Hafsa Kanjwal is an assistant professor in South Asian history at Lafayette College. Her PhD, from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, was on the social history of modern Kashmir.

Last Thursday, a 20-year-old Kashmiri by the name of Adil Ahmed Dar blew up a convoy of 45 Indian soldiers in the area of Pulwama, located in the Jammu and Kashmir region.

It was the heaviest loss encountered by India in the region since the armed rebellion began in 1988. Battle cries are mounting; Kashmiris are simultaneously being targeted and punished in a number of Indian cities. In the midst of jingoistic fervor in India, the root cause of violence in Kashmir — the Indian occupation — is being completely overlooked.