The Final Solution: Will Knee-jerk Populist Responses to Pahalgam Massacre Solve the Kashmir Imbroglio?

Violence returned to the valley in April. Sightseers were gunned down while enjoying a spectacular a day in this exquisite land. They had been lulled into a sense of security to make a trip to this heavenly place. They were mercilessly murdered for being Hindu and innocent. 

Now blood is gushing asking for revenge. Pakistan is in the cross hairs and nationalism is rearing its ugly head. Talk of an all out war is on television screens and politician’s mouths. Two nuclear powered nations are again on the brink. 

It was 1987 and my sister had been offered a professorship at the University of Kashmir. I had just finished high school and had all the time in the world at my disposal. So off my mother and I went on a three daylong train journey from Hyderabad in the south, all the way to Srinagar in the north.

Even at sixteen, Kashmir left a deep impression on me. It was the first time I touched snow and saw real mountains, inhaled fresh air and touched pristine cool waters.

The fourth Mughal Emporer Jehangir is credited with saying “Gar Firdaus bar-rue zamin ast, hami asto, hamin ast” meaning, “if there is heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.” Many also often refer to Kashmir as the Switzerland of the east. Having visited Switzerland once, I can say it fares pale in comparison to the beauty and majesty of Kashmir.

The formation of the India we know today was achieved after a prolonged struggle against a colonial power. When they left, the semi-autonomous princely states that made up British India were asked to accede to the new idea of India and Pakistan. Some did without resistance and others did not.

Kashmir and Hyderabad were two regions that entertained the idea of going at it alone. They had aspirations of self-determination. Hyderabad was invaded by Indian army in 1948 and Kashmir brokered a deal in exchange for protection, which was written into the constitution as Article 370 in 1954. Allowing it to have a separate constitution, a state flag and autonomy over the internal administration of the state.

For all its natural beauty, exquisite culture, language, music, food and its friendly mountain people, all Kashmir has known, since it was cut up by India’s partition in 1947, is violence, pain, suffering and sorrow, with periodic lulls and glimmers of hope. Kashmir is bestowed with a curse that has no intentions of lifting anytime soon.

I visited Kashmir during a time when things seemed normal.

India always had an interest in keeping Kashmir pristine and pure, as it was probably the biggest draw for tourists in the land. They hoped all Kashmiris would be houseboat dwellers and woodcarvers and maintain Kashmir the Disneyland it was meant to be. So to the tourist, which is what I was, the real world remained hidden.

I remember seeing groups of young men lining the streets idle, sitting on their Kangris (personal earthen heaters). Power cuts were routine and basic infrastructure was in deplorable condition. Kashmir had high unemployment and a youth ready for the taking.

In 1988 things began to shift. Her colleagues advised my sister for her own safety, to not wear a bindi and abandon her jeans for more traditional clothing. The atmosphere was beginning to turn fearful.

This is when the JKLF (Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front) separatist movement began. A Pakistani named Amanullah Khan founded the JKLF in 1977 as a political organization in Birmingham, England. It operated as a militant organization in both Indian and Pakistan administered Kashmir. Its goal was to liberate Kashmir from both Indian and Pakistani control and form an independent state.

The group began to target Kashmiri Pandits, who were a Hindu minority in the valley. Random assassinations and speeches at mosques calling for their cleansing spread fear like fire. In 1990, a pro Pakistani militant group Hizb-Ul-Mujahedeen, issued a press release in the local newspaper asking all Hindus to leave the valley.

Before long the Pandits who had called Kashmir their home for centuries left en masse fearing for their lives. Out of the approximately 300,000 to 600,000 that inhabited the land in 1990, only a few thousand remain today. It was a deplorable failure on the part of the Indian government to not be able to provide protection and allowing such a displacement to take place. 

Many maintain, “genocide” was committed against the Hindu Pandit population in Kashmir. This is a very popular and emotionally charged belief held by many on the right.

Many maintain, “genocide” was committed against the Hindu Pandit population in Kashmir. This is a very popular and emotionally charged belief held by many on the right. Though the evidence to back this conclusion is very scant and inconsistent.

The JKLF disbanded its militancy in 1994, and declared an indefinite ceasefire and hoped to achieve its goal through political means. But grave damage had already been done and things would only get worse.

Over the years, peace in the valley has ebbed and flowed rarely reaching normalcy. Militancy sanctioned and supported from across the border caused mayhem on a regular basis. The Indian army and paramilitary under the pretext of maintaining law and order committed grave crimes, alienating the population. 

Kashmiris have disappeared in large numbers, probably murdered in extra judicial killings. Indian soldiers have paid a heavy toll as well. The conflict has left deep wounds that to many are irreconcilable.

In this scenario, on August 5^th 2019, the Prime Minister and his chief strategist fulfilled a campaign promise. They suspended any and all autonomy Kashmir had bargained for at the time of partition under Article 370 of the constitution. By the barrel of a gun, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was dissolved and converted to a union territory with direct control relegated to the center in New Delhi. Ladakh was separated into its own region under federal control.

And so, as once in India’s dark past an “Emergency” was declared by a decree of the president on behest of the prime minister, Kashmir was disbanded on paper. With an overwhelming military presence, the arrest of prominent Kashmiri leaders, suspension of the Internet and mobile phones, a total media black out and a curfew, the democratic rights of a few million people were revoked.

The suspension of Article 370 was deeply contentious in 2019 and remains very unpopular among Kashmiris today.

In his speech on August 15th, 2019, India’s independence day, the prime minister declared his Kashmir strategy a success. He said soon the Kashmiris would become whole with India. As full citizens of the land they will soon be able to decide their destiny at the ballot box. Jammu and Kashmir will be restored to statehood in due course, and the floodgates to development and prosperity will be thrown open.

For the prime minister’s faithful supporters this was seen as a decisive act. A move that many before him had only contemplated but were never able to deliver. It emboldened his strongman image and got his base energized. It was seen as a vindication of the four wars fought with Pakistan over Kashmir. It was also seen as a strong response to the Islamic radicalism that had run the Hindus out of the valley and was gaining permanent roots in the region. Now the Pandits could return and reclaim their land and get justice, was a dream that was being peddled between the lines. Kashmir was now open for business for anyone and everyone.

With an overwhelming military presence a sense of calm did return to the valley. New businesses began to sprout, golf courses beckoned the wealthy to visit and the tourism industry, which forms economic backbone of Kashmir, again began to flourish.

In the most recent election in 2024, the National Conference won 42 seats, mainly from the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of the anti-India rebellion, while the BJP secured 29 seats, all from the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu. The Congress succeeded in six constituencies.

The election was more or less a sham, as Kashmir remains under the direct control of the central government, as it is still a union territory and has not regained its statehood as promised.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan always denies the charge. 

As for the current terrorist attack, not much evidence has been presented by way of who carried it out. A homegrown group with links to a terrorist outfit in Pakistan claimed responsibility on social media, but even the Indian government has not officially endorsed its claim and is sketchy about its own assessment.

But the response has been swift with homes of possible sympathizers being demolished in Kashmir and a wave of arrests being made with little or no due process. Treaties being suspended, visas for Pakistanis being rescinded and airspace being closed have been other kneejerk populist responses. Justice for the dead at all cost is being sought. Will that really ever be achieved beyond the sabre rattling, is anyone’s guess.

With a total international media blackout and the domestic media overwhelmingly pro-government, it is hard to discern what is the true picture of anything that is happening in Kashmir.

To many across India and abroad who watch Kashmir from a distance and see the chaos filter through their television screens and social media, it is a thorn on the nation’s side. Probably an all out war with Pakistan and an invasion of the land seen as stolen from India by the other side is what is needed as the “final solution” — is a popular sentiment. 

Such ideas are made even more popular by the bellicose Modi proxies on TV and elsewhere, especially when terrorism strikes and Hindus bear the brunt.

To those in Pakistan, they see it is as a land rightfully belonging to them just on the basis of majority Kashmiris being Muslim.

Both nations have gigantic armies to maintain, subsidize and legitimize. 

For Pakistan an enemy across the border, periodically rattled, maintains the status quo and gives it’s Army the power and legitimacy that it otherwise does not have from its citizens. 

Emotions run high on both sides when it comes to the LOC (line of control) that runs through Kashmir and with the current attack skirmishes have already started with the chance of an escalation becoming very real..

Kashmiris, who have families on both sides of the border, would love to reunite with their loved ones and live in peace. But those aspirations are seldom acknowledged due to the geopolitical nature of where this piece of land lies.

And so everyone ignores the elephant in the room.

The catastrophe that is Kashmir and has been one for decades since it was cutup, is another of Britain’s many ill-formed colonial legacies around the world.

The sad truth is, there will never be any sustainable peace in this part of the world unless India and Pakistan sit across a table and put the interests, well being, hopes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people front and center.

Given the present conditions and the deep mistrust between the leadership of the two nations, any rapprochement seems like a distant dream.

Force cannot permanently solve anything. It never has and never will.   

My sister passed away a few years after she returned from Kashmir. I have not returned to Srinagar since but I yearn to someday.

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Anand Kamalakar is a Brooklyn based documentary film director, producer and editor. His film OSBORNE will premiere on PBS nationwide next year.