What is the issue?
- The evolution of the Kashmir conflict is a complex one that successive governments have failed to address comprehensively.
- It needs to be recognized that Pakistan is not the only problem factor in Kashmir and that there is an internal crisis too.
How did Kashmir accede to India?
- While Pakistan was aggressive to get Kashmir to accede to it, kashimiri leadership wanted to retain their independence.
- Due to Paksitani aggression and the tribal invasion of 1947, the Kashmiris leadership was left with no option but to accede to India conditionally.
- Hence, Kashmir acceded to the Indian union under unique circumstances that defied the logic of religion based partition of the sub-continent.
- Because of this, article 370 was provided as a special protection in order to safeguard its cultural and ethnic composition.
- Notably, despite strong opposition, the charismatic Sheik Abdullah had convinced the Kashmiris that joining India was the best option for Kashmir.
What caused the alienation of Kashmiris?
- Hindu communal forces, led by the Jan Sangh, began agitating from 1950 for the removal of Article 370, which was seen as a threat to the Kashmiri identity.
- This had a major psychological impact on the Valley’s population and on Sheikh Abdullah personally, which marked the beginning of internal strife.
- While Mr. Abdullah became Kashmiri Prime Minister in 1951 (the head of the Kashmiri state was called PM then), his government was dismissed in 1953.
- He was also imprisoned by the Nehruvian government on the suspicion lobbying internationally for creating an independent Kashmir.
- For two decades after that, New Delhi rigged elections and appointed its own proxies as Chief Ministers, eroding the valley’s faith in Indian democracy.
How did militancy start?
- While the Indian state was engrossed with Pakistan’s foray in Kashmir, it failed to rectify its meddling in the valley’s polity, which strained its legitimacy.
- An agreement reached between PM Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah in 1975 granted some autonomy to the valley and did promise a new beginning.
- But with Abdullah’s death and his son Farooq’s rise, the India government under PM Rajeev Gandhi soon backtracked and the progress was stalled.
- These actions eroded the legitimacy of the Abdullah clan, which was the face of moderate Kashmiri sub-nationalism and provided impetus to extremists.
- The elections of 1987 were openly rigged in order to diminish the anticipated performance of the extremist party “Muslim United Front” (MUF).
- But this action contrarily increased the popularity of the MUF, and people came to the streets and subsequently took to arms from 1990 onwards.
- In the midst of this internal churn, Pakistan, unsurprisingly threw its weight behind the proponents of “Free Kashmir”, although it was against its stand.
Source: The Hindu
