India tempts fate in Kashmir, reflect New York Times and international media

The government’s decision to read down provisions of Article 370 of the Indian constitution to withdraw the ‘special status’ accorded to the state of Jammu & Kashmir as well bifurcate the state into two Union Territories through the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, passed by Rajya Sabha yesterday, evoked strong reactions in sections of the international media.

Writing for the Washington Post, Hafsa Kanjwal, assistant professor of South Asian history at Lafayette College, calls the move unconstitutional and “one carefully crafted to convert the state into a Hindu majority”.

“Indians can now buy property and land in Kashmir, and drive out the local population. Thus, what is at stake in this unconstitutional move is the beginnings of a settler colonial project in Kashmir, one similar to Israel’s in the Palestinian territories. To be sure, the land was already populated by the Indian army — over half a million strong — who had taken over huge swaths of land with their cantonments, camps and bunkers,” he wrote.

“But now the ruling party can set in motion its long-term plan to populate the region with enough Hindu settlements to make the current Muslim majority’s political aspirations for freedom obsolete. The intent here is to change the demographics of Kashmir from a Muslim-majority state to one that has a Hindu majority. This process could entail ethnic cleansing,” he added.

An opinion piece in the New York Times carried the headline: India Tempts Fate in Kashmir, ‘The Most Dangerous Place in the World’

“By revoking the special status of the mountainous territory, India is courting conflict with Pakistan. Bloodshed is all but certain, and tension with Pakistan will soar,” it said.

“In this volatile stew, India’s latest action provoked instant vows of resistance. The Kashmiris are especially incensed by the lifting of a ban they had long imposed on the purchase of land by non-residents, to prevent their land from being bought up by Indians,” it added.

In his article for The Guardian, Jason Burke, British journalist and former South Asia correspondent, wrote that “India’s cancellation of Kashmir’s special status will have consequences”.

“The insurgency in Kashmir remains well below the appalling levels of killing, torture and abductions seen when at its worst, but the fear now must be that this will change,” he wrote.

“One key factor is the youth of Kashmir’s population. There is now an entire generation that cannot personally recall the horrors of the conflict in the 1990s but has been raised with its legends. The bitter memories of that period dissuaded their elders from violence, making recruitment harder for the various armed extremist factions operating in ‘the Valley’, as the heart of the region is known. This is no more the case, and many young people will think that their time has come. The consequences may be tragic for the region, and India too,” he added.

“There is reason to fear for the safety of every Kashmiri in India,” wrote Ather Zia, a poet and a political anthropologist who teaches at the University of Northern Colorado Greeley, for Al Jazeera.

“The Modi government’s move to revoke Article 370 is not only a step closer to the Hindu majority nation, but also a move to flex muscles to Pakistan and the rest of the world. All in all, the decision to revoke Article 370 was a crowd pleaser for the BJP. It gave Prime Minister Modi something to brag about in his 15 August Independence Day address, as it reinforced the far-right government’s claim that it is working tirelessly to achieve its vision of a Hindu nation. It also allowed him to demonstrate that he is not scared to engage Pakistan, even when Washington is not by his side,” he wrote.

Noted journalist and West Asia expert Seth Frantzman wrote in his article for the Jerusalem Post that, “The Kashmir issue is not just about Article 370 but has much wider global links”.

“The tensions are about much more than Article 370. India and Pakistan have larger concerns, and the crisis may boil over. This comes as the US wants Pakistan to refrain from stoking tensions in Afghanistan where the US is seeking a deal with the Taliban. It also comes as India wants to assert itself and is concerned over another round, like happened in February when its jet was shot down. India, which has close relations with Israel, has been trying to modernize its army. The Kashmir tensions therefore have much wider regional and global links.”

The media in Pakistan carried news and opinions that were acerbic and unambiguously condemnatory.

‘India has done away with the fig leaf of Kashmir’s sham accession’, screamed the headline in The Dawn. “In the immediate term, the impact of scrapping Article 370 will be earth shaking. In the long run, it will destroy the idea of India as a federalist democracy. But what does this change? On the ground, it opens the floodgates to Indian settlers, who can now purchase land and acquire property in Kashmir. Call it the West Bank formula: the Sangh Parivar has dreamed of altering Kashmir’s Muslim majority demographic since forever. It will now bulldoze a Hindu majority into the Valley,” it said.

The Express Tribune called August 5 as the ‘darkest day for Kashmir’. The frontpage headline of the newspaper read: “Darkest Day for Kashmir: Occupation redux”.

Another prominent newspaper, Pakistan Today, said, “India fails Kashmir again”.