although the conflict has long been cast in religious terms, joseph schwartzberg, a leading scholar on kashmir, says it's more complicated than that. and within kashmir, he says, there's a long tradition of tolerance. >> the hindus frequently attended religious ceremonies that were held by muslims, and the converse was also true. in terms of actual day-to-day religious practices, it's a fairly eclectic area, and the type of strident militaristic islam that we think of when we think of, say, the middle east -- that was not present in kashmir at all. >> reporter: that began to change in the 1980s in indian-held kashmir with more religious tension and extremism. schwartzberg blames corruption, nonfunctioning local government and meddling from india's capital delhi in local elections. >> india is a pretty good functioning democracy in most parts of the country, but with respect to kashmir it was exceptional. they felt that they couldn't afford to lose elections. they managed to rig election after election, and the people simply got fed up. in 1987, and it was a pretty corrupt administratio