India-Pakistan Cricket: How Kashmir Becomes A Flashpoint

During the recent cricket match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan as part of the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup in Australia, a video emerged on social media of supporters of both teams dancing together to the tune of the popular song ‘Pasoori’. The Punjabi and Urdu single released by singers Ali Sethi and Shae Gill earlier this year has become immensely popular in both countries.

The video of supporters of India in their blue jerseys and Pakistani cricket lovers in their greens, waving flags of their countries and dancing together, was markedly different from the usually vicious political and sporting rivalry between the two neighbouring nations.

However, such bonhomie is a far cry for Nasir Khuehami, national convenor of the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Association. On the contrary, any India–Pakistan match, which often results in an outpouring of passions from cricket fans, is a cause of anxiety for him. This is because some incidents where Kashmiri students have been accused in different parts of the country for pro-Pakistan cheering during India-Pakistan cricket matches over the past few years.

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Even as many cricket lovers across South Asia settled in front of their TVs on the evening of October 23 to watch what promised to be a high-octane contest, Khuehami was busy texting various groups of Kashmiri students across the country. The text read, “All students need to take sports as a game and stay away from social media posts during and after the match.” He also warned them to not be involved in unnecessary debates about the match or support any team.

His fears are not misplaced. In October 2021, several Kashmiri students were beaten up in different cities of Punjab after India lost a cricket match to Pakistan. In January 2022, reports emerged of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Punjab’s Mohali district.

Flashpoint, on and off the pitch

The India–Pakistan cricket rivalry is among the greatest rivalries in sports, similar to the historic contests between England and Australia or Brazil and Argentina in football. However, the contest between the South Asian neighbours is aggravated by geopolitics.

Since the two nations became independent from British rule in 1947, they have fought at least three major and several minor wars over the Himalayan region. 

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“Kashmir is central to the discord between India and Pakistan,” says Shabir Hussain, editor of Srinagar-based English weekly Kashmir Newsline. “This is reflected during any cricket match between the two countries.  An overwhelming majority of Kashmiris have always supported Pakistan in cricket matches.”

This came to the fore on October 13, 1983 when an international cricket match between India and West Indies was held in Srinagar. The crowd booed the Indian players. The West Indies cricket players unexpectedly felt at home in the Valley.

In the same stadium in September 1986, a match between Australia and India created a similar controversy. During the initial stage of the match, some youths dug up the pitch. The police registered an FIR and later arrested Shabir Ahmad Shah, Mushtaq-ul-Islam and Showkat Ahmad Bakshi on charges of vandalism.  Shah is now lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail and became the face of the separatist movement in the 1990s.

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Over the years, in Kashmir, India–Pakistan cricket matches have become less and less of a game and more and more of a political tug-of- war. They bring up issues of identity, political aspirations, and frustrations. The state government would earlier try not to interfere in a bid to avoid trouble.

However, in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government abrogated Article 370, which gave Kashmir a special status, bifurcated the state. The Centre also imposed a communications lockdown that lasted several months.

Since then, any overt support for Pakistan’s cricket team has stopped in the public sphere. Social media posts on India–Pakistan matches are now often in Kashmiri rather than English to avoid detection.

Vulnerable youth

A postgraduate student of Conflict Analysis and Peacebuilding at Jamia Milia Islamia university in New Delhi, Khuehami says there are about 30,000 Kashmiri students in Punjab. “We used to earlier communicate with the office of the chief minister of Punjab,” he says. “However, since the Aam Aadmi Party won the elections in February, we do not have any access there.”

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Other states, however, have taken measures to ensure that Kashmiri students remain safe. The Uttarakhand government, for instance, has appointed a nodal officer to help out Kashmiri students. “In the southern states, too, we do not face any problems,” he says. “But our students face issues in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.”

In October last year, three Kashmiri students—Inayat Ahmad Sheikh, Arsheed Yusuf and Showkat Ahmed Ganai—were arrested in Agra for allegedly posting a WhatsApp status message celebrating a Pakistani victory. On January 25 this year, the police filed a chargesheet against them at Agra’s chief judicial magistrate court, accusing them of cyber terrorism, sedition, promoting enmity between different groups and making statements likely to cause alarm to the public.

The youths, who were studying engineering at a college in Agra under the prime minister’s special scholarship scheme for Kashmiri students, were behind bars for months before being granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on March 31, 2022. During this time several lawyers’ associations also refused to represent them because they were allegedly involved in anti-national activities.

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Missing support

Before the abrogation of Article 370, chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir would take up the issue of harassment of Kashmiri students with the Centre or their counterparts in the states concerned. For instance, in March 2014, about 60 Kashmiri students at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University in Meerut were expelled for three days from their hostel when they allegedly supported the Pakistan cricket team against India in an Asia Cup match. After a complaint by the university’s chancellor, the students were booked under Section 124 A (sedition), Section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) and Section 427 (mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). But not anymore.

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Khuehami says his appeals to Kashmiri students have yielded results. “In the past two matches, we didn’t see any incident,” he adds. “We are making students realise that it is better to study than land in jail for cheering a team or uploading any post.”

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(This appeared in the print edition as "Matches and Catches")

Naseer Ganai in Srinagar