THE WORLD is holding its breath as India continues to take steps to bring the state of Kashmir – the only Muslim majority state in India – more closely under its direct control.
Most Muslim-majority states became part of Pakistan when the Indian subcontinent was divided – “partition” – in 1947. However, Kashmir’s ruler played Pakistan and India off against each other in order to keep himself in charge. The result was that Pakistan and India have been at loggerheads over the territory ever since.
The worst aspects of conflict were put on hold two years later by a measure known as Article 370, which gave Kashmir a fair amount of autonomy, while binding it to India in terms of foreign policy, defence and communications. A later amendment to Article 370 gave permanent residents of the state certain privileges, including the right to own property and access to public sector jobs. The purpose of this was to protect the Muslim nature of Kashmir.
India held an election earlier this year, and the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a landslide victory. One of its key manifesto pledges was to revoke Article 370 – and the recent moves are its way of implementing that pledge. The BJP had argued that Article 370 was holding development back in the Kashir area.
The current crisis ramped up on Sunday evening, when India imposed a telecoms and media blackout on the state. This was swiftly followed by India revoking Article 370, and it is expected that the Indian Parliament will now divide Kashmir into two states which will be fully integrated into the federal state of India.
One of the new states which India is expected to establish will be made up of Kashmir, with its Muslim majority, and Jammu, with its Hindu majority. Observers worry that once India is in direct control of Kashmir, it will move more non-Muslims in to the area and take over the state. They suggest that the dilution of Muslim influence in the state is not about improving development but it ethnic cleansing in all but name.
Kashmir is under military rule – again, in all but name. It has no communications, and a curfew is in operation while assemblies of more than four people have been banned. Tens of thousands of Indian troops are in the area to enforce these measures. Tourists have been warned to leave the area.
Inevitably, Pakistan has been watching the situation closely. It responded to the revocation of Article 370 by promising to do everything it could be reverse the revocation.
Just what the world needs: another regional flashpoint that threatens loss of life on a mass scale – possibly with nuclear catastrophe to follow.
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