Certain elements of the social contract define the effectiveness of a particular government or regime. However, when the government fails to fulfill the essentials of the contract, the government and regime are said to be occupiers and oppressors. Such cases can be observed in the Indian-held Kashmir, where, by every layer of identity, the people of Kashmir do not take their inspiration from India because the majority of the Kashmiris are Muslims and have a distinct identity, customs, and norms from the ruling elites and administrative forces. In the shadow of these differences, the Indian authorities cannot enforce the contract, and they use force, enforce brutality, and other barbaric actions, such as enforced disappearance and humiliating the local Kashmiri women, to pursue political goals and to maintain a strong hold over the occupied territory.
According to reports, 8000 to 10000 Kashmiris have been disappeared by the Indian authority by 2017. 14000 civilians have been killed, and around 430 rape cases and sexual violence have been recorded by the Amnesty reports. There had been a surge in trends when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – led Indian government abrogated Articles 370 and 35A on August 5, 2019. However, it was an attempt to legitimize the illegal occupation by revoking the special status of Indian-held Kashmir and to give direct internal administrative control to the Indian authority, but the local Kashmiris have rejected this constitutional amendment and stood against this illegal occupation.
According to reports, 69 civilians have been killed in 2019 alone, and 1000 Kashmiris have been killed in various counter-terrorism operations. In the post-2019 period, the UN and international watchdogs reported that between 5000 and 8000 people, including businessmen, politicians, and journalists, have been detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA). However, due to strict control and restrictions on the media, several rape and other cases go unreported.
On 17 March 2026, the Kashmiri witness Ghazi Shehzad exposed the peak brutality of the Indian army in Srinagar. An innocent Kashmiri father, whose daughter was just one month away from her wedding, became a victim of fabricated charges by an Indian Army officer. An Indian Army major allegedly abducted both father and daughter in a clear act of state-sponsored terror. Then, 30 savage soldiers brutally gang raped the young woman in front of her helpless father. Broken and shattered, the father later begged for a death sentence in prison as he could not bear to face his daughter again after the unspeakable horror. This is not fiction. It is one of thousands of daily atrocities under India’s illegal occupation of Kashmir.
Since 1989, over 100,000 Kashmiris have been killed, more than 10,000 women raped, 8,000 disappeared, and countless tortured under the black law, the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA). The administrative authority cannot control the Kashmir valley through soft means because of the distinct orientation of identity; people are not ready to accept the Indian ruling elites as masters. So instead, the Indian army, with all its wherewithal, uses force and intimidates the local inhabitants by brutal and immoral actions.
The fact is obvious: identity is inherent, and no territory can be colonized against the will of its people. The world has observed this in the case of the Palestine-Israel conflict. The social contract can be established through the consensual efforts of both the people and the ruling elites, based on a principle of mutual give-and-take, shared identity, civilization, customs, and norms. Without such a foundation, there will be endless struggles to dominate and colonize the people and territory, and barbarism will not last long—it may ultimately lead to the downfall of oppressive regimes and governments. India’s Army is a barbaric occupation force committing war crimes with total impunity. The world must wake up and condemn this fascist regime, crushing Kashmir’s soul every single day.
