KASHMIR-Islam,identity_and_insurgency pdf torrent

As Pakistan and India celebrated their Independence Day with glittering fanfare on 14th and 15th August, respectively, all public squares, bazaars and streets in Indian-administered Kashmir were deserted. A curfew was imposed by the Indian Army, unsuccessfully as it turned out, public protests by millions of Kashmiris swelling the valley‘s streets calling for an end to Indian rule. In less than a week, Indian forces killed more than thirty unarmed civilians including a prominent political leader – Sheikh Abdul Aziz. The public protest started as the Indian government transferred 40 hectares of land to a Hindu trust that manages a local shrine, Amarnath, amid fears that India is trying to bring about slow demographic change as the number of Muslim population has dwindled significantly over the last six dec-ades. What started as a public protest against a small land issue soon turned into massive civil disobedience movement and demands of freedom from India. However, once again the political dispute was transformed into a communal confrontation as thousands of Hindu militant extremists supported by the government joined the violent anti-Kashmiri protests who were labelled under categories like Islamic terrorists‘,separatists‘ and of course communal‘, once again putting the religion at the heart of a struggle that is mainly political.