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NEWS & LETTERS,
January-February 2002
India and Pakistan on the verge of war
The heightened tensions between
India and Pakistan after the Dec. 13 terrorist attack on the Indian parliament
have not yet led to outright war. However, there has not yet been a withdrawal
of the 500,000 strong build-up of the Indian army at the border, and the fear
and threat of nuclear war remains real. Although India has agreed to
give Pakistan time to meet its list of stringent demands, including the
extradition of 20 suspected terrorists, hardliners in the army and government
remain belligerant. Pakistan's General Musharraf claims to be doing what he can
to crack down on extremists, though he recently assured the hardliners in
Pakistan that "if war is imposed on us, we are ready" to fight with
"all our might." This conjures up images of nuclear holocaust in the
land where one of the oldest and most advanced of human societies once
flourished. The flashpoint is the Kashmir
Valley, which reporters in the West refer to only as a "disputed
territory," but which is historically a unique and gorgeous land, where
Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists once lived in relative peace and harmony. Kashmir is home to a culturally
tolerant and religiously hybrid people, and is a center of Sufism on the
subcontinent. The Islamic fundamentalist tendencies that have popped up in
Kashmir in the last decade are alien, sponsored and supported by foreign
elements known to be involved with Al Qaeda, but sustained by the continued
betrayals and human rights violations perpetrated by the Indian state. Neither India, which has sent
an occupying army into the region, nor Pakistan, which has funded and trained
terrorists who have infiltrated and influenced groups fighting for Kashmiri
self-determination, care about the aspirations and desires of the Kashmiri
people. In the last 11 years, more than 35,000 people have been killed in
Kashmir. Over its more than 50-year history, Kashmir has been victim to the
violent communal politics that have divided the people of the subcontinent since
the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. In the election platform of the
right-wing party that now rules India, there is a call to abolish the
constitutional article that grants Kashmir autonomy. This has further alienated
the Kashmiri people, who are trapped by the escalating fundamentalist tendencies
on both sides. It's clear that for the voice
of the Kashmiri people to be heard, the Left in both countries has to take a
solid stand against both Hindu and Islamic fundamentalism. The Indian Left, in its attempt
to expose and condemn the atrocities perpetrated by the Indian state, has failed
to address the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Indeed, the Indian Left has often
forwarded the view that the terrorist bombings in India in the 1990s were
perpetrated by the Indian state itself in order to justify its communalist
politics. Some on the Left even believe that India attacked its own parliament
to give credence to its crackdown on Muslims in India. This is tantamount to saying
that the U.S. attacked itself on September 11 to justify its imperialist
policies, a ridiculous view that fails to account for the rise of fundamentalism
that threatens the lives of so many people around the world. India's rulers are using this
conflict to crack down on civil liberties and to further their Hindu
fundamentalist agenda. This must be opposed on every level. There have been ongoing
anti-war protests and vigils in both Pakistan and India. There have also been
attempts at cross-border organizing between human rights and anti-nuclear
activists in India and Pakistan. Along with the call for a military
de-escalation, these groups are also calling for a de-escalation of national
chauvinism and religious fundamentalism. It is only such voices, not the heavy
hand of General Musharraf or Prime Minister Vajpayee, that will ultimately save
the subcontinent from the threat of nuclear holocaust. —Maya Jhansi |
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