USA: Ambassador Masood Khan Sahib, an international diplomat, devoted champion, passionate proponent of the Kashmir cause and the son of the soil of Kashmir, argues that the liberation of Kashmir from India or emergence of another sovereign entity would encourage secessionist tendencies in India and lead to the collapse of India’s existing federal structure. He was speaking at the Book Launch ceremony of “Jammu and Kashmir: the forgotten Narrative” written by a young and dynamic Kashmiri author and scholar Saud Sultan, a graduate of Cambridge University. The event was sponsored by Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) which was presided over by Ambassador Sohail Mahood, Directors General of ISSI and was 

 addressed among others by Farooq Rehmani Sahib, Dr. Khurram Abbas, Ambassador Khalid Mehmood, General Zubair Mehmood Hayat, Barrister Daniel Choudhary, Ambassador Sohail Mahmood and Ambassador Masood Khan Sahib. 

Saud Sultan, the author emphasized that he sought to challenge the Indian narrative by relying primarily on Indian sources, deliberately minimizing the use of Pakistani sources, even though they are equally credible and authentic. Saud Sultan added that he did not want to provoke but to correct; not to romanticize but to remember. He concluded by saying that this was an attempt to reclaim our narrative – Kashmiri narrative. 

It struck me as quite remarkable that everyone at the event was praising Saud Sultan for challenging the dominant Indian narrative and presenting facts. The author himself emphasized the importance of questioning dominant narratives not through emotions, but through evidence. However, the notion proposed by Ambassador Masood Khan Sahib seems to align more closely with the very Indian narrative he claimed to challenge, rather than offering a truly different or independent perspective. I may have misunderstood the statement of Ambassador Masood Khan Sahib, and I regret any misinterpretation on my part. As he is a most qualified diplomat whose integrity I greatly respect, I sincerely beg pardon if I failed to grasp his argument correctly. 

Ambassador Masood Khan Sahib said, “Given the history of the last 78 years, as long as India continues as a Union and Federation in the present form, you cannot liberate Kashmir. India thinks that if it surrenders any part of its territory under its occupation, there will be centrifugal force, from North to South and from East to West who would like to secede because India, all said and done is an artificial state.” 

What seems to be at work here is the notorious and now discarded falling dominoes theory. No area which is today part of India or Pakistan was dragged into a union against its will, all joined by a volition expressed or confirmed in a popular vote. The only exception is Kashmir, which has never been provided the opportunity to decide its own status or affiliation. What, therefore, applies to Kashmir does not apply to Assam or Tamil Nadu. This is also plain from the fact that both India and Pakistan accepted an international obligation under the auspices of the United Nations regarding Kashmir which neither as a sovereign state would accept regarding any of its constituent units, namely the obligation to withdraw their forces from the territory and let the people decide its status. 

The dispute over Kashmir is sue generis. The demilitarization of Kashmir and holding of a plebiscite in it, in accordance with an international agreement, does not logically justify a bid for succession by other territories not – what is more important – psychologically encourage it. 

Contrary to the impression that has been created by the defenders of the status quo in Kashmir, it is the non-settlement of the Kashmir dispute, rather than its settlement, that threatens the territorial integrity of India. 

Nobody has answered this better that the respected Indian statesman, Jayaprakash Narayan who was known as ‘Second Gandhi.’ “Few things have been said in the course of this controversy more silly than this one (will not change in the status of Kashmir lead to the disintegration of the Indian Union) . The assumption behind the argument is that the states of India are held together by force and not by a sentiment of a common nationality. It is an assumption that makes a mockery of the Indian nation and a tyrant of the Indian state.” 

(Dr. Fai is also the Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum., He can be reached at: WhatsApp: 1-202-607-6435. Or gnfai2003@yahoo.com, www.kashmirawareness.org