The Kashmir Question: Victim of British Colonialism and Site of Post-Colonial Communal Violence

Abstract

Kashmir has been a site of communal and international violence for the past decades ever since the decolonization of the Indian sub-continent in the late 1940s. Due to British colonial rule and subsequent religious tensions, the region has faced a complex situation, which has resulted in apolitical crisis. As a result of competition between three great nuclear powers —China, India, and Pakistan— Kashmiri voices for peace and sovereignty have been silenced and crushed with violent force by the Indian state. By exploring first the history of Kashmir from the British colonial era, and then the region’s alignments to surrounding powers, this essay explores the ways in which great power politics silences Kashmiri voices.