Kashmir and the Contradictions of the Neo-Colonial State

Dr Saulat Nagi

What is happening in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) must be seen in a larger canvas with a Marxist lens. We are living in interesting times when capitalism is experiencing the acme of its anarchy. Imperialism is bogged down in the Middle East where Iran and the Axis of Resistance have admirably engaged the Empire (US) and its poodle (Israel) in a quagmire. A stalemate is leading to the weakening of the international economy, which may culminate in stagflation, if not recession. Not only the fate of oil and gas is at stake but the likely scarcity of helium, precious metals and agricultural products are threatening the fragile economies of the countries of the Global South dependent on the export of raw materials. The threat is real. In the wake of a deteriorating global economic forecast, the countries dependent on agrarian exports are more prone to receive serious blows. Pakistan, with its economy in tatters and beholden to the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank – the parasitic Bretton Woods institutions – is one of them.
Let us analyse the Pakistani state, a vestigial extension of the colonial arrangement. It bears a striking resemblance to 19th-century Italy. After the Risorgimento, Massimo d’Azeglio, who actively participated in the fight for the unification of Italy, famously remarked, “We have made Italy, now we must make Italians.” Following independence – a process in which no serious mass effort was required – the Pakistani ruling class might well have wondered, “We have a country; now how do we create a nation out of thin air?”Accumulating capital within a predominantly feudal mode of production, marked by severely underdeveloped productive forces, was an impossible task for a comprador state seeking to secure a subordinate position within the orbit of metropolitan capital.
Gramsci has something remarkable to say in this regard. “The Risorgimento in Italy,” he says, “achieved a ‘revolution without revolution’ or a ‘passive revolution’ in that the dominant classes consolidated their power and territorially unified the state without a mass base and without fundamentally altering the previous social relations. They said that they were aiming at the creation of a modern State in Italy, and they in fact produced a ‘bastard’, which did not integrate the masses into a unitary political framework.” This is what Partition – an imperialist project, in the words of Eric Hobsbawm a “prophylactic decolonisation” – did to the Subcontinent: the bastardisation of the states produced.
Capitalism fragments and polarises societies. It creates more heterogeneity than homogeneity and gives rise to nations within nations. Pakistan is a multi-ethnic, multinational society, ruled by a comprador bourgeoisie that has neither the hegemony nor the legitimacy to govern 250 million people, the majority of whom lack the basic amenities of life and are receding into abject poverty. Despite the misery staring at the people, the parasitic bourgeoisie is bent upon squeezing the last glimmer of life and hope from the emaciated veins of the masses. The jargon of security and capitalist austerity has pushed them into the wilderness of despair. People are restless, angry and volatile, a ship without a rudder, sailing close to the wind in “unpathed waters and dreamless shores”.
In the absence of a mass-based political party, spontaneity becomes a natural outcome to manifest the class struggle. The people of Balochistan have suffered this oppression for decades. Fragmented and coerced by the Centre and the collaborative tribal leadership, they have mounted a valiant, middle-class-led movement of resistance that is currently being repressed. Repression, history tells us, only fuels the class struggle.
The situation of Pakistan-administered Kashmir (AJK) is no different. The elections to be held in AJK have already been rigged by the Centre. The recent one held in Gilgit-Baltistan – an integral part of Kashmir yet separated from it, treated as a fifth but undeclared province of Pakistan – has met the same fate. How could they be different when the ruling class has overtly committed to producing ‘positive results’ – favourable to the interests of the ruling class – in every election?
A large number of Kashmiris of Pakistan-administered Kashmir are part of a large diaspora. Many settled in the UK soon after Partition. With a strong emphasis on education and health, they invested heavily in both sectors, either through the state or with their own resources. The status of AJK, as we know, has always been that of a state within a state – though not for the ruling class ensconced in Islamabad. To counter India, Islamabad has effectively played the card of an ‘autonomous’ Kashmir state in the UN and the international community, in the name of a forgotten plebiscite to determine Kashmir’s final status. A democratic farce is regularly played, and akin to Pakistani elections the seats are distributed according to the satisfaction of the ruling class, which owes its existence to the backing of men in uniform. Political intervention in AJK’s affairs has been integral to the political economy of the praetorian state.
As if this was not enough, the people of AJK are facing expropriation of their resources by dispossession as well. “AJK generates an impressive 4,932 MW of electricity. Key projects like the Mangla Dam in Mirpur, Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower in Muzaffarabad, and the looming Kohala project illustrate the region’s monumental contribution to Pakistan’s energy needs. Despite this overwhelming capacity, AJK’s direct consumption is only around 385 MW – a mere fraction (less than eight percent) of its generated power” (Azadi Times, 2025). Yet the people have to suffer massive power outages while paying the same price for electricity, without being a province, as the rest of the provinces have to pay – another example of blatant surplus exploitation. Not being a province of Pakistan, AJK has been deprived of any share in the NFC (National Finance Commission) award. It receives a paltry sum of Rs 190 billion annually from Islamabad – more charity than a share.
Nevertheless, with a population of around four million and an economy anchored by foreign remittances from Kashmiri expatriates, AJK occupies a distinct position in Pakistan. As the latter’s economy deteriorates, the state is seeking new avenues of accumulation and is therefore attempting to expropriate broader segments of society. Applying high-handed and brutal tactics while anticipating little or no resistance, it believed it could continue the process of dispossession. However, it underestimated the general mood and neglected the possibility of historical moments that can take unexpected turns.
In the name of “restoring law and order” the Pakistani ruling class has applied all repressive measures to curb the impetuosity of the masses. People have been shamelessly slaughtered, and the coldblooded killings, aimed at quelling the spontaneous upsurge, continue. The emperor has no clothes, and the people are calling its bluff. The 38-points demand presented by the Joint Awami Action ⁠Committee (JAAC), an activist group, includes the cancellation of reserved seats allotted to refugees, which it argues, is one of the mechanisms used to rig the elections by the Pakistani ruling class. Ironically, the JAAC – instrumental in the previous negotiations – has been declared a terrorist organisation and banned by the same state that negotiated with it in the past. Those negotiating a peace deal between the US and Iran are brazenly denying the same in their own country by sabotaging it violently.
The response to state violence has not been passive. The war of position has turned into a war of manoeuvre. The revolutionary upsurge has surprised the Pakistani state. The development of organic intellectuals leading the Kashmiri masses is also remarkable. One hopes that the government steps back, but any retreat is likely to be temporary and transitory. It will strike back. Therefore, any small victory won by the people – and they may well win – must be sustained through internal unity and cross-class alliances. People from other provinces should join them. Perhaps it is time to launch a ‘frontal attack’ upon a crippled coercive system.
Let us hope during the struggle the people create their organic leadership emanating from them to redeem humanity from the clutches of the parasitic ruling class. Let us give optimism of the will a chance.
The writer is an Australian-based academic and has authored books on socialism and history. His Latest Work: God’s Republic: Making & Unmaking of Israel & Pakistan is available in Pakistan & on Amazon.com. He can be reached at saulatnagi @hotmail.com