Kashmiris Observing India’s Republic Day as Black Day

By Sajjad Shaukat

Republic Day marks the adoption of the Indian and the transition of the country to a republic on January 26, 1950. Every year, the celebrations marking the day feature spectacular military and cultural display.

When India celebrates Republic Day on January 26, Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and Pakistanis, including those of rest of the world observe it as the Black Day to protest against Indian illegal occupation of Kashmir and to convey the message to the international community that New Delhi continues to usurp their inalienable right of self-determination.

Although apparently, India claims to be the largest democracy, acting upon the principles of liberalism and secularism, yet in practice, all political, economic and social fields of the country are divided on the religious and caste lines. Theoretically, Indian Constitution safeguards the rights of minorities, but in practice, ideology of Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism) prevails.

And showing complete disregard to the Constitution, the leader of the ruling BJP party-the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accelerated implementation of the Hindutva ideology. Now, Indian internal policies are totalitarian. Various developments like unprecedented rise of Hindu extremism, persecution of religious minorities such as Sikhs, Christians and particularly Muslims, including even of lower cast-Hindus—the anti-Muslim Indian Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, the National Register of Citizens show that the Hindu fanatic groups have been promoting religious and ethnic chauvinism in India.

Notably, during the partition of the Sub-continent, the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) which comprised Muslim majority decided to join Pakistan. But, Dogra Raja, Sir Hari Singh, a Hindu who was ruling over the J&K in collusion with the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Governor General Lord Mountbatten joined India.

The Radcliffe Boundary Award gave the Gurdaspur District—a majority Muslim area to India to provide a land route to the Indian armed forces to move into the J&K.

Indian forces invaded Srinagar on October, 27 1947 and forcibly occupied the J&K in utter violation of the partition plan.

When Pakistan responded militarily, on December 31, 1947, India made an appeal to the UN Security Council to intervene and a ceasefire ultimately came into effect on January 01, 1949, following UN resolutions calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir.

The Security Council adopted resolution of April 21, 1948, which promised a plebiscite under UN auspices to enable the people of to determine whether they wish to join Pakistan or India. On February 5, 1964, India backed out of its commitment of holding plebiscite. Instead, Indian Parliament declared Kashmir-an integral part of the Indian union.

Indian Constitution which claims India to be a secular state was torn into pieces on August 5, 2019 when Indian extremist government revoked articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution, which gave a special status to the disputed territory of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Indian government bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to be ruled by the federal government. On the same day, strict military lockdown was imposed in the IIOJK.

In fact, the very tragedy of Kashmiris had started after 1947 when they were denied their genuine right of self-determination. They organised themselves against the injustices of India and launched a war of liberation which New Delhi tried to suppress through various forms of state terrorism.

Since 1989, various forms of state terrorism have been part of a deliberate campaign by the Indian army and paramilitary forces against Muslim Kashmiris. It has been manifested in brutal tactics like crackdowns, curfews, illegal detentions, massacre, targeted killings, sieges, burning the houses, torture, disappearances, rape, breaking the legs, molestation of Muslim women and killing of persons through fake encounters.

The deployment of more than 900,000 military troops in the IIOJK, who have martyred tens of thousands of the Kashmiris, including women and children through brutal tactics-fake encounters, while closure of mosques, shortage of foods, medicines for the patients have further increased the plight of the Kashmiris.

In order to hide human rights violations, communication services have been cut off from the world and foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the Kashmir region.

While, under a well-planned hidden agenda, Modi-led regime has intensified, bringing demographic changes in the IIOJK. In this context, Indian various moves such as amendment of the law, allowing Indian citizens to buy land in the IIOJK, issuance of domicile certificates to more than 800000 non-Kashmiris, registration of almost 2.5 million new non-local voters in the IIOJK etc. might be cited as instance.

Modi-regime has also sent gangs of RSS-BJP volunteers permanently stationed in the occupied Kashmir. 

Despite the use of chemical weapons—the pellet guns and phosphorus bombs, Kashmiris have accelerated the war of liberation, being waged for their right of self-determination, which was recgonised by the related UN resolutions.

It is mentionable that Western media, human rights groups and leaders of various countries and UNO have repeatedly condemned Indian illegal measures and human rights abuses which keep on going in the IIOJK.

In this regard, a year after India abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, UN human rights experts on August 4, 2020 called on India and the international community to take urgent action to address the “alarming” human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir—“to investigate all cases of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detentions.”

Amnesty International also said on September 29, 2020 that it is “stopping its work in India because the government has frozen its bank accounts” on September 10 for highlighting rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir” and “the government had sought to punish it for that”.

In the recent past, the UN Security Council in its meetings has thrice reiterated that the Kashmir issue requires to be settled in accordance with the principles of the UN charter and the related Security Council resolutions, as the world has refused to believe in the Indian story that its actions regarding IIOJK are its internal matter.

And Indian forces have been also availing various draconian laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the Public Safety Act (PSA) etc. in martyring the Kashmiri people, and for arbitrarily arrest of any individual for an indefinite period.

However, state of the Jammu and Kashmir has become the world’s largest prison, and the most militarized zone on earth. In this respect, Pakistan and Kashmiris, living abroad also raised Indian atrocities and continued struggle for the Kashmiris’ legitimate right of self-determination on various international forums, emphasizing that Kashmir issue should be resolved in accordance with the related resolutions of the UNO.

In this respect, US House of Representatives Terry Meza participated in a recent event organized by Kashmir Global Council (KGC) and South Asia Democracy Watch in Frisco Texas—Ms. Terry Meeza was the chief guest and the symposium was attended by well-known social activist Ms. Beverly Hill, and various political leaders, academics, US media, including young students.

Endorsing her voices for freedom of Kashmir, Terry Meza said that she is against any form of oppression and stressed the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in keeping with the legitimate aspirations of the people of Kashmir.

She urged the international community, especially the United States, to reach out to the Indian state to end the deliberate politicizing of the justice system and its discriminatory functioning.

Meanwhile, President of the KGC Farooq Siddiqi stated that the council would continue to bring the issue of Kashmir to the forefront in the corridors of world powers.

After a full day discussion, discourse and deliberation during the symposium, a resolution was passed which stressed for upholding the human rights of Kashmiri people and appealed to allow the UN Human Rights Commission to verify the report compiled by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2018-19.

Now, at the global level there is growing noticeable awareness regarding Indian’s brutal acts and atrocities in IIOJK.

In this context, the 41st Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group was held from 7-18 November at the UNHRC in Geneva. During the session, India’s national report for the fourth UPR cycle was reviewed on November 10, 2022. The report was prepared by UNHRC and various official and non-official entities, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, NGOs, joint groups and individuals working with the states.

Speakers at the webinar, while expressing serious concerns over India’s noncompliance with the recommendations agreed during UPR’s 3rd cycle, have said that despite strong protests from human rights organizations, including the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Indian government has failed to address the key human rights concerns expressed during third Universal Periodic Review.

They explained: “Given the scale of human rights challenges that Kashmiris face, it is extremely disappointing to see that India’s repressive regime led by Hindu supremacists has been brazenly flaunting the UPR recommendations and commitments regarding the improvement of the human rights situation in the Indian-held territory of Jammu and Kashmir…called upon Indian government to reverse 5th August action, which was against the spirit of the Geneva conventions and UNSC resolutions on Kashmir”.

They demanded of the government of India “to repeal all draconian laws, release political prisoners, human rights defenders and give access to the UN special rapporteur and other mandate holders to Indian-occupied Kashmir to assess the situation on the ground. They also urged the Indian government “to allow UN fact-finding missions to Indian-occupied Kashmir to investigate ongoing and past human rights violations”.

Nevertheless, 26th of January which is celebrated as the Indian Republic Day, is being observed by the Kashmiris and Pakistanis across the globe as the Black Day to express solidarity with the Kashmiri freedom fighters.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com