Kashmiris and Sikhs held a protest together outside the Indian High Commission on Republic Day, the 62nd anniversary of the Indian Constitution, calling for the freedom that their nations have been denied by Indian military repression. London, UK. 26/01/2011
The protest was called by the All Parties International Kashmir Coordination Committee, along with the Council of Khalistan and Dal Khalsa and was attended by around 50-100 people. Many Sikhs and Kashmiris are said to be reluctant to take part in demonstrations at the High Commission, fearing that it might prevent them from obtaining visas to return to Kashmir or India to visit relatives.
Kashmir, a country since the Iron Age, became a Muslim monarchy in 1349, but became a part of the Sikh Empire in the nineteenth century, and then was established as a kingdom under British guidance. At partition in 1947, following an invasion by Pakistan, the ruling Maharajah ceded the kingdom to India. Since then there have been UN declarations and Indo-Pakistan wars and the country remains under a heavy military presence divided between India and Pakistan (and with a smaller area under Chinese rule.)
Many of the Kashmiris in the protest held placards remembering Kashmiri freedom campaigners - mainly Muslims who make up around 80% of the population - killed by the Indian military, who have carried out reprisals against the Kashmiri population and imprisoning and torturing them. Some of the attacks supposedly carried out by freedom campaigners and Muslims are alleged to have been carried out by Hindu radical groups which include Indian military personnel.
Although overall Kashmir is largely Muslim, there are significant Hindu and smaller Sikh and Buddhist minorities. The protesters today calling for a free Kashmir insist that their movement is not against these minorities and that they have never targeted them. They claim - and many independent reporters have supported them - that the incidents that have taken place - and some on a very large scale - have been encouraged by India as a way to discredit their independence movement.
Feelings are running particularly high in Kashmir at the moment due to a march by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to Srinagar, the state capital and raise the national flag there in a special rally on Republic Day. Both the state government and the Indian government appealed to the BJP to call off this provocative march, and a number of BJP leaders have been arrested.
Both India and Pakistan have been found by UN bodies and other investigations to be guilty of widespread human rights abuses in the areas of Kashmir they ad minster.
The UN in 1948 called for the people of Kashmir to be allowed to determine their future by a free and fair vote, but this has never been possible due to the opposition of both India and Pakistan. India held elections in the area under its control in 1951 and created an assembly which ratified the inclusion of Kashmir in India in 1954. China occupied part of the country in the 1950s, and Pakistan ceded a border area to them in 1963. Pakistan has continued to press for a vote across the country to decide its future, and as well as the two wars between the two countries, and has trained and supported Kashmiri militants.
Sikhs began to call more vigorously for their own homeland following the attack by the Indian Army on the Golden temple at Amritsar, and the widespread anti-Sikh riots and killing which followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. On 26 January 1986, exactly 25 years ago today, the Sikh national body, the Sarbat Khalsa decided to establish a sovereign independent Sikh state of Khalistan.
Since then, Sikhs have been subjected to "various military and political manoeuvres to engineer the reverse of that peaceable and lawful response to the 19894 genocide" and as in Kashmir there have been widespread human rights abuses.
Kashmiris and Sikhs To Raise Freedom Flags
26 January 2011, London: Leading Kashmiri and Sikh Diaspora organisations today join hands to once again call for freedom for their peoples and the dismantling of Indian rule over their historic homelands. On India’s Republic Day, their protest outside the Indian High Commission in London will give India observers a sharp reminder of the fragility of a state that relies entirely on military force to control territories which it can never hope to retain by peaceful and democratic means.
Events in Punjab and Kashmir today will only have served to highlight the fundamental flaws in Indian hegemony over those territories. Hindu fundamentalists are converging on the region to belligerently raise the Indian flag where it is not wanted, creating tension and hoping to trigger violence. They will be met by Khalistani and Kashmiri freedom campaigners who have bravely defied decades of Indian oppression, which has directly resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, shattered economies and the misery of unending conflict.
These legitimate freedom movements, justified in international law under the right to self-determination, have been stifled only by the illegal use of force. Whilst genocide by Indian security forces in this context is a matter of record, the role of non-state actors should also be recognised.
Just this month emerged the confession by a Hindu radical that his group, which included army personnel, were behind deadly bombings killing hundreds in India in 2007 and 2008 – many innocent Muslims have been tortured and still remain in custody on suspicion of involvement but the truth has now emerged. Likewise in March 2000, “Hindu militants” (according to the then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) massacred 34 Sikhs in Chattisingpura to defame Kashmiris but the truth eventually emerged. Massacres of thousands of Sikhs in November 1984, Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and Christians in more recent times have all been carried out by mobs acting under the guidance and direction of government officials who then set up endless enquiries with no outcomes. These shoddy attempts to hide the reality behind the Indian state will not fool the international community which must intervene before the region descends in to an abyss, with obvious dangers for global security.
India’s approach to Kashmir, a disputed territory which the UN has directed be resolved by means of a plebiscite, remains as unprincipled as it is unconvincing. Appointing interlocutors to report back on media-friendly visits to the region is not a serious position and has been rightly ridiculed. Kashmiris must be engaged with as equal partners and allowed to exercise their national rights in a free and fair manner. In addition, India’s military stranglehold on the region must be withdrawn. The recent referendum exercise in South Sudan, backed by all major powers as well as the UN, provides a clear modern example of conflict resolution by democratic mandate.
Sikhs today also commemorate the 25th anniversary of the historic decision taken by their national decision making body, the Sarbat Khalsa, on 26 January 1986 to establish a sovereign independent Sikh state of Khalistan. Successive Indian governments have undertaken various military and political manoeuvres to engineer the reverse of that peaceable and lawful response to the 1984 genocide, but without success. In July 2010 the International Court of Justice (in the Kosovo case) ruled that a declaration of independence does not contravene international law and the Sikh nation today stands firm on its resolve to secure the freedom and justice in accordance with the Sarbat Khalsa’s direction.
India’s shameful record of imperialism and as a serial human rights violator gives it no credible claim to its cherished dream of a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. If it wants to sit at the top table and be seen as a civilised state, it is high time that it matures in to the democracy it claims to be. Genocide perpetrators must be dealt with by international criminal courts, the theft of precious natural resources must be stopped and freedom must be restored to colonised regions in accordance with the wishes of the people.
The flags of a free Kashmir and a free Khalistan are the only flags that can legitimately fly over those territories and together we reaffirm our solemn resolve to raise them.
All Parties International Kashmir Co-ordination Committee
Council of Khalistan Dal Khalsa
