India Insights: Kashmir - A Conflict That Keeps Claiming Lives

Kashmir, called “paradise on earth” for its beautiful snow-clad valleys and lakes, is a popular tourist attraction among many. Even though violence has become a common occurrence in this disputed region, tourists often assume they are completely safe. That is until now.

On 22nd April, in what authorities have described as the most lethal
civilian attack in the region in recent years, militants shot at tourists, which led to the death of 26, most of whom were Indian nationals, including two foreign nationals. The attack occurred in Baisaran Valley, a scenic meadow in the popular tourist town of Pahalgam in India-administered Kashmir, about 30 miles southeast of Srinagar.

This attack was carried out by Islamist militants who targeted Hindu tourists. The nature of the attack has raised serious questions regarding the country’s religious politics and growing Hindu-Muslim divide. It has also drawn attention to the political stagnation surrounding Kashmir, where local governance and diplomatic engagement remain limited following the revocation of Article 370 in 2019.

This latest incident raises difficult questions about whether long-term peace is achievable or whether Kashmir will remain trapped in cycles of violence and political inertia.

A Conflict That Refuses To Age

The roots of the conflict in Kashmir lie in the partition of British India in 1947, when Pakistan was created. During this period, the princely states of Jammu and Kashmir were given the choice of joining either India or Pakistan. Its decision to accede to India triggered the first of several wars between the two countries. In 1947, 1965, and 1999, each conflict deepened the divide, militarised the region, and hardened political positions on both sides of the Line of Control.

The insurgency that began in the late 1980s added another layer of complexity, with Pakistan-backed militant groups on one side and a heavy Indian military presence on the other. Since then, the region has seen intermittent phases of extreme violence and fragile calm, with civilian life often caught in between.

For the region, these changes have led to violence and political turmoil. Pakistan, China, and India all claim parts of their territory as their own, while a separate group of people is fighting for a sovereign state. Generations have now grown up under the shadow of soldiers, curfews, and checkpoints. For many young people in Kashmir, the idea of stability or self-determination remains theoretical, a concept they’ve heard about but never experienced.

Politics, Power, And The People

In modern day, the main topic that flares up tensions between Pakistan and India is the issue of Kashmir. Kashmir has long been central to the political narratives of both India and Pakistan; a point of national pride, strategic interest, and electoral rhetoric.

Under the Narendra Modi-led government in India, Kashmir has become a matter of national pride and sovereignty. For Pakistan, the region’s majority Muslim community is the reason for its claim over Kashmir.

The abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 by the Indian government, which removed Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status, marked a turning point. The move was justified by the Indian government as a step toward integration and development. However, the aftermath, a sweeping communications blackout, mass detentions, and prolonged silence from mainstream political voices in the region painted a different picture. While overt resistance has been suppressed, discontent simmers quietly.

Internationally, the Kashmir issue hardly attracts much notice. Strategic interests, particularly economic ties with India, have made global powers reluctant to intervene meaningfully. “The lack of consistent international pressure gives both countries the space to maintain the status quo,” says Ayesha Ray, a political science professor specialising in South Asian conflicts.

Meanwhile, both Pakistan and India are nuclear powers, and this means a full-scale war could break out anytime if tensions escalate. Diplomatic talks remain sporadic, often overshadowed by aggressive media rhetoric and nationalist sentiment.

Can Peace Come To Kashmir?

Efforts to bring peace to the region have been made time and again by all parties involved, but the issue is so complex, peace remains at the doorsteps, unable to cross over. The 1999 Lahore Declaration, with its symbolic bus diplomacy, had raised hopes of a new chapter, but was quickly overshadowed by the Kargil conflict just months later. Backchannel talks in the early 2000s, too, showed promise, but stalled as leadership changed and domestic politics took more importance.

However, local grassroots efforts have never stopped. Cross-border cultural events, art collaborations, and youth-led peace forums have attempted to shift the narrative away from conflict. In some cases, students and artists from both sides have connected over shared histories and a desire for normalcy, not nationalism.

But these efforts are often under-supported and overshadowed by the mainstream media’s attempt to spread communal hatred in both India and Pakistan – one a Hindu majority country and another, an Islamic state.

What would it take for peace to be sustained, not seasonal? The answer lies not only in Delhi or Islamabad, but also in recognising Kashmiris not just as subjects of the conflict, but as central to its resolution.

Now, with the recent shootings that claimed the lives of 26 tourists, their names and lives have faded from the media discussion, and the matter of religion and terrorism has taken over. Communal hate is being targeted, and Indian Muslims who have nothing to do with the attack are being targeted.

Back in Kashmir, life moves forward cautiously. A lone shikara glides across Dal Lake, as if untouched by what happened just miles away. But the quiet is misleading. Beneath it lies a question that refuses to disappear.

Will Kashmir always be framed by tragedy? Or can it one day be known not for pity, but for peace?