Letter to the New York Times on Kashmir
by Edward Hasbrouck
(8 May 2003)
From: Edward Hasbrouck
To: nytnews@nytimes.com
Subject: Kashmir
Date: Thu, 08 May 2003
In four articles on India-Pakistan relations in the last
week [see quotes below], The Times has used
identical, inaccurate language to report that “Both countries
claim Kashmir in its entirety”. That’s true of India, but not
of Pakistan.
India denies that Kashmir is “disputed territory”, claims
the entirety of the region as an “integral part of India”,
and refuses to discuss withdrawing its occupation forces
to permit the plebiscite called for by a long line of U.N.
Security Council resolutions. Pakistan has never claimed
Kashmir as Pakistani territory: Pakistan recognizes the
disputed status of all of Kashmir, administers the portion
of Kashmir on its side of the ceasefire line as disputed
territory pending a plebiscite, and continues to seek
implementation of the U.N. resolutions on Kashmir.
In each of the same articles, you also refer to an
“Islamic insurgency” in Kashmir. The majority of the
people in Kashmir are Muslims, but the insurgency is
predominantly motivated by nationalism, not religion.
Kashmir has a diverse population and a tradition of
generally peaceful coexistence of religious, linguistic,
and cultural communities. The most widely supported
Kashmiri nationalist organizations — the All-Parties
Hurriyat Conference in recent years, and the Jammu and
Kashmir Liberation Front in the past — are and have been
secular coalitions involving members of all religions.
It’s no more accurate to describe the movement for
self-determination in Kashmir as “Islamic” than to
describe that in East Timor as a “Christian insurgency”,
or that in Tibet as a “Buddhist insurgency”. Religion plays
a role in the national culture of each of these places,
but each of these popular struggles could more usefully be
characterized as a national liberation movement.
One of the biggest obstacles to peace in Kashmir is the
erroneous idea that Kashmir is primarily a religious
dispute between India and Pakistan. The real dispute is
between the national — not religious — aspirations of
the Kashmiri people on one side, and both India and
Pakistan on the other. (It’s particlarly unfortunate for
all parties to that dispute that the champion of Kashmiri
democratic rights has been a military disctatorship,
Pakistan, and that, in the name of secularism and
democracy, India has imposed brutal military rule and
engaged in systematic and often religiously-motivated
human rights abuses.) The most important thing the USA can
do to promote peace in Kashmir, and to promote democracy
throughout India, Pakistan, and Kashmir, is to insist that
representatives of the Kashmiri people be party to any
Kashmir negotiations. As the U.N. correctly recognized in
its resolutions, the Kashmir dispute can only be resolved
by the Kashmiri people themselves, through a plebiscite
under neutral U.N. auspices, free of the coercive presence
of military occupation forces of either India or Pakistan.
Edward Hasbrouck
1130 Treat Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94110
Quotes from previous articles in The Times:
29 April 2003:
“Both countries claim Kashmir in its entirety,
and Pakistan has backed a long-running Islamic insurgency
in the part under India’s control.”
3 May 2003:
“India laid the blame for the attack on
Pakistan, which has backed a 14-year Islamic insurgency in
the part of Kashmir governed by India… Both countries
claim the border territory of Kashmir in its entirety.”
5 May 2003:
“Both countries
claim Kashmir in its entirety, and India accuses Pakistan
of backing a 14-year Islamic insurgency in Indian-governed
Kashmir.”
8 May 2003:
“…the border territory of Kashmir, which both
sides claim and which is divided between them. India accuses
Pakistan of supporting a 14-year Islamic insurgency in the
part of Kashmir governed by India.”
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