BY GREG ROSENBERG
"Azad Kashmir! (Free Kashmir)" shouted women in the charred town of Charar Sharif - the scene of a devastating inferno provoked by the Indian army May 9.

The burning of more than 1,000 houses and shops in the town galvanized new opposition to India's bloody rule over Kashmir - a territory of 7.8 million people, and the only Indian state with a Muslim majority. Tens of thousands joined in protests to angrily denounce the army's actions. "India get out!" demanded the former residents of the town, some 18 miles from the summer capital of Srinagar. "Indian killers go home!"

The events in Charar Sharif delivered a fresh political crisis to the Congress Party government of Indian prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Kashmir lies in the foothills of the towering Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountain ranges, bordering Pakistan, India, and China. Kashmir's Muslim majority has waged a decades- long battle for self-determination from New Delhi. This battle expanded into civil war in 1990, when rising worker and peasant protests convinced New Delhi to dissolve the state government and rule by fiat.

The Kashmiri fight for self-determination has its roots in British colonial rule on the Indian subcontinent, the resulting partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and the desire of India's ruling families to keep the possession in their grip. The rival capitalist regime in Pakistan - which occupies one third of Kashmir - lays claim to the rest of it. Islamabad and New Delhi have fought three wars since 1947, and in 1990 came to the brink of nuclear exchanges following rising protests in Kashmir.

As justification for its hold on Kashmir, successive Congress Party governments have painted the self- determination struggle as a Pakistani aggression, complete with charges of "Muslim militancy" and terrorism. While some armed formations fighting Indian troops favor annexation to Pakistan, a majority of Kashmiris simply want independence.

New Delhi has continuously ignored United Nations calls for a plebiscite on independence. Rao scheduled state elections in Kashmir for next month to take the heat off his government. But after the burning of Charar Sharif, senior Indian officials proclaimed the plan "dead in the water."

The Kashmiri conflict is the most explosive of several battles for national rights throughout India, and the Indian capitalist families need it kept in check to prevent a victory from inspiring fighters for self-determination from Punjab in the west to Assam in the east.

12,000 troops vs. 50 fighters
Some 12,000 Indian troops surrounded Charar Sharif over the past 10 weeks in an attempt to corner about 50 armed opponents of New Delhi's occupation. As the Indian army moved in May 9 and gun battles broke out, a fire swept through the town, which at one time was home to 25,000 people. Most of the residents had fled earlier. Among the structures destroyed was a mosque housing the 15th century mausoleum of Nooruddin Wali, the patron saint of Kashmir.

The Indian army was quick to blame "Muslim militants" for the fire. In a May 15 speech to Parliament, Rao declared the fire to be the work of "militants from Pakistan." Army commanders offered profuse explanations of their version of the events, but prevented reporters from getting closer than one mile from Charar Sharif for several days after the blaze.

New Delhi's heavy-handed censorship was too much even for reporters for the big-business press, who are prone to slavishly intone the mantra that India is "the world's biggest democracy."

"On May 12, the army allowed nearly 100 foreign and Indian journalists to survey the valley," wrote Shiraz Sidhva in the May 15 Financial Times. "A few shots were fired and a building in the valley went up in flames in perfect timing for the TV cameras. The army displayed the bodies of five militants, who they said were foreign nationals.

"But later, when some journalists, including this correspondent, returned to Alamdar Basti, near Chrar-e- Sharief, the bodies had been brought to an open field beside a road," Sidhva wrote. "Villagers wept over the corpses and said they were local people, not foreigners." Nearly 30 corpses have been recovered so far.

The Indian government maintains at least 300,000 troops in Kashmir - about one soldier for every 25 people living in the region. New Delhi rapidly swung its military machine into action in a vain attempt to quash protests that swept the region.

Police opened fire on a large crowd that gathered to protest the inferno May 11 in central Srinagar, killing two people. At Chadoora, near Charar Sharif, police attempted to shut down a march of 20,000 protesters.

New Delhi slapped a 24-hour curfew on the area. But throughout the valley, cops fired bullets and tear gas at protesters who defied it. In Srinagar, troops did not even allow residents to open their windows, ostensibly to protect two federal ministers visiting the region.

Abdul Ghani Lone, a prominent opponent of the Indian occupation, said soldiers beat him on the head with the butt of a gun as he attempted to walk through police lines to visit the burning town. As Lone was being interviewed by the press, troops arrested him and dragged him to a police wagon.

Despite New Delhi's claims that the guerrillas in the town had set the fire, area residents were adamant that the army was to blame. Some reported army helicopters hovering above the area dropping ordnance just prior to the blaze.

At least 20,000 people have died in the Kashmir conflict over the past five years - the vast majority slain by the Indian army, cops, or special hit squads. According to Amnesty International, 715 people have been tortured or shot to death while in government custody since 1990.

More than 14,400 Kashmiris have been detained under New Delhi's notorious Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA), while only 30 have been charged with any offense. TADA gives cops the powers to arrest someone as a terrorist for carrying a pocketknife and hold political opponents in jail without charges - sometimes for years.

"It is not a law, it is a tool of absolute repression," said Ravi Nair, director of the New Delhi-based South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center. Students protesting high milk prices, landless peasants demanding rights, and farmers seeking lower electricity prices for their village have been arrested under TADA. Some 80 percent of those arrested under TADA in three of India's largest states are Muslims; only 13 percent of India's population is Muslim.

Crisis for Congress Party
Attempting to deflect mounting criticism of its conduct in Kashmir, the Rao government quickly blamed Islamabad for the blaze. Internal Security Minister Rajesh Pilot warned, "Pakistan should not test the patience of this country."

The Kashmir debacle brought immediate calls for Rao's resignation. The ultrarightist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose followers razed the Ayodhya mosque in 1992, resulting in mass riots throughout India, blamed Rao and the Pakistani regime. "The nation will never forgive the government for failing to prevent the militants and mercenaries coming across the border from Pakistan to enter the holy shrine, burn it, and get away," said Krishna Lal Sharma, BJP general secretary.

Prominent officials of his own party also called for Rao to step down. The prime minister's political fortunes have waned following state elections earlier this year in which the Congress Party was trounced. In four of the largest states - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh - Congress candidates were badly outvoted, and the party now retains power in only 8 of India's 26 states. In Gujarat and Maharashtra, the BJP and its ultraright ally Shiv Sena triumphed.

The Kashmir events promise to deepen opposition to Congress that has crystallized around Rao's austerity measures, which are aimed in part at attracting foreign capital. "The trouble with India's economic reforms has always been their lack of appeal to the poor who make up the bulk of the population," lamented a recent Financial Times article.

New Delhi has promised $5 million to rebuild some of Charar Sharif. Muslim organizations rejected the offer, saying they will raise the funds for reconstruction.  
 
 
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