Opinion: “The Indian state has also realised the futility of winning over elusive hearts and the defiant minds of Kashmiris”
Editor's note: This article was written before Monday's announcement by India to abolish Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which prohibited the purchase of land in Kashmir by non-Kashmiris. All communication between Indian-administered Kashmir and the outside world has since been cut off.
In the late evening in Srinagar, people were stocking up on food items, medicine, withdrawing cash from ATMs, and filling their fuel tanks to the brim, as well as obsessively checking their smartphone for new developments. Seasoned and well-connected journalists and even top pro-India politicians have no clue as to what India is up to. That is why theories, plausible and wild, have filled in the gap. The only thing clear at present is that the government of India plans something that is bound to provoke a public reaction on a massive scale.
Whatever be the reason, an outcome that India anticipates and which has forced it to empty Kashmir of its all its citizens except its soldiers could only be catastrophic. A friend asked me “are they going to carpet bomb us?” But what has led India to take such unprecedented civilian and administrative measures? Possibly, Hindu nationalist’s cherished dream solution for Kashmir: strip the nominal autonomous character of the Muslim-majority region and settle Hindus from India to alter its demography.However, deep down, the Indian state has also realised the futility of winning over elusive hearts and the defiant minds of Kashmiris who have made it clear that they want a political settlement to the 82-year-old dispute.
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