The recent upsurge of violence in Indian-administrated Kashmir, which follows a few years of relative calm, is causing the international community to again pay attention to a problem that has festered since the Partition of the Indian Subcontinent following the demise of the British Raj in 1947.
Western media doesn't usually report on the Kashmir issue, probably because they simply don't understand it. To be fair, the twists-and-turns of Kashmir and the rival claims of India, Pakistan, and the Kashmiris themselves are enough to make even the most brilliant and well-informed person's head spin. It has been the cause of two major wars between India and Pakistan, and innumerable low-level periods of conflict. Tens of thousands of people have died, and both sides have been guilty of human rights abuses.
Global Citizens should work hard to educate themselves about this problem, and the video below is a good place to start. Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India was done by the famed Pakistani physicist (and vocal critic of both militant Islam and his own country's nuclear weapons program) Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, it explores the Kashmir problem from the perspective of both national leaders and ordinary people, packing an enormous amount of information into less than an hour while always remaining easy to follow and understanding.
(Note that the video was produced in 2004, and significant events have happened since then. Still, the general situation remains largely unchanged.)
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