As protests continue, repression escalates

Kashmir Valley has been the scene of mass protests for over three months now. There have been several demonstrations in which lakhs of people have participated. The people have expressed their anger at their discrimination and subjugation at the hands of the Indian state. In every demonstration, the people have cried for Azadi – freedom. Dozens of people have been shot dead by the armed forces in the course of these protests. All this has only further fuelled the anger of the people, further increased their alienation.

The scale of rebellion as well as repression in the Kashmir Valley is immense. The Central government, which is ruling the state through the governor, is using unparalleled violence to crush the people into submission. It is also trying to impose an election on an unwilling people next month, so that it can declare to the world how "normalcy is restored" and how it is in total control of the state.

The conditions of repression can be gauged to a small extent from the fact that the state police forces are trying to intimidate people participating in demonstrations by serving notices on them to report to the police station. Even the State Human Rights Commission, a statutory body set up by the Central state to allegedly monitor human rights violations, has been constrained to comment on this. "Hardly any pocket is left where people can heave a sigh of relief; otherwise every eye is shedding a tear, every mouth is crying hoarse and every head is reeling under the ongoing threat perception," the acting chairperson of the Commission Habibullah Bhat has said, adding that "rule of baton, gun, boot and buttons is likely to react adversely". The Commission has asked the Inspector General of Police Kashmir to submit a factual report on police persecution of people participating in demonstrations.

The Kashmiri people are living in a state of siege. The Indian state, its armed forces, and its main political parties like Congress and BJP make no bones about the fact that they view the beautiful land, its lakes, valleys, forests and hills, as property of Indian imperialism, and they do not care one bit for the people of Kashmir. The people of Kashmir are treated as a colonised and enslaved people by the Indian ruling class and its state machinery. It is natural that the Kashmiri people are in a perpetual state of rebellion. The issue is –  what is the solution and who will implement it?

Sixty one years of experience of the people of Kashmir and India has shown that the ruling class of India, Pakistan, US and other countries are not concerned about the people of Kashmir. They have their own agendas and according to their agenda, they have tried to manipulate the struggle of the Kashmiri people or crush it. All political forces in Kashmir, who have bought into the agendas of either the ruling class of India, Pakistan or the US, have burnt their fingers. They have not served the interests of the Kashmiri people.

The Indian ruling class and its main political parties have used the sentiments of the Kashmiri people for freedom from the oppression of the Indian state as a weapon in their arsenal, to unite the rest of the Indian people against the Kashmiri people, to unite people behind the state and its imperialist strategy, using the slogan of "defence of unity and territorial integrity". The sentiments of the Kashmiri people to determine their own destiny, free from the persecution and colonial designs of the Indian ruling class, have been portrayed by the ruling class and its media as a sign of "Muslim anti-nationalism" and used to unleash communal propaganda against the Kashmiri people as well as justify the brutal state terror on the Kashmiri people. The right to self determination of the Kashmiri people is also being opposed by those who portray Kashmir as the epitome of "secular India".

The Kashmir problem is a sign of the utterly communal, imperialist and colonial character of the Indian state and the ruling class of our country. If our ruling class was not communal, it would not have treated Kashmir as a Muslim problem, but as a problem of a nationality seeking its rights. If it was not imperialist and colonial, our ruling class would have found ways to ensure that the Kashmiri people benefit from being part of the Indian Union. The Indian working class cannot ignore the problems of the Kashmiri people, just as it cannot ignore the problems in the North East and other regions of our country.

Our country has many nations and peoples, many languages and cultures. Our historical experience, stretching to thousands of years, teaches us that it is possible for peoples of different nations, religions, languages and cultures to live and flourish together, under arrangements that are for mutual benefit. We need to redefine India and reconstitute the Indian Union accordingly. We need to transform the present Indian Union into a voluntary union of consenting nations and peoples. The relations between the different constituents of this new voluntary union must be defined by mutual benefit, as well as the need for defence against external aggression. A voluntary union necessarily implies that any constituent of the union that feels it is not gaining from being part of the union must have the right to secede from it.

The Indian working class must work for such a new India. We call upon the people of Kashmir, as well as other oppressed peoples, to join in this common endeavour.