On April 22, tensions escalated in Indian-controlled Kashmir when Indian tourists were killed in the deadliest terrorist attack in Indian territory since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The killings occurred on a bus, where twenty-five Indian nationals and one Nepalese national were killed. India blamed Pakistan for sheltering the group responsible for the attack and arrested two Pakistani nationals as suspects.
As of writing this story though, there is no clear answer to who enacted the attacks. Pakistan denied any involvement. What has occurred since is the breakage of political ties between India and Pakistan and greater ethnic conflict as the situation escalates without any attempt at diplomatic resolutions. However, escalation is not the answer in this situation.
It is important to acknowledge the historical context to properly understand the existing tensions between India and Pakistan today. A Muslim-majority country, Pakistan, and a Hindu-majority country, India, were created as two independent states when the area was liberated from the British. This caused migrations of millions of Muslims and Hindus to their respective countries, with thousands of deaths.
Under the partition plan, Kashmir could accede to either India or Pakistan. This has resulted in territorial conflict over the Muslim-majority area of Kashmir that continues today between India and Pakistan.
Conflicts today are a direct consequence of past colonial occupation and Kashmiri oppression by India. Kashmiris have been fighting for self-determination for hundreds of years. India wanted to destroy any idea of Kashmiri self-rule and behaved as another imperial force, continuing the oppression through physical violence, torture, rape and unlawful prosecutions.
India also created an alternative history to turn public opinion against Kashmiris. India currently rules Kashmir, shutting down the internet and crucial services. Peaceful protests are also put down by armed forces.
Today, tensions that have existed since the partition era are escalating quickly, moving the region closer to possible war, as Pakistan and India revoke diplomatic and trade agreements. First, New Delhi suspended the Indus Waters Treaty which ended visa-free travel for Pakistan citizens in India and closed the border crossing between the two countries. India ordered almost all Pakistani citizens to leave the country.
The Pakistani government, which denies any involvement in the attack last week, retaliated by canceling most Indian citizens’ visas. India threatened to stop the flow of a major river system into Pakistan, even though the action is improbable due to the lack of a dam. Pakistan called the decision an act of war.
Also, Pakistani airspace was closed to all Indian commercial airlines, visa-free travel for Indian citizens was ended and trade to India was suspended. India’s authorities had a power-run as they destroyed homes and detained hundreds in Kashmir. The area became increasingly militarized, with hundreds of people detained across Jammu and Kashmir with tens of thousands of police officials and soldiers patrolling across the region.
A few days after the attacks, Pakistan raised the alarm that India will launch military strikes in the next two-three days. While this thankfully did not come into fruition, it shows just how far tensions have escalated. Both of these countries are armed with nuclear weapons, causing fears of nuclear war if the conflict escalates further. There has been no effort yet from any other country to mediate. Even though deaths were sustained due to the terrorist attack, escalation is never the right response as it causes more.
What is vacant from many mainstream news stories is the effect on the Kashmiri people. Kashmiris in India faced violence after the attack. Since then, there have been Kashmiri vendors and students in Indian cities facing harassment and threats from right-wing groups, classmates, customers and neighbours. Students are chased off of campuses and beaten up on the streets. Hundreds of Kashmiri students had left their education midway, even with upcoming exams in the following month.
Indian media is based around hateful coverage on the attacks and is complicit in blaming the Kashmiris. Hate-filled songs targeted Indian Muslims after the attack. In less than a day, songs with lyrics like, “You got your own country, why didn’t you leave then?” targeted Indian Muslims, insisting they were conspiring against Hindus and asking them to leave India.
In less than a week, the song garnered more than 140,000 views. More songs came to follow, creating a genre known as Hindutva Pop, calling for violent retribution for the attack. On X, formerly known as Twitter, #wewantrevenge trended with 12,000 tweets as a result of the attacks.
Escalation only leads to war. Diplomatic resolutions mean less violence and taking steps to resolve the divide that has existed since partition, not exacerbating it.
Further polarization incites more violence. No society is immune to the risk of genocide, especially when ethnic divisions are exploited for political or social gain. Genocide begins with discrimination, progresses through the normalization of hate speech and the degradation of targeted groups and escalates when safeguards fail.
According to the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, recommendations for prevention of ethnic genocide include undertaking preventive diplomacy to curb state conflicts that could escalate to ethnic violence and disruption of economic development, as well as developing and implementing laws and software that deter and answer hate speech and hate propaganda. What is happening in Kashmir is the exact opposite and is further driving ethnic divide.
There are two possible futures for the region: nuclear war or genocide, or diplomatic resolution. The Indian government has been silent on what is being done to Kashmiris in the country. If the government wanted to prevent violence, steps could have been enacted instead of escalation.
