How international Media cover Kashmir
T he lack of context in the international media’s reporting on Kashmir leads to a distorted picture of events. Four months after India’s abrogation of Article 370 in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, different reports on the situation have emerged from national and international media. Indian media have focused on the return of normalcy in the region with limited mention of the human rights violations taking place. International media have primarily looked at the human rights situation with little mention of the preexisting security situation. While there is no denying the occurrence of human rights violations in Kashmir, including a communications lockdown, a curfew and the detainment of political leaders, there has been a lack of discussion about the volatile, historical context in the state and the genuine reasons for India’s undeniably disturbing lockdown. Firstly, the crucial fact that Article 370 was a temporary provision granting special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian Constitution has rarely found mention. India has not attempted to redraw any external boundaries. It has merely removed a complex and temporary article within its own constitution. Since August 5, India has stressed that its objective is to increase economic investment and development in Jammu and Kashmir and to integrate the state into the rest of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also promised that Jammu and Kashmir will not remain a union territory for long and its statehood will be restored at some point in the future. Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s loose, absurd and disturbing talk of genocide in Kashmir, all whilst ironically refusing to recognize the state of Israel and fueling anti-Semitic sentiment, only brings serious dishonor to victims of genocide. The means can be rightfully questioned, but the move by India with its consistent language of development and progress at least appears well-intentioned.
A Diverse State
International media have not adequately explained the complex demography and diversity of the region. Muslim-majority Kashmir makes up only 15% of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, yet it comprises 53.9% of the population. The rest of the population is Hindu or Buddhist Ladakhi. It is hypocritical when global media outlets unabashedly, yet understandably, criticize alleged majoritarianism in Modi’s India but apply a majoritarian lens to view Jammu and Kashmir. As Atul Singh and Manu Sharma state in an article on Fair Observer, there is often little mention of the ethnic cleansing and mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits who, in the 1990s, were driven out of their homes in fear of persecution. This is also the case with Buddhist Ladakhis who have faced systematic discrimination by Kashmiri Muslims. Hindus and Buddhist Ladakhis have thus celebrated the removal of Article 370, as well as the decision to divide the state into the two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh to allow for more effective administration and governance based on the individual needs of the territories. The removal of Article 370 also allows for the application of laws focused on the rights of minorities and women in Jammu and Kashmir. The region’s special status previously had allowed it to retain its own laws, many of which were discriminatory to women and minorities. For instance, if a woman from Jammu and Kashmir married a man from another state, she lost the right to own property there. The same did not apply to a male resident of the state who married someone from outside. A well-known case is that of Charu WaliKhanna, a Kashmiri Hindu lawyer, who was forced to flee the state and later wanted to purchase a home there but couldn’t because she was no longer a permanent resident and was married to a non-Kashmiri. Along with another Kashmiri woman who was a permanent resident but married to a non-resident, WaliKhanna filed petitions and challenged these laws in 2017 on the grounds that they were counter to India’s inheritance laws, which grant women equal rights.
The Lockdown of Kashmir
With regard to the lockdown in Kashmir, a country like India with its largely benign and responsible image on the global stage will hardly risk damaging it with unnecessary actions. The crackdown was not conducted out of the blue, but rather due to longstanding security risks in the state. During a recent US congressional hearing on human rights, Alice Wells, the US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, repeatedly used the word “terrorists” and mentioned how activities across the Line of Control — the boundary separating Indian-controlled and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir — have fermented violence and destabilization, thereby emphasizing that cross-border terrorism has been central to Kashmir. Wells used language that big global media outlets like the BBC, Al Jazeera and The New York Times do not use in the Indian context. Historically, they often refrain from using the term “terrorists” when attacks occur in India, including Mumbai in 2008. Instead, these outlets describe attackers as “militants” and/or “fighters.” Although the lockdown and curfew have been gradually lifted, it is primarily the internet clampdown that is still ongoing. This is due to the risk of Pakistani terrorist groups and Kashmiri militants weaponizing the internet to mobilize people and foment unrest. That the internet can be easily mobilized, manipulated and misused in the hands of the wrong people hardly needs a mention. In 2016, after militant Burhan Wani, commander of Hizb-ul Mujahideen, was killed in an encounter with Indian security forces, the exploitation of social media by online groups to capitalize on the situation led to one of the most violent periods in the history of Kashmir. As Parjanya Bhatt of the Observer Research Foundation writes, “[S] ocial media strategies in Kashmir have been morphed into a tradition where false narratives create heroes out of fallen terrorists and radicalise new recruits as icons.”
State-Sponsored Terror
But even as India attempts to normalize the situation in Kashmir, militancy is a threat and people are refraining from venturing out and opening their shops due to intimidation. International media outlets consistently focus on the thousands of Indian troops that are deployed in the region, making it the most militarized zone in the world..........