Case Study of Conflicts in Indian Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Nagaland

macro Minority Rights and Conflict Prevention: Case Study of Conflicts in Indian Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Nagaland By Maya Chadda India is a land of myriad ethnic, religious, caste and linguistic minorities affiliated to distinct belief systems, sub-cultures and regions. Integration of these diverse communities – some large enough to aspire to a regional homeland and others content to remain as part of the Indian state – has been a central preoccupation of Indian governments since 1947. This study explores India’s policies and practice towards minorities, and three violent ethnic conflicts: the Sikh struggle for an independent state in the Punjab region; the Kashmiri Muslim demand for the separation of the states of Jammu and Kashmir from India; and the Naga claims to an independent state of Nagalim in the north-east. While these regions have experienced turmoil, other parts of India have been peacefully integrated, or at least have witnessed no violent insurgencies. This study seeks to explain the failures in Punjab, Indian Jammu and Kashmir (IJK) and Nagaland1 in the context of a representative case of comparatively successful ethnic integration of the Tamil people in the state of Tamil Nadu. It suggests that failures to integrate are Sikhs being rounded up by the Indian Army in Amritsar, Punjab, 1984. caused by (1) denial of democratic rights to minorities, (2) Raghu Rai/Magnum Photos lack of political participation on the part of minorities, (3) interference by the central government and also (4) serious human rights violations by the state. response to such riots has been ineffective. Nor have anti- Why focus on minorities? discriminatory laws prevented caste wars in Bihar and atrocities against Dalits all over India. In protected tribal It is important to understand the conditions and problems belts in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, of minorities in India. First, despite a relatively impressive Gujarat and the north-east, hunger, joblessness, array of constitutional and legislative guarantees, and the discrimination and violence are rampant. The tribal lands, establishment of a broad range of institutions, autonomous which contain forests and rich mineral deposits, attract bodies and commissions to monitor and protect the rights ruthless commercial interests with the resources to bribe of minorities, India’s disadvantaged and marginalized local officials and subvert protective regulations. segments find their access to power and judicial redress Second, the wide gap between existing laws and the blocked by a coalition of powerful forces. Minorities face reality of minority conditions deserves attention. As a discrimination, violence and atrocities. Constitutional and member state of the United Nations (UN), India is bound legislative protections have not prevented periodic pogroms by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) against religious minorities, as in Gujarat in 2002, when and the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to more than 2,000 Muslims were killed, or in the riots National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities following Indira Gandhi’s assassination that led to the (UNDM). Of particular relevance to this study is Article 3 murder of 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi alone. The government of the UNDM, which states: ‘Persons belonging to minorities have the right to protect minorities, including the weakest and most participate effectively in decisions on the national and, disadvantaged. where appropriate, regional level concerning the minority Although territorial autonomy can promote power- to which they belong or the regions in which they live, in sharing where there is a large geographically based minority a manner not incompatible with national legislation.’ group, it doesn’t guarantee change on the ground. It needs to be accompanied by human and minority rights India has also ratified the International Convention on protection and promotion for all communities, including the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination the smallest and most marginalized. It must also be (ICERD) (although it does not recognize that caste comes economically inclusive, and ensure political participation – under the mandate of CERD), the International Covenant access to power and self-government. Failure to address of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International these structural aspects can contribute to motivating Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights conflict. (ICESCR), but for each of these India has made declarations, and it has not ratified the optional protocols Ethnic identities in historical of the ICCPR and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) context which provide for individual complaints. India is also legally bound by treaties against torture, Before the British arrived, India was divided into various extra-judicial killings, illegal detention and targeted large and small kingdoms, each multi-ethnic and multi- violence. However, India’s anti-insurgency operations, as religious but with one or two linguistic groups that had well as laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of gained dominance because of their size and royal 1958, lead to violations. patronage. For example, the current Indian Punjab is a Third, human rights violations, oppression, atrocities small part of the original Sikh empire ruled by Maharajah and denial of political rights lead to violent protests that, in Ranjit Singh (1779–1839). In 1849, the British divided the the three regions studied here, have developed into Sikh empire and created the kingdom of Kashmir. The insurgencies. An understanding of how this happened will kingdom of Kashmir is thus a recent construct, although provide us with clues to avoiding and managing conflict. the culturally distinctive identity of Kashmir can be traced It is necessary to explain why these cases have been back over many centuries. With the creation of the chosen and why Tamil Nadu is regarded as an example of kingdom, the cultural and territorial identities melded into successful democratic integration. These three cases of an aspiration for a separate nation-state. The kingdom ethnic conflict have continued throughout almost 60 years consisted of diverse ethnic-linguistic and religious of post-independence history. During this time, economic communities, but, for the Kashmiri Muslims who and educational opportunities, as well as electoral rolls, constitute a majority, partition and war in 1947 meant a expanded. How can we explain the persistence of these repeat of the earlier tragedy: divisions and repression in the conflicts when democratic expansion should have provided interests of external states. Similarly, the original Sikh ample room for ethnic representation? Almost six decades kingdom is lost forever but the Sikhs carry within their should have been enough time for Indian governments to historic consciousness the glories of the Sikh empire and find solutions to the conflicts. At a broader level, the memories of Muslim persecution. failures in Punjab, Kashmir and Nagaland provide insights British policies, such as the introduction of the census into difficulties emerging democracies have in reconciling and recruitment into the colonial army along ethnic and territorial with religious, ethnic and linguistic nationalism; religious lines, shaped ethnic self-definition. Many modernization with tradition; and democracy with security communities upgraded their caste status in registering for imperatives. the census. The British had their own, often erroneous, The Indian government did evolve institutional and understanding of India’s social structure, for example, that ameliorative strategies to address the problems, but these the Sikhs were a ‘warrior race’. These myths became a part were vitiated by the compulsions of competitive politics. of ethnic folklore and carried over into the political life of One broad conclusion is that while democracy can be a independent India. The British colonial rulers were solution to ethnic conflicts, it can also be a source of sympathetic to the idea of quotas for the non-Brahmins problems. The answer to this paradox is to deepen represented by the Justice Party in Tamil Nadu. The democracy further. The process of deepening worked establishment of caste quotas and separate electoral seats for reasonably well in Tamil Nadu. Although Tamil Nadu is by Muslims and Sikhs was intended to divide and weaken the no means an ideal case of good governance, it is nationalist opposition to British rule represented by the nevertheless a good case, within the Indian context, of secular and multi-ethnic Congress movement. However, conflict prevention via protection of minorities. This study this reinforced ethnic, caste and religious identities, and thus demonstrates the need for an inclusive process of established a legacy of rivalry among these culturally accommodation politics in line with commitments to defined communities. 2 MINORITY RIGHTS AND CONFLICT PREVENTION: CASE STUDY OF CONFLICTS IN INDIAN JAMMU AND KASHMIR, PUNJAB AND NAGALAND INDIA he sees one.3 Francesco Capotorti suggests that a minority group is: AFGHANISTAN CHINA ‘numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a Jammu and Kashmir State, in a non-dominant position, whose members – being nationals of the State – possess ethnic, religious or Simia PAKISTAN Punjab linguistic characteristics differing from those of the rest of Brahmaputra New Delhi the population and show if only

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