Thursday, June 27, 2019

Eye opener

When I read this below more than ten years ago, it opened up a perspective that was totally new to me. Its author, Dr. Thomas A. Marks taught at the Army War College.

Citation:
Thomas A. Marks (2004) India: State Response to Insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir – The Jammu Case, Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement, 12:3, 122-143, DOI: 10.1080/09662840500072615

Indeed, the internal war in J{ammu}&K{Kashmir}, when scaled, does not begin to approach the levels of criminal violence present in those U.S. metropolitan areas best known for their murder rates. The ‘death count’ in Jammu & Kashmir for 2003 stood at 836 civilians, 1447 militants and 380 security personnel. If this violence is aggregated (2,663), which is unorthodox but certainly presents the worst possible statistical picture, it scales out at 24.5:100,000 population. This would place J&K between Memphis (24.7:100,000) and Chicago (22.2:100,000), in the 2002 murder rankings when examining American cities with populations greater than 500,000, well off the pace established by the likes of Washington, DC (45.8:100,000) or Detroit (42.0:100,000).