Cachemira, una tierra disputada por tres bandos

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• Pitch VideoAksai Chin - Chinese Kashmir

  •  China

  I'd like to see a video from Aksai Chin - the Chinese administered region which India claims is a part of Jammu and Kashmir.

  How is nationalism played out in this region? And what do the people that live there want?

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    rbottomley

  05 Oct 2010

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  Vote 3

• Pitch VideoKashmir and Climate Change

  •  India

  Divja Gupta writes how climate change is effecting the water levels in the rivers in Kashmir, which in turn is "creating massive water, livelihood and power related instability on both sides of the Line of Control." It would be great to see a more in-depth story on the effects of climate change on this conflict.

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    Scheltus57

  12 Oct 2010

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Divya Gupta

•   India

Divya Gupta is a Delhi-based freelance writer and journalist. Since later 2008, she has been reporting in India on wide-ranging topics including terror attacks, climate change, the Indian national elections, children's rights, the millennium development goals, malnutrition, domestic politics and the Kashmir conflict.

Her work has appeared in PBS Online, Wall Street Journal.com, Hindustan Times.com, Economic Times, Tehelka and the Hindu. She can be reached at divyagupta2[a]gmail.com.

An Indian Perspective of Kashmir

sept. 20, 2010, 3:24 a.m.

India's official policy states that Kashmir is an "integral part" of the country. It is the country's only Muslim majority state: Muslims comprise 97% of the population in the Kashmir valley and 60% of the population in Jammu and Kashmir. The remaining 40% of the population in Jammu and Kashmir is a mix of Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs.

Since its independence in 1947, India has seen the inclusion of Kashmir as an endorsement of the country’s secular fabric. There is a deeply held fear among India’s ruling elite that granting Kashmir independence will trigger off demands for secession in other parts of the country, thereby balkanising it. The spectre of a partitioning of the country along religious lines is a strong fear.

There is a deeply held fear among India’s ruling elite that granting Kashmir independence will trigger off demands for secession in other parts of the country

In terms of foreign policy, India does not favour any third party or international mediation in Kashmir and maintains it is a matter to be resolved bilaterally between India and Pakistan. Jammu and Kashmir provides India with a natural bulwark against foreign aggression from historically hostile neighbours. Since gaining independence, India and Pakistan have fought four wars, primarily over Kashmir.

Additionally, there are ongoing historical territorial disputes between India and China regarding a portion of Kashmir known as Aksai Chin. In 1962, China launched a surprise attack on India's eastern and northern borders which later turned into full-blown war. Despite India suffering a crushing defeat, there was no loss of territory as China later retreated to pre-war lines.

There is also an unstated economic rationale for the control of Kashmir. All the main north-Indian rivers, which are the lifeline for millions of Indians and provide hydro-electric generated power to the entire northern grid of India, either flow through or originate in Kashmir. For decades, India and Pakistan have avoided a war over these waters, mainly due to a World Bank mediated Indus-Water Treaty signed between them in 1960. Increasingly, however, the treaty is under strain largely due to climate-change induced factors that are wreaking havoc on the river levels. In turn, this is creating massive water, livelihood and power related instability on both sides of the Line of Control.

Kashmiri Hindus account for only 3% of the population of the Kashmir valley, where the main demand for independence exists. Historically, however, this Hindu population dominated the administration, governance and intellectual professions in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and in the predominantly Muslim-populated Kashmir valley. This is mainly a legacy of the Hindu Dogra rulers of Jammu and Kashmir who held sway for more than a century-and-a-half prior to India’s independence in 1947. India’s foremost political family, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty are also Kashmiri Pandits. Members of the family have led India for more than half of the country’s political life after independence.

A majority of the Kashmiri Pandits fled the Kashmir valley in the early 90's following a violent militant-driven insurgency by Kashmiri Muslims against Indian rule. The issue of their return to the Kashmir valley remains unresolved.

For both Kashmiri Muslims and Kashmiri Hindus, the valley is the source of their socio-religious identity.

For both Kashmiri Muslims and Kashmiri Hindus, the valley is the source of their socio-religious identity. For the Kashmiri Muslims, it is the unique Sufi brand of Islam popular in the Valley and for the Kashmiri Pandits it is Kashmir Shaivism, a school of Hindu philosophy that originated in the Himalayas around 400 AD. Jammu and Kashmir is also home to some of the holiest Hindu shrines which are frequented in large numbers during annual pilgrimages.

Another reason for India's tacit desire to retain the Kashmir Valley may also lie in its famed and idyllic natural beauty.



Beena Sarwar

•   Pakistan

Beena Sarwar Beena Sarwar is a multimedia journalist and writer based in Pakistan.

You can follow Beena Sarwar on twitter here.

Kashmir: A Personal Perspective from Pakistan

oct. 4, 2010, 9:31 a.m.

In Pakistan, Kashmir is considered part of the “unfinished agenda of Partition”. Many in Pakistan, ignorant of the nuances and history of the Kashmir dispute, are very emotional about the issue and hold India entirely to blame. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between.

The background is that when the British colonists left India in 1947 they simultaneously granted independence and partitioned the country: modern India was born as was the new state of Pakistan carved out of its western- most territory with an eastern wing, East Pakistan, partitioning Bengal.

The rulers of the princely states were given the choice to join either India or Pakistan. As the Hindu Maharaja of Muslim-majority Kashmir dithered, the people rose against him, forcing him to flee Srinagar. Armed tribesmen from Pakistan, including army regulars joined the fray surreptitiously (there were no orders from the British commander of the Pakistan Army or the country’s Governor General Mohammad Ali Jinnah). The panicked Maharaja appealed for help to New Delhi, which sent in armed paratroopers.

In return, the Maharaja agreed to accede to India, but promised to hold a referendum allowing his subjects to choose between India and Pakistan.

The 1948 war – the first of three that India and Pakistan have fought over Kashmir - ended when India took the matter to the UN Security Council. The UNSC in various resolutions (most notably no. 47 of 1948) has declared that the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan should be decided democratically, through a free and impartial plebiscite. Both India and Pakistan accepted these resolutions. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared before the Indian Parliament that India was committed to holding a free and fair plebiscite in Kashmir.

Pakistan holds that India has reneged on its commitment to hold the promised plebiscite. In recent years however, Pakistan has eased its insistence on this, perhaps due to the increasingly popular slogan in Kashmir, which the UN-mandated plebiscite which makes no provision for: ‘azadi’ or independence. The plebiscite only allows a choice between India and Pakistan.

The Pakistani media and politicians play into the stereotype of an ‘oppressed’ state, stressing Indian brutality in ‘held Kashmir’ as it is always called here, glossing over the brutality of the militant separatists, and ignoring the plight of the (Hindu) Pundits who have been forced to flee the Valley.

The current indigenous, largely peaceful, popular uprising that erupted earlier this year and is gaining momentum in the Valley is different from anything we have seen before. And most of the Pakistani media and the politicians are unsure of how to deal with it.