NEW YORK – An American academic of Kashmiri origin has regretted the lackof any “significant pushback” against India over its slew of human rightsabuses in Jammu and Kashmir because of its strong economic ties with manycountries, and called for turning attention to the aspirations of thesuffering people in the disputed state.
“For too long India has been able to commit human rights violations inKashmir without significant pushback because so many countries have strongeconomic ties with India and they see India as this obvious space forinvestment and a huge market,” Dr. Hafsa Kanjwal, an assistant professor inSouth Asian history at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, said on amajor American television channel.
“But I think that narrative of Indian soft power needs to kind of slowlyerode,” she said, while pointing out that India is seen as a place ofBollywood and yoga, and “nobody can imagine the kinds of violations thatthe Indian government does.”Prof. Kanjwal, an expert on South Asia who hails from Srinagar, wasinterviewed on MSNBC programme “Why Is This Happening?”
Responding to questions, she gave a full historical background to thecrisis in Kashmir, from Maharaja’s controversial accession to India thatled to a rebellion in the Himalayan state to UN resolutions calling forresolving the conflict through plebiscite, as also the indigenous strugglesby the suffering Kashmiris to free themselves from India’s yoke and NewDelhi’s to suppress them as well as the latest move to illegally annex thedisputed state and place the territory under lockdown with internet andphone links blocked.
“In the Indian side of Kashmir, it’s important for people to know that itis the most militarized zone in the world,” the professor told theprogramme’s anchor Chris Hayes who in his opening remarks referred to thegrim crisis, pointing out that India has a “right-wing, Islamophobicdemagogue running it named Narendra Modi.”
“Modi in the last few months has taken moves to blackout Kashmir and toonce and for all put it under Indian control,” Hayes, the anchor, toldAmerican audiences.
Prof. Kanjwal said India has over 700,000 troops in Kashmir. “If we justthink about at the height of the occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan theremight’ve been between 150 to 200,000 U.S. troops. So this is an incredibleamount of foreign troops that are not just at the border with Pakistan butalso in civilian areas,” she said.
“As a result, life has been completely shifted in accordance to this. Sothere’s been a number of human rights violations that have occurred,especially since the late 1980s. There’s been mass rapes of Kashmiri womenby Indian soldiers.
There’s been enforced disappearances. Kashmiri human rights groups say thatbetween eight to 10,000 people, mostly young men, have been disappearedwhich means that to this day their families do not know about theirwhereabouts. There’s been mass graves that had been discovered byinternational organizations, extrajudicial killings, torture.
“I mean, there’s a whole slew of human rights violations that have gone on.But beyond that, daily life is just difficult for any average Kashmiri. Ifyou think about the day to day in terms of going to school, running abusiness, things like that, just things don’t happen under a state ofnormalcy.
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“So even today, schools have not been operating in Kashmir for months now.And this is a regular feature of most young people’s lives. During daysthat have been curfewed where there’s strict shoot on site orders,businesses are not in operation. So every single aspect of daily life getsimpacted by this occupation.”
Asked about the situation on the Pakistan side of Kashmir, the professorsaid she had not been there, but pointed out that just recently India didnot allow a U.S. senator to go and visit Indian occupied Kashmir and seewhat’s happening there, but Pakistan did.
“The Pakistani side of Kashmir, he was allowed access there. So I think alot of people try to equate the two countries when it comes to theirrespective sides of Kashmir. But I don’t think that that kind ofequivalence can be made.”
She explained to her audience articles 370 and 35A of the IndianConstitution, even though all of the provisions were eroded over time, theyremained very symbolic for Kashmiri. “But the fact that Kashmiris at leastcould still buy their own land and property, that was what was important upuntil this stage”.
Questioned about the situation of Muslims in India, Prof. Kanjwal said theywere some of the poorest.
“They live in ghettos like Muslim only areas and cities. There’s reports onthe conditions of India’s Muslim population and they’re quite heartbreaking.
Just the kinds of things that Indian Muslims have to deal with, go through,not even able to get job interviews, housing in certain areas becausepeople know that this is a Muslim.”
