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I do not find any point in starting this essay with the history of Kashmir. In my essay, only few historical instances will be brought into the lime light, where ever required.
Resolution of any problem can be ascertained by the deep understanding of the cause of the problem.kashmir imbroglio, although being a vexed issue is not complicated to understand at all. History stands witness to each and every incident. I repeat, it’s crystal clear. Then the question arises, why is it still unresolved even after 60 years? There are many answers to it. India’s adamance, few mistakes by Pakistan, and last but not the least is the confused Kashmiri leadership.
It is not wise to call Kashmir just a bilateral issue. The fate of 13.6 million people can not be decided by the two foreign countries or any organization which does not represent Kashmir’s truly. Pakistan's representation of Kashmir is always being seen at, with dubious eyes at the international platform. No country can trust Pakistan’s sayings about the condition of Kashmir. Many countries and organizations perceive India and Pakistan both as occupants and do not differentiate them, saying both of these nations have their vested interests in it.So my point is that the bottleneck of the problem is weak and bifurcated Kashmiri separatist leadership, so are the people.
This has given rise to the two obstacles in between Kashmir and its freedom.
1.
LOSS OF THE FREEDOM PASSION; Kashmir’s have never felt to be part of India, they always aspired for their freedom, but they were predominantly ignorant, so they needed a reliable, wise and influential torch bearer. They got few but at the end of the day all of them turned out to be cheaters. so due to the known reasons, violence broke out in the valley. It was not the war between few organizations and India. It was a civil war. It was raised by the local populace of Kashmir, it was so popular that if India would not have been able to succeed in confusing the militant outfits and the people of Kashmir and if it would have persisted 1 or 2 years further with the same zeal and passion, India had to leave the valley. India’s first success was the internal rift in Kashmiri militants, a gang war like situation prevailed, when hizbul mujahideen and Jammu Kashmir liberation front began to kill each other due to their ideological differences, leaving the war against India aside. So with this, local population was divided as both these outfits had mass public support.
This broke the back of Kashmir freedom struggle.
The second setback to the struggle was a very ugly name in the history of Kashmir, i.e.
KUKA PARRAY, the very unfortunate formation of so called
ikhwaan. India succeeded in indoctrinating hundred's of kashmiri youth, majority of whom were former millitants,to surrender and gave them arms, ranks, unlimited power and utilized them to curb the militancy, because, they being locals and involved in militancy before, knew each and everything about the militants, their thinking and way of operating. Although majority of these so-called ikhwanis have been killed by the militants now, but the damage done by them to the freedom struggle is irreparable. This second setback cooled everything down and this betrayal even killed the freedom passion in the local populace. There was a lack of trust. Nobody would know who is who. Even there were many families which had its members in different rival organizations. On the whole, India played a very intelligent politics in curbing Kashmir’s struggle. India could not have been successful in doing all this directly without getting locals into it.
2.
INADEQUATE INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT; According to united nations resolutions, Kashmir is a disputed territory whose people have to exercise their rights through a free and fair plebiscite under U.N. So this dispute was internationally recognized, but now Kashmir has lost that support to a great extent. There are again 2 reasons for it. a).immediately after the armed resistance erupted in the valley, there was a huge exodus of minority pandit community, a plan mainly engineered by the then governor general of Kashmir, Mr. Jagmohan, and many other unpopular reasons are responsible for it. This helped India to label the Kashmiri uprising purely Islamic; India was successful to frame this issue on communal lines, to a great extent. So this defamed the uprising in many parts of the world.
b). Another setback was the
September 11, 2001 attack on twin towers and pentagon in the united states of America, after which America’s 'war against terror' was launched all over the world. So in this post-9/11 world, it became hard for international community to differentiate between freedom struggle and terrorism. The word 'terrorism' became so popular that anybody with a weapon, for any cause, was labeled as terrorist. According to America, their prime suspect was Sheikh Osama bin laden, for whom they attacked Afghanistan and then suspected him to be in South Waziristan, which is a Pak-Afghan border area. America found Pakistan to have huge no. of Osama sympathizers, and Pakistan somehow managed to convince America and saved itself from devastation, although it was at the brink of it. So, now it was a cake walk for India to link Kashmir issue with the international terrorism. According to India, 9/11 attack had a direct link with Kashmir and it even succeeded in highlighting this link to a great extent.So these two reasons, especially the second one destructed the Kashmir’s international support as India claimed to be the terror victim like USA.
So, till now I have sorted out the basic two problems, which if dealt with delicately, and solved, the day is not far when we can see a free Kashmir.
Now the remedies to solve the problems;
50% of the problem is solved if its cause is predicted and then understood properly so at the present moment by figuring out the causes of this problem, we have solved it partially.There are two steps to be taken to resolve the Kashmir dispute, which means to solve the above two problems. So the two steps of remedies are;
1. Revival of that freedom passion in Kashmiri people which was in them at the inception of the popular uprising.
2. succeeding to get the sincere interference of international community especially the major players like United States and United Kingdom.
The second step is spontaneous to the first one.
1. REVIAVAL OF FREEDOM PASSION IN THE PEOPLE; I strongly confront to this notion that Kashmir’s are tired of striving for freedom. It’s only because of the impaired leadership machinery. Even being without a monopolistic leader, Kashmir’s still continue to strive for their goal to a great extent. They still boycott august 15, India s Independence Day, October 27th, when Indian troops entered Kashmir, all elections under Indian constitutions and many more. Although Kashmiri leaders do proclaim a strike call on these days but the reality is that the people do it for themselves and not for the call given by these leaders. But we can not deny the fact that a sincere leader is indispensable for this goal to be accomplished. So my point over here is the need of a passionate, sincere, knowledgeable leader, who has a full public backing. Revolution has always been brought up by single persons, so we have to wait for such a person for whose tones people will dance to.
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had enjoyed such a support just few decades ago but he failed at the end and ditched his own people. Now we need one more sheikh, provided he does not ditch the people. I am emphasizing the element of the public support enjoyed by him.
Mathematically, we need sheikh Abdullah - treachery.
Such a person even has the ability to mesmerize the people with his demogoguery.He can bring all the people from all shades under one roof and set a common goal for them. Kashmir’s should not abstain to such a situation saying it can lead to more violence, but they should comprehend this fact that everyday people die and nobody cares, it has become a norm of the life now. So is it not better to face it at once by facing the Indian pressure and coming out on the roads irrespective of age, sex, educational backgrounds etc etc ? Exactly the situation of 1989 is to be rejuvenated, but without the gun. gun can be detrimental to the struggle this time, it can give room to India for calling itself terror victim and earn sympathy. So the war is to be waged with power and passion, as was done before but including intelligence and unity this time. The whole world is to be shambled with such local protests. Educated youths are to be involved in this and they be given chances to enter the revolutionary machinery, so that they can go front and speak up in front of the world effectively. It is to be highlighted at the intellectual level. It should become a fashion. People should know what their actual rights are. And all this can be done by that leader who can get the masses behind him.
India has always been strategic in curbing the voice of Kashmir by enforced disappearances, rapes, plunder,custodial killings, imposition of various draconian laws like
POTA (prevention of terrorist activities act),
AFSPA(armed forces special powers act), artificial ghosts in early 90's to terrorize people and now their latest trend is to indoctrinate Kashmir’s new generation.
This year India conducted Gandhi jayanti on a high level in Kashmir asking students to participate in it and even chief minister Ghulam nabi azad asked people to follow Gandhi's principles in this life and keep Islam for the hereafter, and recently on an eve of children's day, children were asked to recite the much debated and controversial Indian patriotic song VANDE MATARAM, which is not only against the kashmiri sentiments but even against Islamic sentiments. This is a religious interference. This is the most dangerous Indian strategy, which could be detrimental to the cause of Kashmir to a great extent, if not dealt with properly. People, especially children should be made aware of these deep conspiracies hatched by New Delhi.
2. SUCCEEDING TO GET THE SINCERE INTERFERENCE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND EVEN THE UNITED NATIONS; as I said earlier, this step is spontaneous to the first one. When such a scenario comes into the being, there is no other way out for the world community to force India for solving the problem.International community never takes cognizance of any dispute unless it is not serious and a threat to the world or regional security. Kashmir dispute has already caused 3 wars between Pakistan and India and now both of these arch rivals have nuclear power, so the next war between them is a threat to the whole of South Asia and the world peace. So this threat is to be practically realized by the world. Pakistan has been pressurizing the world even on this point but as I said earlier that now it is not being considered true Kashmir representative. Islamic world should be insisted to play a role in it.
Organization of Islamic countries (OIC) conducts Islamic conference every year and every time expresses its solidarity with the Kashmir cause, but just verbal support does not suffice. All Islamic countries should stop all kinds of trade and relation with India and pressurize it to solve Kashmir. I am emphasizing Islamic countries, because we all know that Kashmir is a Muslim majority place so getting such kind of support is pragmatically comparatively very easy. After getting the Islamic support, Kashmir should turn towards the west. It should organize programmes in which English speaking youth be nurtured and made knowledgeable about the issue and sent to the universities of the United states, united kingdom, Australia and even to the strong Indian allies like Russia. This program should be launched at the high level with huge funds and responsible, knowledgeable people to take care of it. So in this way, Kashmir can build up its young intellectual army against India with non violence and India will be bound not to do anything with it.
CONCLUSION;
India is a big country with an obdurate stand on Kashmir, so kashmiris should follow the above furnished two point theory of reviving their freedom passion and getting international support, with patience and perseverance.i am sure it is not difficult to do, but it needs joint efforts. Although Kashmir’s are making efforts but not in the right direction, all efforts by them should make one confluence and form an effort pool. I am certain this is the only best solution for it, which is really productive and does not ask for lot of blood shed.
Contact: www.kashmiryouthintellect.webs.com
The essay competition titled ‘How could Kashmir, the oldest unresolved dispute, be settled’ was judged independently by Brian Cox, Senior Vice President, ICRD (International Centre for Religion and Diplomacy) in the United States who evaluated the essays and his decision was final.The winner was Mahboob-ul-Haq Makhdoomi of Indiana University, Pennsylvania, while Himanshu Goenka of London School of Oriential and African Studies and Tawseef Kashoo of University of Kashmir, Srinanagar were adjudged the second best.
