For Kashmir, India’s Independence Day is in fact a monument to subjugation, dredging up memories of horror. For us, Independence Day is instead known as ‘Black Day’, the saddest day on the calendar.
Once a princely state, Kashmir is today one of the most militarised zones in the world. The mountainous region lies on the border of India and Pakistan and has been the subject of constant squabbling in the two countries.
Today the question seems no closer to being resolved. And thousands of Muslims feel they have been cut off, left stranded on the wrong side of the boundary. In the Kashmir Valley, a large stretch of land in the Indian-administered zone, 96% of the population is Muslim.
This is the root of ‘Black Day’: Kashmiris believe they deserved the right to be liberated, and want to raise attention to what they see as a cruel irony. Observing this Day a Black Day does not mean that we are against the freedom of any country but to provide them a chance to decide the future by allowing independent plebiscite in Kashmir, till then it doesn’t have any moral and constitutional right to organise the freedom celebrations in the territory. Its aim is to convey the message to international community that India has usurped Kashmiris’ inalienable right to self-determination by the dint of force.
