Why I'm an 'Azad Kashmir' convert. The really Azad Kashmir, that is.

So apparently my last post was whiny. Well, yeah, it was. So here is a break from me.

I now believe that Kashmir has the right to be an independent state if that's what the people want. No, I did no support Khalistan (wasn't born then, but whatever)and donot support the slowly crazing Bal Thackeray's proclamations of Maharashtra being bigger than Nehru. But I support Azad Kashmir.
Yes, I doubt Kashmir has the resources and military strength to protect itself from the inevitable Pakistani attempt to conquer it, and yes, it will be very very fragile, but they should be given a chance.

An excerpt from Wikipedia:
"Pakistan claims that the insurgents in Kashmir are Jammu and Kashmir citizens, and they are rising up against the Indian Army in an independence movement. It also says the Indian Army is committing serious human rights violations to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir. It denies that it is giving armed help to the insurgents.

India claims these insurgents are Islamic terrorist groups from Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Afghanistan, fighting to make Jammu and Kashmir part of Pakistan.It believes Pakistan is giving armed help to the terrorists, and training them in Pakistan. It also says the terrorists have been killing many citizens in Kashmir, and committing human rights violations, while denying that its own armed forces are responsible for the human rights abuses."

In all this, where are the Kashmiris?

I, for one, know very little about this. Media reports showcase the political parties and countries blaming eachother for the violence (never elaborated) in Kashmir. What do I really know of the Kashmiris? The people who live there, what do they want?
Do they feel tired and helpless? Do they want to be Pakistanis or Indians? (Although that question won't make a concrete difference, they'll be equally ill-treated on either side of the border, I have come to believe.)

A sensible Kashmiri wants to be neither, hopefully. Anyone who believes that Pakistan is going to treat them better than India is fooling him/herself because:
a) The Taliban now slowly gaining on Pak, in spite of the army's recent small victory over them.
b) It is, after all, Pakistan. No offence to anyone, but they've always wanted to announce their territorial rights over Kashmir. And if they can send insurgents and declare war at the fall of a hat, they are capable of much worse.
Also, Pakistan is vulnerable economically, thanks to having pumped all their aid money into the development of nuclear weaponry. (O.K., no actual proof of that, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the direct relationship between increasing aid from the US and reports of Pak's nuclear weapons)

So, hopefully, Kashmiris want Kashmir, not Pakistan. Nor India.

How do I start elaborating on my possibly one-sided account of why India should let Kashmir be?
I already have. The fact that I (and possibly you, too) know so little about them, about public opinion on the matter. Is the National Conference more important than the average Kashmiri? Although recently the Kashmiris have expressed hope for change by showing an astonishing turn-out of 60% for the last elections (Where NC and not PPP won)despite a Pakistani call to boycott it.

Secondly, the Indian army. Kargil was a stupenduous, praiseworthy victory. The Indian Army did much better than expected. Militancy rates have fallen. Where, in 2005, 557 civilians fell victims to militancy, the number fell to 91 in 2008. Shabash.
But what of Shopian? The gang-rape and murder of two young women in the valley has led to much protesting and stone-throwing. Truthfully, I find it pretty easy to believe that army personnel were involved. A bunch of young men, stuck without female company in a place far away from home, drunk on the power only having a killing machine in your hand can give the youth. Pretty easy to believe they did it.
There have been reports of Army crimes for a while now (could admittedly be the work of external forces), but here is a concrete case which makes me change my opinion on a piece of my country.

Thirdly, the fact that the Kashmiris appear a peaceful lot who sincerely want a chance to be in control; simply because those who are now, are dissatisfactory to them. This is no MNS or Shiv Sena that riots at the slightest provocation(and lack, thereof), this is a state that resorts to complete shut-downs and stone-throwing at murders and rapes believed to be by the Army meant to protect them.

Fourthly, and unexpectedly, after much searching, I found this:

"Two US based research institutes (the Program on International Policy Attitudes and the WorldPublicOpinion.Org) have conducted a survey in Indian and Pakistani Kashmir regions on what Kashmiris want. The survey, which the groups say is the first of its kind on both sides of the de facto border, shows that Kashmiris feel they are being used by rivals India and Pakistan to advance those countries' agendas. For both India and Pakistan, Kashmir is strategic and has become a matter of prestige over the years."
I have to admit, there is nothing in this that I can honestly and rightly defend my beloved (no sarcasm intended) India against. It is definitely a matter of prestige that we have Kashmir, and on many levels it is rubbed in.

I'm sure there must be a number of other reasons for and against my current support for Azad Kashmir (really Azad, not the Pakistani meaning, which is 'free from India').
However, in the end, I believe that this is no Khalistan. No one is threatening to blow us up if we don't give in to their (I'm beginning to believe righteous) demands. These are people who are simply asking that we stop using them (whether or not we actually are, if they feel that way, it matters).
It is simple decency that we admit we may not be 'all that', and give them their country.

Admittedly, there have to be a 100 things I amn't thinking about, like how this is going to fuel Gorkhaland, and possibly Maharashtra and Punjab, and what effect this will have on our revenue, exports etc.
(28 freedom movements will probably start out in 28 different states and everyone would rate being a Maharashtrian or Tamilian higher than being an Indian.)

But Kashmir deserves some dignity after 62 years of being brawled over.
Also, who is listening anyway? ;-)