Blame the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir to haphazard partitioning of India in 1947

Mail & Guardian

10-05-2025

Outrage: A protester throws back a teargas canister shot by Indian police in Srinagar, Kashmir. The relative autonomy of Kashmir is being eviscerated by draconian legislation. ()
India and Pakistan have been at daggers drawn since 1947, when the Indian sub-continent was partitioned; the division of British India into the independent dominion states. The partition was based on religious domination in each state with India having majority Hindu population and Pakistan majority Muslim.
The two nations have had continual dispute ever since, mainly over the control of the Jammu and Kashmir region, which is administered by India. It consists of the southern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has also been disputed since 1947. Pakistan claims most of the region based on its Muslim-majority population.
On 22 April, 26 Indian tourists were killed in Pahalgam in Kashmir. India has accused Pakistan of sponsoring the attacks; Pakistan has denied involvement and has undertaken to comply with any independent investigations into the attack.
Subsequently, tit-for-tat diplomatic spats have since ensued between the two nuclear nations. India fired the first salvo by closing its main border crossing with Pakistan, expelled its military diplomats and suspended a landmark water-sharing treaty.
The situation is escalating. On 6 May, the Indian armed forces confirmed that it had targeted nine sites in Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir as part of 'Operation Sindoor'.
Pakistan has vowed 'to respond to this at a time and place of their own choosing. This heinous provocation will not go unanswered.'
The Resistance Front (TRF) has claimed responsibility for this attack. The TRF, a fringe organisation, emerged in the region in 2019. This attack is the deadliest on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks carried out by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based militant group also known as Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
This latest attack has triggered a memory of the Mumbai attacks, something most Indians would like to forget. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under pressure to act. He needs to particularly reassure his ultra-Hindu nationalists political base.
According to Sunil Singh, a street vendor in Delhi's busy Lajpat Nagar market, 'Pakistan is the root of the problem, and the military should go all out to teach them a lesson.'
Singh argues that 'unless India breaks the back of Pakistan, these heinous acts will continue to occur. Our prime minister has our full support; our military has our full support.'
A war between the two nuclear power nations could prove detrimental to the world's economy, regional peace and stability. China and the United States have called for restraint.
Pakistan has had its share of homegrown terrorism, which it continues to confront. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in its annual report, said there were at least 67 suicide attacks in Pakistan. A total of 973 people died and 2318 were injured in 2008.
Part of Pakistan's difficulty in combating terrorism is its weak border with Afghanistan. Thousands of migrants enter Pakistan undetected. The government of Pakistan recently issued a decree meant to deal with illegal immigration. The Pakistan-Afghanistan border has been volatile since Pakistan's independence. Moreover, the invasion of Afghanistan by Russia and later the US worsened the safety of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The recent attack of Indian nationals in Kashmir comes at a critical time in Indian politics, particularly with the rise of ultra-nationalists in the country. There have been a number of incidents targeting Muslims in India.
Less than 24 hours after the attack, a new song surfaced on YouTube. The lyrics are: 'We made a mistake by allowing you to stay on,
You got your own country, why didn't you leave then? They call us Hindus 'kaffirs', Their hearts are full of conspiracies against us.'
The haphazard nature in which the partition of India took place and failure to include Kashmir into Pakistan is to be blamed for this conflict.
Why did Britain decide not to include Kashmir, a majority Muslim region under the administration of Pakistan? There is an argument that Britain allowed Kashmir to be under India's control to further divide and rule. Britain committed crimes against the Indians before the partition, including the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which saw British troops fire on thousands of unarmed people in Amritsar on 13 April 1919. Instead of calling for reparations and for Britain to account for its atrocities it committed during the occupation of India, the two countries have been engaging in an endless conflict.
Britain did the same in South Africa by supporting the establishment of apartheid after the country became a republic outside of the Commonwealth. The intentions of apartheid were the same as those that were implemented in India. Similarly, Jews were given a right to establish the Jewish state of Israel, which resulted in the dislocation and displacement of Palestinians from their land.
Thembisa Fakude is a senior research fellow at Africa Asia Dialogues and a director at the Mail & Guardian.