Kashmir’s Ray of Hope

Not too long ago, it seemed hopeless to expect any talks, let alone productive discussions, between the main group agitating for the state of Kashmir to break away from India and the top hard-liner in the Indian government. But members of the All Party Hurriyat Conference and Lal Krishna Advani, India’s deputy prime minister, emerged from a New Delhi meeting last week preaching an end to the killing in the country’s most beautiful and most violent state.

It is encouraging and a welcome start that the coalition of more than a dozen political, Muslim and community groups and the man known as a Hindu militant could stand each other’s company for two hours and conclude the talks. The problem of Kashmir is at the center of the too-often-poisonous relations between India and Pakistan, which both claim part of the state and occupy portions of it. The two countries have fought three wars since they became independent of Britain in 1947; Kashmir was the cause of two of them.

Two weeks ago, India and Pakistan, now both armed with nuclear weapons, agreed to discuss a number of their problems, from borders to water to Kashmir. The gradual improvement in relations, since Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee agreed to undertake what he said in April was his final attempt to cool tensions with Pakistan, is cause for optimism. So is India’s understanding that it must talk with the people of Kashmir about their desires and must offer realistic visions of the future, such as more autonomy.

New Delhi’s spurning of Kashmiris’ wishes sparked an uprising that began in 1989 and provoked brutal retaliation by Indian security forces; the result has been more than 60,000 deaths. Kashmiri groups demanded independence from India or annexation by Pakistan, which let Islamic radicals cross into India and murder soldiers and civilians who did not agree with them. Kashmir is the only predominantly Muslim state in India, a secular nation with an overwhelming majority of Hindus.

It is easy to see an outcome where the current cease-fire line in Kashmir becomes an agreed-upon border between India and Pakistan. It would benefit both countries to let Kashmiris on both sides of that frontier travel back and forth, visiting friends and relatives and selling wheat and apples, walnuts and trout.

India and Pakistan have made progress in opening road, rail and air links between their nations in recent weeks. The joy of passengers reunited with relatives is obvious. Providing the opportunity for Kashmiri reunification, while both countries peacefully occupy their sectors of the state, should be the goal in Islamabad and New Delhi. Both are better off diverting defense spending to essentials like schools and hospitals.