12.06.2002

Debating Kashmir

At the end of last week, Richard Armitage, US deputy secretary of state, cautiously advised the world that tensions over Kashmir were "a little bit down". Yet the issue of Kashmir is not going away. The threat of nuclear annihilation remains. It is against this background that the June 6 Socialist Alliance meeting on the 'Crisis in Kashmir' is to be welcomed as an attempt to cohere socialist and progressive forces in this country in the fight against nuclear war and barbarism on the Asian subcontinent. Around 70 people attended. Liz Davies, chair of the SA, introduced a platform of three speakers: Asad Rehman (Stop the War Coalition and Newham Monitoring Project), Gita Shagal (writer and Women against Fundamentalism) and Mike Marqusee (SA). Each raised a number of important issues. Pointing out that nuclear war would not simply be regional, but would have devastating consequences for the whole of humanity, comrade Marqusee highlighted the dangers of "aggressive nationalism" inherent within hindu fundamentalism. He spoke of how the political right in India rejoiced at September 11, which had given the country's warmongers the legitimacy to carry out cross-border attacks. He called on the left not to be complacent about hindu nationalism. Comrade Shagal spoke of the importance of keeping alive secular movements in the region and pointed out that the Kashmir crisis was essentially "a problem of democracy". She highlighted the hypocrisy of the imperialist countries, pointing to the selling of arms to both India and Pakistan and of imperialism's creation of third world debt, which had also fuelled tension between the two belligerent countries. While comrade Marqusee gave the overview and background to the conflict, and comrade Shagal gave an Indian perspective, it was surprising that comrade Rehman did not highlight the democratic deficiencies and problems in Pakistan, but instead concentrated on the rise of the far right BJP in India. In this sense, the meeting was lopsided, concentrating on the belligerence of India without dealing with the expansionist and reactionary aims of Pakistan as well. From the floor a number of comrades highlighted the need to fight for self-determination for Kashmir, which, interestingly, had not been voiced clearly from the platform. They included Mark Hoskisson of Workers Power, who also spoke of the need to turn the conflict into one against the country's respective warring governments and to "overthrow their elites". Around a quarter of those at the meeting were from an Asian background. One speaker from the floor called for a 'civil war' in the religions. This sparked one of the more interesting threads in the debate. The issues of identity and religion was seen by some speakers as matters for individuals. Progressive jews need to take on the Zionists and jewish bigots; the islamic political world needed to be contested by progressive muslims. Marcus Ström (CPGB) rejected this relativist and separatist conclusion. The movement as a whole had a responsibility for battles in both the religious and the secular world. It was a pity, he said, that the Stop the War Coalition had explicitly rejected the promotion of secularism as one of its aims. Secularism was not the absence of religion, he insisted. Along with democracy, it was the "core" of socialism. Comrade Rehman, who described himself as a muslim Marxist, said that there was a bias against islam. People welcomed liberationist priests from South America in the 1980s, but today they opposed the presence of imams and mullahs on podiums and demonstrations - although, of course, that does not contradict the need for secularism. However, it was certainly positive that those who called for a fight against fundamentalism were not branded as 'racist' by any speakers. But perhaps this was connected to the fact that one of the main advocates of secularism was an Asian woman. In summing up, all platform speakers agreed that the question of self-determination should be raised. However, comrade Shagal stated that there were questions surrounding this issue that were complex, and, since self-determination meant different things to different people, other issues also needed to be raised. Comrade Shagal disagreed with comrade Hoskisson's call to turn any armed conflict into a class war, stating that the crisis over Kashmir should not be allowed to reach that stage in the first place. Comrade Marqusee agreed with this position, adding that, while the issue of self-determination was important, it should be seen in conjunction with what we can do immediately for the people of Kashmir. The primary question was how we stop the war, or the threat of it, now. As comrade Segal had argued earlier, the political thrust of the SA should be to fight for the de-escalation of arms in the region and the need for cross-border talking. This is the continuation of a pacifist line that also emerged during the initial phase of the Afghan war. The fight for democracy and justice, and even for higher wages or better healthcare, cannot be successfully fought for until the threat or fact of war is removed. This perspective essentially ignores the relationship between capitalism and war. What was missing from the platform speakers was any recognition of the need to fight for a perspective of Kashmiri self-determination from below. Justice for Kashmir will not come via the revanchist cliques at the top of Indian and Pakistani society; neither will it be handed down from on high by the United Nations. The masses of India and Pakistan themselves need to be won to a perspective of self-determination for Kashmir. Let the people of Kashmir - both in the territory of India and Pakistan - freely decide their fate. They must decide whether or not to retain the status quo or opt for independence, etc. Obviously this struggle is interweaved with the struggle against the existing regimes in New Delhi and Islamabad. And to the degree such a demand is fought for in both India and Pakistan by the forces of democracy and socialism the danger of a devastating Indo-Pak nuclear exchange over Kashmir recedes to be replaced by the war of class against class. Further Socialist Alliance meetings are planned to discuss the struggle against war and how to further the cause of socialism. Bob Paul and Marcus Ström