Kashmir Struggle

Kashmir Struggle

A New Phase of Unprecedented Militant Mass Uprising

Kashmir, forcefully occupied by Indian ruling class, has been witnessing a new phase of unparalleled militant uprising of people from 8 July onwards. There is no end to people’s angst which erupted after the killing of 22 year old militant youth Burhan Wani in an encounter. To express their anger against Indian state and the army and to express their aspiration for freedom, people are storming the streets again and again. Blazed with self sacrificing spirit these people are facing the tanks and the guns with bare hands or with stones in their hands, and laying down their lives. Instead of beating down the spirit of Kashmiri youth the fire oozing guns of Indian army are only adding fuel to the fire of their anger. Indian soldiers fire pellet guns with precision. These pellets have robbed 60 youth of their eyesight, 68 have lost their lives and thousands of injured are in hospital. These are the official figures whereas the actual number of the casualties is much more. Everyday a new tale of oppression and atrocities is being scripted by the Indian army in Kashmir. Years of ongoing suppression has neither been able to dampen the Kashmiri people’s longing for the freedom nor has it been able to crush the rebel in them.

Murder of Young Militant Commander

A Turning Point towards the New Phase of Outrage

Kashmiri youngster Burhan Wani was a popular militant among the youth of Kashmir valley. He joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, an organization active in Kashmir, at the age of mere 15-16 years. During his active life of 7-8 years in the organization, he made abundant use of social media to counter the propaganda of Indian ruling class and in the process propagating his motives as well as that of Kashmir struggle. His videos and photos with armed comrades became widely popular in Kashmir. Indian army killed him along with his three comrades in a house. The news of his death spread like a jungle fire and about 40000 people joined his funeral procession. This gathering became another declaration of pent up rage in the hearts of Kashmiri people which is still echoing in every nook and corner of Kashmir.  The extent of pent up fury in the minds of people and the Wani’s popularity among the masses can be estimated from the fact that the people first burned the house in which Wani was killed in encounter and then destroyed the garden of the owner of the house because they doubted that the owner of the house was the same person who informed the Indian army about Wani’s presence in his house. The death of Burhan Wani proved to be an event that triggered an explosive outburst of the smoldering anger of masses of Kashmir and added another chapter of unparalleled militant uprising of people to the many decades long struggle of Kashmiri people. The struggle of Kashmiri people for right to self determination has witnessed many such phases. The urge for freedom of the people of  Kashmir was expressed strongly some years back in 2008, 9 and 10, when they clashed with troops of Indian army and hundreds of youth took bullets to their chests. Such outbursts are caused every time by this or that act of oppression of the security forces. Recently in April this year too an incident in which Indian army personnel misbehaved with a young Kashmiri girl led to a massive protest wave: people pelted stones on army bunkers and four Kashmiri youth were gunned down by Indian soldiers. (Writing on this incident is available in the previous May June edition).

The series of occurrences of mass outbursts, which started from July 8 onwards, on the one side, is an extraordinary display of fighting spirit and defiance of Kashmiri people. And on the other side, atrocities by Indian army have also reached new extremes. Every new phase represents a new and more violent conflict; such is the intensity of clashes between the two sides in Kashmiri national struggle. Even now “Freedom” is the slogan of the present wave of Kashmiri people. The youth are on the forefront but the aged are also not staying behind. Women and kids pour into streets with aspirations of freedom and liberation from the oppression of Indian army. There is acute shortage of things of everyday use, schools and colleges are closed for past one and half month, and there is long strike of transporters and other businessmen. There is complete ban on demonstrations, coming out on street means being shot at, but still people are coming out. People are making trifle of the military bans. Pellet guns perforate the upper body of people. According to information gathered from 10 districts by The Hindu newspaper, in the first 45 days more than 3000 persons have been injured by the pellet guns and total number of injured is more than 5800. Among the injured 55% are from 4 districts of south Kashmir viz: Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam, and Shopian. According to official data about 2600 personnel of security forces are also injured. 972 people have been wounded in the eye and cases have been registered against more than 500 persons. New cases are being registered every day.

Policy of the Indian State: Keep on Oppressing

Till now Indian state has occupied Kashmir by force. Since after the time of conditional temporary accession, as the Indian ruling class has been continuously reneging on their promise of referendum/plebiscite and as it has been increasing the intensity of oppression, the demand for referendum has been raised again and again; but the Indian state has been trampling this demand underneath army boots. The Indian state has continued with the policy of crushing under repression, the leaders and movements of people who raise the demand of freedom or self determination. The leaders fighting for national sovereignty and freedom were pushed to the corner through bribery or through every other possible means. Those who did not bow have been hanged or jailed. Efforts have been made to give the Kashmiri struggle communal colors and many times hue and cry has been made about its connections with Pakistan. Of all these efforts the mainstay has been the oppression. Oppressive military law of AFSPA has been forcefully imposed in Kashmir valley which provides unlimited powers to armed forces. Army possesses every nook and corner of the Kashmir and there are military bunkers at every place. People are humiliated at every step, like all invaders dishonoring women is a common weapon of Indian army. Thousands of youth have been killed by police in fake encounters. At present there are about 7 lakh security forces personnel stationed in Kashmir. There is a long list of disappeared people. Under these circumstances even the right to protest has been snatched.

This behavior of Indian state has engendered in Kashmiri people a deep rooted feeling of estrangement from India. This is established fact that Kashmiri people don’t want to be a part of India at all and that they want freedom. So forceful is the feeling of freedom that the pro-Pakistan or those who support merger with Pakistan do not dare to put up their agenda, instead they have to accept freedom as their own demand. Indian ruling class knows it very well that Kashmiri people would disdainfully reject India in a plebiscite. This is the reason why they don’t remove AFSPA or decrease army; instead every phase in Kashmir leads to increased number of the security forces. Now the BJP rule is following the same strategy. Rulers are hopeful that Kashmiri people would tire and break in front of the brute oppression. After all how long can they live a life of strikes and bandhs.  Daily wagers cannot afford not working for long. Beware of this truth Modi has remained mute in the first month of struggle. Arun Jaitely has brought out the truth about Modi’s claim to find solution to Kashmir problem when Jaitely refused to hold talks with the Kashmiri people and arrogantly declared to tackle the Kashmir problem as is being done at present. That the Rajnath delegation to Kashmir and talks of Kashmiri democracy is nothing but a farce is amply proven by the bullets of Indian army and the poisonous statements of the BJP leaders. Sending this type of delegations has been a common practice in the past. As all the Indian rulers have advocated the policy to occupy Kashmir by brute force and as BJP has always been more than aggressive to implement this policy. Now when BJP is in power, it is following the same policy.

Right to self-determination deserves unconditional support

The struggle for self determination by the Kashmiri people is nothing but just. Kashmiri nationality has never accepted the forceful occupation of Kashmir by India. Kashmiri people have fiery passions to get them recognized as separate nationality. No one else has the right to determine fate of Kashmiri nationality except the Kashmiri people. The implementation of right to self determination of a nationality by the people has precedence in the past in various parts of the world. In this respect the right to self determination of Kashmiri people is nothing new. Various nationalities exercised this right during formation as well as during disintegration of USSR, and there was plebiscite organized in Ireland too. That upon being free Kashmir would be occupied by Pakistan or that it would succumb to Islamic forces are nothing but arguments of invader. No one reserves the right to take in their hands the right of Kashmiri people for self determination on the basis of the argument that the Kashmiri are too weak to exercise this right. On the one hand there are nations and nationalities smaller than Kashmir which are independent and on the other hand much bigger nations are occupied by the imperialistic forces of invasion. Such arguments are used only to legitimize the illegal occupation of Kashmir. There is no doubt that Pakistani ruling class too wants to occupy Kashmir and in fact they already have in their possession a part of Kashmir. But this right to self-determination has equal importance for people of POK as it has for people of Kashmir under India. The people of these two Kashmiris have to decide whether they want to join India or Pakistan or they want to be a free and independent nation. The people and the rulers of both India and Pakistan can inspire the people of Kashmir to live with either of them or show them the benefits of doing so, but they cannot force this wish on the masses of Kashmir. To respect whatever decision Kashmiri people take is the only true democratic practice.

Based on this democratic approach the people of India should take stand to oppose all kinds of atrocities on Kashmiri people. Demands should be made to restore all the democratic rights, to take action against the guilty officers, to remove AFSPA, and to completely recall all Indian forces in Kashmir. A democratic atmosphere must prevail in Kashmir to normalize the situation and to hold plebiscite. There is no solution to the “Kashmir Issue” anything short of guaranteed right to self-determination for the people of Kashmir.

(August 2016)

Salient Features of Kashmir Uprising

Salient Features of the Present Mass Uprising

Some aspects of the present popular uprising are quite salient. The most important aspect which renders it exemplary is that of widespread participation of people. The phenomenon is not limited to a particular social group or a few youth. How the Kashmiri hearts crave for freedom and how they hate Indian rule and army, is extraordinarily expressed in the present wave of protests.  Everyone is part of these protests, from poor peasants to small businessmen, from unemployed youth to urban middle class and educated youth.  The participation of people in the protests is record breaking. Occupation by India is not acceptable to the people and slogans of freedom are echoing all over. This spontaneous protest wave is an expression of people’s deep felt anger. The aspect of mass participation of people is so salient and forceful that is has rendered meaningless the claims of Indian politicians and their stooge Kashmiri politicians about Pakistan’s hand behind the protests. For the past some time one distinct emerging feature being observed about this struggle is that the people do not fear providing refuge and defence to the armed militant youth at the time of encounters with army. At the time of funeral of Burhan Wani the Hizbul Mujahideen militants could make gun salutes to their commander because the massive gathering of the people blocked all the routes to the graveyard so as not to let through any army vehicle. There have been numerous occasions during the collision with army when thousands of people come together and shield the militants and pelt stones on the army. Such actions of the armed militants and the common people are a novel characteristic which is not found during the earlier protest waves. This sort of bravery by the Kashmiri people is cause of grave concern for the Indian army. According to the army officials it is very tough task to tackle this kind of resistance and this makes the situation very ticklish.

Whether it was Handwara district incident in April or the present protests the southern Kashmir region has witnessed the maximum restlessness and outrage. Earlier this region used to be relatively calm to such protests, response to call for bandhs used to be mild but now the way the people of this region have been in forefront of the struggle; it has become amply clear that the yearning of the people to be the makers of their own destiny is shared by the whole Kashmir valley and not limited to a particular region. The widespread participation of the rural people is another important aspect of this militant uprising. There have been dozens of demonstrations in small towns which were joined by thousands of people from the nearby villages. During the funeral procession of Burhan Wani also people from far off villages took great pains to join the procession. The villages became the centres of struggle. The people of Shar I Shaali village in Pulwama district protested against the unfurling of flag by the army during the eve of 15 august. And after this incident the army attacked the village at night, people were beaten in every house, 20 youth were arrested and taken to police station and one of them was beaten to death. The fact is worth noting that participation of rural areas in the Kashmiri struggle is increasing for past sometime. It is a positive aspect of the struggle which makes it stronger and durable. Apart from providing a sound and solid base to the national struggle, the increasing participation of the laboring classes, the foundation of the Kashmiri society, has potential to become an aspect of strength, helpful in pushing the struggle forward in the correct political direction.  

The public rage is so widespread and intense that even the local police and other officials are becoming targets of this rage along with the Indian army. The local police officials are biding their time in fear dreading the people’s anger. It is becoming increasing difficult for them to return home from their duties in their uniforms. They are experiencing social isolation. Many of them have expressed their wish to leave their job. It has caught the imagination of the lower employees that the higher officials have been provided security in their homes but they themselves are without security with no one to take care of them. People have already pelted stones at the houses of many local police and civil officials. Afraid of people’s rage the policemen are too afraid to go to police station in the four districts of south Kashmir which have been rendered all empty but only about four police stations in southern Kashmir. These police stations are now being guarded by the army. The same is the situation with all the mainstream political parties and politicians. They are isolated from the people. The representatives of the people are so afraid that they are biding their times in their homes. Not even a single one has dared to go amidst the people to appeal for peace. Almost all opportunistic political parties have been exposed as stooges of the Indian state and are unable to provide any relief to Delhi. Their newspaper appeals have no effect on anyone.

The Kashmir struggle despite having some religious shades does not have any communal colors and this is a very important aspect of the Kashmir struggle. Efforts are being made to provide the struggle with communal colors by the Indian ruling classes and its agents on one hand and Pakistani ruling class on the other. Although some organizations with Islamic agenda are active but this agenda is a very small and unimportant aspect of the struggle. Even though the affect of Islamic fundamental forces which arose 10-15 years back against the imperialism in the Middle East is present and they do inspire the youth but still the character of the Kashmir struggle is not a religious one. The Kashmir struggle is characterized by the militant resistance and determination. Even the Indian officials agree that there is no evidence of presence of organizations like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

There are many such other strong aspects of the people’s uprising in Kashmir which further establish that the resistance by the people cannot be subdued. And these are the aspects which can be fruitful to garner support of the people of India and the world.  Spontaneous character of the movement is such a limitation which underlines the absence of an established unified and nationalist leadership. The gap between the people’s forceful upsurge and a resolute leadership which can guide the struggle in the correct direction is waiting to be filled from decades. The people of Kashmir are still searching for the genuine leadership which has a programme for obtaining freedom from imperialism and feudalism, the leadership which could seize close bonds with Indian struggling people and based on these close bonds can successfully accomplish the glorious cause of national self-determination.

(August 2016)