Marria Qibtia S Nagra
FAMOUSLY hailed as the ‘Paradise on Earth’ by Emperor Babur, today the picturesque valley of Kashmir with the presence of around one million Indian troops in the region, stands as the most heavily militarized zone on earth. Smeared with consistent bouts of grotesque Indian violence following its embroilment in a harrowing crisis of epic proportions since 1947, the region of Kashmir is undoubtedly in a state of brutal transmutation. This transmutation manifests the intensifying Indian posture in Kashmir conflict and the inhumane treatment being meted out to Kashmiri people, who are merely voicing their basic right for demanding freedom from ignominiously apathetic modes of Indian sadism; cherished right for self-determination.Historically speaking, being a Muslim majority region, Kashmir should have been a part of Pakistan. But the conniving politics of the Hindu leadership of India as well as that of Kashmir facilitated the illegal occupation of Kashmir by the Indian forces in October 1947, which eventually resulted in a war between Pakistan and India. The consequent UN resolution that called for the conduction of a plebiscite to determine the wishes of the Kashmiri populace has till date not been honoured, with the Indian posture getting aggressive day by day. The ensuing Kashmiri protests which come across as an expression of resentment against the oppressiveness of the Indian forces are in fact a vital indication of the Kashmiri resolve and refusal to bog down before the hegemonic posture of the ruthless Indian forces. According to Human rights reports more than 100,000 Kashmiris have been killed by the Indian forces in clashes that intensified following the Kashmir uprising of1989.The harrowing reality is that even women and children have not been spared of such goriness. Women in Kashmiri society and culture are emblematic of a family’s honour and prestige. By subjugating the women, and subjecting them to inexplicable modes of violence, the Indian forces aim to stain the Kashmiri cultural and social fabric. The Kashmiri Canadian Council brings to light the fact that up till now around 6300 Kashmiri women have been raped by the Indian soldiers. It is imperative to note that though the raping of Kashmiri women by Indian soldiers is attempted at humiliating them and their families.Despite widespread contraventions of human rights, the Indian troops are protected by a large number of laws and regulations, all designed to conceal their violations. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958) was restored in 1990 to offer protection to Indian paramilitary forces and troops against the transgressions that they rendered in Kashmir. That is the very reason why in February 1992 , when in the village of Kunan Pushra drunk Indian soldiers ended up raping women of the village ranging from years 7 -70 , none of them was trialed for the heinous offence let alone reprimanded.The Indian juggernaut in Kashmir unravels the façade of harmony and concord cleverly put on by the heir’s of Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence. It also reminds one of what PM Narinder Modi remarked on his first trip to Indian Held Kashmir where he contended that despite the advancement of the world, “ we are nowhere without humanityâ€.
This contention is quite dichotomous to the gruelling contours of Indian violence in Kashmir that shames humanity to say the least. The panoptic contours of violence in Kashmir make resolution of the conflict a crucial undertaking since it is imperative for burgeoning of South Asian region as a whole.
For fore mostly, Indian leadership needs to realize that violence never breeds peace. Therefore, it needs to amend its belligerent posture of maintaining order through violence. Despite overtly aggressive Indian posture in Kashmir, Indian politician and member of Lok Sabha Shashi Tharoor once claimed that “India’s response was a response to terror and not a cause of itâ€. It is such shocking policy statements that need to be done away with, since they fail to even trigger peace process in Kashmir.
Secondly, peace in Kashmir cannot be ensured if media continues to propagandise real content and project facts from a subjective viewpoint, in order to facilitate its biased narrative. In an article written for The Hoot, Srinagar based Journalist Gwohar Geelani contends that during the July 2016 uprisings in Kashmir , following Burhan Wani’s killing by the Indian forces , numerous Indian TV Channels as Zee Tv, India Today and Aaj Takk aired footages from the 2010 uprising to wrongfully establish Pakistan’s participation in the uprising. Such media propagandas simply fuel the discord between neighbouring states , qualifying peace an elusive dream. Thirdly, it also needs to be realized that the conflict in Kashmir is about Kashmir itself, and hence mandates the representation of Kashmiri political voice when discussing the road towards the resolution of the conflict. The future of Kashmir cannot be decided upon without engaging the Kashmiris in any sort of political discourse. It needs to be accepted that true Kashmiri perspective can only be appreciated and understood, when coming from an exigent Kashmiri source. Nor does it ensure harmony. for not only breeding peace in Kashmir, but
For this a plebiscite under the supervision of UN agencies needs to be conducted to determine the yearnings of the Kashmiris. Moreover, the heartrending Kashmir conflict reeks of the apathy of the global stakeholders towards the misery of the Kashmiri people. Till the time it is not done away with, peace in Kashmir is a far-fetched dream since it comes across as a conscious attempt at making India potentially capable of emerging as a counterweight to China. This comes to be reinforced by the fact that Wiki leaks of 2010 adduced US consciousness of Indian flagrancy in Kashmir in 2005 and its silence thereof with respect to the conflict. It is sad that such political alignment comes at cost of innocent human lives.
Physically and psychologically scarred today every Kashmiris heart weighs heavy by a metaphorical void that is inexplicable to say the least. The Kashmiri void poses questions to which there are no answers since violence when left unbridled normalizes impulsivity and zaniness, to which there are no rational basis. This void manifests their identity crisis and existential angst in the face of their conundrums making one wonder are not they endowed with the right to live, to speak, to protest and to defend their nation and its freedom ? Or are they forever fated to live in a world that looks on in sheer mockery towards their suffering? Only time will tell.