Author: Tariq Mir
Affiliation: Freelance Journalist Based in Kashmir
Organization/Publisher: The New York Review
Date/Place: November 22, 2021/Kashmir
Type of Literature: Reportage
Word Count: 4600
Link: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2021/11/22/kashmirs-cycle-of-death/?lp_txn_id=1299057
Keywords: Kashmir, Conflict, India, Occupation, Resistance, Pakistan
Brief:
India has been able to impose a degree of what it describes as “peace and normalcy” in its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) only by adopting the harshest of measures, the author describes of the situation on the ground in the UN-recognized disputed territory. In this long reportage, the author sketches the grim situation in Kashmir and how the natives have been pushed to the wall by Indian forces. The report also discusses how Pakistan has scaled back its support to the armed resistance against Indian rule in IOJK thus giving space for discussion that criticizes Pakistan’s role on Kashmir. India has imposed a graveyard silence in IOJK and the situation has exacerbated ever since New Delhi unilaterally re-annexed IOJK. As space for political activism shrank, Kashmiris, especially youth, picked up arms against the Indian occupation forces. This has led the occupying Indian forces to destroy their lives and properties. Amid the intense situation created by India’s illegal actions and subsequent brutality against any resistance, the author points to the statement of Pakistani military chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa where he said “We feel that it is time to bury the past and move forward.” This brought sadness to Kashmiris in IOJK as most of the Kashmiris living there wish to join Pakistan. The author calls out India’s shift to becoming a Hindu-majoritarian state. However, the author says: “And yet, despite abolishing the state’s constitutional autonomy (in 2019), India cannot gobble up Kashmir entire without causing a conflagration that would engulf all of South Asia.” His analysis notes that rising anti-Muslim hate and Islamophobia will demand a response from across the Muslim world “in defense of 10 million coreligionists oppressed by a country of 1.3 billion people—an outcome over which India and Pakistan would have lost any ability to control.” The primary challenge to the native Kashmiris is the settler colonialism occurring as India—after imposing constitutional changes in the UN-designated disputed region—has opened the gate to Indians from across its breadth and length to come and settle down in IOJK.
By: Riyaz ul Khaliq, CIGA Non-resident Research Associate
