Rise of Hindu nationalism has further fuel hatred in Kashmir, “Many Kashmiris now hate India”: NYT Report

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (APP):The rise of Hindu nationalism in India, which has deeply alienated its Muslim minority and taken an anti-Muslim direction, is pushing more people in the India-held Kashmir to join the freedom struggle in the valley, where many Kashmiris now hate India, say a report published in the leading US daily, the New York Times.
“India’s swerve to the right in recent years, with the rise of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has deeply alienated its Muslim minority. Many top members of the ruling party have a very questionable record when it comes to treating Muslims fairly,” according to the report.
This has emboldened Hindu supremacists across India and recent years, who have targeted and killed Muslims, the report said adding that in the Indian-administered Kashmir where there was already a history of conflict, “the new politics have sparred more people to turn against the government”. “Some pick up guns, others rocks, but the root emotion is the same: Many Kashmiris now hate India.
Describing Kashmir as one of Asia’s most dangerous flashpoints, where Kashmiri Muslims have struggled for freedom for several decades, it said that both Pakistan and India are now nuclear powers and have fought three wars between them.
The report quoted Imran Khan, whose Threek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party emerged the largest single party in the 2018 general elections, as saying that he was determined to negotiate an end to the Kashmir dispute.
Describing Imran Khan’s victory as “persuasive”, the report said the fact that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a friendly phone to congratulate him, suggests that a “breakthrough is possible”.
However, the report observed that hatred in the Indian-held Kashmir against the Indian rule is growing and “Now, the resistance inside the Indian areas is overwhelmingly homegrown”.
“The conflict today is probably driven less by geopolitics than by internal Indian politics, which have increasingly taken an anti-Muslim direction,” the report said adding that most of the freedom fighters are young men.
“This is what’s different,’’ the report said quoting Siddiq Wahid, a Kashmiri historian who earned his Ph.D from Harvard, who observed that in the 1990s, many Kashmiris felt they could negotiate, but that has now changed.  “But nobody wants to be part of India now…Every Kashmiri is resisting today, in different ways.’’
The report said that now children and grandmothers are also joining the movement and during Indian raids in villages, residents of all ages now act as “human shields” to protect freedom fighters.
“Walk through Kashmiri villages, where little apples are ripening on the trees and the air tastes clean and crisp, and ask people what they want. The most common response is independence,” the report said adding that while some say they want to join Pakistan, “None say anything good about India”.
The NYT report further said that India’s harsh response has pushed even moderates as soldiers manhandled residents and used live ammunition on people, protesting against the Indian brutalities.
Referring to the killing of young and aspiring militants, the report said that the “culture of death” is spreading across India. “The militants have become the biggest heroes. People paint their names on walls. They wear T-shirts showing their bearded faces. They speak of them affectionately, as if they are close friends. The militants are especially revered after they are dead.”