Impasse of Kashmir and Recurring Pretexts: A Historiographical Analysis

The relevance of undertaking a historiographic analysis in the context of historically disputed territory of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) cannot be denied in the wake of revocation of Article 370 and 35A by India on August 5, 2019. This arbitrary decision has opened a recurring dimension of the dispute, which needs to be addressed in a wider perspective. This paper, therefore, calls for environmental justice or eco-postcolonial ethic for IOJ&K — a perspective, which is important by virtue of its definition only. Eco-postcolonial ethic, defined as a standpoint that brings forth the need to understand the expression of resistance against the oppression of colonizing powers in this postcolonial age, can be one possible way of determining a future course of action vis-a-vis Kashmir dispute. While the context of studying Kashmir in an Indian Pakistani conflict holds its own importance, shifting some frames of reference that incorporate the eco-postcolonial ethic of Kashmir, this paper examines the dispute from the perspective of ‘deceptions' or interpellations in the context of Kashmir's history. This historiographic study of some old as well as contemporary texts, besides providing a basic understanding of Kashmir's background and the recurring pattern of its strategic political moves, also helps us belie all the fabricated rhetoric and propaganda that has been lobbied for three quarters of a century.