This outbreak of violence in Kashmir was distinctive due
to the greater salience of religious actors in both countries’
politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, both Pakistan and India
saw religious revivalism and religious nationalism gain greater
social and political currency. In Pakistan, leaders such as
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq pushed back against the
perceived secularization and Westernization of society, implementing
a national Islamization program. This stressed
the notion that Pakistan is a Muslim nation in contrast to
Hindu India or the atheistic Soviets and Chinese. In turn,
by the mid-1980s India’s traditionally secular government,
led for decades by the Congress Party, found itself challenged
by increasingly popular Hindu nationalists represented by
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Religious nationalists in
both countries favored efforts to gain a decisive advantage in
Kashmir, resulting in the Kargil conflict.