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Kashmir:
Failure of militancy
by
Nadeem F. Paracha
The moment (in the 1990s) the ‘Kashmir struggle’ allowed
its militant aspect to rudely overshadow the doings of
the more moderate All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC)
and the Jamuha Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) I was
convinced the movement was doomed.
Alas, like most movements (involving Muslims) of the
20th
 Century
that adopted what is called Political Islam as its
calling card, the Kashmir militancy too collapsed under
its own weight.
Now compare this with the uprising of the Kashmiris in
the last two or three years, led by the APHC and JKLF
against the Indian state.
One can clearly notice the difference. Like the three
Palestinian Intifada movements, the recent Kashmiri
uprising too has nothing to do with bombs, beheadings
and assorted terrorist tactics. Instead, the movement is
now unfolding on the streets with stones, flags,
speeches and slogans confronting bullets, arrests and
teargas.
This movement has put the Indian government and state
under more domestic and international pressure than the
armed militant movement was ever able to.
In fact, armed militancy in this respect has actually
mutated and mangled the look of the whole issue,
attracting more condemnation than sympathy.
And, barring Pakistan, this condemnation did not only
come from countries that are expected to play a more
sympathetic role towards the Kashmiris’ legitimate
demands of self-determination. The bulk of the Kashmiris
too were left feeling exhausted and cornered by the
actions of the armed militants.
In other words, uprisings in Kashmir in the last five
years are not only a conformation of the Kashmiris’
resolute commitment to look for its own destiny as a
nation, but in a way, it is also a bold act of stamping
a seal of disapproval against the tactics of the armed
groups.
So what went wrong, or for that matter, right?
The movement that revived itself in 1987 when the
Kashmiris accused the Indian government of rigging that
year’s polls in the valley was soon overtaken and
infiltrated by elements advocating an armed uprising
against the Indian state. |
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