Comments on: Solving Kashmir

By: RKT

RKT — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:20:27 +0000

The last link doesn't seem to work, so I'll try to post it again...
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GC23Df04.html

You may also want to check out this book:
The Shadow of the Great Game: The Untold Story of Indiaâ€™s Partition by Narendra Singh Sarila

Rushdie's article:Salman Rushdie, in â€œâ€˜Brutality, Incompetence And Cynical Duplicity,â€™â€ http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20081219&fname=Salman+Rushdie&sid=1&pn=3

"â€¦.But the point I want to make is that I do not believe that the terrorists such as these â€” I do not believe that their project has anything to do with justice.

Ask yourself the question that if the Kashmir problem were resolve tomorrow, if Israel-Palestine reached a lasting peace, do we believe that al-Qaeda would disband? Do we believe that Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad would put their guns down and beat them into plough-shears and say we would now be farmers because our job is done.

I mean the point about is that is laughable, right? And the point about that is that that is not their project. Their project is power. This is a power grab by the most obscurantist, revanchist, old-fashioned, medievalist idea of modern culture that attempts to drag the world back into the middle ages at the point of modern weaponry â€¦ â€

By: RKT

RKT — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:55:24 +0000

Thanks Elizabeth, but others compiled the documents (my posts 1 and 2) together and put them online, others did the in depth research and wrote the articles (my post 3).

What I found is that not many people have read the documents of the time on Kashmir by the people involved. I think it helps for laymen to better analyze articles written on the subject. So those documents are a good place to start.

Things are going to be hairy for a while, even longer than the 6 decades it has been since partition. Not just between India and Pakistan, or among India, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/05/pipelineistan-goes-af-pak). As they say in the region, people fight for "Zameen, Zar, Zen" - Land, gold, and women.

Also from the Pakistani Jihadist view the fight in Kashmir is not about Kashmir, and that threat from Jihadist is what India has to cope with: Indictment of 11 Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria Division) http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/jandk/documents/papers/LeT_US.htm

"...The Jihad is not about Kashmir only. It encompasses all of India including Junagarh, Mavadar, and Hyderabad, etc. .
About 15 years ago, people might have found it ridiculous if someone had told them about the disintegration of the USSR. Today, I announce the break-up of India, insha-Allah. We will not rest until the whole India is dissolved into Pakistanâ€¦ May Allah bestow martyrdom on us and enter us into the higher ranks of Paradise by His mercy...."

That website above, South Asia Terrorism Portal (http://www.satp.org) is a comprehensive site if you want to learn more about all the terrorists groups operating in South Asia like in Kashmir.

FYI the British had not only divide and conquer motivations for partition, but also this: "[Turkey] had lost her leadership of Islam and Islam might now look to leadership to the Muslims of Russia. This would be a most dangerous attraction. There was therefore much to be said for the introduction of a new Muslim power supported by the science of Britain ... It seemed to some of us very necessary to place Islam between Russian communism and Hindustan.
- Sir Francis Tucker, General Officer-Commanding of the British Indian Eastern Command." http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GC23Df04.html. Look up how many Indians on both sides died and were uprooted because of partition.

By: Elizabeth Miller

Elizabeth Miller — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:02:11 +0000

RKT,

Wow! I think you may deserve some kind of award.

By: RKT

RKT — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:52:43 +0000

To further understand what is going on there you may want to read the following articles:

By: RKT

RKT — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:45:44 +0000

At the link above there are 140+ legal documents on Kashmir, but if you only have the time to read a few historical documents, these would be ones to read which can be found at this link
http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/documents/documents.html :

-Maharaja Hari Singh's Letter to Mountbatten
-Accession Of Jammu And Kashmir State To India
-Text of India's Indian Complaint to the Security Council, 1st January 1948
-Sheikh Abdullah's speech to the UN
-U.N.RESOLUTION August 13, 1948
-Resolution on Assurances adopted by U.N. Commission for India and Pakistan(UNCIP) 1948
-Article 370 of the Indian Constitution
-Excerpts from Sheikh Abdullah's Opening Address to the J&K Constituent Assembly
-The Tashkent declaration 10th February 1966
-The Kashmir Accord 13 Nov 1974
-Simla Agreement, 2 July 1972
-Text of Memorandum submitted by 14 Muslim leaders of India
to Dr. Frank P. Graham, United Nations Representative,14 August, 1951 at this link http://www.kashmir-information.com/LegalDocs/MuslimLeaders.html

By: Chris Weigant

Chris Weigant — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:15:11 +0000

Ghazala -

Thanks for your request. You certainly may reproduce this article, the only thing I ask is that you credit it by providing a link back to this site. I am no expert on the region, but I think it is a discussion worth having by those who are experts on the situation.

-CW

By: Ghazala Khan

Ghazala Khan — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:51:09 +0000

Though the nail has been hit on the head, but not hard enough, as the solution proposed by you still is murky and not sync with the ground realities.

Can we reproduce this article at pakspectator.com?

Ghazala
pakspectator.com

By: RKT

RKT — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:27:15 +0000

You may be interested in these documents on Kashmir:
http://www.kashmir-information.com/LegalDocs/index.html

By: Chris Weigant

Chris Weigant — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:33:10 +0000

Elizabeth -

I will check the link out, thanks.

Over at HuffPost, reading comments, I realize I wasn't as precise in my language as I could have been. The next-to-last paragraph should not (but read a certain way, certainly can) imply that the people in Kashmir haven't had any elections since 1947. They have indeed been part of the Indian election process during this time. But I was talking (in this paragraph in particular) about a referendum of the people who live in the entire region as to what they want for their own land -- to be a part of India, a part of Pakistan, or even their own independent nation. I realize (after re-reading) that this wasn't made clear enough in the language I used, which is why I'm clarifying it here. Such a referendum has never, to the best of my knowledge, taken place.

-CW

By: Elizabeth Miller

Elizabeth Miller — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:10:28 +0000

Chris,

I think you hit the proverbial nail squarely on the head!

We have gone from an intervention into Afghanistan to a quasi-regional focus on Afghanistan/Pakistan in about eight years. (I never use the AfPak shorthand, either, for the very reasons you state...well, that and the fact that I'll take the long version over the short version of everything, all the time!) I trust that expanding the focus to include India, not to mention Iran and others, won't take the same length of time.

I'm pretty sure that Obama/BIDEN get that this thing has truly regional dimensions and that the time has come to implement a regional strategy based on the latest proposals out of the International Crisis Group...although, the ICG paid scant attention to India in what they are now advocating that US policy should be. Perhaps they'll cover that dynamic in another report.

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6007&CFID=49125225&CFTOKEN=60427182

I'm guessing there are effective ways for the US and international community to work in concert to coerce the Pakistani military to step up to the plate and act against the jihadists in their midst without solving the Kashmir problem. But, better relations between India and Pakistan can't help but improve the chances for success.