Last month, Delhi’s lieutenant governor granted the police permission to prosecute Indian activist and prize-winning author Arundhati Roy under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Back in 2010, Roy said that Kashmir — which was experiencing unrest at the time — is not “an integral part of India.” Accusations of sedition quickly followed, but it is only now that she will face prosecution.
Advocating secession is illegal in most countries, and India is no exception. In fact, secession is a particularly fraught topic in the country because the wounds from its previous partition, carried out by the departing British rulers in 1947, have still not healed. On its western border lies the festering sore of Islamist Pakistan, which is constantly fomenting — and intermittently launching — terrorist attacks on Indian territory, partly to promote Kashmir’s secession from India and the region’s merger with Pakistan.
Against this backdrop, Roy’s statement was both provocative and unwise. It was also wrong: There is overwhelming historical evidence showing that Kashmir has long been an integral part of India. To claim otherwise suggests either ignorance or innocence, neither of which is desirable when making controversial pronouncements on sensitive topics. As much as I admire Roy as a person and a writer, I do not always rate her political views and judgments highly, and this was a case in point.