India Pakistan war

Some not-frequently repeated facts

Here are some facts that are being avoided in the discussion of this conflict.

1. India has committed horrible injustices and abuses in Kashmir for decades. Kashmir only joined India at Partition time on the basis of a deal with protections through special articles in the Indian Constitution. The current government did not have the authority to cancel these articles of the constitution (Articles 370 and 35), but did so nonetheless, in 2019, which was a major abuse in a long line of abuses.

2. India’s government is run by fascists who have used police riots, mob violence, assassination, torture, public and media campaigns against minorities, especially Muslims, as an established part of their ruling and electoral strategy. The image of Pakistan plays a major role in this playbook.

3. Pakistan’s regime is run by group that came to power in a coup against Imran Khan, who was overthrown at US behest, principally as punishment for not allowing Pakistan to be used as a platform for the US to continue to hold Afghanistan, but also because of deals he wanted to make with Russia, his advocacy for Palestine. It has faced the largest protests in history, it has seen a decline in the prestige and faith in its military (always the main power bloc in the country), and it continues to persecute Imran Khan’s movement to this day, including stealing elections and outrageous abuse of the judicial system.

4. The Pakistani state commits horrible injustices and abuses against minorities, including counterinsurgency and international assassination campaigns against activists from Balochistan.

5. India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were all part of British India. After the British monopoly on the slave trade and its pillage of the Americas, India became the principal engine of Britain’s wealth and power, generating so much surplus that Britain used it to industrialize the US and Europe.

6. When it became clear that India was going to become independent, Britain ensured that it would be divided and poor. Partition was imposed by the British imperialists.

7. All of India and Pakistan’s wars with one another since Partition have served no one but the same (now neo) colonial interests that imposed it in the first place. Militarily speaking there can be no victor in a war between these countries, only losers.

8. The official language of India is Hindi (and English). The official language of Pakistan is Urdu (and English). These are the same language written with a different alphabet in each country. This language, Hindi-Urdu, is not spoken by people from any other country. It’s the same language, the same people, with the same culture and a shared history.

9. It is outrageous and unrealistic to suggest that Partition shouldn’t have happened and that South Asia could be a federation with wealth and power commensurate to its size and history.

10. It is far more realistic to believe that India and Pakistan should develop methods of rule dependent on persecuting minorities internally and fighting wars with one another with weapons manufactured in other countries and purchased at huge expense.

That’s it, we’ll return now to regular anti-genocide programming.