Partition and Legacies of Violence: A Study of Kashmir Conflict

The Partition of 1947, the clashing set of images, memories and the horror of violence that erupted in the Indian sub-continent. The roots and reasons may vary in the circumstances of identity, religion, ideology and so on, but for the sub-continent, it was a trauma as well as a triumph in so many ways. It was indeed the final victory of anti-colonial struggles, the birth of new independent and separate states and granted the citizenship of a new sovereign republic. While on the other side it has changed narratives of subcontinent. The legacies of violence, displacement, refugees, rape and kidnapping from both sides created the narratives of rupture, which are still alive in terms of border skirmishes, conflicts either intra, inter or sectarian created a new wave of violence in the sub-continent. The question arises, how partition had kept the state of Jammu and Kashmir on the threshold and from seventy years, the people of Kashmir are on the liminality. Stuck in the middle of violence from 1947, Kashmir had seen nothing, but repression and genocide from both sides. After Partition, it became one’s Integral part (Atoot-Ang) and Jugular vein (Shah Rag) of another. It is remarkable, that the Kashmir remained unsolved and continues to bleed for both India and Pakistan both politically, economically and religiously. The audit of this paper is to present a broad framework of Kashmir conflict, through the outlook of partition. Besides that, the paper will also cover the legacies of violence that have roots in the partition, which are negligible in the sub-continent.