On the basis of theory of Two Nation, Indian media outlets fabricated a theory which they falsely credited to Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir. General Munir referred to theory specifically and this deliberate mischaracterization attempts to create a misinformed belief about the recent Pahalgam attack and portray that the theory has encouraged violence in the region of Kashmir. These claims are factually untrue and a malicious distortion of both historical context and of the COAS’s actual words. The Two-Nation Theory was neither conceived nor propagated as a call to violence. Instead, it was an assertion of Hindu and Muslim national identities differently and ideologically in pre-partition India. It, therefore, is nothing but a calculated disinformation campaign to deflect public gaze away from India’s own human rights violations and continue its anti-Pakistan rhetoric, by reacting to and linking it to recent unrest in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

On August 11, 1947, he underlined his vision of a secular Pakistan where Muslim and non-Muslim citizens would have equal rights

Allama Muhammad Iqbal, in his presidential address at the All-India Muslim League Allahabad session (1930), advanced the Two-Nation Theory that the Muslims are a separate nation within subcontinent. Later, this idea was politically championed by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who formalized it in the 1940s Lahore Resolution in which he proclaimed that Hindus and Muslims were different nations with irreconcilable differences in religion, culture and the social order. Jinnah’s argument was based on constitutional and democratic basis and not to incite violence. A day later, on August 11, 1947, he underlined his vision of a secular Pakistan where Muslim and non-Muslim citizens would have equal rights in his famous speech, a far cry from the violent majoritarianism that India has adopted toward its Muslim minority ever since.

Attributing the Two-Nation Theory to General Asim Munir, as Indian media has done, isn’t just ahistorical, it also borders on intellectual dishonesty. It is not a recent military proclamation, but an established part of Pakistan’s ideological heritage. Indian outlets linking the COAS with the plot seek to portray the top tier of Pakistan’s military leadership as provocative so as to defend Indian ways in IIOJK. This fits in with Modi led BJP government’s larger disinformation tactics that use anti Pakistan sentiment to gain domestically.

As of April 25, 2024, Indian Home Ministry officials themselves were admitting that it had no conclusive evidence of any Pakistani individuals or institutions having any role in the attack

General Munir’s remarks on the Two Nation Theory did not spark the violence of Pahalgam attack as proclaimed by the Indian media. But as of April 25, 2024, Indian Home Ministry officials themselves were admitting that it had no conclusive evidence of any Pakistani individuals or institutions having any role in the attack. None of the allegations have been confirmed by any intelligence reports, forensic analyses or even credible investigations. This is part of an old established pattern that India has tried to hastily blame Pakistan each time for shortcomings on internal security without evidence in order to deflect attention from its own Kashmiri counterinsurgency failures and its own human rights abuses in Kashmir.

 International organizations like Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights Council have documented over 8,000 enforced disappearances and 23,000 pellet gun injuries

As in many other cases in IIOJK, the Pahalgam attack must be seen for what it is, and it is India’s oppression, without any doubt. Indian troops numbering more than 90,000 stationed in the area operate under laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act that grant security forces immunity from extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture. As per the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), more than 1,081 civilians have been killed from 2016 through 2021. International organizations like Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights Council have documented over 8,000 enforced disappearances and 23,000 pellet gun injuries. Against this backdrop, it seems wilfully anachronistic to attribute localized unrests as Pakistan’s doing.

Indian intelligence agencies work closely to conduct these operations and transmit false series into various international news media in which they help manufacture narratives to affect international opinion

This is not the first time that General Munir is being falsely attributed with the Two Nation Theory and it is part of a well-known Indian disinformation campaign. In 2022, the EU DisinfoLab found an Indian network of more than 750 fake media outlets, NGOs, lobbying groups devoted to tarring Pakistan’s global reputation. Indian intelligence agencies work closely to conduct these operations and transmit false series into various international news media in which they help manufacture narratives to affect international opinion and justify Indian belligerent position, all for the benefit of the leadership in New Delhi. Gauging from all this to the Islamophobic and hyper nationalist rhetoric by the Modi government, which comes along with state aligned media spreading out baldfaced lies about Pakistan and its citizens, something that the former prides on doing on a daily basis, the current environment will not help.

Indian media outlets have distorted the Two-Nation Theory, which is a philosophical and a political concept

The compacted collusion between this disinformation ecosystem to conflate Pakistan’s historical and contemporary security positions on the one hand and the BJP’s ideological narrative positioning Pakistan as an eternal adversary, on the other, has been useful to forge an expeditious discourse around what was to be an act of great caution and healthy diplomacy. Indian media outlets have distorted the Two-Nation Theory, which is a philosophical and a political concept, and twisted it into a supposed incitement, but took no responsibility for that systemic violence in IIOJK.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.