Kashmir: Back To The Future, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics

Kashmir: Back To The Future

By Balraj Puri

19 Oct 2009

A statement sometime ago by a Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson pleading for Kashmir's independence, though ignored in India, was widely commented upon in the Kashmir Valley as a climb-down from a traditional position. It appears to respond to the slogan of "we want azadi" often raised in popular demonstrations. Azadi is Urdu for independence and freedom, concepts that sometime contradict each other. The question is: do people need independence if it denies them freedom? This has never been debated in Kashmir.

When Sheikh Abdullah, the most popular leader Kashmir ever produced, assumed power after the state's accession to India and the end of Dogra rule, he hailed azadi after four centuries of slavery, Kashmir having been ruled by Mughal, Afghan, Sikh and Dogra rulers. People celebrated as well. However, neither the ruler nor the people bothered about freedom. No dissenting voice was tolerated. The system was so regimented that office-bearers of the ruling National Conference were appointed as government officers and vice versa. The Sheikh dismissed my suggestion that government officers should not hold party office by citing how successfully the system worked in the Soviet Union.

At the time I asked Nehru, then India's prime minister, "Can such a state remain a part of a democratic India?" He said India's Kashmir policy revolved around Abdullah's personality: "We cannot afford to oppose him."

http://newageislam.com/kashmir--back-to-the-future--/islam-and-politics/d/2045

The Back Channel: India and Pakistan's secret Kashmir talks

The Back Channel: India and Pakistan's secret Kashmir talks

By Steve Coll

The New Yorker

The agenda included a search for an end to the long fight over Kashmir, a contest that is often described by Western military analysts as a potential trigger for atomic war. (India first tested a nuclear weapon in 1974, and Pakistan did so in 1998.) Since achieving independence, in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars and countless skirmishes across Kashmir's mountain passes. The largest part of the territory is occupied by India, and Pakistanis have long rallied around the cause of liberating it. The two principal envoys-for Pakistan, a college classmate of Musharraf's named Tariq Aziz, and, for India, a Russia specialist named Satinder Lambah-were developing what diplomats refer to as a "non-paper" on Kashmir, a text without names or signatures which can serve as a deniable but detailed basis for a deal.

http://www.newageislam.com/the-back-channel--india-and-pakistan-s-secret-kashmir-talks---/interfaith-dialogue/d/1241

Pakistan's Rradical Islamists go out of ISI's control

Pakistan's Rradical Islamists go out of ISI's control

The headwaters of the Indus River system are not even in Pakistan — the system actually begins in Indian-administered Kashmir. While Kashmir has been the focus of Indo-Pakistani military action in modern times, the area where Pakistan faces its most severe security challenge is the saddle of land between the Indus and the broader, more fertile and more populated Ganges River basin. The one direction in which it makes sense to extend Pakistani civilisation as geography would allow takes Pakistan into direct and daily conflict with a much larger civilisation: India. Put simply, geography dictates that Pakistan either be absorbed into India or fight a losing battle against Indian influence.

http://www.newageislam.com/pakistan-s-rradical-islamists-go-out-of-isi-s-control--/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/1148

Time for democratic fundamentalism in Jammu and Kashmir

Time for democratic fundamentalism in Jammu and Kashmir

Protests in Srinagar. Time for the Centre to reiterate a few fundamental axioms.

By Harish Khare

The territorial integrity of India is non-negotiable in Kashmir, as in any other part of the Union. Bad politics, inept administration, and the occasional security heavy-handedness do not constitute sufficient ground for secession in Kashmir or in any other part of India. These infirmities, indeed, are not confined to the “periphery,” and can be easily discerned in large sections of the so-called “mainland.” But these lapses do not give anyone a licence to walk away from Mother India. This democracy provides sufficient institutional creativity to address grievances and alienation.

http://www.newageislam.com/time-for-democratic-fundamentalism-in-jammu-and-kashmir/current-affairs/d/624

Jihad and Pakistan Army: Extremist adventurism will be dangerous

Jihad and Pakistan Army: Extremist adventurism will be dangerous

By Sushant Sareen

The big question is whether the noise being made by these spent bullets of the Pakistan Army will find resonance in the serving officer corps. There is reason to believe that the jihadists have received encouragement from the ambiguous statements that General Kiyani has made on Kashmir and the peace moves he has initiated with the Taliban in the Pashtun belt. For instance, within days of Asif Zardari’s interview to an Indian TV channel in which he clearly pointed to a radically different approach to solving the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan, General Kiyani, during a visit to the forward areas along the LoC in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, seemed to negate Zardari’s comments by reaffirming “the Army’s commitment to the Kashmir cause in line with the aspirations of the nation”.

http://www.newageislam.com/jihad-and-pakistan-army--extremist-adventurism-will-be-dangerous/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/130

India-Pakistan: Proceeding with détente

India-Pakistan: Proceeding with détente

An editorial in Dawn

Meanwhile, the Iran gas pipeline has finally become a trilateral affair after India announced its decision last month to join it. No wonder the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman at his weekly press briefing should have expressed optimism about the outcome of Wednesday’s talks. Besides Kashmir, the eight-point agenda includes terrorism, peace and security, new confidence-building measures, the Sir Creek boundary dispute, Wullar barrage, drug trafficking, and economic and cultural cooperation. The Indian side is reportedly coming with some new proposals visualising an increase in the frequency of the existing bus services and opening new ones.

http://www.newageislam.com/india-pakistan--proceeding-with-d%C3%A9tente/current-affairs/d/74

Kashmiriyat vs Islamic Fanaticism: Pakistan’s greatest disservice to Kashmir

Delivering a speech in a seminar organised by Inter-Faith International on “Self-determination issues in South Asia at Geneva during UNHRC’s June 2010 Session Mr Sultan Shahin, Editor, NewAgeIslam.com said that in his view the greatest disservice Pakistan has sought o do to Kashmir is damaging the distinguishing feature of Kashmir that made every Kashmiri proud, its Kashmiriyat. The state of Jammu and Kashmir had a deeply composite culture, shaped by its mystics, the Sufis and the Rishis. These Sufis had enormous influence on the minds of the people of all religions and were revered and followed by all.

Giving the example of the mystical verses of Hazrat Nuruddin Nurani, for instance, which have had great influence in shaping the Kashmiri literature as much as the general mindset of common Kashmiris, Mr. Sultan Sahhin said: “The people of Kashmir have suffered immensely since the Pakistani invasion of their land soon after Partition in 1947. India took the matter to the UN Security Council to persuade Pakistan to stop aggression and make arrangements for returning the territory it had occupied. Security Council asked Pakistan to withdraw its forces from Occupied Kashmir within 90 days. But Pakistan has failed to do so till date. The Security Council too failed to get Pakistani aggression vacated.”

Full Text of the UNHRC speech is available at:

http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamCurrentAffairs_1.aspx?ArticleID=3095