Srinagar: The revocation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, and the subsequent policies of India’s extremist Hindutva regime, led by Narendra Modi, have precipitated a crisis that gravely imperils regional stability and human rights in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
A report by Legal Forum for Kashmir says that following the unilateral revocation of this article that granted special status to Indian occupied Kashmir, New Delhi has initiated a multifaceted socio-psychological re-engineering of Kashmir’s religious and cultural landscape, effectuating a transition of its rule in Kashmir from occupational constitutionalism to a settler colony project under the aegis of Hindutva forces.
This report analyzes the intricate array of legal, political, and socio-cultural engineering employed by the Indian state to orchestrate this Hindutva settler colonial project, drawing upon historical continuities from the Dogra Hindu Raj to its contemporary manifestations in the form of BJP-RSS led saffronisation project.
Employing a critical lens and fact-driven in-depth ground reporting, it scrutinizes the systematic erosion of Kashmiri Muslim identity as evidenced by alterations in the educational system, linguistic imposition, cultural transformation, institutional saffronisation, and the proliferation of Hindu pilgrimage and symbolisms.
Beyond mere demographic ramifications of the extermination of Kashmiri Muslims, this report argues that these interventions can inflict egregious violations of human rights and pose a profound threat to regional stability.
Consequently, this report underscores the imperative for international scrutiny and intervention to address the entrenched ideological colonization in order to uphold the inalienable rights of the masses, including the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri populace.
