In America, the internet is life. We use it in many aspects of our lives, and it has become quite a significant part of the culture here. What if it was gone? What if social media was unavailable? What if you couldn’t search for the answer to that hard question on Google? In August, India shut down the internet in the disputed region of Kashmir. India also removed Kashmir’s autonomic status and declared full control over the area. For a long time, Pakistan and India have fought over who gets to add Kashmir to themselves. This decade long conflict has seen through the suffering of civilians, deadly fighting, and many complications that raise the question of when Kashmir will finally be at peace.

  When India and Pakistan split in 1947, they both claimed the territories of Kashmir. Both countries have nuclear weapons so Kashmir has since become one of the most militarized regions in the world. The two enemy countries agreed to a ceasefire, but it has been violated many times. Pakistan military spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor said that this year alone, India has fired and shelled in the border regions 2,608 times.This left  44 civilians dead and another 230 injured. An Indian government source said Pakistan violated the ceasefire 2,500 times in 2019. To add to this violence, the internet in Kashmir was shut down by India. This has had a horrifying impact on the life of Kashmiris. Medicine and baby food couldn’t be ordered. Livelihoods were destroyed. Families were split. Many protesters were killed, injured, or blinded by shells. Even worse, Kashmiris couldn’t voice their suffering on social media because there was no internet. Muheet Mehraj said,“We’ve seen more than 400 shutdowns,” he said. “This has been the worst of them all.”

  While there are external forces fighting over Kashmir, there are also internal fighting. Kashmir is a Muslim majority region so one movement supports merging with Pakistan, a Muslim county.

Another movements wants total independence from both India and Pakistan. Then there’s some from the Buddist part of Kashmir, Ladakh (still disputed over by India and China), who want their region to merge with India. Since the end of the 1980s, India has kept a strong military presence in Kashmir to keep all of these movements in check. Military groups in Kashmir began appearing to combat the Indian troops, although with little victory. Still, Kashmiris continue to protest, even when it’s reported that protesters are shot, injured and sometimes killed. 

  Finally, after 72 days, the internet was restored in Kashmir, but the issue is far from over. Earlier this month, India released two maps showing the regions of Kashmir, Jammu(also subject to the dispute), and Ladakh as part of India. The map also excludes some  regions controlled by Pakistan and China, basically ignoring their existence. 

  Until Pakistan, India, and China(mainly the first two) resolve their issues together, there will be continuous fighting and suffering for the Kashmiri people. They are getting killed, starving, and being silenced. Not enough people are talking about this issue. While the dispute seems really far away from us, social media can close that distance. Research it yourself. This issue needs to be resolved, and by spreading the word, maybe, just maybe, this decades long dispute can end.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Kashmir-region-Indian-subcontinent

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/27/asia/india-pakistan-border-kashmir-intl-hnk/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50039537

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/technology/india-kashmir-internet.html

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/india-draws-line-kashmir