Essay competition on Kashmir conflict

Dr. Muhammad Ayyub Thakur, the first of four children, was born in 1948 in Pudsoo village near Shopian, in the Pulwama district of Kashmir. It was 1973 when I first heard that Dr….

“Let us remember here that the future of Jammu and Kashmir is not something that the governments of India and Pakistan can decide without involving the Kashmiri people. How this diverse people’s representatives should be identified, and then associated with the process toward a possible settlement, are crucial if difficult questions, but every human and democratic principle demands this association.” Professor Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, July 24, 2003.

By: Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai

Over 100,000 Kashmiris have lost their lives in the past 23 years. 8,000 to 10,000 people have disappeared.  2,700 mass graves have been discovered in the town of Kupwara alone.  It is well documented that hundreds of thousands of Indian armed forces have made Kashmir the largest occupation on earth.  The conditions in our homeland have become so ugly with rapes, beatings, shootings and other crimes inflicted by the occupation that we are condemned as a lot in the eyes of the world to be ignored and forgotten because, aside from any intentional bias in the press, no one wants to think about it. Kashmir has almost become a forgotten land, a forgotten people.   

Dear all,

Words cannot express the feelings of the absence of my friends and family who have given me their love and sympathy during the past so many years. They have kept me in their prayers during these tough times. I am hopeful that their warmth and generosity will continue in days to come.

The evolution of the right of self-determination has been one of the great normative narratives of the twentieth century. It was part of the visionary contributions of President Woodrow Wilson, who despite a deep-seated conservatism, seemed to have an uncontrollable tendency to give credibility to normative ideas that contained implications that carried far, far beyond his intentions. Ever since the words of self-determination left the lips of President Woodrow Wilson, the wider meaning of the words has excited the moral, political and legal imagination of oppressed peoples around the world. Although, self-determination even now, decades later, still seems to be a Pandora’s Box that no one knows how to close, and despite concerted efforts there is little likelihood that the box will be closed anytime soon.