Why Kashmir is not Palestine

A lot of SJW’s, both Left and Right, equate the completely disparate and distinct tragedies of our times and lump them into “oppressor-oppressed” debate.

Lets get the basics correct first.

Kashmir: An ancient & important region for Buddhist and Hindu traditions was ruled, until 1947, by Sikh king Hari Singh. When upper class Muslims in central India (Jinnah) conspired for a separate nation close to rest of Islamic nations (Iran, Afghanistan and middle-east in general), the King with majority Muslim population was undecided about which newly minted nations, India or Pakistan, to give in to (all princely states were given the freedom to choose).

But Pakistani leadership, in haste, decided to attack & annex Kashmir by force and fold it into it’s Islamic State (or Republic) based solely on it’s religious populace. India intervened and got UN involved as an arbiter. A UN resolution was passed declaring —that after Pakistan and it’s proxy militia de-escalate their armies from the border areas, a plebiscite will be held to decide the future of the Himalayan State.

Pakistan’s military dictatorship has never honored the resolution but has systematically waged numerous wars against India even after repeated efforts for peace by Indian counterparts. While Atal Bihari Vajpayi was holding a peace conference, Pakistan’s military head, Parvez Musharraf was building up massive military installation in PoK. In fact, under Indira Gandhi, India captured all of Pok in 1972 war but later retreated in good faith. In the mean time, today most of non-Muslim minorities in Kashmir have either been killed by Pakistan funded militants or driven out (Kashmiri Pandits) forcefully. The persistent Pakistani proxy war and hate propaganda (literally paying unemployed youths & students to commit violence on Indian army; apologist newspapers) against India continuously turns emotions of youth into Indiaphobia — of course it’s irrational.

Now lets look at Israeli-Palestinian situation. We can see a lot of similarities between Israel and Pakistan, in terms of aggression, rather than between Israel and India.

Similarities Between Pakistan and Israel:

• Like Pakistan, Israel was created out of thin air with strategic British-American interests in the region.
• The alliance plays out even today: Israel in middle-east for proximity to oil reserves and Pakistan in South Asia for proximity to China and southern Russia, are America’s major allies.
• Israel, like Pakistan has continued to expand it’s territory after their creation.
• Ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Kashmir vs Ethnic displacement of Muslims in Palestine. Both Pakistan and Israel have driven out or replaced the native ethnic population and made settler colonies of the dominant religion. During independence, Kashmir had 30% minority non-Muslim population but is now in the low single digits scattered in urban pockets.
• Both Israel and Pakistan have defied UN resolutions (1948 by Pakistan and 1967 by Israel) to deescalate their armies and to remove personnel from occupied territories.
• Both spend large sums of money lobbying at the UN and in Washington D.C.
• Both receive financial & military aid from US and NATO nations to the tunes of billions of dollars.
• While Kashmiri Pandits were forced out, there are no Muslim Kashmiri refugees anywhere, unlike the 5.7 million Palestinians outside of their land. Read more here

Of course, Israel is no Pakistan. Helped by it’s exuberantly rich & influential global expat community, Israel has made great strides in sciences, technology and military prowess and created a thriving middle and upper middle class. While Pakistan, ruled by military dictators in almost every decade is reeling to grow above world average. Pak army routinely exhorts massive atrocities in it’s own province of Baluchistan.

And that’s what matters. Pakistan army’s proxy war in Kashmir is a faux outcry for peace and self-rule of Kashmir. Otherwise, why would a nation spend a third of it’s GDP on military might when their well meaning population is struggling to grow faster than average?