Imran Khan was in a celebratory mood after his successful
visit to Washington. He seemed to have impressed the hard-
to-please American President. In a joint press conference
after the conclusion of their long Oval Office meeting, Donald
Trump offered his services as a mediator for the unresolved
issue of Kashmir. He said that Narendra Modi, the Indian
Prime Minister, had asked him to intervene. A surprised India
quickly rejected the notion that after having resisted third-
party involvement in the dispute, it was now prepared to
accept America’s good offices. Some analysts have suggested
that India’s August 5th move to fully integrate Kashmir into
the Indian Union was being planned but the Trump offer may
have hastened the Indian action.
“You have time on your side,” a senior Chinese official once
told me when I was the director of the World Bank’s China
Operations Department. I held that position for well over
seven years, from 1987 to 1994. In 1989 I steered the World
Bank through what Beijing called the “Tiananmen incident”.
vMost of the world – certainly the United States – did not buy
that description of an event that brought the Chinese army
to the storied gathering place in the centre of the country’s
capital. The army cleared Tiananmen of the protesters who
had occupied the square for weeks. Hundreds of people were
killed in the military action. The fact that I refused to buckle
under the American pressure exerted on me by the officials
of the administration headed by president George H W
Bush brought me close to the senior leaders of China. I had
discussions with them on several issues including the future
of Kashmir. The quote with which I began this article was with
reference to Kashmir and had a suggestion on how Pakistan
should handle itself in this long-enduring dispute with India
over the state of Kashmir.
Shahid Javed Burki
The writer is a former caretaker
finance minister and has served as
vice-president of the World Bank
Pakistan’s
options in
Kashmir
24 September 2024
The Chinese senior official in saying that
time was on Pakistan’s side took a cue
from his country’s history, particularly
the way Beijing had handled the issue of
Taiwan. In fact, before moving to take
over the China department, I was the
director of the International Relations
Department responsible for the World
Bank’s dealing with global institutions
and matters not directly related to the
institution’s country operations.
The Bank then had begun to publish
what was called the World Development
Report in which it listed Taiwan as a
separate country. The Chinese objected
and I worked out an arrangement in
which Taiwan was referred to as “Taiwan,
China”. That way the Bank could include
data about Taiwan in the list of economic
entities on which it reported while
China was satisfied that an important
institution such as the World Bank was
not unilaterally changing the status of
Taiwan with respect to China.
“Taiwan will become a part of China,” the
official continued. “Taiwan will never be
an independent country. It will become
part of China. That’s what it was for
thousands of years and will get back into
that position for thousands of years. Time
is on our side; it may take five years, ten
years, fifty years, a 100 years.” He felt that
Kashmir was in a similar situation. It is
an anomaly. It cannot be the only Muslim
majority state in a predominantly Hindu
India. “Kashmir will come to Pakistan
for that is where it belongs. Time is on
Pakistan’s side,” said the official.
The Hindu extremists who now have a
dominant position in the incumbent
Indian government do not realise the
truth in the Chinese view. That is why
they have taken the step they did on
August 5 and removed the special
status Kashmir had been promised and
granted in 1947 when it persuaded the
state’s Hindu raja to accede to India. An
important component of that original
contract was the ban on the acquisition of
property by non-Kashmiris in Kashmir.
With that provision gone, we are likely to
see the repeat of the Palestinian situation
in Kashmir. In the 1940’s, the Zionist
movement got tens of thousands of
moneyed Jews from Europe to come to
Palestine and buy homes and lands from
the Arabs. The Palestinians lost their
overwhelming presence in the part of the
geographic space that became the Jewish
state of Israel. The Indians hope to repeat
the Palestinian history in Kashmir. Will
they succeed?
The answer is no, since the Kashmiri
resistance to Indian rule has entered a
new phase. In the first phase, some of
the Kashmiri elite sided with India and
were given senior political positions in
the state’s government. That did not
win the favour of the younger people in
the territory. The second phase involved
Pakistan’s direct involvement when
it sent the seasoned, battle-hardened
mujahideen who had pushed the Soviet
Union out of Afghanistan. The authorities
in Pakistan facilitated their move into
Kashmir. India responded by militarising
the region. With an estimated 650,000 to
700,000 men from the country’s armed
forces in the state, Kashmir is the most
militarised place on earth. Kashmir is now
an occupied territory.
The third phase began on August 5 when
Narendra Modi, his close associates
and the BJP brought their program
of “Hindunising” India. Several years
ago Sunil Khilani, an Indian historian,
had written a powerful book titled The
Idea of India. He had concluded that
India had created a powerful nation
out of extreme diversity. This was done
by establishing institutions that gave
space to people who followed different
religions, spoke different languages
and belonged to different castes. Modi,
encouraged by his electoral triumph in
May of this year, has walked away from
that idea of India. The RSS, the extremist
Hindu organisation from the ranks of
which Modi rose, does not subscribe to
that idea of India. The followers of this
non-inclusive organisation do not admit
women, have no interest in working with
the members of lower castes, and are
hostile to Muslims. Amit Shah, the India
Home Minister and the person closest to
the Indian Prime Minister, once called
Muslims “termites, eating away at the
structure of Hindu India”. The move on
Kashmir is aimed at ridding the termite
infestation.
Notwithstanding, the Pakistani responses
by reducing its diplomatic presence in
India and by calling on several world
leaders to work on India to reverse the
actions it has taken are not likely to work
and bring about a change of heart in New
Delhi. What will work is the growing
realisation on the part of the growing
segment of the Indian population that the
real termite is the move to create a Hindu
nation out of India’s diversity. Modi is
moving India towards its demise. Time is
not on India’s side.