Kashmir

From Wikipedia: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir>

Kashmir (Balti, Gojri, Poonchi/Chibhali, Dogri: कश्मीर; Kashmiri: कॅशीर, کٔشِیر; Ladakhi: ཀཤམིར; Uyghur: كەشمىر; Shina: کشمیر) is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range. Today Kashmir denotes a larger area that includes the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir (the Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh), the Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and the Azad Kashmir provinces, and the Chinese-administered regions of Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract.

In the first half of the first millennium, the Kashmir region became an important center of Hinduism and later of Buddhism; later still, in the ninth century, Kashmir Shaivism arose.^[1] In 1349, Shah Mir became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir and inaugurated the Salatin-i-Kashmir or Swati dynasty.^[2] For the next five centuries, Muslim monarchs ruled Kashmir, including the Mughals, who ruled from 1526 until 1751, then the Afghan Durrani Empire that ruled from 1747 until 1820.^[2] That year, the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir.^[2] In 1846, upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Dogras—under Gulab Singh—became the new rulers. Dogra Rule, under the paramountcy (or tutelage) of the British Crown, lasted until 1947, when the former princely state became a disputed territory, now administered by three countries: India, Pakistan, and the People's Republic of China.

Resources

Video Resources

Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra - Kashmir: The Case for Freedom

Arundhati Roy, Pankaj Mishra, Mohamed Junaid debate Kashmir's right to self determination. Copyright : Asia Society

PressTV | Unmarked Graves: What happened to those who were disappeared by the state?

Nearly 100,000 people have died since the conflict began in Kashmir. Over two decades of violence between Indian forces and militants has resulted into a huge crisis. Kashmir was once known as paradise on earth but it is now called paradise lost. Most of the Kashmiris who were killed since the revolt against Indian rule broke out two decades ago were given proper burials. But thousands of those who went missing have left their families with a painful struggle, the struggle for the whereabouts of their beloved ones. In this edition of INFocus we will be exploring what happened to those who went missing after being taken away by the government forces.

Key points:

- There are unmarked graves, which probably contain those that were disappeared.

- Local civilians who were killed were labeled as "foreign militants" through "fake encounters."

- Indian government has denied human rights violation in Kashmir saying that they investigate all cases and punish guilty

- those missing in Kashmir this has led to identity crisis - half widows, etc

- International People's Tribunal for Kashmir - Khurram Parvalz

- Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons.

Reflections:

>> It is not too difficult to speculate that if so many innocent families were tortured and destroyed the hurt young members of the family will revenge through terrorism.

>> How do we go about addressing this problem? It's a challenge of its own, having so many adverse consequences to the society..