Kashmir’s silenced solidarity with Palestine

15/7/2024

Blog post by Leoni Connah, Flinders University, Australia

Kashmiri solidarity with Palestine and the ongoing situation in Gaza is currently being silenced by Narendra Modi’s BJP. For decades, the ongoing resistance between Kashmiri civilians and Indian security forces in the Kashmir Valley (particularly Srinagar) has drawn inspiration from the Palestinian struggle (particularly in Gaza) and the two situations have often been compared and contrasted. However, since October 2023, the solidarity that Kashmiris have towards Palestine and the ways in which it is expressed has changed because of the clamping down of Modi’s BJP and his security forces. This short piece provides insight into two aspects of Kashmiri solidarity with Palestine. Firstly, it looks at why Kashmiris are willing to risk their own safety to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Secondly, it explores exactly what this solidarity looks like and examines how Kashmiris are finding alternative ways to resist such silencing that may not be through street demonstrations, but instead using the mediums of art and poetry. The piece considers the following questions: why do Kashmiris stand in solidarity with Palestine? What are the consequences that Kashmiris face through this solidarity? Why does Modi silence Kashmiris when it comes to Palestine?

A history of occupation
The situations in Palestine and Kashmir are connected via an extensive history of Western colonial rule and ongoing human rights abuses. The historic Arab-Israeli war and the Indo-Pak wars resulted in the demography of both Kashmir and Palestine significantly changing, as they oversaw the “influx of Jews in Palestine and Hindus in Kashmir”. From 1947 to 1949, Israeli forces destroyed and depopulated over 400 villages, thus reducing the Palestinian population from 1,000,000 to 160,000. This has come to be known as the Nakba, meaning catastrophe. In Kashmir, prior to Partition in 1947, Muslims accounted for over 60% of the population. However, during Partition it is believed that between 200-500,000 Muslims were massacred and a further 200,000 went missing. This unfamiliar aspect of Kashmir’s history is now known as the Kashmiri Nakba.

When talking to Kashmiri participants as part of my PhD research The Cycle of Violence in Kashmir in 2020-2021, it became clear that some viewed Palestine as a similar situation and many of the interviewees drew parallels to the situation in Gaza. One male student in Srinagar compared the colonial histories of Kashmir and Palestine to each other, and then went on to say the situation in Kashmir is one of settler-colonialism “just like Israel in Palestine”. Another claimed Modi is “copying what’s happening in Palestine”. Other interviews referred to the two situations as occupations, struggles, and fights for autonomy.

Both Palestine and Kashmir have a long history of occupation and have suffered at the hands of their leaders. Perhaps this shared history is the reason why Kashmiris stand in solidarity with Palestine. The latest iteration of this occupation differs, however, with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India pursuing a Hindu nationalist agenda in Kashmir and Benjamin Netanyahu as the Prime Minister of Israel pursuing a Zionist agenda in Palestine. Both India and Israel have used the law and so-called democratic values to extend their control in Kashmir (Kashmir Valley) and Palestine (Gaza), particularly with regard to the acquisition of land. In Israel in 2019, the Nation Law was brought into effect whereby Palestinians could no longer claim the right to self-determination. Israel developed their own “legal framework that supports de facto annexation” and this allowed them to establish settlements in Palestinian territory. For Kashmir, August 2019 saw the Revocation of Article 370 and Article 35A which eradicated Kashmir’s special status. Only a few months later, Modi’s government redefined domicile law in Kashmir making it easier for non-Kashmiris to live in Kashmir and obtain jobs. Both Modi and Netanyahu adopted a colonial infrastructure that allowed for the annexation of land in order to alter the demographic landscape.

However, since 7th October 2023, the situation in Palestine’s Gaza Strip worsened to the extent that Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestine, declared it as a genocide. Albanese said, “the genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians”. She also went on to say that “the colonial amnesia of the West has condoned Israel’s colonial settler project” in Palestine. Whilst Kashmir’s self-determination and special status was diminished in 2019 with the revocation of Article 370, the levels of violence and human rights abuses have not risen as drastically as they have in Gaza. Gaza on the other hand, is experiencing continuous bombardment from Israeli security forces, targeted killings, starvation, and other dehumanising strategies, leaving Palestinians from Gaza City to Rafah with nowhere to go.

Resistance finds a way
Kashmiris have been standing in solidarity with Palestinians for decades, ever since the first nakba, with strong street protest turnouts in 2014 and 2016. Even if under the surface the two conflicts may not be the same, there is a sense of expressed solidarity between Kashmiris and Palestinians. For Kashmiris, as explained by Zia (2020), the Palestinian situation is a “beacon for just struggles, for [the] right to existence elsewhere”. Also, as a result of the human rights abuses that take place in both territories, Kashmiris use the word intifada to resonate with the Palestinian struggle. Participants from my own research said they could not stay quiet on Palestine because if they did, this would give Modi even more motivation to use Palestine as inspiration in Kashmir. Other forms of previous solidarity and resistance include lobbying local politicians, boycotting Israeli products in Kashmir, writing to the central Government to condemn Israeli activities and more. Social media has also been a crucial medium for Kashmiris and Palestinians to connect with each other and share their experience(s).

But what does solidarity look like today? Is resistance even possible? The ongoing genocide has caused a dramatic increase in solidarity not only from ex-colonial states and people in the Global South, but also international Muslim solidarity around the world, and more specifically in Kashmir. Kashmiri solidarity with the situation in Gaza and the Palestinian community has somewhat changed since October 2023 and existing forms of resistance have become increasingly difficult. Indian authorities, under the instructions of Modi’s BJP, have barred all forms of Palestinian solidarity in Kashmir. Consequences of such solidarity include Muslim religious leaders not being able to mention Gaza in their prayers and sermons, community leaders being put under house arrest, peaceful demonstrations being banned, social media posts being taken down, e-curfews being implemented and more.

As a result of this censorship, music, poetry, art, graffiti, and other artistic mediums have become some of the only ways in which Kashmiris have been able to stand in solidarity with Palestinians as part of a global resistance against the Israeli onslaught. Street graffiti is found throughout the capital of Srinagar, with murals saying, ‘Free Palestine’, ‘Save Gaza’, ‘We Want Freedom’ and ‘Free Gaza’. Instagram has been a key location for ‘pop art’, visual images that incorporate resistance slogans such as ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free’ and Palestinian resistance symbols like the watermelon. Other Instagram accounts have been able to share and disseminate information on the situation in Gaza, but Indian authorities are quick to increase digital censorship. This has become an issue to the extent that the same accounts have back up accounts, just in case their primary one gets shut down. Palestinian resistance poetry has been translated into Kashmiri in an effort to increase solidarity at a time when it is becoming near impossible. One of the most poignant is Refaat Alareer’s ‘If I Must Die’, that has been translated into Kashmiri to spread a message of love as well as struggle. This poem unintentionally became Alareer’s own eulogy, as he was killed by Israeli forces not long after its release. There has also been an increase in feminist resistance in Kashmir, and the Zanaan Wanaan feminist collective released a statement of solidarity with Gaza on their online website.

Are any forms of solidarity allowed?
A lot of anti-Palestinian disinformation and fake news is actually coming from Indian right-wing sources, discrediting and undermining any form of solidarity towards Palestinians in Gaza. Clamping down on the human right to peacefully protest and silencing resistance is the latest in a long history of human rights abuses in Kashmir committed by the BJP Government and their security forces. It comes as no surprise that Modi’s government are clamping down on Palestinian solidarity, given the close relationship that has formed between India and Israel in the past decade. After all, India was one of the first countries, amongst other Western democracies, to support Israel and it also abstained from voting in the UN call for a ceasefire. As Hindu nationalism has gained momentum under the Modi government, some Hindu nationalists support Netanyahu’s Zionist claim over Palestine. This has resulted in the vilification of Muslims in India, as well as pro-Israel demonstrations taking place throughout the subcontinent. It seems, when solidarity is expressed towards Israel then it is allowed, but when solidarity is expressed towards Palestine, it is silenced. For those who wish to see India become one Hindu nation at the exclusion of its other religious minorities, the creation of a single Jewish state in the Middle East is an attractive and reasonable idea, regardless of the destruction and death toll that comes with it.

Future solidarity
Palestinians are suffering incomprehensible atrocities on a daily basis, and Kashmiris are amongst some of the bravest voices raising awareness of that suffering. According to The Lancet, one of the world’s highest-impact and reputable academic journals, there is an estimated death toll of over 186,000 (8% of Gaza’s total population) so far. Irrespective of their similarities or differences, “there is a cruel irony to naming either Israel or India as democracies” given the dire situations of both Kashmir and Palestine. Perhaps the following metaphor evidently summarises this unique form of solidarity: “the bird with a broken wing sits with the cat with a broken leg”, two different situations, but a mutual understanding of suffering, empathy, and togetherness. Despite its limitations, Kashmiri solidarity for Palestine will most likely continue and Kashmiris will not give up on their efforts to raise awareness for the Palestinian cause, even in the face of policing by the security forces.

Dr Leoni Connah is a Critical International Relations (IR) scholar and Lecturer in IR at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. Her PhD ‘The Cycle of Violence in Kashmir’ and ongoing research explores the changing nature of the conflict in Kashmir in recent years and the impact this has had on human security, as well as regional South Asian security. Dr Connah’s most-read articles can be found in the following journals: Peace Review, South Asia Research, and Global Change, Peace & Security. Her most recent analysis can be found here. Dr Connah has broader research interests in postcolonial politics, human rights, feminism, and conflict studies and welcomes collaboration in these areas.

Image credit: Photo by Fons Heijnsbroek, abstract-art on Unsplash