Since 22 April, when militants carried out a deadly attack in Pahalgam district killing 26 civilians – most of them Hindu tourists – Kashmir has faced one of its worst crises in recent years. The attack triggered a dangerous escalation in hostilities between India and Pakistan with cross-border missile strikes and shelling and a looming threat of war between the two countries. A ceasefire was announced on 10 May. 

Kashmir and Kashmiris have paid a heavy price in this conflict. Villages along the Line of Control experienced the worst shelling in decades with many people reported killed and injured.   But the ordeal of Kashmiris began even earlier. Soon after the attack in Pahalgam, security forces conducted raids, carried out arrests and even demolished homes of those they suspected of supporting militants. Anuradha Bhasin, the managing director of the Kashmir Times, says that the Indian state’s crackdown on the Kashmiris in the aftermath of Pahalgam has been disproportionate and was conducted because it appealed to the majoritarian Indian sentiment that became overwhelmingly anti-Kashmiri after the Pahalgam attack, with people viewing every Kashmiri as an enemy of the nation.

Kashmiris had come out in large numbers to denounce the killings. They held prayer meetings in mosques for the victims, organised peace marches and candlelight vigils. But decades-long alienation of the Kashmiri people, fuelled by media misinformation led to their being viewed with suspicion both within and outside Kashmir.  Attacks on Kashmiri students and vendors were reported from many parts of India in the following days. 

In this episode of State of Southasia, Bhasin speaks to Nayantara Narayanan about the long-standing mistrust between Kashmiris and the rest of India resulting in their alienation. She says that the Indian state continues to treat Kashmir as a security issue rather than addressing the aspirations and rights of its people, deepening the region’s sense of betrayal and isolation.

This episode is also available on:

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/sNwikpm2OEk

🎧 Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/3F4Pbu8

🎧 Website: https://www.himalmag.com/podcasts/anuradha-bhasin-kashmir-india-pakistan

Episode notes:

Anuradha Bhasin’s recommendations:

Kashmir in the Aftermath of Partition - Shahla Hussain (non-fiction)

Independent Kashmir: An incomplete aspiration - Christopher Sneddon (non-fiction)

Harud and Maagh -  Aamir Bashir (films)

Further reading from Himal’s archives:
Modi has forcibly integrated Kashmir with India but erased Kashmiris
India’s BJP government gamed the Jammu and Kashmir election – and still lost
The end of the myth that Kashmiris are free in Pakistan
The many traumas of children of conflict on the India–Pakistan border
How government bulldozers razed the hopes of the landless in Jammu and Kashmir
The hidden stigma around beef in Kashmir
BJP’s land reforms and the shifting political landscape in Kashmir
What’s really behind Jammu and Kashmir’s new Family ID?
Modi could squander an unprecedented chance at normalising India–Pakistan ties
Kashmir and the rise of settler colonialism
Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

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