This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

India’s national carrier has reminded its cabin crew to end announcements with a rousing “Jai Hind”, meaning hail India, as part of an upswell of patriotism in the wake of recent armed clashes with Pakistan.

“With immediate effect, all are required to announce ‘Jai Hind’ at the end of every announcement after a slight pause and with much fervour,” Air India’s head of operations said in a memo this week.

A spokesman for the airline told Agence France-Presse the order was first issued in 2017 but had been recirculated for new staff.

India and Pakistan have been engaged in a tense standoff for nearly three weeks since a Pakistan-based militant group killed 40 Indian paramilitaries in a car bombing in disputed Kashmir.

Quick guide Kashmir Show Hide Who controls Kashmir? The region in the foothills of the Himalayas has been under dispute since India and Pakistan came into being in 1947. Both claim it in full, but each controls a section of the territory, separated by one of the world's most heavily militarised borders: the ‘line of control’ based on a ceasefire border established after a 1947-48 war. China controls another part in the east.

India and Pakistan have gone to war a further two times over Kashmir, most recently in 1999. Artillery, mortar and small arms fire are still frequently exchanged. How did the dispute start? After the partition of colonial India in 1947, small, semi-autonomous ‘princely states’ across the subcontinent were being folded into India or Pakistan. The ruler of Kashmir dithered over which to join until tribal fighters entered from Pakistan intent on taking the region for Islamabad. Kashmir asked Delhi for assistance, signing a treaty of accession in exchange for the intervention of Indian troops, who fought the Pakistanis to the modern-day line of control. In 1948, the UN security council called for a referendum in Kashmir to determine which country the region would join or whether it would become an independent state. The referendum has never been held. In its 1950 constitution, India granted Kashmir a large measure of independence. But since then it has eroded some of that autonomy and repeatedly intervened to rig elections and dismiss and jail democratically elected leaders. What was Kashmir’s special status? Kashmir’s special status, given in exchange for joining the Indian union, had been in place since 14 May 1954. Under article 370, the state was given a separate constitution, a flag, and autonomy over all matters except for foreign affairs and defence.

An additional provision, article 35a, prevented people from outside the state buying land in the territory. Many Kashmiris believed this was crucial to protecting the demography of the Muslim-majority state and its way of life. The ruling Bharatiya Janata party repeatedly promised to scrap such rules, a long-term demand of its Hindu nationalist support base. But analysts warned doing so would almost certainly ignite unrest. On Wednesday 31 October 2019, the government formally revoked Kashmir’s special status. The government argued that the provision had only ever intended to be temporary and that scrapping it would boost investment in Kashmir. Critics, however, said the move would escalate tensions with Pakistan – which quickly called India’s actions illegal – and fuel resentment in Kashmir, where there is an insurgency against Indian rule. What do the militants want? There has been an armed insurgency against Indian rule over its section of Kashmir for the past three decades. Indian soldiers and Pakistan-backed guerrillas fought a war rife with accusations of torture, forced disappearances and extra-judicial killing.

Until 2004, the militancy was made up largely of Pakistani and Afghan fighters. Since then, especially after protests were quashed with extreme force in 2016, locals have made up a growing share of the anti-India fighters. For Indians, control of Kashmir – part of the country’s only Muslim-majority state – has been proof of its commitment to religious pluralism. For Pakistan, a state founded as a homeland for south Asian Muslims, it is the last occupied home of its co-religionists.



Michael Safi and Rebecca Ratcliffe

Nationalist sentiment has surged on both sides as the Indian and Pakistani air forces have engaged in tit-for-tat airstrikes and, last week, after Pakistan returned an Indian pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, whose plane it shot down.

Varthaman has become a hero, with some copying his trademark handlebar moustache and one couple naming their child after him.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dhiren Makvana gets his moustache trimmed in a style similar to the one sported by the Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

People have flocked to the cinemas to watch Uri, a Bollywood blockbuster about a military operation India says it conducted against militants in 2016 – the last time a militant attack triggered an armed Indian response.

Its catchphrase “How’s the josh” – meaning how’s the patriotic morale – has been adopted by politicians at rallies ahead of the country’s general elections starting in April.

After the 2016 clash, India’s supreme court ordered that every cinema screening should be preceded by the national anthem, with all patrons required to stand. The order led to scuffles breaking out in cinemas and assaults on one patron in Goa state who did not stand – who later turned out to be a wheelchair user.

Journalists who have questioned India’s official narrative of its strikes against Pakistan have found themselves sharply criticised by the government. At the weekend, the news anchor Rahul Kanwal was told by the government minister Piyush Goyal that he was “belittling our armed forces” and bringing shame on himself for asking about discrepancies in the country’s version of events.

Stand-off in Kashmir: ‘Our last hope is that a war will sort this once and for all’ Read more

Air India’s announcement on Tuesday also attracted mockery on social media in view of the stricken airline’s crippling debts.

A Twitter user, Dinesh Joshi, wrote: “Much welcome but before starting this Air India should improve the service. Make the airline profitable. Keep up to schedule. Stop wasting taxpayer money. Be customer friendly.”

Harsh Goenka, a businessman, tweeted: “Now with this new move, I’m sure Air India will soon become profitable. Jai Hind!”

Others pointed out that passengers may be in for a surprise if low-key in-flight announcements were followed by a “Jai Hind”:

Ashwin Mushran (@ashwinmushran) With much fervour

🤣

"The captain would like to announce some Turbulence coming your way... Jai Hind"



Sums up the country I think https://t.co/EIvXfPDB2q

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report