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Kashmir: An “integral part” of India, the most militarized zone in the world
Global Village Space |
A sweeping social media gag; dozens of Kashmiri female students defiantly protesting Indian military troop presence; and a Kashmiri man tied to an Indian military vehicle as a human shield against stone-pelting protesters. These are just some of the latest stories to come out of India’s north-eastern state of Jammu and Kashmir, also known simply as Indian-administered Kashmir.
Jammu and Kashmir has been under suffocating Indian military presence and intermittent curfews under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act since 1990. Since then, more than 70,000 Kashmiris have been killed and many more have been injured or arrested in Indian military crackdowns.
The struggle for independence, or azadi, that has been brewing there since 1989, has taken on a renewed dimension in the last year since the death of a 22-year-old.
Read more: Is Kashmir slipping away from India?
Home to 12 million people, Jammu and Kashmir is the only Indian state with its own flag and a Muslim-majority population.
In April 2016, Burhan Wani, a young social media star, supporter of a free Kashmir, and “the poster boy” of Kashmir’s new wave of armed struggle, was killed in a counterinsurgency operation. After his execution, Kashmiri journalist and New York Times writer Basharat Peer posted on Facebook:
The Internet has been banned. Curfew has been imposed. Phones can’t be reached. The mighty Indian state might have killed him but they haven’t won. A 22-year-old in his death has shaken you.
Since his death, protests, and crackdowns have killed more than a hundred civilians, thousands have been injured, and businesses, the internet, and schools have been shuttered intermittently for months.
The azadi movement
Home to 12 million people, Jammu and Kashmir is the only Indian state with its own flag and a Muslim-majority population. The Kashmiri people have been demanding the right to hold a referendum on their independence since 1989, but India’s government won’t allow it.
Politicians who advocate independence and alliances like the All Parties Hurriyat Conference are the strongest political groups in the region. They officially reject India’s sovereignty over Kashmir and have been demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan since 1989. Various polls over the years have shown that the majority of the state’s residents want to separate from India.
Read more: Sartaj Aziz Slams India for declining Turkey’s offer to mediate in Kashmir
The Indian government has officially stated that it believes Kashmir to be an integral part of India.
In 2015, for the first time, India’s ruling Hindu-nationalist BJP party was sworn into government in Kashmir in coalition with the local Kashmiri People’s Democratic Party. Since then, the BJP government has been flexing its muscle in the Valley, through crackdowns on protests and legal actions like the enforcement of a colonial-era ban on eating beef. When the courts ruled that the ban must be strictly enforced, many in Indian-administered Kashmir closed shops, businesses and government departments in protest. In an opinion piece for Scroll, Athar Pervaiz wrote:
Statements made by various BJP leaders in recent months about minorities, especially Muslims, have only bolstered the perception in the Valley that the BJP is not interested in bringing a durable peace to Muslim-majority Kashmir.
There is a growing movement of activists in India questioning their government’s abuses in Kashmir. Indians who voice their support for the self-determination of the Kashmiri people, often face heat and threats.
Last year, protests that began at a public university in New Delhi spread across the entire country, after the president of a student union at Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested on sedition accusations for organizing a rally to mark the anniversary of the execution of a Kashmiri fighting for independence.
Read full article:
Kashmir: An “integral part” of India, the most militarized zone in the world
Global Village Space |
A sweeping social media gag; dozens of Kashmiri female students defiantly protesting Indian military troop presence; and a Kashmiri man tied to an Indian military vehicle as a human shield against stone-pelting protesters. These are just some of the latest stories to come out of India’s north-eastern state of Jammu and Kashmir, also known simply as Indian-administered Kashmir.
Jammu and Kashmir has been under suffocating Indian military presence and intermittent curfews under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act since 1990. Since then, more than 70,000 Kashmiris have been killed and many more have been injured or arrested in Indian military crackdowns.
The struggle for independence, or azadi, that has been brewing there since 1989, has taken on a renewed dimension in the last year since the death of a 22-year-old.
Read more: Is Kashmir slipping away from India?
Home to 12 million people, Jammu and Kashmir is the only Indian state with its own flag and a Muslim-majority population.
In April 2016, Burhan Wani, a young social media star, supporter of a free Kashmir, and “the poster boy” of Kashmir’s new wave of armed struggle, was killed in a counterinsurgency operation. After his execution, Kashmiri journalist and New York Times writer Basharat Peer posted on Facebook:
The Internet has been banned. Curfew has been imposed. Phones can’t be reached. The mighty Indian state might have killed him but they haven’t won. A 22-year-old in his death has shaken you.
Since his death, protests, and crackdowns have killed more than a hundred civilians, thousands have been injured, and businesses, the internet, and schools have been shuttered intermittently for months.
The azadi movement
Home to 12 million people, Jammu and Kashmir is the only Indian state with its own flag and a Muslim-majority population. The Kashmiri people have been demanding the right to hold a referendum on their independence since 1989, but India’s government won’t allow it.
Politicians who advocate independence and alliances like the All Parties Hurriyat Conference are the strongest political groups in the region. They officially reject India’s sovereignty over Kashmir and have been demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan since 1989. Various polls over the years have shown that the majority of the state’s residents want to separate from India.
Read more: Sartaj Aziz Slams India for declining Turkey’s offer to mediate in Kashmir
The Indian government has officially stated that it believes Kashmir to be an integral part of India.
In 2015, for the first time, India’s ruling Hindu-nationalist BJP party was sworn into government in Kashmir in coalition with the local Kashmiri People’s Democratic Party. Since then, the BJP government has been flexing its muscle in the Valley, through crackdowns on protests and legal actions like the enforcement of a colonial-era ban on eating beef. When the courts ruled that the ban must be strictly enforced, many in Indian-administered Kashmir closed shops, businesses and government departments in protest. In an opinion piece for Scroll, Athar Pervaiz wrote:
Statements made by various BJP leaders in recent months about minorities, especially Muslims, have only bolstered the perception in the Valley that the BJP is not interested in bringing a durable peace to Muslim-majority Kashmir.
There is a growing movement of activists in India questioning their government’s abuses in Kashmir. Indians who voice their support for the self-determination of the Kashmiri people, often face heat and threats.
Last year, protests that began at a public university in New Delhi spread across the entire country, after the president of a student union at Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested on sedition accusations for organizing a rally to mark the anniversary of the execution of a Kashmiri fighting for independence.
Read full article:
Kashmir: An “integral part” of India, the most militarized zone in the world
