AN IRREPRESSIBLE CALL

An Irrepressible Call

Among Indians, a belated but welcome realization.

By Sherry Rehman

Newsweek Pakistan – October 11, 2010-10-12

The Chaopraya Dialogue—named after the turbid, arterial river that runs through the heart

of Bangkok—took an uncharted bend when Indian participants acknowledged that the current trouble in India-administered Kashmir is not because of Pakistan.

The unofficial “Track Two” dialogue among opinion leaders and policymakers in India and Pakistan took place in late August and was organized by Pakistan’s Jinnah Institute, which I lead, and India’s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. After official talks came to a halt, we initiated the unofficial dialogue to explore opportunities that the two states fear to publically approach. At best, informal dialogues help construct confidence building measures and shape public discourse. At worst, such interactions between foreign policy mandarins, academics, and media mavens from both countries narrow space for conflict through their embrace of “rational nationalism.”

But this latest dialogue was unique because opinion leaders from India took the unprecedented step of conceding that the strife in Srinagar—with its moving scenes of young men armed only with stones facing off Indian soldiers, and housewives wailing and protesting against Indian rule—is purely indigenous. As talks progressed, a consensus emerged: India has fueled this crisis by ghettoizing Kashmir as a non-political problem. Instead of attempting to defuse the uprising through political means, New Delhi deployed yet more troops into an already heavily militarized area. Repeated failures to read the pulse of India-administered Kashmir have led to widespread unrest, including previously peaceful areas of Jammu. Long seen merely as the heart of the dispute between Islamabad and New Delhi, some in India are beginning to see that Kashmir now has its own politics, its own identity, and its own genuine aspirations.

Just as there can be no military solution to the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India, a solution to New Delhi’s troubles in India-administered Kashmir based on force is equally unviable. But does the Congress-led government understand this? Does it want to revisit its failing bargain with Indian Kashmir’s political leadership? The new, post-jihadist generation has not been radicalized by religion, but by incessant violations of rights and dignity, by the absence of justice, and by the deprivation of amenities and opportunities that are available to Indians. These lost tribes living on the margins of Jawaharlal Nehru’s narrative of plurality have become the unarmed soldiers of the intifada against Indian rule.

Yet, as demands for change and freedom—azaadi—ring louder than they ever have in India-administered Kashmir, New Delhi is bringing more intellectual poverty than creativity to the table. In fact, part of the problem is the size of the table and who gets a seat on it. Between holding conferences of political parties that leave out key players from the affected Valley and increasing the military heat against protesters, New Delhi is losing the capital and capacity to address the legitimate concerns of the Kashmiri people. Instead of addressing these by reaching out to grassroots Kashmiri leaders, India chooses to shy away from real reform by refusing to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and moving toward demilitarization. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s inaction, in spite of his shock at the virulence and depth of Kashmiri emotion against New Delhi, has embittered the Kashmiris who once sought accommodation with India. This policy drift has, in fact, revived the flagging political stock of separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who now holds more cards than he did when he was being patronized by Islamabad.

This time Indian officials bunkered in New Delhi cannot blame the nonviolent mass protests in Kashmir, which have claimed at least 100 lives since June, on jihadist thought or on Pakistan. Kashmiris are weary of the curfews, the disappearances, the political disengagement, and the state oppression. They are asking for that most fundamental of liberties: the right to govern themselves. For its part, at this sensitive moment, Pakistan should do nothing more than press for diplomatic and political support for the aspirations of the Kashmiri people at forums that have failed them in the past. Kashmiris are coming in loud and clear. They want respect. They want peace. They want azaadi.

REHMAN is president of the Jinnah Institute, a think tank in Islamabad, and a member of Parliament from the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.