Three days of talks between India and Pakistan in February sought to find a "roadmap to peace" in the disputed territory of Kashmir, but Kashmiri representatives are yet to be involved. Iqbal Khan, a Kashmiri living in Canberra, spoke to Green Left Weekly's Nick Everett about the background to the conflict.
Khan explained, "Kashmir had independence until the British [East India Company] sold Kashmir to the [Dogra] maharaja in 1846 for about $30,000. From there Kashmir was denied independence. [The Dogra] maharaja's descendents ruled Kashmir for many years until 1947", when India was partitioned to form Pakistan.
Pakistan, created as a Muslim state, provided wealthy Muslims with their own country to exploit, separate from their Hindu competitors, who dominated the rest of India.
On August 14, 1947, when India was partitioned, the future of Kashmir was still unresolved. Pakistan seized on the excuse that Kashmir's population was 80% Muslim to invade Kashmir in September 1947. "At the last minute, Maharaja Harisik signed an agreement with India that he go with India. Kashmiris started fighting for independence, liberating part of their country from the Maharaja", explained Khan.
After the Indian army had repelled Pakistan's forces, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, with Kashmiri nationalist Sheikh Abdullah at his side, told a mass rally in Srinagar, Kashmir, that he supported the Kashmiris' right to self-determination. But it was not to be.
In November 1947, Abdullah was appointed by Nehru to head an emergency administration in Kashmir, given "special status" under the Indian constitution. The privileged Dogra nobility opposed the "special status" and, with the backing of the Indian army, succeeded in ousting Abdullah in 1953.
The 1948 war between India and Pakistan left Kashmir divided. In 1972, a de facto border was agreed, known as the Line of Control (LoC).
Numerous UN resolutions have condemned the military occupation of Kashmir. "But when it comes to implementing the resolutions", says Khan, "[India and Pakistan have] always resisted".
Delhi's rule of two-thirds of Kashmir, with the assistance of up to 700,000 troops, has fuelled widespread resentment amongst Kashmiris and kept independence aspirations alive.
Khan told GLW that negotiations between India and Pakistan missed the most important thing, that Kashmiris should be involved. "We have a fear that this time, maybe under pressure from the US — and the other big powers — that they might again come up with nothing, if they don't involve Kashmiris", he said.
Armed insurgency against the Indian occupation has stepped up since 1989. This has been fuelled by pro-Pakistan forces in Kashmir, armed by the Pakistani security forces. CIA arms supplied covertly to anti-Soviet mujaheddin groups in Afghanistan by Pakistan's internal security agency, ISI, have made their way into Kashmir.
These pro-Pakistan mujaheddin groups have acted without accountability to the Kashmiri population, using indiscriminate terror tactics against the Hindu minority, the Pandits.
The Indian armed forces, have, according to a 1999 Human Rights Watch report "resorted to arbitrary arrest and collective punishment of entire neighbourhoods".
According to a statement issued by Canberra supporters of Kashmiri self-determination on February 5, the Indian military has killed more than 70,000 Kashmiris since 1989.
"I'm sure that now most Kashmiris don't like the Indian (government)'s attitude towards them", Khan told GLW, "because if they see with their own eyes atrocities towards their brothers, sisters, parents they cannot stay the same. You can see the shift in their opinion. They don't want to be part of India. But again, that cannot be determined unless [the Indian government] asks them [in a referendum]."
Khan told GLW "there are different opinions, different views and many, many political parties [among Kashmiris]. There is one alliance in Indian-occupied Kashmir, [the All Parties Hurriyat Conference]. There are 27 parties in that alliance.
"It is the right of Kashmiris — and no one else — to decide their future. [The Indian government] can facilitate, but the final arbiters are the Kashmiris."
Khan told GLW that he remains suspicious of the US government's intentions towards the conflict in Kashmir.
Khan told GLW that Kashmiris are presently optimistic, but, . "If the talks fail, [the war] will start again. I hope the talks don't fail, but the guarantee is that once they involve Kashmiris there is more likelihood of success."
Khan urged supporters of Kashmiri self-determination in Australia to put more pressure on their own government. "Australia could influence India to organize [a referendum] as they did in East Timor. If you can do it in East Timor, why can't you do it in Kashmir?"
Khan argued that, like in East Timor, troops had to go before a real referendum could be held. "When you talk peace, you have to have demilitarisation all the way. If you don't demilitarise Kashmir, you can't have peace there," he said. "When you have 600,000 troops that is a terrible situation and no Kashmiri can support that."
From Green Left Weekly, March 31, 2004.
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