On the 5th of August 2019 India annexed Jammu and Kashmir by revoking Art. 370 and 35a of India’s Constitution. The move is not without controversy, and it has had almost immediate effects along certain lines. The Kashmir region as a whole is bordered by China, India and Pakistan, all three nuclear powers, with pieces administered by each. The region has been contested for years, since the partition of India in 1947. Kashmir has been called the most dangerous place in the world because of the nuclear status of the nations involved and because the two main belligerents – India and Pakistan – are so volatile. The decision has far-reaching and potentially violent repercussions.
In this first of a series of posts on Kashmir and what is happening there, the focus will be on the decision to revoke and why there is so much tension around that little piece of land, known for its beauty and for its strategic importance to the region. When speaking of the region of Kashmir, we mean the former princely state, which included Kashmir, Jammu, Ladakh, Aksai Chin and Gilgit-Baltistan. The Article 370 that was revoked concerned only the present regions of Jammu and Kashmir and their governance. Article 35a outlined property rights. Gilgit-Batistan is under Pakistani administration and Aksai Chin is under Chinese administration.
The decision was announced in the Indian parliament at 11:18 am IST by Amit Shah, the leader of India’s Upper House, whereupon it became official, effective immediately. It caused quite a stir in the parliament.
There is a time stamp on the video. We’ll start with the chart and then get to the particulars as to why this action will likely have considerable blowback for India in the future. Starting with the decision itself, what do we see in the astrology? The chart is below (bigger):
On the surface, it would appear the decision will be successful in its aims. This was the fulfillment of a campaign promise by Modi during his recent campaign – “One Nation, One Constitution”. This has echoes with other parts of the world – Hong Kong, Tibet, Israel and Palestine, Puerto Rico, British Overseas Territories, etc. He won that campaign by a large margin, which was based largely on his personality. Modi’s party is a far-right Hindu nationalist party called Hindutva (“Hinduness”). It has been accused of having fascist tendencies. About the party:
“The Hindutva movement has been described as “almost fascist in the classical sense”, adhering to a disputed concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony. Some dispute the fascist label, and suggest Hindutva has been an extreme form of ‘conservatism’ or ‘ethnic absolutism’.”
But the revocation of Kashmir’s special status has shown the colors of the Modi government, especially since India labels itself as a great democracy. Upon the revocation, over 4,000 people in Kashmir and Jammu have been arrested, without warrants, allowing them to be held up to two years in jail without charge. Internet and phone service had been cut, curfews imposed and a heavy military presence put in place.
The armed forces of India have special status, being able to shoot to kill in normal law enforcement situations, to hold people without charge and indefinitely, and they are essentially immune from prosecution. All this leaves India wide open to human rights abuses. If this had been done in any other nation there would be outcries from the Western powers about human rights abuses and calls for immediate international oversight and intervention, perhaps even sanctions. In the case of India?…crickets.
The revocation also opens the door to other abuses, especially since there has been no criticism of India from the West. Modi will feel emboldened, that he has a free hand. There has been a sharp uptick in violence against minority groups since Modi has been in power. There are also other contested lands in India. India appears to be intent on cleansing India of Islam, and the worst part is the public is encouraging it. When you have the combination of a nation with a 6th ray (devotion/fanaticism) personality (India) and a religion on the same ray (Islam), it is always going to be a potent and potential source of trouble.
The decision, then, was based upon domestic politics. The reason the decision looks to be successful in its outcome is based in the Sun/Venus conjunction in the 10th house, both trine to Jupiter in the 2nd house. This is the sort of planetary lineup we would expect in traditional astrology for a successful outcome. But it ignores other factors. It is the sort of chart that would have been drawn up by traditional Indian astrologers, who do not use the new planets or modern techniques.
Regarding Jupiter, it has been said that this action will serve as a cover and distraction from the poor state of India’s economy at present (2nd house=the nation’s earning capacity and debts). As we know, though, appearances can be deceiving.
Underlying that aforementioned trine are a series of other factors. Firstly, the transiting Moon was on both India’s and Pakistan’s shared Neptune, which had the effect of shattering any illusions about intentions for the region. We’ll start to have a look at the charts of the two nations in the next installment. That transiting Moon was also sextile the decision’s Sun adding to the successful outcome, but at the same time it was in an approaching square to Saturn. In four months the progressed Moon of the decision chart will square that Saturn, being exact the following month. Karma coming due, perhaps, or the hard lessons of experience?
Then, there is the Eris conjunction within minutes of the Descendant of the announcement, squaring Mercury in the 9th house, the latter just behind the Midheaven, and thus forming a t-square with the Meridian axis. We all know the story of Eris. This Mercury/Eris square is a representation in modern times of the classic story of throwing the golden apple into the midst of the three sisters gathered at the wedding party. The Trojan War was the result, and the fall of Troy. We might wonder, who will represent Paris in the judgement of this episode and who will represent Troy? Or will it all just be a myth and die out with a whimper? The latter is doubtful.
Then, there are the midpoints, especially to the angles. Those midpoints also tie in with the Mercury/Eris square. In particular, as shown on the chart, we are interested in the Venus/Saturn midpoint, wherein Venus is linked to Saturn by quincunx. This is not a happy combination. The main indications from the midpoints and the aspect are for unhappy unions, separations, irresponsible people in relationships, and prostituting of the love nature.
However, there is one series of midpoints in the decision chart that certainly raises an eyebrow, and those are the midpoints to Uranus, shown on the chart:
Uranus=Mars/Pluto=Moon/Ceres/=Mercury/Mars.
Mars is in a partile quincunx to Pluto and the midpoint to Uranus is the closest in the chart, with only a minute of arc of separation. This is extremely volatile and can lead to violent and catastrophic consequences when it is activated. And Uranus is in the 7th house (open enemies and conflicts). A little history and perspective from here is in order to see what might come of this.
Jammu and Kashmir is largely Muslim. As to demographics, Muslims constitute 68.31% of the total population, Hindus 28.43%, Sikhs 1.87% and Buddhists 0.89%. Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in India with a Muslim-majority population. This is why Article 370 was placed in the Indian Constitution from the beginning of Indian independence. In Jammu, the population is majority Hindu, at 62.5% Hindu, and 33.5% Muslim. In Kashmir, the population is 96.4% Muslim. With that in mind, India and Pakistan were partitioned due to religious differences, along religious lines. India is nearly 80% Hindu. Revoking Art. 370 and 35a leaves the entire region open to Hindu settlement. What could go wrong? But there is a little more to this story than simple religious differences.
The story of India’s partition and divestment by the British is not as simple as that of religious differences. There were cultural, historical and strong political views within India at play post-WWII and before. India was on the verge of civil war. There had been a famine in Bengal. India suffered greatly because of British dependence upon it during the war, both for materials and soldiers. The British initially wanted to keep India unified, but internal pressures within India militated against it. The best description of what happened around the partition issue can be found in Lord Wavell, Mountbatten’s predecessor. It was Wavell who first started looking seriously at partition, although he was against the idea.
When India was partitioned by the British it was done so under pressure from both Hindu and Muslim nationalists alike, under the idea of a “Two Nation Theory”. Lord Mountbatten wanted to keep India as a single state, but Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the main agitator for a separate Pakistan, who said, “…religion is the determining factor in defining the nationality of Indian Muslims…[and] termed it as the awakening of Muslims for the creation of Pakistan.” And we are talking about Sunni Muslims here, of the more militant persuasion.
There is a 2017 film called Viceroy’s House in which there is a scene toward the end wherein it was revealed that there was a secret plan for the partition of India that had been put forward by Churchill a couple of years before. This, supposedly, was for the expressed purpose of denying the Soviets a port in the Indian Ocean. The idea was to protect British oil interests. British historians panned the idea and denounced the film for the scene. But, one has to wonder, given British attitudes toward the Soviets and now to Russia. If that was so, it ultimately failed in its purpose.
Both Pakistan and India have turned to Russia in recent years for trade, military equipment, security concerns and so forth. And Pakistan has been great friends with China for decades. The primary reason for Indian partition remains, on the whole, within the Indian subcontinent and infighting between factions. If so, that will show in the charts of the two nations, discussed in the succeeding sections.
Returning to Kashmir, the headwaters of the Indus river, the main water source for Pakistan, has its headwaters in the mountains of the Jammu and Kashmir region (map). And because of the majority Muslim status there, the Pakistanis perhaps rightly believe the region belongs to them. Following the partition, the following situation existed regarding the region:
“At the time of the British withdrawal from India, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of the state, preferred to become independent and remain neutral between the successor dominions of India and Pakistan. However, an uprising in the western districts of the State followed by an attack by raiders from the neighbouring Northwest Frontier Province, supported by Pakistan, put an end to his plans for independence. On 26 October 1947, the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession joining the Dominion of India in return for military aid. The western and northern districts presently known as Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan passed to the control of Pakistan, while the remaining territory became the Indian state Jammu and Kashmir.”
Kashmiri accession to India was thus born out of a state of war, and against the wishes of the Muslims there. It has been occupied by Indian troops ever since. Three more wars have been fought over the region between India and Pakistan since accession (1965, 1971 and 1999). There have been violent uprisings there periodically, especially since the late 1980s. As well, India and China fought a war over the region in 1962.
To understand why this development has the potential to go south so quickly, we will consider the chart of Pakistan before that of India, for reasons that will become clear. Part of the reason for looking at Pakistan first is because of the recent signing and implementation of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor project, which runs through Pakistan-administered Kashmir (Gilgit-Baltistan). Of the two belligerent nations – India and Pakistan – Pakistan has been the most unstable of the two, even though the two were granted independence from the UK virtually on the same day, giving them essentially the same planetary aspects in their charts, albeit with different houses.
To understand the tensions in Kashmir from an astrological perspective, one must use the partition charts – the Independence chart for Pakistan and the Dominion chart for India. The two nations became republics later, Pakistan on 23 Mar 1956 and India on 26 Jan 1950. They are both British Commonwealth nations. As is very often the case with nations, it is their independence dates that are most descriptive of outcomes and character. It is somewhat in the nature of a human birth cementing the character and destiny of a child. Continued in the next segment…
Featured pic from SOTC