A false narrative of the Indian state in Kashmir

The embers in Kashmir refuse to die down. Since the encounter killing of 21-year-old Burhan Wani, a commander of the terror organization Hizbul Mujahideen, clashes between civilian protesters and security forces have not ceased. Around 70 have died, thousands are injured and the Valley remains in lockdown. The Indian state has been subjected to a lot of criticism in the wake of dying civilians and the use of pellet guns which have led to more than 100 eye surgeries and numerous blindings.

This newspaper has criticized the lack of political imagination shown and economic initiatives taken by successive governments both in New Delhi and Srinagar. The security forces, on the other hand, have done a commendable job in substantially improving the situation from the parlous state the Valley was in during the 1990s. With the backdrop now clear, a few points need to be made regarding the ongoing protests and how the government, and the forces, have handled them in the past 45 days.

First, the charge that the Indian state has brutally crushed the civilian protests is simply not true. Heartless as it may sound, a casualty figure of 70 in 45 days of controlling very violent crowds shows exemplary restraint by the Indian forces. One just needs to peruse the numbers from several other conflict zones in the world to get a handle on this. And take into account that the crowds in the Valley are attacking the police and the paramilitary forces with stones, and sometimes even with hand grenades and petrol bombs. The use of pellet guns, with their blinding effect, is indeed an area of concern. The central government has done well to constitute a committee to explore alternative riot-control weapons.

Second, the profile of the protesters—a large number of them barely out of their teens—also raises important questions. Do these young men know what they are doing? Or are they being used by separatist and Islamist forces in the Valley and outside for their political objectives? The death of young men is an effective way of evoking horror from across the world, in the process painting the Indian state as a brutal regime.

While generally being critical of Indian actions in Kashmir, the reputed Pakistan-based scholar Ayesha Siddiqa wrote for The Wire: “Rawalpindi may not have the capacity to do another Kargil but the Kashmir uprising turning Palestinian intifada-like is considered a preferred option. Indeed, the images of bullet-riddled bodies and faces in the media are what Rawalpindi and its JuD (Jamaat-ud-Dawa) allies hope for. At least in the short to medium term, this will turn India’s promising image around the world on its head.”

The third point is related to the previous one. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on 10 August, home minister Rajnath Singh stated that the stone pelters had destroyed as many as 100 ambulances. However, there was an attempt to apportion the blame for the same to the security forces. Some human rights activists also jumped into the fray. This is a well-observed phenomenon in conflict zones across the world. Powerful state actors are accused of, or genuinely found guilty of, deliberately attacking hospitals and other medical infrastructure to break the spine of asymmetric assault mounted upon them. Equally, the other side alleges, the terrorists use hospitals and other medical facilities for military purposes. Currently playing out in Syria, this has happened previously in several places including Gaza and Sri Lanka.

Regardless of what happens elsewhere, the motivated charge against the security forces in India has not stuck. But the endeavour to paint the Indian state as brutal, or even rogue, is unmistakable.

The last point is the changing nature of protests in the Valley. While a significant portion of the population may indeed harbour genuine grievances against the Indian state, an agenda of Islamization of Kashmir is increasingly gaining currency. This is partly the reason that the separatists well acquainted with the corridors of New Delhi have little control over the ongoing protests. And this is also the reason why the global community, singed with another phenomenon called the Islamic State (IS), is not losing its sleep over Kashmir this time around.

The Indian state has indeed a lot to answer for its past 69 years in Kashmir, but to paint the Indian state as a brutal, rogue regime on dubious grounds is unwarranted and a great disservice to the silent Kashmiri.

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