Fake News and Half-Truths are Not Okay
This concerns a post put up by @muslim (Instagram). Unfortunately, because of the username of the account, I am definitely going to be vilified for supposedly being prejudiced against their account and promoting hate speech against it. I just want to put this out there now: I do not have a problem with the account (or any other account for that matter) insofar as it does not propagate fake news or half-truths. I also do not condone of any religious hate-speech that may follow.
What other accounts do does not particularly concern me unless the aforementioned criteria is fulfilled, which was, in this case. And this situation is particularly egregious, because the account has over 300 thousand followers. With an account of that size, one must be held to higher standards of verification. An account that big wields far too much influence to be let off the hook for communicating false information and half-truths. You do you bro, but do it after doing the proper research.
Actually, J&K does not have 13 million Muslims. A 2011 census of Jammu and Kashmir reveals that the population of J&K is 12.55 million. 68.3% of this population is Muslim, i.e. 8.5 million. Even adjusting for population changes in 9 years, the post severely overstated the population by at least 3 million.
It is also important to note that the account very outrightly took a religious approach to the matter and so I have the right to do that as well. One may, and should, talk about the Indian Army violations as much as they want, but Kashmir did not reach such a large Muslim population through peaceful means. It was once a fully Hindu and Buddhist territory, and it is through massacres, forced conversions and genocides that the Muslim population has grown so large. Undoubtedly, there must be those who wilfully converted but so many were forced to convert through torturous means that it cannot simply be overlooked. There was purposeful change of the religious demographics of the region over 700 years – and everyone is hell-bent on avoiding any mention of that.
Here we have a classic case of half-truths. This slide makes it seem as if Kashmir did not willingly cede to India, even though it willingly, and lawfully, did. And since this post chose not to mention it, I will.
Maharaja Hari Singh notably was very conflicted about whether to join India or Pakistan. The Prime Minister, Ram Chandra Kak (who was a Kashmiri Hindu), told him to remain independent, but he remained undecided. The Pashtun and Pathan tribes of Pakistan then decided, you know what, screw what they want, let’s get Kashmir by force.
And so they invaded. They plundered and raped the land and even blocked essential supplies from reaching Kashmir. Kashmir’s small army was no match for Pakistani-government backed militia, and so Maharaja Hari Singh went to India for help. The Instrument of Accession was then signed backed by the Kashmiri population (with Sheikh Abdullah at its forefront) thereby making Kashmir a part of India.
Leaving out this information, in my opinion, is a glaring oversight. Kashmir and the Kashmiri people wilfully joined India. If they were forced to do so, it wasn’t because of India – it was because of Pakistan.
The UN resolution of 1949 also called for a plebisicite to be held, based on the fulfillment of three conditions, in that order. The first was that Pakistan must withdraw all troops and non-Kashmiris from Kashmir. But they did not, and they still haven’t. Yet somehow, that’s on India.
Pakistan, i.e. Fake News High Command, has thrown around the number of 700,000. The actual number is 343,000. The additional troops are not permanent – they are only stationed during periods such as that of Amarnath Yatra. C’mon man, you don’t want to trust Indian information, that’s fine. But trusting Pakistani information is a new low.
The post says that 71 people were allegedly killed by Indian security forces. The UN report bases these claims on the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), which establishes itself as an independent organisation. That’s fine, but it’s important to note that Kashmiris are put under immense pressure by terrorist organisations to pin the blame on the Indian Army.
Case and point. I’m not saying that people haven’t been killed by Indian Army soldiers – in fact the Indian Army, as well as the Indian government, has admitted to it (but not for all cases, and not as many). Read the rest of the report, and you will know. I agree with the UN that the Indian Army should be more transparent with their handling of accused army officers, and that steps should be taken to ensure the officers are not granted full impunity. But this post lacked depth, accuracy and nuance in its approach to the matter.
Lastly, I just want to mention one thing.
Everyone wants to talk about Kashmiris right? But why is the discussion limited to Kashmiris in Indian-Administered Kashmir? The same reports that were cited by the post discuss human rights violations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, but no one wants to discuss those violations.
The violations centre around those who challenge Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. These people are targetted by the Government and tortured and violently dealt with. The reports also mention severe restrictions on freedom of speech, and a lot of these accusations are very similar to the alleged violations in Indian-administered Kashmir. But no one wants to highlight it.
So dear @muslim, I recommend you make a new, accurate and nuanced, post and put up an apology for your oversight. And do include the sufferring of those in Pakistan-administered Kashmir as well, because after all, they are human-beings, and they too are a part of your community.
Bibliography
https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000283431.pdf
https://www.census2011.co.in/data/religion/state/1-jammu-and-kashmir.html
http://ikashmir.net/pastpresent/doc/pastpresent.pdf
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/49b7/3fb850f9a0a2eeef76c83161b242cacb4454.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235932742_THE_FIRST_INDO-PAKISTANI_WAR_1947-48
https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/78264/1/JBS.pdf
https://www.un.org/en/sc/repertoire/52-55/Chapter%208/52-55_08-2-The%20India-Pakistan%20question.pdf
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/KashmirUpdateReport_8July2019.pdf
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/PK/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf