When did it all start?
The world we live in today, if you were to ask for a commentary or analysis or opinion on the Kashmir problem, there is one argument that will garner unanimous agreement across the South Asian subcontinent (and even from foreign affairs experts around the globe and self-styled experts on Kashmir from the western media) - that the history of the Kashmir problem starts with 1947.
The expanse and the magnitude of this myopia is disconcerting!
The seeds of the Kashmir problem were sown centuries before 1947 came into being. 1947 simply triggered what could be the beginning of the end for this most disturbing and perennially lingering episode in the history of the Indian civilization.
What is the Kashmir Problem?
Kashmir is not a territorial dispute, nor is it a political struggle.
Kashmir is a dispute emerging from a civilizational struggle.
A struggle for uprooting a civilization with an indigenous and deeply ingrained culture of peaceful coexistence between ethnicities and religions… and forcibly replacing it with a virulent strain of Islam that borders on the insidious and violent totalitarianism of Sunni Wahhabism.
The Land of Gold and Diamonds that welcomed all
There was a nation on this planet of ours, that had been in existence from the dawn of civilization. That nation was never truly bounded by boundaries. It had kings, rulers, feudal lords and local chieftains all living within their own kingdoms and domains. There were times in history when this nation, this land came under the authority and governance of supreme rulers and emperors whose boundaries stretched from Afghanistan in the west to Bengal in the east (and even beyond) and well into the southern hinterland of the landmass. But the boundaries shrank again thereafter. Expanded again and shrank again, like a being that had a life of its own, that had existed from times immemorial and continued to carry on living.
This land was plentiful in gold and diamonds and had wealth and riches unheard of in those times. It was by far the biggest economy in the world, at the dawn of AD[1]. This abundance in itself ensured that life in this paradise would not be without its own trials and tribulations, not without its own intermittent phases of pain, loss, treachery and abject misery. Invaders and marauders of all hues and religions trampled upon this land with no signs of mercy or compassion, but with an insatiable lust for the riches and wealth which this land, this geographical being, this entity had to offer. This civilization bled and at times seemed to have almost collapsed under the insufferable weight of the relentless onslaught by the barbarians. But, it continued to survive, till it reached its time for an evolutionary metamorphosis on the wheel of time.
At the stroke of midnight on 15th August 1947, this eternal entity awoke to freedom from oppression and tyranny, to evolve into a modern day nation state. But, not without one last act of treachery and carnage imposed upon it by wanton elements of the day. This civilization was slit, to create a secondary entity whose sole purpose was to satisfy the lust for power of a few megalomaniacs. We will get to that a little later.
What caused this civilization to have a life that survived for as long as it did? There were a set of values carved out of lofty ideals handed down the generations by sages and philosophers of the land, that formed the DNA of this civilization. Ideals such as "My guest is my God", ("Atithi devo bhava" in Sanskrit), or "The world is my family" ("Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", in Sanskrit). These ideals ensured that the civilization would absorb and absolve all evil forced upon it through the ages, and yet survive through eternity. These lofty ideals became a way of life for the inhabitants of this land. This way of life came to be known as Hinduism. The welcoming open arms of this philosophy, this way of life ensured that every religion that came to this land was treated as just another legitimate path to worship and reach that Supreme Being, the invisible power that guides the cosmos. These beliefs then became the pillars upon which the foundation of Hinduism as a religion, got established. Unlike most other religions of the world, Hinduism grew organically guided by the scriptures and the wisdom of the sages. There was no prophet that started it all, nor was there a specific day to commemorate the commencement of this philosophy. Yet, in it's true form, it represents the inherent goodness of man, and the very best that can come from being human.
And this ideal of universal love, acceptance and tolerance became the guiding principle for the land that came to be known as Hindustan or the Indian civilization. Poet Allama Iqbal would later pen his admiration for this land as - "Saare jahan se achcha, Hindustan hamaara", meaning "My Hindustan is supreme in the entire world".
However, as one of the unwritten laws of nature, the virtues of compassion and benevolence when practiced in life, inevitably invite visitations from dark forces that tend to test the strength of these virtues to the hilt. Goodness and kindness get misconstrued as weakness and are often interpreted as an open invitation to plunder and pillage. The Indian civilization or Hindustan developed a first-hand taste of this brutal reality through the ages. Kashmir is an extension of the experience emerging from that reality.
Kashmir as an extension of Hindustan
According to folk etymology, the name "Kashmir" means "desiccated land" (from the Sanskrit: Ka = water and shimeera = desiccate).[2] In the Rajatarangini, a history of Kashmir written by Kalhana in the mid-12th century, it is stated that the valley of Kashmir was formerly a lake.[3] According to Hindu mythology, the lake was drained by the great rishi or sage, Kashyapa, son of Marichi, son of Brahma, by cutting the gap in the hills at Baramulla (Varaha-mula).[3] When Kashmir had been drained, Kashyapa asked Brahmins (the highest caste among Hindus) to settle there.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi...)
If we go by written history, Kashmiri Hindus are the aborigines of Kashmir. The native pagans who survived centuries of cruelty and oppression while keeping the flag of Indian civilization fluttering in the valley against all odds.
However, as a result of the incessant invasions by Muslim barbarians, some parts of the Indian civilization began to witness a change in demographics in favor of Muslims. Kashmir happened to be a key example of one such region.
Exodus of Hindus from Kashmir
From the 14th century to the present times, the Hindus of Kashmir have been at the literal bleeding edge of the clash of civilizations. As a result, over the course of a few centuries most Kashmiris had been converted out of the Hindu fold by the force of intimidation and brutal violence that characterized the better part of Muslim Rule in Kashmir.
By the turn of the 20th century, Kashmiri Pandits came to represent the bulk of the Hindu presence that remained in Kashmir. The Kashmiri Pandits (also known as Kashmiri Brahmins) are Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community.
Some westerners pose the question, why do all Kashmiri Hindus belong to just the Brahmin caste. Well, that is because all the other (Hindu) castes were converted to Islam by the swords of the tyrants who ruled the valley. Tyrants like Sikander Butshikan[2], Ali Shah, Shamsuddin Iraqi and others who not only carried out terrible genocides but also destroyed the centers of Kashmiri Hindu spiritual and intellectual life. History bears evidence to the desecration and destruction of great Hindu temples like the Sun Temple at Martand and countless other shrines.
A rare photo of the ruins of the Surya Temple at Martand, which was destroyed due to the iconoclastic policies of Sikandar Butshikan, photo taken by John Burke in 1868. (Source: Wikepedia[3])
Kashmiri Hindu women were beautiful. There was a time in Kashmir under Afghan rule when their striking looks became such a burden on their families that their noses had to be cut-off and their heads shaved, to protect the Hindu girls from the lustful eyes of the ruling barbarians.
Such atrocities created pressure on the dwindling Hindu community to flee from Kashmir not once or twice but 7 times since Islam came to Kashmir. The demographics of the Kashmir region continued to change decisively in favor of Muslims. This episode will be continued to its climax when we get to 1990, the year Hindus were "ethnically cleansed" out of Kashmir.
1947
The Indian civilization finally woke up to an era of realizing its long cherished and hard fought dream of nationhood. However, fate had destined one last blow of plunder and pillage of a different nature.
A man named Mohammed Ali Jinnah mistook independence from the British to mean the subcontinent had just turned into a once in a lifetime opportunity to a grab-all-you-can real estate bonanza[4]. He claimed that the Muslims needed a separate homeland, just because they were born Muslims, and needed protection from the violent and unpredictable Hindus in an independent India. Jinnah made sure they got one at the cost of 2 million dead and 14 million displaced from their homes. But, for Jinnah's overbearing lust for a kingdom and a throne, that was small price to pay so long as Muslims could secure their “only for us” homeland. A few decades down the line that cherished homeland for Muslims would turn out to be a paradise for the rich, the privileged and the corrupt among Punjabi Sunni Muslims and a purgatory for Muslims of all other types and sects. But, Pakistan didn’t know that yet.
While Jinnah and his coterie enjoyed their newfound real estate, the British spiced up the situation with a menu of options to the autonomous princely states. Those options were - merge with either India or Pakistan, or remain independent.
The king of Jammu and Kashmir, Raja Hari Singh chose the latter. His decision caused serious concern in Jinnah's homeland named Pakistan (Land of the Pure).
Pakistan's Lust for Kashmir and the First Kashmir War of 1947 - 1948
Neither the Indian Independence Act of 1947, nor the Radcliffe Boundary Commission indicated that Kashmir "belonged to Pakistan". There is not a single piece of documentary evidence that the British or for that matter the ruler of Kashmir, ever wanted Kashmir to be a part of Pakistan. Yet, rulers in Pakistan worried that Kashmir would either remain independent, or worse, join India. Pakistan's lust for Kashmir was born out of the perverted ideology that territories in the South Asian subcontinent, with Muslim dominated demographics, should belong to Pakistan. This twisted ideology would be busted in 1971 with the mass rebellion and separation of East Pakistan from West Pakistan. But, Pakistan didn't know that yet.
To secure Kashmir, Pakistan dispatched tribal marauders to seize Kashmir by force. On 22 October 1947, Pakistan's Pashtun tribal militias crossed the border of the state. These local tribal militias and irregular Pakistani forces moved to take Srinagar, but on reaching Baramulla, they took to plunder and rape and stalled.
Hari Singh's Decision to join India
Maharaja Hari Singh made a plea to India for assistance, and help was offered, but it was subject to his signing an Instrument of Accession to India. The then British Viceroy Lord Mountbatten would not allow India's intervention without a formal treaty with the Maharaja. The Instrument of Accession broke that stalemate. By executing this document under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh agreed to accede to the Dominion of India. The Instrument of Accession gave India’s Parliament the power to legislate in respect of the state of Jammu and Kashmir only on the matters of defense, external affairs and communications.
The events that followed on the battlefield, to the settlement at the Line of Control (LOC) are well documented, and I will refrain from repeating, facts well known. The Indian army succeeded in pushing the Pakistani marauders back, so that two thirds of Kashmir, including the Srinagar valley remained in India territory, while the remaining one-third of Kashmir came under Pakistani occupation. The irony is that Pakistan renamed that occupied territory as “Azad Kashmir”, meaning liberated Kashmir.
The Instrument of Accession
The Instrument of Accession, which Maharaja Hari Singh signed with India was a simple document. In the blank spaces, it had a place to fill in the name of the state, the name of the ruler, the date of accession, a place to hold the signature of the ruler and lastly, a line where Lord Mountbatten would put in his signature.
This simple document was used to persuade 602 princely states to join the Union of India. When a princely state signed the Instrument of Accession, it gave India’s Parliament the power to legislate on the matters of defense, foreign affairs and communications. Thereafter, the delegates of the princely states would meet with India's Constituent Assembly to gradually bring their kingdoms under the full purview of the Indian Constitution. The princely states were also participants in the formulation of the Indian Constitution. This process of political amalgamation was somewhat similar to the Constitutional Convention of the United States, also known as the Philadelphia Convention that took place from May 25 through September 17, 1787. This process would culminate in a complete adoption of the Indian Constitution by the state in question thereby consummating the accession of the state to the Union of India.
With Jammu and Kashmir, the process diverged a bit. Though Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession, his government pointed out that they were signing the document under exceptional circumstances, as they were under attack from a neighboring entity - Pakistan. So as not to be rushed into the process, they asked for more time to align themselves with the Union of India.
The Constituent Assembly agreed to this special request. However, there was a debate on which parts of the Constitution would apply to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which would not, and at what length of time would the accession be complete. To accommodate Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India, the only temporary Article in the Indian Constitution was drafted. This was called Article 306A which later became Article 370.
Article 370
In March 1948, the Maharaja appointed an interim government in the state, with Sheikh Abdullah as the prime minister. In July 1949, Sheikh Abdullah and three other colleagues joined the Indian Constituent Assembly and negotiated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), leading to the adoption of Article 370. The controversial provision was drafted by Sheikh Abdullah.
Article 370, which came into force in 1952, empowered J&K to be a near autonomous state since it limited the Indian government's authority to just external affairs, defence, finance and communication. This provision allowed J&K to have a Sadar-e-Riyasat for governor and prime minister in place of a chief minister till 1965 as well as its own flag and constitution.
Article 370 ensured that the law of citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights of the residents of Jammu & Kashmir is different from the residents living in rest of India. Under Article 370, citizens from other states cannot buy property in Jammu & Kashmir. Under Article 370, the Indian government had no power to declare financial emergency.
Sheikh Abdullah wanted to turn Article 370, the only temporary provision in the Indian Constitution, into a written-in-stone edict that could not be replaced or terminated by future Indian governments. This violated the very understanding which India’s Constituent Assembly had reached with the state of Jammu and Kashmir - that the accession of the state to the Indian Union would be put on a slow but certain pace through Article 370.
Fortunately for India, Sheikh Abdullah did not succeed in voiding the temporary nature of Article 370, which is why the Article has now reached it’s logical conclusion, under the current Indian government.
Article 35A
Article 35A which comes under Article 370, gave the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature full discretionary power to decide who the 'permanent residents' of the state are. It gave them special rights and privileges regarding employment with the state government, acquisition of property in the state, settling in the state, and the right to scholarships and other forms of aid that the state government provides. It also allowed the state legislature to impose any restrictions upon persons other than the permanent residents regarding the above.
Article 35A, proscribed non-permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir from permanently settling in the state, buying immovable property, acquiring land, applying for government jobs or any kind of scholarships, aids as well as other public welfare projects.
A Walled Garden
Article 370 and its component Article 35A turned the state of Jammu and Kashmir into a Walled Garden. Inhabitants of this garden could venture out and enjoy all benefits of the land outside, but residents from the land outside would have very little freedom or privileges if they walked into the garden, even though the garden was part of their land.
The walled garden designed by Sheikh Abdullah in collusion with India's first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru would turn out to be a golden cage for Kashmir that would keep it in Indian territory while preventing any encroachment from Pakistan, or even from entities within India.
However, a few decades down the line, this approach would precipitate a disastrous series of events not only for Jammu and Kashmir, but also for India. India didn't know that yet, nor did the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Night of January 19, 1990
Pakistan had not forgotten its unfinished business from the war of 1947 - 1948. It had captured a third of Kashmir. However, two-thirds of Jammu and Kashmir which included the prized Kashmir valley was still in Indian territory. Pakistan had been biding its time for an opportune moment to strike.
That time came in the late 1980s. By 1989, Pakistan believed it now had a proven strategy. It was the one used to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan. The strategy of infiltrating well trained Mujahideen across the Indian border into Kashmir to train and arm locals and incite them to foment jihad against every Indian entity present in Kashmir.
Also, Pakistan had the nuclear umbrella, to deter (as it hoped) any significant pushback from India in response to the proxy-war about to be launched in Kashmir. The nuclear threat was a tactic that Pakistan used very effectively against a far more powerful but surprisingly docile India, for a span of almost 25 years (till a man named Modi would come and call Pakistan’s nuclear bluff).
Thus, Pakistan launched an asymmetric war in Kashmir.
The cold, dark night of January 19, 1990, had stirred into life the worst nightmares of Kashmiri Pandits living in the Kashmir valley. Screaming from loud speakers and crowded streets was a message for the Sikhs and Hindus living in Kashmir - Ralive, Tsalive ya Galive which translated from Kashmiri means "Convert to Islam, leave the place, or perish".
The threats had been coming in for a long time, but the night of January 19 is said to have seen a demented assault of a different level. Almost 3 decades later, Kashmiri Pandits shiver remembering the night that forced them into exodus.
Colonel Tej Kumar Tikoo, a Kashmiri Pandit himself, describes that fateful night in his book, Kashmir: Its Aborigines and Their Exodus[5].
"As the night fell, the microscopic community became panic-stricken when the Valley began reverberating with the war-cries of Islamists, who had stage-managed the whole event with great care; choosing its timing and the slogans to be used. A host of highly provocative, communal and threatening slogans, interspersed with martial songs, incited the Muslims to come out on the streets and break the chains of 'slavery'. These exhortations urged the faithful to give a final push to the Kafir in order to ring in the true Islamic order. These slogans were mixed with precise and unambiguous threats to Pandits. They were presented with three choices - Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place or perish). Tens of thousands of Kashmiri Muslims poured into the streets of the Valley, shouting 'death to India' and death to Kafirs."
"The (Kashmiri) Pandits could see the writing on the wall. If they were lucky enough to see the night through, they would have to vacate the place before they met the same fate as Tikka Lal Taploo and many others. The Seventh Exodus was surely staring them in the face. By morning, it became apparent to Pandits that Kashmiri Muslims had decided to throw them out from the Valley. Broadcasting vicious Jehadi sermons and revolutionary songs, interspersed with blood curdling shouts and shrieks, threatening Kashmiri Pandits with dire consequences, became a routine 'Mantra' of the Muslims of the Valley, to force them to flee from Kashmir."
Ethnic Cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits
Through the export of battle hardened Mujahideen into Kashmir, the Pakistan military and the ISI had set in motion a strategy which would later be described as "bleeding India by a thousand cuts".
The Muslims in the valley were being trained physically and psychologically, to envision a Kashmir free of any Hindu influence, geared up to demand statehood and complete independence from India.
Before the turn of the 21st century, Kashmir would be ethnically cleansed of Hindus that had called it home since the inception of the land.
Those Kashmiri Pandits that Stayed Back or Returned…
However, some Kashmiri Pandits would not leave or would come back to the valley. These are their stories.
The teacher and his students: Neelkanth Raina was a school teacher who chose to stay back, despite the dire warnings from the Muslim fundamentalists. He was killed by his own students in cold blood while his neighbors assisted the killers in quickly escaping from the crime scene. The murder was meticulously planned and skillfully executed.
The Lab Assistant: Girija Kumari Tikoo was a laboratory assistant at a Government High School. She had already left the valley along with other Hindus in early 1990, and was living in a refugee settlement in the neighboring Jammu province. Hindus living in refugee settlements in their own country just because their Muslim neighbors would no longer want them in the neighborhood - ever heard of such a travesty of fate in any other part of the globe? She went back to the valley for a few days to collect her dues from the school never to return. On her way to the school, she was kidnapped by Muslim fundamentalists, gang raped and sodomized before being cut into pieces in a saw mill. She was survived by a 4 year old son and a 2 year daughter.
The Professor and his Wife: Professor K.L Ganju and his wife, Mrs. Prana Ganju were kidnapped along with their nephew. After showering bullets on the professor his body was quickly disposed of into the turbulent waters of the river Jhelum. Like in the movies, his nephew was given a choice - to jump into the river or watch his aunt's modesty getting outraged, of which he took the first choice, and survived. Mrs. Ganju, she was gang raped, her breasts chopped off before she was killed.
If you dig into Kashmir's history circa 1990 and the early 90s, there are hundreds of gruesome cases of terror and betrayal against resident Kashmiri Hindus to narrate. But, the cases of Neelkanth Raina, Girija Kumari Tikkoo and the Ganju couple drive home an important point. All of them were killed after the Hindu community had already left. These atrocities were thus a signal from the Muslim majority community to the exiled Hindus, never to even think of returning to their homeland. Their houses had been occupied, their places were being renamed, Kashmir was no longer theirs.
Just as the dust of Hindu eviction from the valley was settling, it dawned upon the terrorist leadership of the Kashmir valley, their mentors in Pakistan and their apologists in the media all over the world that the public perception of the secessionist movement in Kashmir was getting damaged. So, a narrative began to be promoted that the Indian government had conspired to get the Hindus evicted so that Indian security forces may freely oppress the Muslim population. The religious terrorism of the Kashmiris underwent a cosmetic surgery, and began to be called a political struggle.
The underlying thought process actively promoted by Pakistan was - now that Kashmir has been cleansed of almost all traces of Hinduism from the valley, it is time to revert to the 1947 formula concocted by a consortium of power crazy megalomaniacs from the Muslim League, that every piece of land with Muslim domination, should secede to Pakistan.
To this day, Kashmir remains a religious and civilizational conflict. It has no political dimension except on the surface.
2019: Pre August 5
Kashmir and the Rest of India
The picture below shows how young women in Kashmir spend their day. Pelting stones at Indian security forces is the high point of their morning or afternoon.
Source: zeenews.india.com
And this is how many young women in the rest of India spend their day. Bouncing ideas off each other during the lunch hour so they could crack that technical challenge they encountered during the morning.
The above picture is from one of the campuses Infosys [6]has built across India. Infosys is the legendary Indian IT behemoth that was the first Indian company to be listed on the US NASDAQ in 1999.
I am not promoting Infosys, I have no personal interest in the company, but I have a point to make.
Time for a Q & A
Q: Does Infosys have a campus in Kashmir?
A: No.
Q: Why not? Wouldn't young ladies in Kashmir want to switch the fun job of stone pelting with the more productive (and lucrative) job of code crunching on laptops?
A: They cannot, even if they wanted to.
Q: Why not?
A: Not a single IT company- Indian or multinational has a presence in Kashmir.
Q: I don't get it! India is the 6th largest economy globally and is home to almost all the major IT corporations of the world. Some of them like Oracle Corporation have even built their largest Development Centers outside of the US, in Indian cities[7][8]. And then like Infosys and WIPRO, India has its own litany of indigenous IT companies and many fledgling start-ups spread across the land. Azim Premji[9][10], the Chairman of WIPRO and one of the richest men in the world (as of September 2019, he is 36th on the Forbes list of billionaires [11]) - is a Muslim himself! Then why have these IT business houses and their tycoons ignored the state of Jammu and Kashmir?
A: Well, their hands are tied. The special status provided to Jammu and Kashmir by Articles 370 and 35A ensures that non Kashmiris cannot buy land in Kashmir. So long as Kashmir is "protected" by its special status within the gilded cage of Article 370 and 35A, there is virtually nothing that someone even as powerful as Azim Premji can do.
The Developmental Hurdles Posed to Jammu and Kashmir by Article 370 and 35A
Arun Jaitly[12] held cabinet positions as Minister of Finance, Minister of Corporate Affairs and Minister of Defence in the Narendra Modi government. As a former lawyer of the Supreme Court of India, he was regarded across the nation and even internationally as one of the finest minds in India's corridors of power. He passed away on 24th August 2019[13][14] (just 19 days after Article 370 was abrogated by his government).
In a blog post titled "How Article 35A hurt the people of Jammu & Kashmir", Arun Jaitley wrote the following.
"The State does not have adequate financial resources. Its ability to raise more has been crippled by Article 35A. No investor is willing to set up an industry, hotel, private educational institutions or private hospitals since he can neither buy land or property nor can his executives do so. Their ward cannot get government jobs or admission to colleges (as they are not Kashmiris). Today, there are no major national or international chains which have set up hotel in a tourism centric State. This prevents enrichment, resource generation and job creation. (Kashmiri) Students have to travel all over, including Nepal and Bangladesh, to get college admissions. Engineering colleges and hospitals, including super-speciality facility set up by Central Government in Jammu are lying under-utilized or unutilized since Professors and Doctors from outside are unwilling to go there. Article 35A has prevented investment and dismantled the State’s economy."
"Article 35A, which is constitutionally vulnerable, is used as a political shield by many but it hurt the common citizen of the State the most. It denied them a booming economy, economic activity and jobs."
"The historic blunders of special status under Article 370 and Article 35A had cost the country both politically and financially."
In one of his last comments after the abrogation of Article 370, Jaitley said - "Article 370 invoked the separate status that led to separatism (in Jammu and Kashmir). No dynamic nation could allow this situation to continue."
With the revocation of Article 370 "A historical wrong has been undone today. Article 35A came through the back door without following the procedure under Article 368 of the Constitution of India. It had to go."
"The decision of the government will help the people of Jammu and Kashmir the most. More investment, more industry, more private educational institutions, more jobs and more revenue will come,” he said, adding that “Kashmir’s regional leaders now feel they would not be able to whip up the fake issue of 'sentiment verses benefit'."
Sentiment versus Benefit
Sentiment versus benefit, and economic, educational and financial benefits to be precise. Let's chew on that for a moment, and when we start drawing on the juice on that thought, we should think it through.
For those of us here in the US, consider a hypothetical situation to understand what Arun Jaitley means. Say for example, I were born into a Hispanic family in California in the year 2000. In the year 2014, the population of Hispanics officially surpassed that of Whites in California. I am now a teenager dreaming of growing up and going to Stanford or UC Berkeley (just examples) for my college education, and later getting hired by Google or Facebook or any of the tech giants in California’s Silicon Valley. In effect, I have bright visions of my future as I see it playing out in my very own state, an economically vibrant part of the world.
Now, a charismatic leader rises up in neighboring Mexico and starts a rant for the separation of California as a state from the US and its accession to Mexico, on the basis of an ever growing Hispanic majority in California.
Should I be thrilled with that?
Sources:
India's Move in Kashmir: Unpacking the Domestic and International Motivations and Implications - Christine Fair in LAWFARE, August 12, 2019
Kashmir: A civilizational battle - Ashish Dhar on YouTube
Footnotes