No to the oppression of the ruling classes of India and Pakistan ! In defense of the rights of the Kashmiri people!

Writes from India Sagnik Mukherjee

Amid the recent war-like tension brewing between India and Pakistan, both states have issued various statements. Following a sudden terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, which claimed 26 lives, the situation escalated into one resembling war. The Indian state, under the pretext of combating so-called "Islamic terrorism," is preparing for military action. Similarly, the Pakistani state has historically supported the same kind of frustrated petty-bourgeois terrorism, often veiled in religious garb—because religious identity (not religion itself) proves most effective and most misleading. The existence of such terrorism is essential to maintain the capitalist structure.

Now, specifically concerning the Kashmir region, history must be considered. Since the so-called independence of India (in reality, a transfer of power from British to Indian bourgeois hands), Kashmir has fallen prey to the innate expansionist tendencies of both Indian and Pakistani bourgeois states. Marxists are in favor of the right to self-determination for the Kashmiri people, for the immediate withdrawal of the armies and officials of Pakistan and India from Kashmir. In the face of bombings and military aggression from India or Pakistan, we support the right to self- defense of the Kashmiri people and their organizations, just as we defend the rights of the Palestinian, Ukrainian, Houthi, Tamil, Kurdish, or Catalan people against the attacks of the states that oppress them.

A brief review of the history of oppression of the Kashmir nation

Due to its not-easily-accessible yet geographically crucial location, Kashmir has historically witnessed numerous invasions and has been exploited by several rulers. Bourgeois historiography and academia have deliberately sought to trivialize this. The popular rage against Kashmir's last king, Hari Singh, has never been interpreted from a class perspective—as a struggle against monarchy—but has been distorted and portrayed as 'Muslim anger against a Hindu king's Hindutva.'

This region saw the rise and fall of several kings and dynasties. Muslim traders and travellers ventured through this land seeking fortune, especially during the crusades. From Marco Polo's note on 'Saracens' (black skins referring to Arabs or Muslims) in Kashmir, they were noted as being employed as butchers.

In 1320, Zulju or Dhu 'I Qadr Khan invaded Kashmir. Mongols plundered and enslaved the people, burnt down buildings, and destroyed crops. In the words of Jonraja, "Kashmir presented a pitiful spectacle. Further pitilessly wailed and moaned when father fought his son. Brother separating from his brother lost him for ever…Depopulated, un¬cultivated, grainless and gramineous, the country of Kashmir". (Asimov, History of Civilizations of Central Asia)

In 1752, the Durrani Empire seized Kashmir from the weakened Mughals. However, unlike Mughal emperors like Akbar and Jehangir, the Durranis and their lieutenants proved to be unenlightened rulers. They were only interested in extorting money, while the common masses lived in constant fear. Many locals were captured and sent as slaves to Afghanistan. Local economic activities that had developed over centuries collapsed completely. Due to the harsh tax regime, the shawl industry faced a severe depression. From 40,000 shawl looms during the Mughal Empire, the number dropped to just 16,000. It only revived under

British rule due to the growing demand for Kashmiri shawls in the European market—a trend that continues today. The Afghan rule ended with the rise of the Sikh Empire. In 1819, Ranjit Singh took over Kashmir. The Sikh rule was equally, if not more, ruthless than that of the Afghans. The Sikhs turned out to be equally unenlightened, bleeding the region dry with incessant tax demands. The masses groaned under this barbaric oppression.

Moorcroft's quote on Durrani rule: "Every trade is taxed, butchers, bakers, boatmen, vendors of fuel, public notaries, scavengers, prostitutes, all pay a sort of corporation tax, and even the Kotwal, or chief officer of justice, pays a large gratuity of thirty thousand rupees a year for his appointment, being left to reimburse himself as he may." The tax on peasants expropriated almost seven-eighths of the total produce.

In 1846, under the Treaty of Amritsar, the British sold the valley of Kashmir to a Hindu Dogra ruler, Gulab Singh, a stooge of the British Raj, making Kashmir one of the largest titular princely states in India, maintained as a "friendly fortress in debatable territory." Gulab Singh was one of the staunchest allies of the British Raj. While the people starved, the ruler funnelled large sums of money to the British, which helped pay off arrears of soldiers stationed in Punjab. Maharaja Ranbir Singh even ordered his army to deny asylum to rebels. Those who managed to flee to Kashmir were arrested and handed over to the British—knowing well what fate awaited them.

Engels wrote: "The fact is, there is no army in Europe or America with so much brutality as the British. Plundering, violence, massacre — things that everywhere else are strictly and completely banished — are a time-honoured privilege, a vested right of the British soldier."
(Frederick Engels; Details of the Attack on Lucknow)

The accumulated anger and discontent of the Kashmiri people against the royal family burst forth during the reign of the last king, Hari Singh. Pakistan—a newly born bourgeois state—exploited this rage for its own benefit. The abrupt accession of Kashmir to India, against the will of the Kashmiri people, trampled upon their right to self-determination. From then on, Kashmir has been a site of relentless conflict, devastating the lives of its inhabitants.

Even though the Kashmiri people were ripped off their rights of self- determination from the very beginning, they were given a special status as a part of Indian subcontinent. The Article 370 of Indian constitution conferred on it the power to have a separate constitution, state flag and autonomy of internal administration. That article was titled as 'Temporary, transitional and special provisions' in Indian constitution. The Kashmir constituent assembly were empowered to recommend the extent to which the Indian constitution would apply to Kashmir. This 'temporary provision' was intended to be applicable until the formulation and adoption of the state's constitution. But the constituent assemble abruptly dissolved itself without abrogating or amending the article 370.

But this article along with article 35A got abrogated in 2019 by BJP government, revoking the special status of only muslim- majority state, Kashmir, occupied by the Indian state. The article 35A used to provide special rights and privileges to the permanent residents of Kashmir. As per this article 'only' permanent residents of Kashmir could 'purchase lands and immovable properties' and seek government employment in the state.

After striking down the articles, the real intentions of the Indian state got revealed through various laws. Now, in absence of the Domicile laws, any non-residents of Kashmir can buy property and lands in Kashmir. Land grab and snatching away all the resources and authority from the locals was the focal point of Indian state. Indian state now posseses the right to categorise any geographical location on Kashmir as a 'strategic point', giving 'defence, sensitivity' as excuse.

As a response to the mass movement in Kashmir in 2016-17, this step was a well concerted effort of all the bourgeois parties along with BJP to suppresses the voices of the people of Kashmir. In 2016-17, the subterranean unrest turned into a popular unrest. Even though Indian state reduced it portraying merely as a response to the Burhan Aftermath (Death of a militant), it was not so. Indian army responded by brutally clamping it down, imposing a draconian curfew. More than 90 civilians were killed, more than 15,000 were injured. Indian state has historically suppressed the voices of Kashmiri people and on the other hand Pakistan has utilised the Kashmir question for their own benefits.

The attacks on the people of Kashmir are then directed at the peoples of India and Pakistan.

The recent tension between the two states serves the ruling classes of both countries in different but complementary ways. India is on the verge of the Bihar election. This incident helps catalyse jingoism and exploit Islamophobia, creating fertile ground for the fascist propaganda of the BJP, which seeks to capitalize electorally.

On May 20th, various trade unions and farmer organizations had announced an ALL INDIA GENERAL STRIKE demanding the repeal of the four anti-labor codes passed by the central government. The war drums serve as a convenient distraction from that strike. By creating a war-like scenario, both states are imposing blanket restrictions on all mass gatherings, thus directly attacking the workers' strike and other democratic movements.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's economic condition is dire, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Consequently, state repression on the working class is intensifying. The mass movement rooted in the Baloch Liberation struggle had recently gained momentum and was growing in size. The war situation can be used to brutally suppress such movements.

Another key point is that on May 10th, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) approved a $1.4 billion loan to Pakistan.

In September 2024, under the Extended Fund Facility for Pakistan program, the IMF stated:
"Despite this progress, Pakistan's vulnerabilities and structural challenges remain formidable. A difficult business environment, weak governance, and an 'outsized role of the state hinder investment', which remains very low compared to peers, while the tax base remains too narrow to ensure tax fairness, fiscal sustainability and meet Pakistan's large social and development spending needs. In particular, spending on health and education has been insufficient to tackle persistent poverty, and inadequate infrastructure investment... Without a 'concerted adjustment' and reform effort, Pakistan risks falling further behind its peers."

Again, on May 10th, 2025, the IMF stated in context of the loan:
"Pakistan's policy efforts under the EFF have already delivered significant progress in stabilizing the economy and 'rebuilding confidence', amidst a challenging global environment..."

How capitalist terrorist IMF appropriates the economy of Pakistan for global capital under the guise of development is evident and historically, the IMF has done the same to various relatively underdeveloped and weak capitalist economies.

On May 10th, Trump tweeted that India and Pakistan had reached a ceasefire agreement, to be implemented immediately. It is laughable that imperialist America—who directly funds various terrorist organizations globally for profit, now issues calls for ceasefire. Recently, Trump also declared a high tariff policy to "save domestic industries"—a stark reflection of the crisis of capital. While seemingly a measure of relief, it could prove self-destructive. America maintains trade negativity by importing more, to ensure reverse capital flow into its own economy. But this policy could impact that flow, at least temporarily. By leveraging political stability and the crisis in other nations, the U.S. might patch that damage. Hence, the India-Pakistan conflict is advantageous for the U.S., as it can also destabilize China's markets, a country currently witnessing growing workers' movements in recent months.

This phony anti-war posture of the U.S. is nothing new. After the Israel-Palestine ceasefire, Israel continued its aggression while the U.S. took no steps against it. Similarly, even after a supposed ceasefire, Pakistan violated it and launched further attacks. Behind the official facade of a ceasefire, both countries will continue their aggression—crippling both states and devastating the people of Kashmir and surrounding regions.

CPI (M): A patriotic policy, working for India ruling class

The Indian government has never had the slightest concern for the development of Kashmiri people. Just like Kashmir, many northeastern states of India are denied even basic services. Superficial development is presented as real progress, while the core remains hollow. And in this crisis of capitalism, its condition is only worsening. To preserve this capitalist structure and the state machinery required to sustain it, India's social democrats—CPI(M)—support participation in war under the pretext of "national defense." But this is not the first time CPI(M) has historically supported the bourgeois state. One must not forget the opportunistic truce during World War I between Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the bourgeois government, Burgfrieden, which Comrade Rosa Luxemburg opposed, writing in the Junius Pamphlet:

"The working class is being crucified between the two thieves: imperialism and social patriotism." The CPI(M) believes that the issues of terrorism, funded and maintained by global capital, can be resolved without any material transformation. Their affinity for the state is not new. In the words of CPI leader S.G. Sardesai:

"India and its people detest war and aggression. They passionately love and desire peace.....The rulers of Pakistan are not only guilty of blatant and unprovoked aggression against India. They are guilty of doing incalculable damage to the future well-being of the people of both the countries." (Kashmir: Defence, Democracy and Secularism, 1965)

To say the Indian state abhors war while Pakistan thrives on it only proves that CPI(M) continues to view war as a phenomenon disconnected from material conditions. In times of capitalist crisis, war becomes the only means of offering capital temporary relief—because war can stimulate demand. The 'great' social democratic theorist Bernstein didn't even believe in the theory of capitalist crisis. According to him:

"The economic development of modern society tends more and more to soften the crises and the disharmonies of capitalism rather than to intensify them....this is not a sign of collapse but of adaptation." (The Preconditions of Socialism and the Tasks of Social Democracy, 1899)

CPI(M) relies on this same opportunistic, revisionist theory to talk about "Socialism in the 21st century," while simultaneously supporting wars that uphold bourgeois states. Whenever reformists have realized that even minimal labor rights reform is impossible without preserving this system, their rhetoric has not improved—on the contrary, it has veered further into petty-bourgeois territory, ultimately landing on identity politics. This petty-bourgeois degeneration of the party is also reflected in the simultaneous decline in working-class representation and the increase in petty-bourgeois influence.

As Marx said: "the democrat (that is, the petty bourgeois revolutionary) [comes] out of the most shameful defeats as unmarked as he naively went into them; he comes away with the newly gained conviction that he must be victorious, not that he or his party ought to give up the old principles, but that conditions ought to accommodate him"
(The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, 1852)

All these events highlight the growing importance of a unified international working-class movement. They expose the fundamental unity of all bourgeois parties across nations and the bankruptcy of social democrats who, in times of capitalist crisis, increasingly rely on bourgeois structures.

Thus, we reject both the internal contradictions of bourgeois states and the liberal pacifist call for peace.

Our slogan is:
"NO WAR, BUT CLASS WAR, ALL ACROSS THE WORLD."

Long live Proletarian Internationalism! 

Long Live the Self- Determination of Kashmir people!

Long live South Asian Soviet Federation!

Long live Socialism!

IMF link : https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2025/05/09/pr-25137-pakistan-imf-completes-1st-rev-of-eff-arrang-and-approves-req-for-arrang-under-rsf