Kashmir Solidarity Day Calls for Solidifying Narratives

Techno-Nationalism: Redefining Power
February 3, 2025
Call for Breaking Silence
February 6, 2025
Techno-Nationalism: Redefining Power
February 3, 2025
Call for Breaking Silence
February 6, 2025
Maryum Tamoor

5th February is observed annually as Kashmir Solidarity Day in Pakistan, underscoring the nation’s commitment to the Kashmir cause. It signifies Kashmir’s historical and political significance in Pakistan’s national psyche, identity, and geopolitical stance. This day serves as a platform to reiterate Pakistan’s support for the Kashmiri’s right to self-determination.

Kashmir Solidarity Day is more than a commemoration; it is a call to rejuvenate the cause in public consciousness and global discourse.

Nations have certain symbols, events, and days that serve as markers of unity. Pakistan also has its share of these commemorations, and Kashmir Solidarity Day stands as a reminder that Kashmir remains an unfinished cause of the right to self-determination and a tribute to the resilience of the Kashmiri people. For decades, this day has been observed as a token of Pakistan’s unwavering support for this struggle.

However, the concern is that the narratives are dynamic. Ensuring that the narratives remain pertinent, they require consistent nourishment, reinforcement, and strategic adaptation to counter opposing perspectives. A compelling national narrative is construed by integrating the counter-narratives to establish such collective ethos and memory grounded in truth and history.

In the case of Kashmir, Pakistan appears to be losing ground in the battle of narratives. India effectively has positioned its version of events through a persuasive narrative, portraying a tale of progress and economic development. Enmeshed in the security paradigm, India has dominated the discourse on Kashmir. While sources of information depicting Kashmir’s history as a struggle for self-determination, with its roots in the partition of the Indian sub-continent rather than just the events of August 2019, have dwindled.

The abrogation of the special status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) was a watershed event, but the struggle predates this event. Therefore, 5th February should not only be a symbolic observance but to reclaim and bolster the information landscape surrounding Kashmir.

India has effectively dominated the narrative on Kashmir by framing it through a security and economic development lens, sidelining the struggle for self-determination.

The tradition of standing in solidarity with the Kashmiri people began in 1990 when Qazi Hussian Ahmad of Jamat-e-Islami called for a rally in support of Kashmiris. This initiative gained traction when the then leader of the opposition and the Chief Minister of Punjab, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, called for formal observance of Kashmir Solidarity Day, leading to the institutionalization as a national holiday by the Pakistan Peoples’ Party government.

However, it is now time to move beyond mere commemoration and raise this issue consistently—rather than limiting it to some days. Doing so would not only provide moral support to the Kashmiri people but also contribute to long-term peace in the region. Narratives, like institutions, have a life of their own and require continuous attention. If overlooked or neglected, they begin to fade.

A Gallup Survey conducted in 2018 revealed a growing sense of pessimism among Pakistanis regarding the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. While schools and colleges hold special events, rallies are conducted across Azad Kashmir (Pakistan-administered Kashmir), and streets are lined with billboards depicting Indian atrocities in IIOJK, another aspect of the survey presents a stark reality: in 2015, participation in Kashmir Day events had declined to less than 1% of Pakistan’s population.

There is a need to rejuvenate the Kashmir cause in the public consciousness. This begs for a robust and comprehensive narrative that includes the whole picture— the ebbs and flows of history, the crusts, and troughs of the Kashmir conflict, the strategic miscalculations, and the tangents where Delhi outmanoeuvred Islamabad.

Pakistan must move beyond symbolic gestures and adopt a proactive strategy that counters misinformation and strengthens the Kashmir cause.

It is essential to identify past shortcomings and course-correct to write a new chapter, one that moves beyond rhetorical commitments and is replete with proactive steps not merely reacting to India but a compelling vision for Kashmir that brings Kashmir closer to resolution.

The author is a research analyst based in Islamabad. and visiting faculty QAU.

Kashmir Solidarity Day Calls for Solidifying Narratives
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