The word "democracy" can have a numbing effect on the critical faculties.  Pardon me if I speak for more minds than my own, but I think many of us, steeped from childhood in the rhetoric of American civic ideals, succumb easily to the power of this ancient word.  I realized this as I read Pankaj Mishra’s wake-up call about the Kashmir in the New York Times. 

When we hear again and again that India is a democracy, we tend to relax – and to forget that democracies start wars, that voting rights and free speech don’t prevent democracies from violating human rights, and that democracies tend towards disproportionate defenses of their own liberties, often at the expense of the liberties of others.  If America is a democracy with much to answer for, why should India be spared scrutiny?

Mishra argues that India has been overreacting to militant Islam in the Kashmir region, and that the trampling of Muslim rights in the region could spark revolutionary attitudes among Kashmiri Muslims, including thousands who have been willing to pursue independence for their region through lawful means.  Citing a Human Rights Watch report from 2006, Mishra notes "a steady pattern of arbitrary arrest, torture, and extrajudicial execution by Indian security forces" in Kashmir and writes that "brutal suppression of the nonviolent protests" may lead to "a fresh cycle of violence, rendering Kashmir even more dangerous — and not just to South Asia this time."

We have been so busy adjusting to India’s status as a nuclear and economic superpower — and basking in the pleasant sound of the phrase "the world’s largest democracy" — that we may be tempted to ignore warning signals coming from the explosive Kashmir region.  The White House and the State Department owe it to us and the world to keep their eyes open and their ears to the ground on this one.  And if there are any foreign news bureaus still open, they do too.  -NH

Comment RSS - You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.