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History Prof. Hafsa Kanjwal shares opinion in The Washington Post
Hafsa Kanjwal, assistant professor of history, recently wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post about how India’s occupation of Kashmir is being ignored amid heightened tensions following the Feb. 14 suicide attack near Pulwama.
Carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based armed group that aims to destabilize Indian control of Kashmir, the attack killed 45 Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
“It was the heaviest loss encountered by India in the region since the armed rebellion began in 1988,” Kanjwal wrote.
“Battle cries are mounting; Kashmiris are simultaneously being targeted and punished in a number of Indian cities. In the midst of jingoistic fervor in India, the root cause of violence in Kashmir — the Indian occupation — is being completely overlooked.”
Since then, Kanjwal noted, “there has been a huge outcry from all sections of the Indian population — politicians, celebrities, journalists, and the common masses — to avenge the attack, demanding a war against Pakistan and collective punishment for Kashmiris, including calls for genocide.”
Kanjwal wrote her dissertation on the social and political history of post-partition Kashmir. Born in Kashmir, she spent the first six years of her life there before her family moved to the United States in 1993.
1 Comment
The author presents a one-sided picture, rather than a balanced view. It is a screed, not befitting a learned professor. India revoking article 370 allows Kashmir to be treated like every other state of India. It will allow investment to flow into Kashmir and help Kashmir reap the full benefit of integration with India.
Would you allow Pensylvania for pensyllvanians only where no other American is allowed to invest or own property in the state, despite having to support the state through federal taxes. I thought not. So why should India?
As an alum, I also strongly object to the publicity this esteemed college is providing to partisan, uninformed views of this professor. I hope publishing this note will rectify some of that.
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