{"id":4067,"date":"2019-02-25T11:05:18","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T05:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=4067"},"modified":"2019-02-25T11:36:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T06:06:22","slug":"war-cannot-dissolve-or-resolve-kashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/point-of-view\/kashmir-talk\/war-cannot-dissolve-or-resolve-kashmir\/","title":{"rendered":"War Cannot Dissolve or Resolve Kashmir"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PUNCHLINE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

War Cannot Dissolve The Kashmir Dispute <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Z .G. Muhammad <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday morning, I woke up to many a\ndisturbing news on the grapevine. From the Masjid door to  long waiting  at the bakers\u2019 shop for hot loaves of\ntraditional bread,   lots of news about frightening\nrattling of aeroplanes and helicopters  from 2 A.M in Srinagar, deployment of hundreds\nof additional companies\u2019 of paramilitary\ntroops in Kashmir to the mid-night  crackdown on the cadres of the Jamat-e-Islamia and other organization was\nmaking rounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Is something worse than what has been\nhappening in Kashmir in stock and what could it be\u2019 this query was on the lips\nof all and sundry.  The wild guessing narrowed down to a few broader topics:\nThat another war over Kashmir between India and Pakistan could start any time\nnow on. That these could be preparatory moves for removing the article 35-A\nwhich works as a shield for the 1927- State Subject Law in the Constitution of\nIndia, these could be run-up for the abrogation of the Article 370 of the\nIndian Constitution, and some stretched it further to the trifurcation of the\nstate. Most of these wild speculations had their genesis in the\nmaddening discourses coming out of scores of television studios round the\nclock. But, for the historical reasons, it is not the war cries that bother\nKashmiris as threateningly as the calls for fiddling with their identity and changing\nthe demography of the state coming out of the right-wing party headquarters and ultra-nationalist television\nchannel studios. The citizens of the state\noverwhelmingly see it as an existential threat- more dangerous a threat than\nsuffered during the eighteenth and\nnineteenth centuries. Gary Saxena twice Governor of the state during the nineties and the former RAW chief had rightly\nsummed it up, \u201cKashmiris are essentially survivors. They had seen tough\ntimes when Afghan, Sikh ruled them. They were at receiving ends. But the\ngeneral culture is secular, and they have\ntheir own identity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loud cries about the fifth war on\nKashmir breaking up any time between India and Pakistan\nare no more just confined to the television studios, and the election rallies in India addressed by\nBJP leaders including the prime minister. Nonetheless,\nthese are now part of international discourse. President Donald Trump on Friday\nnoon made it known that Washington was concerned about the situation brewing up\nbetween India and Pakistan.  Talking to reporters, he said,    \u201cright now between Pakistan and India,\nthere is a very, very bad situation. A very\ndangerous situation.\u201d He also indicated the US and others are trying to\ndefuse the situation.\u2019  Since 1948, when\nNew Delhi took the Jammu and Kashmir Dispute to\nthe Security Council, the United States has been at the centre of the Kashmir\nnarrative, and after every war, it had\nbrokered peace between the neighbouring countries.   The\n1965 war was the only exception when Washington had loathed, and Moscow had taken the call, and Prime Minister Kosygin had offered his good\noffices to work for a settlement between the two countries- the result was\nTashkent declaration. It was Bill Clinton who prevented the two countries from the\ndisaster of a nuclear war in 1999. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That both India and Pakistan, throughout\nhistory after every war had accepted third-party mediation is not subject of this\ncolumn- what I am trying to articulate is that war\nhas not been a solution of problems between counties and it cannot be a\nsolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

History testifies that the four wars fought between the two countries neither\nresolved nor dissolved the Kashmir problem. Nonetheless, they ended up in\ninternational and bilateral agreements that identified tracks for solving the Kashmir\nDispute through peaceful means including two-way\ndialogue. To recapitulate, the entire history of all the wars fought by the two\ncountries and the diplomacy, agreements for peace and settlement of the\noutstanding problem that followed these wars may not be possible in this\ncolumn. Nevertheless, it would be in the interest of ensuring lasting peace in\nthe region and for finding a peaceful solution of the Kashmir make a brief\nmention of the wars fought and the agreements after\nthat signed by the two countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Poonch rebellion against the Maharaja\nHari Singh, joined by the Afaradis and other tribal culminated into the first war between India and Pakistan- and\nthis was the longest war that two countries in Kashmir.   On 27\nOctober 1947, troops from New Delhi landed at Srinagar. On 30 October, Pakistan\ndeclared Maharaja\u2019s accession to India a \u2018fraud and violence.\u2019 On 1 January\n1948, India filed a complaint against\nPakistan in the Security Council and asked the Council \u2018to call upon Pakistan\nto stop aiding the invaders.\u2019 On 13 August 1948, UNCIP adopted elaborate three-part resolution followed by 5 January\n1949 resolution. This resolution that was\nsupported by the Karachi Agreement of\n1949 signed by army commanders of the two countries provided a comprehensive\npeaceful mechanism for settlement of the\nproblem. Had not Jawaharlal Nehru 1 November\n1947 rejected the three-point formula of Jinnah, Kashmir would not have become\nan international problem. Similarly had, the mechanism provided by the UNSC\nbeen followed the future wars between the\ntwo nations would not have happened. The UNSC\ndid not stop at identifying the path to a peaceful settlement of the Dispute,\nbut it sent one after another envoy for finding a solution of Kashmir outside\nthe United Nations through a dialogue between the two countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second war between India and Pakistan was fought in 1965. In the 17 day war, who was\nwinner and loser or there was no winner is subject for military historians. The Tashkent Declaration followed this war. It\nmade no direct reference to Kashmir but came up with an \u2018ambiguous formulation\nthat the two sides will continue meeting both at highest and other levels on\nmatters of immediate concern.\u2019 The 1965 war\ntoo did not dissolve the Kashmir but took a toll of the Ayub Khan government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third war was\nfought in 1971, and Kashmir was not the direct\ncause of this war. Pakistan was the biggest\nloser in this war, it got dismembered- and the birth\nof Bangladesh was denounced as the defeat of Jinnah\u2019s two nation theory. A section\nof bureaucracy very close to Mrs Gandhi wanted to use the opportunity for\ndissolving the Kashmir dispute- it did not happen. The countries signed the\n1972 Shimla Agreement that explicitly talked about a final settlement of Jammu\nand Kashmir through bilateral negotiations or any other peaceful means mutually\nagreed upon by the two counties. And the\nagreement also \u201cwithout prejudice recognised\nposition of either side.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\nbattle in the rugged mountains of Kargil in 1999 was the fourth war that the\nneighbouring counties fought in their 52 birth anniversary. Both India and Pakistan have their versions\nabout the battle- who won or who lost is again subject for the military\nhistorian. Nonetheless, this battle made a world conscious that South Asia was\non a short-fuse of a nuclear war but for\nintervention by Washington world was saved from a nuclear disaster.  Exhibiting statesmanship Atal Bihari Vajpayee\nsent a letter to Pakistan president to meet at Agra on 15 and 16 July 2001. In\nan article on the New Year eve, he had emphasised the need\nfor addressing the Kashmir issue.  But,\nfor L.K. Advani \u201cdisrupting\u201d the process eight years back a solid foundation\nwould have been laid for peace in the region. The failure in Agra did not either\nstop Vajpayee nor Musharraf from striving for finding an amicable settlement of\nKashmir problem. More than often we are told by that\nprivy to dialogue between the two countries there was a lot for forwarding movement for an agreement.  Let me reiterate if Vajpayee could not resolve the\ndisputes, but he gave ten years of comparative\npeace to people of the region along the LOC- and had equally\nbrightened hopes for peace in the region.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of wars fought by the two\ncountries should make us wiser- instead\nof raising \nwar cries for another war let leaders of the two countries work\nfor peace in the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PUNCHLINE<\/p>\n

War Cannot Dissolve The Kashmir Dispute <\/p>\n

Z .G. Muhammad <\/p>\n

Saturday morning, I woke up to many a
\ndisturbing news on the grapevine. From the Masjid door to  long waiting  at the bakers\u2019 shop for hot loaves of
\ntraditional bread,   lots of news about frightening
\nrattling of aeroplanes and helicopters  from 2 A.M in Srinagar, deployment of hundreds
\nof additional companies\u2019 of paramilitary
\ntroops in Kashmir to the mid-night  crackdown on the cadres of the Jamat-e-Islamia and other organization was
\nmaking rounds. <\/p>\n

\u2018Is something worse than what has been
\nhappening in Kashmir in stock and what could it be\u2019 this query was on the lips
\nof all and sundry.  The wild guessing narrowed down to a few broader topics:
\nThat another war over Kashmir between India and Pakistan could start any time
\nnow on. That these could be preparatory moves for removing the article 35-A
\nwhich works as a shield for the 1927- State Subject Law in the Constitution of
\nIndia, these …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[199,367,46],"class_list":["post-4067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kashmir-talk","tag-india-pak-war","tag-pulwama-and-war","tag-zahid-g-muhammad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4067"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4070,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions\/4070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}