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Exerting Moral Force

Dialogue is the best way for India to combat the hostility in Kashmir

Issue: October 7, 2002 / VOL. 160 NO. 13
By M.J. Akbar
TIME: Asia

A Srinagar man rips up an election banner to protest Indian rule.
Image Credit: Robert Nickel -- Getty Images for TIME.

One of the more startling findings of the Nielsen poll was that more than 95% of the valley's Muslims found the ethnic cleansing that drove Kashmiri Hindus out in the '90s repugnant; they wanted to see this authentic Kashmiri Hindu community resettled. This is a view with serious political implications, since a return of the Hindu population means renewal of a plural society. Of course, plenty of Kashmiri Muslims want azaadi -- independence -- but they too believe that a Kashmiri state would be incomplete without its distinctive Hindu minority. There is anger in Kashmir, but surprisingly little hatred.

TIME
When Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf labeled the Kashmir election a "farce," he was a victim of either false reporting or false hopes. When India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee admitted that New Delhi had made mistakes in Kashmir, he was stating the obvious. What made this remarkable was that the obvious had never been stated before.

The most serious mistake was made in 1987, when New Delhi colluded with the Kashmir government to steal an election. The Muslim-majority valley was about to vote in a coalition called the Muslim United Front. Suspicious of the Front's loyalties, local authorities stuffed the ballot boxes after the polls had closed with the connivance of New Delhi. The anger of those who had been cheated turned into sullen bitterness before it erupted into militancy, fueled by Pakistan and encouraged by a changing world order. As Kashmiris watched the Soviet Union defeated by a jihad in Afghanistan, and saw Central Asia emerge from the clutch of a tired bear, they began to believe that their independence was possible. But the insurgents and Pakistan both underestimated India's will to protect its national integrity. India used its strength, sometimes arbitrarily and excessively, but this was a battle of the heart it could not lose.

Force, however, is only a strategy. It cannot be a policy. New Delhi's answer to the latest dimension of the Kashmir problem lies in the re-establishment of the democratic process and the formation of a morally legitimate government in Kashmir. The present election comes at a crucial triple crossroad. America's clarity on terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks has knocked the foundation out of Pakistan's jihad in Kashmir. New Delhi's commitment to free and fair polls has resurrected faith in self-rule in the valley. And Pakistan's return to Army autocracy has ended any illusions Kashmiri Muslims might have entertained about their alleged benefactor. A Nielsen poll conducted in the middle of the election for the Asian Age, indicated that not even 1% of the valley's Muslims now want to join Pakistan.
(More: TIME.com News Source)
2002 © TIME, Inc.

Dan