KASHMIR MURDERS- ANOTHER CRISIS

HATRED FLARING UP RELIGIOUS CLASHES IN A NUCLEAR POWER DISPUTED TERRITORY

The murder of twenty six people – apparently all Hindus – in Kashmir this last week brings back the dispute of this region after few years of relative peace in the region, with Islamabad and Delhi reconnecting the crossings and moving on to a more integrated subcontinent.

Tis is the deadliest attack in two decades. The murderers belong to the Pakistan-based “The Resistance Front” a terrorist group also responsible for the Mumbai attacks of 2008. Delhi accuses Pakistan of harboring these terrorists or at least facilitating their cross border terrorism.

The region is disputed by Pakistan, India and China.

BROTHER’s HATRED

India and Pakistan and Bangladesh resulted from the partition of the British Raj that have governed the subcontinent from 1856 to 1947. The partition was a demand from Muhammed Jinnah, the Muslin leader that wanted to create Pakistan a Muslin country separated from the Hindu country. The other side, Jawaharlal Nehru the prime minister of secular India wanted a unified country with freedom of religion.

Mahatma Gandhi wanted a united India too, but his pledges were unheard now that his mission had been accomplished and independence was granted from Great Britain.

The separation of the two religions moved some 20 million people from each side, the Hindus generally moving south and the Muslins generally moving north.

Pakistan retained two non contiguous area of East Pakistan and West Pakistan, called the Dominion of Pakistan, Pakistan or West and East Pakistan. These areas were carved out in order to make the partition acceptable. Strategically, it meant that the Dominion of Pakistan would have access to the Bay of Bengal and to the Arabian Sea.

The partition was bloody. Those who left their possessions behind in 1947 fled with the few items they could carry for fear of riots of the wrong ethnicity attacking them. This was true for both Muslins and Hindus. They shared fear of being caught in the wrong area. There were clashes between the groups and some estimate of up to two million deaths of either religion. (3)

At the end of the partition, about 12 % of the population of secular India is Muslin. In the Islamic republic of Pakistan, some 1 % of the population is Hindu. Most of Hindus fled Pakistan.

ATOMIC BOMB HATRED

The most important thing to remember is that this dispute is between two atomic powers that have engaged in multiple wars in the last few decades and seems willing to use nuclear bombs against each other.

AN ENEMY YOU CAN RELY ON

The government of Pakistan may be looking for an external enemy in order to raise nationalist feelings and reduce the unrest.

The enemy of choice is always India. History illustrate a string of conflicts between the two countries that originated from the partition.

Pakistan is in turmoil, it is hardly ever in peace. The last prime minister, Inram Khan was a famous cricket player and has been accused of corruption. Before him there was a caretaker, and Sahid Abbasi, one of the few prime ministers to finish mandate. A long string of prime ministers murdered or taken down from government due to corruption scandals or

Pakistan has been a partner of the United States, but also hosted Osama Bin Laden. Pakistan is an ally of the US but had a complicated partnership with the Taliban.

The economy is suffering from slow growth and high inflation since forever, the country is a net importer. The economy has never been booming, but the last few years seems to be worsening.

The multiple terrorist groups it harbors are looking for action in order to receive funds from other oil rich countries that finances terrorism and this makes a perfect storm. People’s unrest, a government that is failing in security and a terrorist group looking for a target.

While Pakistan in in crisis, India’s economy is booming. Last crisis was in the 1990s and the prospects today are all positive. China is in a trade war against the USA and Narendra Modi managed to have a special meeting with the US vice president J. D. Vance and promised to make a fair deal for trade and tariffs.

Beyond economic growth, India is now the biggest country in population in the world, having 1,6 billion people and growing, surpassing China.

KASHMIR and JAMMU DISPUTE

This landlocked region is coveted by three countries since the Partition of India (read more below). India, Pakistan and China engaged in war in order to control the region with no economic riches nor strategic position that could not be substituted by territory under control of their respective masters as of today.

For Kashmir it is advantageous to keep the status quo, under control of secular India that does not impose controls over religion in the area. China would make it atheistic and Pakistan would impose Islamism as government religion.

Coveted by all three countries, the region is somehow pampered by the India government in order to keep the population rested, although the Hindu prime minister, Narendra Modi is favorable of reducing the Muslin presence in all of india.

BANGLADESH

Pakistan, West Pakistan fought hard to keep East Pakistan under their control. The fate of Bangladesh is a lesson for all to learn.

There was a desire for East Pakistan to achieve independence during the Partition of India, the region more or less the same as Bengal, was populated by Muslins that were integrated to the Hindu owners of the land. Moreover, the region is very different from West Pakistan, with different climate, monsoon regimes and different culture.

Even before the partition of India, under British rule, the region had different administrative status and enjoyed different status. There is plenty of nuances in the partition, which deserves another post. Just understand that the region was different from West Pakistan and somehow closer to India.

In the 1950s the East Pakistan nationalists perceived the government of West Pakistan as favoring their minority population in detriment of the larger population of the East Pakistan. There was only one country, but only West Pakistan was benefiting from the whole of the federal government.

The desire for independence got momentum and the response of West Pakistan towards the natural disasters that afflicted East Pakistan in the beginning of the 1970s.

In November 1970 a cyclone made a landfall in Bengal, coinciding with a local high tide. Some 300 thousand lives were lost in the flooding. A total of 450 thousand lives are estimated to be lost including those lost in the aftermath.

The response of the federal government of West Pakistan was callous, incompetent, discriminatory and stoked dissatisfaction and the nationalists began again to demand independence.

Countering the protests that ensued, the government of West Pakistan started a genocide in East Pakistan,(4) targeting the population at large.

BANGLADESH GENOCIDE

This was Operation Searchlight. A West Pakistan operation to placate nationalists protests in East Pakistan.

This is true genocide, with the intention of eliminating the whole population of Bengalis, some of them of Hindu religion.

The estimates of death is 3 million people, murdered by the military of West Pakistan between 26 of March 1971 to 20 of May 1970. Nazi Germany took 12 years to murder 6 million Jews. The West Pakistani military needed only 54 days to murder 3 million of their own people.

The Bangladeshi Genocide resulted in the Independence of Bangladesh.

UNTOUCHABLES – DALITS

In pre colonial India there was a caste system, where people were placed in their societal position in accordance to their ancestors position, making it hereditary, inmutable.

During the British Raj, there was a half hearted effort to eliminate the caste system and in time the Hindu society and the Muslin society have abolished the caste system in the whole of the Subcontinent, both in India and in Pakistan.

This is not to say that there are no untouchables in both countries. My personal experience is that there are opportunities to perceive and enforce the caste system as well as opportunities to perceive and abhor the caste system. It is there and will be enforced in accordance to the pervasiveness of the people involved, both the Dalits and the brahmans and Muslins play their roles in accordance to their utilitarian motives. If a foreigner abhor the caste system, they all hide it the best way possible, but it is there for those who care.

One can not exclude the possibility that the West Pakistan government decided to drastically reduce the population of untouchables in East Pakistan. This would be done by Operation Searchlight genocide of Bengalis and Dalits and by the terror that ensued forcing the Bangladeshis to seek refugee in India. Even more so due to the terrible weather conditions that afflicted the region.

INDIA HELP BANGLADESHI IN THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

The genocide pushed the East Pakistan population towards independence. As a rogue declaration of independence it was fought by the West Pakistan.

The military response by West Pakistan, including the Bangladeshi Genocide moved the government of Indira Gandhi, female prime minister of India and daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, opened the border to create refugee camps to host those fleeing West Pakistan.

India engaged in supporting the East Pakistan army and later, Pakistan attacked India, in the hopes of conquering the rest of the Subcontinent under Pakistani rule. This was obviously delirious aims, for the India’s army was stronger and better prepared.

Pakistan attacked first, aiming at Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, very far from East Pakistan and close to New Delhi. India declared war against Pakistan.

Pakistan lost the war in all fronts and the East Pakistan military signed a surrender instrument on 17th of December 1971. It was a humiliating defeat. Pakistan lost territory, lost access to the Bay of Bengal, half of its population, lost its pride.

This was not the first war against India. There was a war in 1947, 1965 and this one in 1971. Later there would be war again in 1999.

India won the war of independence for Bangladesh but it did not annex Bangladesh. A very decent and honorable independence was granted to Bangladesh.

PAKISTAN AND INDIA – BEST ENEMIES

The text above illustrate the relationship of best enemies between these to siblings of the British Raj. Pakistan and India have been in and out of conflicts many times since independence and it seems that conflict will return.

History illustrates Pakistan as the aggressor in the previous conflicts and it seems that this is the case again, for Pakistan is in crisis and needs an external enemy to divert attention.

We can only hope they will not use nuclear weapons.