Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai
India will celebrate its 80th Independence Day on August 15, 2026 commemorating its independence from British colonial rule. We extend our warm greetings to the people of India on this historic occasion. The freedom of a nation from colonial rule is, in principle, a cause worthy of celebration. But independence also invites a deeper question: What does freedom mean when the political aspirations of an entire people remain unresolved?
India has every right to celebrate its Independence Day within the territory it administers. But Kashmir presents a profound contradiction to the democratic ideals India proudly invokes. For Kashmiris, the promise of self-determination made in the earliest years of the India-Pakistan conflict remains unfulfilled.
It was India that brought the Kashmir question before the United Nations Security Council in 1948. The Council subsequently adopted resolutions addressing the conflict, including Resolution 47 of April 21, 1948, which dealt with restoration of peace and order and contemplated a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.
The international framework that emerged was intended to halt hostilities, establish a ceasefire, and create conditions under which the people of Jammu and Kashmir could have a say in determining their political future. Yet nearly eight decades later, that promise remains unrealized.
The tragedy of Kashmir is not simply that India and Pakistan disagree over territory. It is that the people who have lived through generations of conflict have too often been treated as objects of diplomacy rather than as participants in determining their own future.
India describes Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of the country. The people of Kashmir reject that position and continues to call for the exercise of Kashmiri self-determination. The United Nations continues to regard Jammu and Kashmir as a dispute on its agenda. The competing claims of India and Pakistan, however, should not obscure the fundamental question: What do the Kashmiri people themselves want? That question is at the heart of the dispute.
Mahatma Gandhi articulated a principle that remains strikingly relevant. As quoted by Stanley Wolpert in Gandhi’s Passion, Gandhi argued that the people of Kashmir should be free to determine their own political future. The enduring force of that principle lies not in its partisan application, but in its universality: “They should be left free to decide for themselves.”
If democracy means government by the consent of the governed, then Kashmir cannot forever be treated as merely a territorial question between two nuclear-armed states. Nor should Kashmir be reduced to a religious confrontation between Hindus and Muslims, or to a conventional border dispute. At its core, it is a question of political rights, human dignity and self-determination. Any durable settlement must address the aspirations and rights of the Kashmiri people themselves, irrespective of their religious background.
The status quo has clearly failed to deliver peace. Decades of military confrontation, political instability, human-rights concerns and repeated crises have demonstrated that postponing the underlying political question does not resolve it. Indeed, the continued hostility between India and Pakistan has periodically brought South Asia dangerously close to wider conflict. The presence of nuclear weapons makes the consequences of miscalculation particularly grave.
The Pahalgam attack of April 2025 and the subsequent India-Pakistan military confrontation once again demonstrated how quickly a crisis in Kashmir can escalate into a regional security emergency. Whatever one’s position on responsibility for the violence, the episode underscored an unavoidable reality: Kashmir is not a frozen conflict. It remains a source of grave instability in a nuclear-armed region.
The international community therefore cannot afford to regard Kashmir as an issue that can simply be managed indefinitely. Nor is there a shortage of diplomatic tools. The international community possesses both incentives and leverage. Economic cooperation, diplomatic engagement and regional integration can provide the “carrot”; diplomatic pressure, accountability and consistent application of international human-rights standards can provide the “stick.” The objective should not be to punish India or Pakistan, but to encourage both countries to move from confrontation toward a negotiated political settlement. Such a settlement would benefit everyone.
For India, resolving the Kashmir conflict would remove one of the most persistent sources of tension on its borders and allow it to devote greater attention and resources to its enormous economic and technological potential. For Pakistan, a peaceful settlement would help relieve a profound strategic and economic burden. For Kashmiris, it could finally offer an alternative to generations of conflict, insecurity and political uncertainty.
And for the international community, it would demonstrate that principles of democracy, human rights and international law do not disappear when powerful states or important economic interests are involved.
The United Nations has repeatedly encouraged peaceful dialogue between India and Pakistan. But after decades of bilateral negotiations, ceasefires, confidence-building measures and failed diplomatic initiatives, it is difficult to argue that the existing formula has produced a lasting settlement. If bilateralism has repeatedly failed to resolve the dispute, perhaps it is time to consider a broader framework.
That framework should include India, Pakistan and genuine leadership of the Kashmiri people, like Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmed Shah and Masarat Aalam Bhat.
Kashmiris cannot be expected to accept a settlement negotiated entirely over their heads. Any credible peace process must give them a meaningful seat at the table and recognize that the people most directly affected by the conflict have a legitimate interest in determining its outcome.
The international community should therefore encourage India and Pakistan to recommit themselves to international law, human rights and meaningful negotiations, while creating space for Kashmiri participation. The United Nations can play a constructive role by facilitating dialogue, supporting confidence-building measures, encouraging independent human-rights monitoring and helping the parties address the difficult practical questions that have frustrated previous initiatives. The objective should not be to impose a solution from outside. It should be to create the conditions in which a just and peaceful solution can emerge.
India’s Independence Day should remind the world that freedom is not merely the absence of colonial rule. It is also the right of people to have a meaningful voice in determining their political destiny.
India can celebrate the freedom it won in 1947. Kashmiris, however, continue to ask when the promise of political freedom will become meaningful for them. The answer cannot be another generation of waiting. It cannot be another round of failed negotiations. It cannot be another cycle of violence followed by another return to an unstable status quo.
The international community should have the courage to recognize that lasting peace in South Asia requires more than managing the Kashmir dispute. It requires addressing it.
The first step is to recognize the Kashmiri people as indispensable participants in the search for a settlement. The second is for India and Pakistan to move beyond the politics of permanent confrontation. And the ultimate goal must be a settlement grounded in justice, human dignity, peaceful negotiation and the freely expressed aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
With goodwill, courage and long-headed statesmanship, today’s confrontation can give way to tomorrow’s reconciliation.
The question that has haunted Kashmir for generations therefore remains: How many roads must Kashmiris walk before the world finally gives serious meaning to their inalienable right to determine their own future?
The writer is Chairman,World Forum for Peace & Justice and he can be reached at WhatsApp: 1-202-607-6435,[email protected]
