Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Muslim minority in the subcontinent, finds it difficult to leave a Muslim majority
region to a Hindu-majority state.
Indians, however, argue that Pakistan, a state defined and driven by its
religion, is given to irredentist aspirations in Kashmir because it is unwilling to
accept the fact of a secular India. India, a nominally secular state, finds it
difficult to turn over a Muslim majority region to a Muslim neighbor
just
because
it is Muslim. The presence of this minority belies the need for Pakistan
to exist at all (giving rise to the Pakistani assertion that Indians have never
reconciled themselves to Pakistan).
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Indians also point to Bangladesh as proof that Jinnah's call for a separate
religion-based homeland for the subcontinent's Muslims was untenable. In
contrast, India's secularism, strengthened by the presence of a Muslim-majority
state of Kashmir within India, proves that religion alone does not make a nation.
Indians maintain that Kashmir cannot be resolved until Pakistanis alter their
views on secularism. Of course, this would also mean a change in the identity of
Pakistan, a contentious subject in both states.
These same themes of dominance, hegemony, and identity are replicated
within the state itself. The minority Buddhist Ladakhis would prefer to be
governed directly from New Delhi, and (like their Shi'ia neighbors) fear being
ruled from a Sunni Muslim-dominated government in Srinagar. In Jammu, much
of the majority Hindu population has long been discontented with the special
status lavished upon the Valley by the Union government in New Delhi. Finally,
the small Kashmiri Pandit Brahmin community in the Valley is especially
fearful. It has lost its privileged position within the administration of the state
and much of its dominance in academia and the professions. After the onset of
militant Islamic protests, most of the Pandit community fled the Valley for Jammu
and several Indian cities (especially New Delhi), where they live in wretched
exile. Some of their representatives have demanded
Panun Kashmir,
a homeland
for the tiny Brahmin community within Kashmir.
There are other 'causes' of the Kashmir problem. The original problem,
caused by a failed partition, was followed by a process by which Indian
and Pakistani leaders turned Kashmir into a badge of their respective national
identities. For Pakistan, which defined itself as a homeland for Indian Muslims,
the existence of a Muslim majority area under 'Hindu' Indian rule was grating.
After all, the purpose of Pakistan was to free Muslims from the tyranny of
majority rule (and hence, of rule by the majority Hindu population). For Indians,
their country had to include such predominantly Muslim regions to demonstrate
the secular nature of the new Indian state; since neither India nor Pakistan, so-
defined, could be complete without Kashmir, raising the stakes for both.
Kashmir also came to play a role in the respective domestic politics of both
states. In Pakistan Kashmir was a helpful diversion from the daunting task of
nation building and there are powerful Kashmiri-dominated constituencies in
