We’re talking about two nuclear rivals, India and Pakistan, and the disputed region
of Kashmir.
If you can explain to this global audience how high the stakes are now, why the Indian
Prime Minister Modi has done this,
and do you see this as a possible flashpoint, with
thousands more soldiers brought into this, one of the most militarized areas of the world?
Well, yes.
I mean, I think it’s a kind of exercise in completely authoritarian power.
And I think there are two big questions here.
What does it mean for Kashmiris?
And I think both Sanjay Kak and Mirza Waheed have given us some sense of that.
But what it also means for India, in the sense that parliamentary democracy is really a sham.
That is what Modi and the BJP are revealing again and again and again, that just by fear,
they can sort of decide on something, on the fate of a large group of people.
Now, of course, which groups of people is really important, and it’s not accidental.
It is the fact that, you know, the target is really Kashmiris,
and Kashmiri Muslims in particular.
And, you know, so this is basically Modi’s way of distracting from the large-scale problems
that continue to plague India under his rule,
which includes the economic — economically, India is doing badly.
Environmentally, it’s a disaster.
It is the heart of climate change.
The Indian subcontinent is at the heart of climate change, so, you know, with the kind
of populations, with the kind of poverty.
And there’s nothing that’s being done about it.
And instead, Modi is giving — Modi and the BJP are giving the supporters something to
feel triumphant about, by seeing the Kashmiris basically being turned into prisoners in their
own home.
And this is a majority-Muslim population.
It is.
But, you know, one of — it is.
And it is obviously for the Hindu right BJP.
This is the primary target of hatred, which is not to say that they don’t hate others.
They hate all minorities, all dissenters.
And I think one of the big questions is not only what does it mean for Kashmir, but that,
you know, this could happen in India.
Tomorrow Modi could decide to split another Indian state into two.
And, you know, again, this is completely — it’s a kind of escalation of the kind of violence.
And the Indian state is not benign and democratic, you know, even without Modi and the BJP.
But this is a kind of escalation of violence, an escalation of exercise of power from Delhi.
And it’s being done with the kind of short-term gains in mind.
There is no long-term view.
For the poor in India, there has always been this story that has been — this fake news
produced by the BJP campaigning, that Kashmiri Muslims get special privileges.
And the very sort of raw example of this would be a political street address that I heard
in Kolkata in passing, many years ago, where the BJP speaker was saying that, you know,
Kashmiris get subsidized meat from the Indian government for a price that you won’t even
be able to buy dog meat in Kolkata.
This is clearly directed at the large masses of the Indian poor, that Kashmiris — and
this is said of other groups, as well, including Indian Muslims, as well — that they get
special privileges.
It’s similar to the “welfare queen” comments that Americans make about its black
minorities, that, you know, they get special privileges.
And it plays onto the same kind of majoritarianism, same kind of sectarian nationalism.
So, that’s one part of it.
The other part of it is for the other part of India’s BJP support, which is the sort
of the more elite, the business crowd, and it is that now you can go into Kashmir and
buy land.
You know, on social media, it has been — is filled with Hindu right supporters of Modi
saying, “We will now marry Kashmiri women.”
And you can kind of see the settler-colonial, racist, sexist sort of rhetoric at the heart
of it.
And so, the idea is that they can now purchase land in Kashmir and basically turn it into
an investment destination.
So, that’s what Modi is doing.
And so, in that sense, I think there is a sense that, you know, we are going to let
more Hindus move into Kashmir.
I will just say one thing, though.
Kashmir is not alone in this kind of protection of land rights.
This is common in many border parts of India where there are minorities or indigenous people.
This is true in many parts of the northeast, including the state where I grew up, in Meghalaya,
where the similar protection is in place that you cannot buy land if you are not from the
indigenous groups there, in order to protect them from being swamped by much more — you
know, people with much more access to capital, essentially.
So, it’s not — but the BJP, particularly in the Hindu right, makes an issue out of
it with regard to Kashmiri Muslims alone.