 20 January 1948 passed Resolution 39, establishing a special commission to investigate the conflict. The UN Security Council passed the resolution that the opinion of Kashmiris must be ascertained. Indian Prime Minister Nehru promised a Plebiscite under UN supervision which never happened. Subsequent to the commission's recommendation, the Security Council ordered in its Resolution 47, passed on 21 April 1948, that the invading Pakistani army retreat from Jammu & Kashmir and that the accession of Kashmir to either India or Pakistan be determined in accordance with a plebiscite to be supervised by the UN. In the last days of 1948, a ceasefire was agreed under UN auspices; however, since the plebiscite demanded by the UN was never conducted, relations between India and Pakistan soured, and eventually led to two more wars over Kashmir in 1965 and 1999. India has control of about half the area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir; Pakistan controls a third of the region, the Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir. In a string of subsequent resolutions, the Security Council took notice of the continuing failure to hold the plebiscite.

The purpose of delaying the plebiscite was to bring the Kashmir valley under Indian control by militarizing the valley. India has used UK’s influence and Russian weapons to keep Kashmir under New Delhi’s effective control. The ruler of the then Jammu-Kashmir Singh chose India to Pakistan and India was pressurizing the King Singh to come for an understanding with India, “before the area was taken away by Pakistan”. Thus Kashmir became a part of Indian Union. The Government of India held that the Maharaja signed a document of accession to India October 26, 1947. Pakistan has disputed whether the Maharaja actually signed the accession treaty before Indian troops entered Kashmir. Furthermore, Pakistan claims the Indian government has never produced an original copy of this accession treaty and thus its validity and legality is disputed.

Still way back, by the early 19th century, the Kashmir valley had passed from the control of the Durran Empire of Afghanistan, and four centuries of Muslim rule under the Mughals and the Afghans, to the conquering Sikh armies. Earlier, in 1780, after the death of Ranjit Deo, the Raja of Jammu, the kingdom of Jammu (to the south of the Kashmir valley) was captured by the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh of Lahore and afterwards, until 1846, became a tributary to the Sikh power. The Instrument of Accession is a legal document executed by Maharajah Hari Singh, ruler of the State of Jammu and Kashmir (princely state), on October 26, 1947. It gives control of Jammu and Kashmir princely state (includes Jammu, Kashmir, Northern Areas, Ladakh and Aksai Chin) to the government of India. The accession was accepted by Lord Mountbatten, Governor General of India, the following day (October 27, 1947).

The eastern region of the erstwhile princely state of Kashmir has also been beset with a boundary dispute. In the late 19th- and early 20th centuries, although some boundary agreements were signed between Great Britain, Afghanistan and Russia over the northern borders of Kashmir, China never accepted these agreements, and the official Chinese position did not change with the communist takeover in 1949. By the mid-1950s the Chinese army had entered the north-east portion of Ladakh: "By 1956–57 they had completed a military road through the Aksai Chin area to provide better communication between Xinjiang and western Tibet. India's belated discovery of this road led to border clashes between the two countries that culminated in the Sino-Indian war of October 1962." China has occupied Aksai Chin since 1962 and, in addition, an adjoining region, the Trans-Karakoram Tract was ceded by Pakistan to China in 1965.

The idea in delaying the Plebiscite by India was obviously take time to engineer a pro-India strong lobby in Kashmir and establish such a government in Srinagar. Meanwhile, elections were held in Indian Jammu & Kashmir, which brought up the popular Muslim leader Sheikh Abdullah, who with his party National Conference, by and large supported India. The elected Constituent Assembly met for the first time in Srinagar on October 31, 1951. Then The State Constituent Assembly ratified the accession of the State to the Union of India on February 6, 1954 and the President of India subsequently issued the Constitution (Application to J&K) Order under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution extending the Union Constitution to the State with some exceptions and modifications. The State’s own Constitution came into force on January 26, 1957 under which the elections to the State Legislative Assembly were held for the first time on the basis of adult franchise the same year. This Constitution ratified the State’s accession to Union of India. However, these tidings were not recognized by Pakistan, which has continued to press for a plebiscite to ascertain the wishes of the people.

AN OBSERVATION

In conclusion, a lot of water has flown under the bridge- a lot more blood too—ever since India acquired Kashmir in a “diplomatic move”. It is now beneficial for both Kashmir and India to be free from each other politically and by sovereignty, The organizations like UN and Commonwealth, however weak they may be, should rise to occasion and arrange for the independence of Kashmir and let the Kashmiris live like human beings without being harassed or targeted by the armed forces or any body else. UNSC is supposed to shield the nations and people of the world from onslaught of more powerful countries, but is seen playing tricks with Kashmiris. There is no point in killing innocent people just for the fun or sadistic pleasure, provoke them to react by committing crime against them. Blood bath has to end. One hopes the UNSC is listening!

 

The author is Research Scholar,School of International Studies,Jawaharlal Nehru University,NewDelhi. Email: abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com