India, Pakistan, and a Royal Catastrophe

The region of Kashmir has acted as the incendiary spark for decades of prolonged conflict between India and Pakistan, and the February 14th bombing of a truck convoy carrying Indian paramilitary forces is only the latest blaze of violence. The region has been marred by death and destruction since the end of British colonialization in the 1940s; the original dispute over land rights between India and Pakistan remains unsettled, and both countries continue to vie for the territory by engaging in a quasi-war––a zero-sum game. Why? I believe that the conflict was borne out of British incompetence; when the British decolonized India in 1947, they failed to specify whether Pakistan or India would receive the nebulously controlled land between their borders. As a result, both countries laid claim to the region of Kashmir. Essentially, I think that the decades-long fight between the two regional powers can be directly traced back to the damaging effects of colonialism.

The last viceroy of colonial India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, orchestrated the establishment of both India––which was majority Hindu––and Pakistan––which was majority Muslim––based on religious alliances. This forced a distinct separation between the two countries and caused the beginning of a religious conflict that has defined the "retaliatory spiral" of fighting in Kashmir ever since. When attacks in Kashmir occur, it is important to consider them as the reverberations of colonialism that continue to echo today. The conflict between India and Pakistan is often viewed as religious, but it is also important to consider its roots in the past; when Britain attempted to dismantle colonial India, they neglected to address many of the sources of conflict that have had decades to fester. While the conflict in Kashmir is multi-faceted and its motivations are complex, one thing is certain: colonization––and its after-effects––are incredibly destabilizing, and I think that the international community should weigh the immediate motivations for prolonged intervention (which is often viewed as modern colonialism) against the future repercussions that will pervade our quest for peace on the world stage.

Source: 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/world/asia/india-pakistan-crisis.html