'Beautiful Prison'
Because of the conflict in Kashmir, a United Nations representative once called the region a 'beautiful prison.' A local political science professor explains.
By Kevin Sites, Wed May 31, 6:02 PM ET
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir - Dr. Noor Ahmad Baba was born in Srinagar, Kashmir, and has lived here all his life. He is now a professor and head of the Political Science department at Kashmir University.
He has lectured, studied and written extensively about the problems in Kashmir. I recently sat down with him at his home near the university in hopes of getting a clearer understanding of the complexities of the conflict and the potential for a peaceful resolution.
This is a partial transcript of our conversation.
Dr. Noor Ahmad Baba discusses Kashmir » View
Roots of the Conflict
DR. NOOR AHMAD BABA: It's a very complex conflict. Roots of it go beyond 1947 when the Indian subcontinent was divided into India and Pakistan. At that time Pakistan had a feeling since it got the most Muslim-dominated parts, they thought Kashmir ... religion wise, having greater proximity with [Pakistan] that it would automatically join [Pakistan].
But complexity was created because in Kashmir we had this Muslim [region] ruled by a Hindu ruler.
He was in a difficulty. He occasionally thought of remaining independent. A situation was created in which there were a lot of pressures. There were political forces operating here. Some of them wanted to join Pakistan. Some of them wanted to be independent. Some of them wanted to be part of India. Under these pressures, ultimately ... this maharaja, this ruler, joins Indian union.
So in that situation, the government of India offered that ultimately, once things settled down, we'll have a plebiscite (a vote in which the Kashmiri people would decide whether to join India, Pakistan, or remain independent) in Kashmir. But practically what you find is that ... it is factored forcibly — how much was occupied by Pakistani forces, how much was under Indian forces. On that basis, Kashmir actually got divided between two. Part of it is now under Pakistani occupation; part of it is under Indian occupation.
India took this position even in the United Nations. On the basis of that you have two resolutions passed in the UN general assembly. Between those it says the Kashmir settlement has to be done through a plebiscite.
Militancy in Kashmir
KEVIN SITES: Tell me about the growth of the militant movement here.
DR. BABA: My understanding on the militancy is that when normal political discourse loses relevance, people take to the gun. People take to militancy.
Militancy had by and large rooted in local people, more local youth, where it crossed over. They were not very well trained.
There were, symbolically, reasons to hold against the Indian state. But it was more of a mass movement than militancy at that point because most people would come on streets — millions of them.
But the Indian state was in a very difficult situation [in the late 1980s and early 1990s]. They didn't know what the locals wanted. Then they sent one governor, Jagmohan.
He tried to repress the mass mobilization part of it. Since militancy was not that strong, naturally it would have been difficult for it to survive.
Security in Kashmir » View
But at that time Pakistan, because of its experience in Afghanistan, and then because of the cross-border sympathies — because Kashmir is not only this part of Kashmir, you have Kashmir on the other side. You already have some manpower trained in Afghanistan from Kashmir, from the other part of Kashmir, maybe from Pakistan.
Some of these came and joined [the militancy]. Therefore the militancy became what it's like, mostly destructive ...
The militancy itself got divided on ideological lines, because some took the question of taking Kashmir to [mean] independence, some took the question of Kashmir to [mean] joining Pakistan.
The Cost
SITES: In terms of both the Indian government's response to militancy and its cost in terms of lives, casualties, displaced people — give us an idea of where that is today.
DR. BABA: I would say it's a terrible cost. I say that I've always maintained that violence may have some objective reasons but it always creates a lot of problems. Militancy has gone beyond control of people also...
Sometimes it hurts the interests of the common man also. At a later time when this militancy was on defense, some [outside] forces also joined it.
SITES: Outside forces like al-Qaida?
DR. BABA: Not al-Qaida, I don't think al-Qaida is here. But you have some element of external opponents that came to help the local militancy. That is, more than some of these groups operating here, Hizbul Mujahideen, etc.
The common man is seated between militant violence and state violence. State violence is much more seen; it is omnipresent. The common man seems terribly harassed in this kind of situation.
Even the European delegation sometimes backs that Kashmir is more like a beautiful prison. It's the most beautiful prison on the Earth.
For more on the history of conflict in Kashmir, please explore the links in our "Learn More" section on the right-hand side of the page.
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