Behind the war cries of Indian and Pakistani leaders over Kashmir today
Image from: Insights India August 1, 2023
Behind the war cries of Indian and Pakistani leaders over Kashmir today
We provide a number of materials here on the erupting crisis and war in the Indian sub-continent. Two of these are provided immediately and are below.
The full texts will consist of:
i) An introduction outlines what we believe are some underlying fundamental principles – of which the first is one that is not adequately recognised, or acknowledged by Marxist-Leninists.
ii) We next move to a recent Statement on the crisis from the sub-continent, as originally and recently published in the Indian Marxist-Leninist journal ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ (New Delhi).
iii) Finally we will in slower pace, add to this piece re-trace our steps and flesh out in a bit more detail – how these principles work out in the politics of India.
Because of the rapid pace of developments, we first publish the initial underlying principles; and
the: May 2025 Statement from Pakistan Mazdoor Maha (Pakistan Labour Front) and ‘Revolutionary Democracy’.
We will web-publish part (iii) in short while..
Behind the war cries of Indian and Pakistani leaders over Kashmir today – May 8, 2025.
1. Some operating principles by which to understand the India and Pakistan war over Kashmir
We believe that a few fundamental principles allow Marxists an understanding of the repetitive wars between India and Pakistan over the territory of Kashmir. This now obviously extends to the most recent turmoil of April-May 2025. For each of these events, the trigger events are merely the short fuses that led back to the original explosive realities – following ‘Partition”.
We have written before about these in previous articles, or reprinted pieces – either in British journals of the 1970s; or in Alliance ML in the past. We reference some of these below.
But we will here distill down into the principles that we mentioned.
1) India is in reality a multi-national state – as is Pakistan. As such, each of these individual nations will at some stage come to the point of trying to develop its own nationhood. But in the period of imperialist divisions of the world, these national movements are stifled and subverted. It is in this light that the Kashmiri national movement was taken over by the Congress Party of the first Prime Minister of India – Jawaharlal Nehru. After this, the then Indian comprador class basically annexed and occupied Kashmir. Even as it itself began to develop more strongly.
2) British imperialists realised after World War 2 that their Imperial Preference was being eroded by the USA. Moreover the USA was not going to allow the British Empire to remain intact. The Indian nationalists had been struggling now for some years in an anti-imperialist battle for national independence. Although this was complicated by comprador agents such as Mohandas Gandhi and Nehru. To stifle the national movement, and to convert the British colony of the Indian sub-continent into a neo-colony, the British used religion as a lever. They decided to carve the Indian sub-continent into two on the pretext that religion was the fulcrum of ‘national’ status especially in India. The resulting states were made vulnerable and dependent upon British imperialism. The artificial border – divided what major industry there was into one state – while key raw materials were left in the other state.
3) Marxists follow the principle of a respect for the “rights of nations to self-determination”. We believe that Kashmir is a nation under the definitional terms that were provided by Stalin J.V. ; and endorsed by Lenin V.I.
4) In 2025 we are in the period of an attempted re-division of the world; in effect a run-up to towards at worst a new war of division of the world’s riches. This war will be between in especial the USA and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The leaders of the two major power blocs have their proxies in the sub-continent. Here Pakistan is acting most often on behalf of the PRC; while India, most often acts on behalf of the USA. The proviso of “most often” is because various factions manage to pull in differing directions.
5) Individual terror tactics play into the hands of the ruling class of both India and Pakistan, and is repudiated by Marxist-Leninists. It is not a solution to the underlying problem, and these tactics only enables the national question of Kashmir to be further evaded – and the rights of Kashmiris to be ignored. A mass working class and peasant movement must be welded and strengthened. This should be consciously led into the avenue of moving from the democratic stage into the socialist stage immediately with no gaps, as proposed by Lenin.
6) Ultimately only a Marxist-Leninist Party can help the working classes and peasantry of Kashmir, India and Pakistan – to resolve the many divisions that have been created by imperialism and local capitalists.
Some relevant links in chronological order of writing
W.B.Bland, Report Of The Central Committee Of The Marxist-Leninist Organisation Of Britain; “The Pakistani Revolution”; London ca 1969 – here
Bland W.B. Combat -Journal Of The Communist League – March 1975. Terrorism Or Revolution? republished with new introduction
Alliance Marxist-Leninist (North America) Issue Number 5. Toronto, October, 1993.
Part One: The Role Of The Bourgeoisie In Colonial Type Countries:What Is The Class Character Of The Indian State ? Changing Line, Revisionists Distort Lenin And Stalin” here
Second Part Two: The Role Of The Bourgeoisie In Colonial Type Countries:What Is The Class Character Of The Indian State ?Changing Line, Revisionists Distort Lenin And Stalin”; here
Communist Workers and Peasants Party, Pakistan; June 2nd 2002 “Pakistan and India on the Precipice of War”; here
MLRG.online; “Bay of Bengal – Naval Cauldron of China versus USA – Behind the drama of Sheikh Hasina’s flight from Dakka; August 23, 2024; here
Part TWO: Statement on the current confrontation between the governments of India and Pakistan
JOINT STATEMENT FROM Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz AND Revolutionary Democracy Organisation.
Published originally here then ->
‘Revolutionary Democracy’ Volume 2, No. 1 (Third Series) April, 2025
The killing of 26 non-combatant civilians (most of them tourists) by some unidentified terrorists near Pahalgam in Kashmir valley on 22 April 2025 has resulted in escalation of tensions between the governments of India and Pakistan. The incident was calculated to undermine the resurgence of tourism industry which is one of the main sources of employment in the Valley and to provoke Islamophobia among the mass of the Indian people. No organisation has claimed responsibility for this attack and we are not likely to know who was actually responsible for it or which state connived at it. What is evident is that it was the common labouring Kashmiri people who came to the assistance of the survivors and helped them to safety, belying the theories of ethnic or religious hatred among them. Strangely enough the Indian armed forces, otherwise ubiquitous in the Valley, were not there to protect the civilian tourists.
Acts of terrorism whether enacted by those representing liberation movements or by state agencies only aid the states to arm themselves with unbridled powers, harass the labouring people and foster xenophobia among the masses. It harms the democratic or revolutionary causes they claim to represent. We the undersigned organisations, in line with Marxist-Leninism, unequivocally condemn all such acts. It is important to separate political violence by the masses against the ruling classes from such attacks on non-combatant people.
Predictably this incident has been used to disrupt all normal economic activities including tourism in Kashmir Valley, to conduct random searches and punitive action against the local population by the armed forces, punish the people at large for the act of terrorism done in their name. It has been used to attack Muslims and Kashmiris across India. This further feeds the strategy of promoting settler colonialism on the Israeli lines in the Valley advocated by the ruling party.
It has also led to serious warmongering rhetoric against Pakistan and penalising the common people of both the countries. The suspension of Indus water agreement and the threat of stopping water to Pakistan, the order to all Pakistani citizens on legitimate visit to relatives in India to return within a few days, the suspension of all postal communication and trade between the two countries and closing of the air space to Pakistan (all of which measures have been equally reciprocated by Pakistan, including holding in abeyance the Shimla Agreement) only hit the lives of ordinary people who have had nothing to do with the conflict between the two states. Targeting innocent civilians for the real or imagined crimes of the government is a deliberate xenophobic strategy.
In addition, both the governments, which incidentally control large nuclear arsenals, have been threating to go to war with each other. While most other states have urged scaling down of tensions, China has taken postures in support of Pakistan, threatening a wider regional confrontation in case of a war. Sabre rattling and war mongering even if it actually does not result in combat, creates fear and anxiety among the people living across the borders and generates hatred towards minority communities elsewhere.
All this deflects the public consciousness from the need to work toward a genuine democratic solution to the Kashmir problem and the damage done to it by the revocation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution and the dismemberment of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
We call for restoration of normalcy in both the Valley and between India and Pakistan and return to multi-party negotiations to arrive at democratic solutions to problems which affect the labouring people of the entire South Asian region. However, democratic solutions require democratic states and such solutions cannot be achieved until the people of South Asia struggle to build democratic states in their own countries.
Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz; and, Revolutionary Democracy Organisation
April 2025 Issue of ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ (New Delhi)
