Siege, Resistance, and Politics in 'New Kashmir'

Author(s):  
Mohd Tahir Ganie

In August 2019, the populist Modi government, after getting re-elected in a massive landslide, rescinded the semi-autonomous status (constitutionally guaranteed under Article 370) of the disputed Muslim-majority region of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) by putting its 12 million residents under an unprecedented lockdown. This article will examine the ramifications of this decision, which earned praise in mainland India but generated anger and fear among the people of J&K, especially in the Kashmir Valley, the epicenter of the Kashmiri self-determination movement? It situates the prior measures Indian government took to impose its decision on the population which strongly opposed it and assesses the human cost of this imposition. It looks at the international community’s response to the political and human rights crisis obtained due to the siege imposed on the people of the contested Himalayan region. And, finally, the article indicates that the political future of Kashmir, which has been the main source of intense geopolitical rivalry between two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors (India and Pakistan), and a site of protracted armed conflict and unarmed anti-India resistance, is likely to remain caught in a cycle o

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISHFAQ HUSSAIN MALIK ◽  
S Najmul Islam Hashmi

Abstract The regularity of risk in modern societies permeates everyday life— from the air that we breathe, to the food that we eat, to the water we drink and to where we work and live. We live in a globalized world associated with risk societies which is caused by a myriad of global processes. These processes interact to produce an unforeseen dangers and endless array of risks. Kashmir being politically and ecologically fragile area needs a special understanding in terms of its physical and political geography. Kashmir suffered the worst flood in last 109 years in the year 2014. The present research analyses the disaster management in Jammu and Kashmir with special emphasis on causes of 2014 flood in Kashmir Valley. It digs deeper into the politics of urbanization and how the state has turned a blind eye to lake encroachment and land grab. The flood occurred due to the mismanagement of the resources and the faulty means of development. Increased level of urbanisation and its unplanned growth, and encroachment on the banks of Jhelum River proved to be detrimental to the environment and people. The other factors like deforestation, glacial melt and destruction of wetlands in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem particularly in the Western Himalayas, lack of proper disaster management plan in the valley, climate change, land grab, extensive catchment of Jhelum River, administrative laxity, lack of proper flood channel for Jhelum River etc. corroborated in the occurrence of the flood. The combination of these factors increased the vulnerability of the people to the 2014 flood in Kashmir Valley. Natural calamities are known to change politics, and floods are a great leveller. The political instability and unsettled conditions in Kashmir compound problems many times over.


2020 ◽  
pp. 003802292095674
Author(s):  
Chakraverti Mahajan

Jammu and Kashmir has been a theatre of conflict for almost three decades now. After the outbreak of militancy in 1989–1990 in the Kashmir valley, Doda belt was the first area outside the valley where armed conflict made inroads and affected lives variedly. Based on ethnographic field work, this paper addresses three interrelated questions about the manifestation of militancy in Doda: first, how did the armed struggle for the control of landscape invoked fear ( dehshat) in people and affect their way of living? Second, how did the violence by both non-state and state actors to seek control and assert power transformed the local landscape itself? Third, how did the locals negotiate with shifting landscapes embedded with fear and memories of violence? I approach these questions through memory ethnography of the times of militancy ( militancy ka daur). Based on conversations, narratives and participant observation, the article shows that militancy and resultant armed conflict sowed fear in people’s lives and altered their relation with space and time in multiple ways. Actors involved in the armed conflict shaped the local landscape by resorting to spatial strategies to control territory and exercise power through fear. As a consequence, locals negotiated with the landscape of fear by conforming to outright commands and through silence. Although militancy ka daur has passed in Doda, the paper argues that it has left deep imprints upon the collective memory of the people.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Lukman Santoso

Abstract: Pakistan, since independence, there are differences of opinion among the Muslims of Pakistan consisting of secularists, moderate Islamists about how should the implementation of the Islamic politics in Pakistan, giving rise to a prolonged political crisis when today. Pakistan's political turmoil unending birth Pakistani women politicians and thinkers, namely Benazir Bhutto. This paper will focus on the study of Benazir Bhutto thinking about the relationship between Islam and democration in Pakistan. Based on the results of the study, there are some findings: First, Benazir with thoughts that category substantivistik and relatively conflict with Muslim-majority Pakistan (traditionalists and fundamentalists), the ideas in tune with existence, articulation, and a manifestation of Islamic values are intrinsic in the climate modern democrations. Second, the idea of Benazir is a counter discourse to the idea that idealized which Islam should be the political system. Benazir thinking is in line with the paradigm who saw that Islam does not lay down a standard pattern of the theory of the political system must be organized by the people, except for the values and ethical principles. الملخص :كانت في باكستان – منذ حرّيتها – خلافات الآراء عند المسلمين بين العلمانيين والمتوسطين والإسلاميين عن كيفية تطبيق السياسة الإسلامية في باكستان حتى أدّت إلى النزاع السياسيّ الطويل إلى الآن. وظهرت في هذه الفترة النزاعية مفكّرة وسياسيّة بينزر بوطو. حاولت هذه المقالة التركيز في دراسة أفكارها عن التصالح الإسلامي والديموقراطية في باكستان. حصلت هذه الدراسة على النتائج : أولا، كانت بينزر بوطو بما لها من أفكار تميل إلى الأصالة وأفكارها متعارضة بأغلبية المسلمين التقاليديين والأصوليين، وكانت أفكارها موافقة بمكانة القيم الإسلامية الأصيلة وتمثيلها وتطبيقها في ضوء الديموقراطية الحديثة. ثانيا إن هذه الأفكار كردّ تجاه الفكرة المؤيّدة ليكون الإسلام أساسا للدولة. كانت هذه الأفكار تواكب بفكرة أن الإسلام لا يضع نظرية معيّنة لبناء الدولة يعتنقها المسلمون إلا الأسس العامة فقط  والقيم فيها. Abstrak: Pakistan, sejak kemerdekaannya, terdapat perbedaan pendapat dikalangan kaum muslim Pakistan yang terdiri dari kelompok sekular, moderat dan Islamis tentang bagaimana implementasi Islam politik di Pakistan, sehingga menimbulkan kemelut kekuasaan yang berkepanjangan hingga kini. Ditengah kemelut politik Pakistan yang tidak berkesudahan tersebut lahirlah politisi dan pemikir perempuan Pakistan, yakni Benazir Bhutto. Tulisan ini akan memfokuskan kajian pada pemikiran Benazir Bhutto tentang rekonsiliasi Islam dan demokrasi di Pakistan. Berdasarkan hasil kajian, terdapat beberapa temuan, yaitu: Pertama, Benazir dengan pemikirannya yang termasuk kategori substantivistik dan tergolong bertentangan dengan mayoritas muslim Pakistan (tradisionalis dan fundamentalis) ini, gagasannya selaras dengan eksistensi, artikulasi, dan manifestasi nilai-nilai Islam yang instrinsik dalam iklim demokrasi modern. Kedua, gagasan Benazir merupakan counter wacana terhadap pemikiran yang mengidealkan bahwa Islam harus menjadi dasar negara. Pemikiran Benazir ini selaras dengan paradigma yang melihat bahwa Islam tidak meletakkan suatu pola baku tentang teori sistem politik yang harus diselenggarakan oleh umatnya, kecuali nilai-nilai dan prinsip-prinsip etisnya.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Rao Qasim Idrees, Dr. Muhammad Imran, Tahir Jamil

Kashmir is an uncontrollable conflict between the two South Asian countries: India and Pakistan. Since 1989 the people of Kashmir have faced a massive violation of human rights committed by Indian forces. The United Nations resolutions strengthened the Kashmiri’s movement of freedom. However, it is also a reality that, somehow and somewhere, the UN had failed in the Kashmir dispute in order to give the implementation to its resolutions. The Kashmir issue is complicated but could have been resolved if the UN had taken its responsibility with true letter and spirit. Recently, the Indian government changed the status of Kashmir by the abolishment of Article 370 and 35A, and also passing a Bill in August 2019, further makes the situation more difficult in Kashmir. In this situation, it is pertinent to mention here that Indian occupied Kashmir is a disputed issue in the light of UNSC resolutions between two south Asian countries. The current research is based upon descriptive and historical methodology and the facts and results are provided as per the legal analysis of the current situation of Indian occupied Kashmir. Finally, this research concludes that India cannot solve the Kashmir dispute through revocation of Article 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution provisions about the status of Kashmir, and also not use of force; the Kashmir dispute can only be resolved according to the Resolution adopted by the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan on 13 August 1948.


2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Rambelli

This article discusses Buddhism’s conflicting relation with kingship through an analysis of the figure of the Mahāsammata, the first mythical ruler according to Buddhist scriptures and canonical commentaries. The Mahāsammata, literally the ‘Great Elect’, was a human being elected by the people and entrusted with keeping order in a society that was gradually becoming more complex; as such, this myth expresses an idea of kingship that is very different from Indic and East Asian theories of divine sovereignty. The Mahāsammata has been studied within the South Asian context, but very little is known about its role in East Asian Buddhism. This article offers an analysis of this figure based on sutras translated into Chinese and subsequent literature in Chinese and Japanese. It aims to show some of the ways in which the Mahāsammata and the political ideas it represents were interpreted and transformed in East Asia, also in order to gain a better understanding of the varieties of Buddhist political thought, including those with the oppositional potential (if not actual oppositional praxis) to become conceptual bases for social and political resistance.


sjesr ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 286-294
Author(s):  
Dr. Karim Haider Syed ◽  
Dr. Imran Khan

Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is not the only state in the Indian constitution with special status but in addition to Article 370, there is also an Article 371 in the Indian Constitution which has 10 sub-clauses that give special status to other 9 states and territories. The nature of relations of these states is explained in these clauses of article 371 which is very helpful to understand article 370 of the Indian constitution.  As far as Kashmir and Article 370 are concerned, the Indian government of Narendra Modi has axed the Indian position itself as all other states with constitutional guarantees are suspicious about their future in the Indian union. By repealing Article 370, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought to an end the false or true annexation of Kashmir with India. Thus, if there was any annexation of Kashmir with India, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had cut down that relation on 5 August 2019. Article 370 is not a myth, it is a historical fact as Article 370 specifies that apart from Foreign Affairs, Defense, Communications and subsidiary matters (matters that were specified in the Instrument of Accession to India), in all other matters and subjects Parliament of India needs the approval of assembly of the people of Kashmir. Thus, Kashmir residents lived under a distinct set of laws, together with those linked to fundamental rights, citizenship, and ownership of property as compared to other citizens of India. Occupied Jammu and Kashmir were the only states to be stripped of its status of special unite of Indian federation. As of August 5, 2019, India had 29 states in principle, but with the repeal of Article 370, there are now 28 states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s actions regarding Occupied Jammu and Kashmir have raised concerns in these 28 states especially the states with special status like Kashmir. These concerns and reservations will sow the seeds of insincerity in the Indian Union. Expressing concern over national security, the Indian Home Ministry spokesman said separatist activities were on the rise in 200 of the country's 600 districts. Not only separatist movements but racial conflicts and caste disputes have increased after the August 5 action in Kashmir. The main reason for this unrest in India is that the states with special status under article 370 and 371 have started to ponder the federation of India as a union that is established through a system of repression. In the intellectual circles, these development are not normal as intellectuals of India are not happy with the approach of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they are taking it dangerous for the federation of India that will be left with no confidence of the federating unite.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-162
Author(s):  
Aijaz Ahmed Shaikh ◽  
Safdar Ali

The innocent people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) continuously struggled for the protection of their lives. In most of the areas which are under the administrative control of Indian Military, the survival of Kashmiris is becoming more challenging due to the imposed social, political and economic sanctions posed by the Indian government. The first part of this paper examines the historical legacy of Kashmir and the middle of the paper attempts to highlight how the people are demanding their rights as well as freedom from the Indian troops. Even thou, the international media has highlighted and unveiled the true picture of Indian brutality and the open murder of Kashmiri public. But, unfortunately the world community is still salient and watching the cruel actions taken by the Indian forces in the valley. Overall, this paper attempts to highlight the analytical approach about the history, status, equity and struggle of freedom of the Kashmiris.


Author(s):  
Nasrullah Muhammad Nur

The discussion on the role of Islamic political parties in Muslim-majority countries is a hot conversation not only among the political elite but also in the lower society. Is a political party based on Islam is right to fight for the rights of Muslims or just a mere mask behind the Religion alias in the name of Islam in order to achieve certain goals? This article highlights the issue of how the role of Islamic political parties or the participation of Islamic parties in building the welfare of the people mandated to them especially when they are in power. How can an Islamic party gain a vote, take the sympathy of society when many of the people who are in doubt about the labeling of Islam in the party.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-156
Author(s):  
Yordan Gunawan ◽  
Desi Nur Cahya Kusuma Putri ◽  
Ravenska Marchdiva Sienda ◽  
Sigit Rosidi ◽  
Ami Cintia Melinda

The dispute in Jammu and Kashmir has been tensed by the revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution by the Indian government in the end of 2019. The existence of Kashmir has become one of matters as the main focus between India-Pakistan conflicts. People are under diverse senses of de facto and de jure martial law. Estimated from 1990, thereabouts 70,000 people have been killed, 8,000 people have been subjected to enforced disappearances, thousand of them also victims of repressive laws and Indian security forces humiliate the protestors and detainees frequently. The research is normative legal research by using statute approach and case approach through literature review. The research aims to discuss and analyze the implementation of the rights of self-determination pursuant to Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. The results of the study indicate all the disputes should be ended by giving the right to self-determination, which should be given to the people of Kashmir, thus the disputes between the two countries can be resolved properly and making a clarity of Kashmir status.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ab. Hamid Sheikh

<p>Kashmir valley with great geo-strategic significance, was an economic hub, connecting Indian sub-continent with Central Asia and rest of the world, since ancient times. However, this exchanging center lost it relevance with the Partition of Indian sub-continent in 1947, ‘Greater Jammu &amp; Kashmir’ was divided into Azad Jammu Kashmir administered by Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir Administered by India and the State moved from main to margin as all the routes were closed for trade and traffic including Zojila Pass. Indian Administer Kashmir (J&amp;K) became wholly and solely dependent on Jawahar Tunnel for import and export. The people of J&amp;K still remain behind curtain for number of days due to climatic hazards, communal and political tension, in the age of globalization, modernization and regional integration. The author attempted to put forth historical significance and arguments for reviving traditional corridors via Ladakh on sound basis rather than making revival of ancient trade outlets subservient to peace and drug mafia. </p>


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