During a Wednesday teach-in hosted by the Jasmine Collective and the Asian Pacific American Coalition, Northwestern students contextualized recent developments in the conflict between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region.
Members of the Jasmine Collective gave a short introduction on the history of India, Pakistan and Kashmir, a region in the north of the Indian subcontinent, before delving into the controversy surrounding the region.
Weinberg sophomore Haarika Palacharla explained that the border drawn between India and Pakistan in 1947 during Partition — the process by which India, under British colonial rule, was divided into the two countries — was created with little regard to regional context.
“A lot of the borders that currently exist are completely arbitrary and don’t really reflect culture or history,” Palacharia said.
India and Pakistan each control parts of Kashmir, with a heavily militarized border separating them. The two nations have gone to war over the region twice — in 1947 and 1965, respectively — and have fought numerous skirmishes since then. The region recently attracted international attention because of an April 22 attack in the town of Pahalgam that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. Twenty-five of the people killed were Indian.
Tensions have since escalated, with India accusing Pakistan of orchestrating the attack. Indian airstrikes hit targets in Pakistan-controlled parts of Kashmir and within Pakistan, which retaliated with strikes of its own — both sides reported casualties. A ceasefire was announced on May 10.
“We had this event mostly as a response to the April 22 Pahalgam attack that happened a couple of weeks ago, and then more recently, some of the rising tensions between India and Pakistan,” SESP junior and Jasmine Collective member Anusha Kumar said.
Kumar said the conversation must shift to focus on Kashmir, rather than viewing the tensions purely through the lens of the wider India-Pakistan conflict.
She also said that part of the Jasmine Collective’s goal in hosting the event was to offer an account that has been less widely publicized.
“A lot of media, especially in India, is peddling this narrative (that) the Kashmiris are separatists,” Kumar said. “That really isn’t true, because when you look at the history, the events don’t really line up to make that true. The only thing that’s really happening is that Kashmir has been occupied, annexed and colonized for centuries and centuries.”
Weinberg senior Sanjana Rajesh, a former Daily staffer, emphasized the one-sided nature of media coverage on conflict.
Rajesh pushed back against the often-cited explanation that the conflict in Kashmir is purely religious. She said it was a narrative used in large part by India to justify the conflict.
“The Kashmiri struggle, which is about class and self-determination, has become weaponized to be about religion; it has become a Hindu versus Muslim conflict,” Rajesh said. “Religion does not define indigeneity, and that is a narrative that is really important to interrupt.”
She also emphasized the importance of lifting up Kashmiri voices.
“The main thing to underscore is that Kashmir autonomy has been lost throughout the conflict and within ceasefire negotiations,” Rajesh said. “It’s clear that both India and Pakistan view the region as a way to advance their countries’ interests.”
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