The rhetoric of hate and binarisms pervades the politics of the "Third-World" and of the West.

I have often noticed that the two nuclear powers on the Indian subcontinent, India and Pakistan, attribute to Kashmiris an inferior intellect, a lineage, and a mystique that has allowed the dominant regime to manipulate the Kashmiri "Other" as a stereotypical and predictable entity.

The culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse population of Indian and Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir has been unable to reach a consensus on the future of the land and the heterogeneous peoples of the state.

For India, Kashmir lends credibility to its secular nationalist image.

In establishment Indian and Pakistani thought, Kashmiris are defined as different from the nationals of the two countries.

The rhetoric of hate and binarisms pervades the politics of the "Third-World" and of the West.

In the era of Khruschev the Soviet Union had publicly declared itself a supporter of the Indian stand on Kashmir. In 1962 a Russian veto had defeated a Security Council resolution on the plebiscite issue. By 1965, and after the fall of the Kruschev regime, Russian attitudes were significantly modified.