—MOUNTBATTEN’S GHOST—
Seven Decades On, the Indian Partition Continues to Haunt in the Kashmir Valley
India controlled KASHMIR, 2017
SUMMARY: ‘Mountbatten's Ghost’ follows the lives of Kashmiri people, seven decades after the the Indian Partition, a landmark event which effects still linger to this day throughout the Indian Subcontinent.
The partition, orchestrated as a part of Britain’s decolonization process under Lord Mountbatten’s oversight in 1947, marked its 70th anniversary in 2017 as did Kashmir’s accession to India, which took place in the aftermath of the partition on October 26th 1947. The most dismal example of the resulting partitioned territories, the Kashmir region, was divided in a violent skirmish between the newly emancipated India and Pakistan. While the ongoing debate over the future of this war torn region persists with frequent flare ups between India and Pakistan, it seldom deviates from the geo political aspects of the bilateral dispute. The following series aims to illustrate the often bloody and overlooked ripple effects on the lives of millions in Kashmir, locked in a decades long pursuit for survival and self determination.
Meanwhile, coinciding with this anniversary and after a period of relative calm, 2016 and 2017 saw another outbreak of deadly violence in Kashmir following the killing, on July 8th 2016, of a young 22 year old charismatic separatist commander. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in protests since then and many thousands have been wounded.
However, violence has been a more or less constant, long before this latest bout and is rooted in deep grievances connected to the territory’s control by the Indian government in Delhi, ascertained seven decades earlier.
Ifrah Butt and Javaid Kasmi, Human Rights activists based in Indian administered Kashmir, contributed to this report.
——
The protracted conflict has its roots on the British decolonization of the Indian subcontinent when a large part of the region known as Kashmir was absorbed by India while the other portion was incorporated into Pakistan. Since then, the two nuclear armed countries have claimed the region of Kashmir in its entirety, have fought two wars over it and frequent cross border clashes have left the region holding its breath. Meanwhile, the Kashmir's population and rebel factions favor either independence or a merger with neighboring Pakistan. According to a 2010 poll the numbers of those supporting the former are surpassing the latter: "The first ever poll on the issue to be conducted across both sides of Jammu and Kashmir divided by a line of control between India and Pakistan concluded that more than 43 percent of the state’s population wanted independence of the whole region, while support for the two options provided under the UN resolution i.e. joining India or Pakistan stood at 21 percent and 15 percent respectively".
But regardless of the human rights abuses perpetrated in the conflict by both parties, for most Kashmiris, the issue at the root of the conflict is one of national self-determination, democratic rights and ultimately departure from Indian rule. It is because of this that Kashmiris have mostly boycotted elections since the 1987 Legislative Assembly elections, widely considered as having been rigged in favor of the ruling party National Conference. The disputed election struck a death blow in the ordinary Kashmiri's trust in the democratic process and helped trigger, in its aftermath and in face of the lack of political solutions, an ongoing armed insurgency. As a consequence of the disputed results, elections are mostly seen in the Kashmiri valley as useless and a legitimacy for Indian grip on the region, and thus mostly boycotted in Kashmir, especially in the widely held view that elections must not be a substitute for a plebiscite on Kashmiri self-determination.
In parallel with the above and even though Kashmiris are entitled to vote within the Indian democratic system, their representation is little within a mammoth Hindu nationalist constituency and thus their ability to determine their national and democratic aspirations, and to be free from Delhi military control — in what is considered to be the most densely militarized zone on earth —, is also limited. Tensions between Kashmir and Delhi are a constant and the lack of political process to solve the impasse has given way to flare ups in the conflict that have marked the history of this Himalayan region.
After a period of relative calm, 2016-17 saw another outbreak of violence following the killing, in a counterinsurgency operation on July 8th 2016, of a young 22 year old charismatic and social media savvy militant commander who urged youth to rise up against the 70 years Indian rule and captured the imagination of young Kashmiris.
Burhan, of the militant and religious Hizbul Mujahideen armed group, helped put a charismatic face to what was until then the anonymous life of a Kashmiri rebel when before that, weariness dictated that militants remain faceless and nameless. Burhan, with his defiant and photogenic social media presence, had become a romantic icon, infusing new life into the armed insurgency. All of this made Burhan a target.
The day of his funeral, the streets of the Himalayan valley were filled with people decrying his killing. Soon after, sixteen people protesting were killed by Indian forces. Since then and according to Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society [JKCCS], a Kashmir valley based human rights group that documents cases of rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, hundreds have been killed, including civilians, militants and State and Indian Armed forces. Thousands have sustained serious injuries in their eyes due to the use of controversial crowd control pellet guns by Indian security forces. Hundreds of these are totally or partially blinded, or risking blindness.
However, violence has been a more or less constant, long before this latest bout of violence and is rooted on deep grievances connected to the territory’s control by Delhi, ascertained seven decades earlier.
On the diplomatic level, India argues that Kashmir is a matter of 'cross border terrorism' from Pakistan as well as of achieving peace within territorial integrity and Indian sovereignty over the area. Concurrently, it refuses to address the issue of Kashmiri self determination and any development that may put 'Indian territorial integrity' on the table. It fears Kashmiri secession may encourage other breakaway areas throughout India to pursue their similar aspirations. Delhi also accuses Pakistan of training and arming the insurgents with the aim of taking control of the entirety of Kashmir. At the same time Delhi continues its implacable 'pacification' of the territory and of its own Kashmiri citizens by crushing both armed insurgency and peaceful dissent with an iron fist, and with it, ordinary life in Kashmir has been taken siege and put up against the wall.
It is estimated, that at least 70.000 people have been killed in the fighting and Indian crackdown since 1989, when an armed insurgency broke out in the region in the aftermath the disputed state election of 1987. In the decades that followed the population has continued to demand the right to hold a plebiscite on self determination as recommended by the United Nations Resolution of 1948, something Delhi completely rejects as it sees Kashmir as an indivisible part of India.
Human Rights watchdogs have continuously denounced abuses committed in the conflict by both Indian armed forces and militants. However, analysts and critics have placed emphasis in the much higher number of incidents of violence committed by Indian armed forces over the population under its declared mandate to ensure security in the region and of its population.
In what is seen in Kashmir as retribution for demanding the right to self-determination, the abuses committed by Indian forces in its crackdown, on both civilians and militants, have ranged from extra judicial executions to the systematic use of torture and the use of sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war. An estimated 8.000 to 10.000enforced disappearances under Indian forces custody have taken place, amounting to "four times more than disappeared under Pinochet in Chile […]in an area the size of Ireland”. Government forces are also accused of being responsible for thousands of mass graves and single unmarked graves, totaling in the thousands of unidentified bodies as well as a lack of investigation, fair trials and due process of the perpetrators.
Another phenomena reported in the region connected to the emergence of unmarked graves and the estimated 10.000 people feared disappeared are what has been described as 'fake encounter' killings. As Human Rights Watch describes, these encounters are “executions staged to look like self-defense” against supposed insurgent fighters. “Recent revelations have confirmed what families in Kashmir have been alleging all along,”said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Indian security forces have ‘disappeared’ countless people in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989 and staged fake encounter killings while fabricating claims that those killed were militants.”
As Human Rights Watch explains, “officially, the government has always denied allegations of staging fake encounter killings. However, according to Indian security officials who have spoken to Human Rights Watch on condition of anonymity, fake encounter killings are a common occurrence. Fake encounter killings are even encouraged through decorations, gallantry citations or promotions of personnel credited for the death of 'militants'. However, it has long been alleged that these incentives lead to abuses, including the murder of innocents”. It is believed that many of those missing, killed, disfigured to conceal the victim's identity and buried in unmarked graves all over the Himalayan territory have been killed is such staged encounters.
Many of the abuses documented by human rights observers have taken place under a blanket of impunity, enabled by the controversial 'Armed Forces Special Power Act', or AFSPA, which grants armed forces complete immunity from prosecution (unless the central government approves the trial). As summarized by online platform Global Village Space “the act gives troops the right to shoot to kill; arrest anyone as young as 12 with force and without a warrant; enter and search any premise and stop and search any vehicle; occupy or destroy property in counterinsurgency operations; detain Kashmiris for up to two years without charging them. Army officers have legal immunity for their actions. There can be no prosecution, suit or any other legal proceeding against anyone acting under that law”. Concurrently, the Public Safety Act or PSA allows for administrative detention and the arbitrary arrest for up to two years, including of children.
Meanwhile, India has also imposed curfews, media gags, communications surveillance, internet and communications blackouts, sedition charges on human rights activists and the banning of international journalists who reported on those issues. In parallel, and according to Medecins Sans Frontieres, an overwhelming part of the Kashmiri population suffers from mental health issues related to the protracted conflict which has taken a particularly heavy toll on civilian lives and civil society.
A policy that has helped keep international awareness and scrutiny at bay, is the barring of NGOs from accessing funding from abroad. The only funding allowed in to Kashmir and India in general is dedicated to what are considered by Delhi as “non political” issues such as health and development. With little funding to support its activities on the human and political rights front, these organizations wither under budgetary constraints. Those who have nonetheless tried to expose and tried to hold perpetrators accountable have risked their lives, paid dearly and suffered innumerable ordeals: harassment, intimidation, detention, violence and the constant threat of prosecution.
Meanwhile India maintains increasingly excellent international relations due to its growing role in international economy. Also, due to Kashmir's majority Muslim population, the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has successfully ridden the wave of the 'global war on terrorism' by associating Kashmir's demand for self-determination with global terrorism. On par with this, Delhi has promoted the international perception that the only encompassing problem in India is one of a potential economic powerhouse, whose only problem is nationwide poverty solvable by investment and economic relations. With this, Delhi shifts attention from the encroaching rifts along ethnic and religious lines in India fanned by increasing Hindu nationalism and supremacism.
Meanwhile, the issue human rights abuses in Kashmir and many other regions of India has garnered little popular and diplomatic international mobilization and has mostly been ignored. As one out of many examples, countries usually invested in the defense and promotion of democratic and human rights such as Sweden have supplied India with arms which are used in Kashmir. Meanwhile, western tourists and activists continue to flock to India for vacation time from other more popular overseas causes while, at the same time, hoping to experience the marketed idea by Delhi of 'unity in diversity' and of commonality that hides the subcontinent's underlying and simmering rifts.
While the ongoing debate over the future of this war torn region persists, it seldom deviates from the geo political aspects of the bilateral dispute. The following series for its part, aims at illustrating the often bloody ripple effects on the lives of millions in Kashmir, locked in a decades long pursuit for survival and self determination.
Ifrah Butt and Javaid Kasmi, Human Rights activists based in Indian administered Kashmir, contributed to this report.