A Conversation With: Lt. Gen. Baljit Singh Jaswal, Former Commander of Kash

[Joe Shearer]

What Joe Shearer, Oscar and BATMAN forget is that in these negotiations the voice of the Kashmiri people wouldn't be heard, let alone a representative of them be present. Until that changes, Pakistan/India can walk around in circles trying to resolve an issue that they shouldn't have involved themselves in, in the first place.

I read this after composing my comment on your later post. This is even more dishonest on your part, if that is possible. There was a people's movement in Kashmir from the 30s. Perhaps you are not aware of it, or you wish to remain ignorant of it for the purposes of propagandising your point of view. Neither matters; the fact is that the Muslim Conference, as it was originally founded, forced certain reforms on the Maharaja, but not completely. It represented the will of the people as far as the people had been mobilised. Short of the test of an election, the only test was the willingness of the common people to support the movements and platforms of this party. That was available in sufficient numbers to attract the attention of both the Muslim League and the Congress. The Muslim League, in the person of Jinnah himself, inspected the situation; Jinnah's comments on the local supporters of the Muslim League and their leadership was caustic and scathing, and he made it clear that these elements enjoyed neither his political confidence nor his personal trust. The Congress made several approaches, there were several visits by its leadership, and the effect on the Muslim Conference leadership wwas profound; they changed their name to the National Conference in a symbolic distancing from communalism.

During the invasion of the tribals and their loot, rape and abductions, the people of the Valley rallied around this party, the National Conference, and resisted. There are still memorials to civilians among them who were martyred for their resistance, though unarmed. One of the conditions of acceptance of the Maharaja's accession to India was that his Prime Minister should be replaced by Sheikh Abdullah at the earliest.

It is only in the myth-making of the immigrants from the plains, especially in the Mirpur region, that there was any doubt about popular support. Quite plainly, popular support did not vest in those who were murdering the people, raping and abducting their women and looting everything in sight. Considering that there is no parallel to this infiltration from the plains side in Indian Kashmir, the actions of these immigrants who describe themselves as kashmiris is spurious, to say the least.

 

[Joe Shearer]

reflects the general mentality of most indians -- who truly (erroneously) believe that Kashmiri nationalism and the resistance movement by the freedom fighters is caused by Pakistani interference.....when in fact, majority of it is an indigenous phenomenon


you kill their sons and rape their daughters, impose draconian laws on them and dump many of their dead in mass graves and then expect that they wont be 'pissed off' and be resentful about your presence in their sacred lands.....

Why is it that Pakistanis cannot admit the brutal truth about Kashmir to themselves? That they pursue Kashmir only in order to justify the existence of Pakistan itself? That they have painted themselves into a corner by insisting that Pakistan is incomplete without it? That they have no feeling for Kashmir or the Kashmiri, apart from their urgent need to achieve completion of their nation-state on their own terms?