Calls for a free #Kashmir are becoming louder on both sides of the divided region

Kashmir: Independence activists draw inspiration from German reunification

Calls for a free Kashmir are becoming louder on both sides of the divided region. Can the German reunification model be applied to the India- and Pakistan-ruled Kashmirs? And what can Kashmiris learn from it?

On August 5, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi abrogated Jammu & Kashmir's semi-autonomous status and imposed a curfew in the volatile parts of the region. The move was slammed by Pakistan, which urged the United Nations to force India to reverse its Kashmir actions.

India and Pakistan each rule part of the disputed Himalayan territory but claim it in full. Both oppose the demand for an independent, undivided Kashmir ruled by the Kashmiri people.

Since New Delhi's decision to scrap Kashmir's special status, a "free Kashmir" movement has resurfaced on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC), which divides the India- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir regions. Kashmiris have been demanding a sovereign state for decades, but their voices have mostly been ignored by both India and Pakistan.

Lately, there have been increasing reports about large demonstrations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir — officially called Azad Kashmir in Pakistan. Last month, clashes broke out between protesters and police in Muzaffarabad, the region's capital. The police were trying to disperse a protest rally organized by the People National Alliance (PNA), a group that seeks an independent Kashmir.

Inspirational factor

Kashmiri activists that seek independence from both India and Pakistan told DW they are hugely inspired by the movement that brought down the Berlin Wall and rejoined East and West Germany to form one German state.

Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990, under the guidance of then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl, after more than four decades of Cold War division. The historic event came less than a year after the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.

"We believe that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent reunification of Germany are an inspiration not only to us but to all freedom movements in the world. Like the pre-reunification Germany, Jammu and Kashmir has also been split into two territories, and a wall (LoC) was erected to divide the same people," Toqeer Gilani, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told DW. He added that "if Germany can be reunited, so can Kashmir."

"The post-World War II Germany was also forcefully divided by global powers. It was propagated that the division was necessary due to the 'ideological differences' between East and West Germany. We also experienced this in Kashmir," Gilani said.

Some experts say that although the German and Kashmiri dynamics are not totally similar, the "independent Kashmir" movement can still take inspiration from the German reunification success.

"As we approach the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we should rejoice that people can overcome adversity and divisions. The people of Kashmir will take inspiration from what happened in Germany 30 years ago. A group of people has been kept apart by force," Shaffaq Mohammed, a British-Kashmiri MEP (Member of European Parliament), told DW.Ali Raza Syed, the chairman of the Kashmir Council, a Brussels-based non-governmental organization, says that just as in pre-reunification Germany, families are divided in India- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmirs. "They have the same culture, the same language. I think the German reunification inspirations can be applied to Kashmir," Syed told DW.

"You can threaten people, you can torture them, but you cannot govern a country out of fear," Mohammed said, referring both to the India-imposed lockdown in Kashmir and the oppression in the former German Democratic Republic, or GDR.

"If Kashmiris want to be independent of both India and Pakistan, it is their right," the Liberal Democrat MEP added.

https://www.dw.com/en/kashmir-independence-activists-draw-inspiration-from-german-reunification/a-51091943