The Kashmir issue has been in the headlines since Prime Minister Narendra Modi resumed office in 2014. Every piece of legislation and policy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the only aim to curtail the fundamental constitutional rights of Kashmir’s people and alter the region’s demographics. According to reports, the recent registration of 93000 non-local voters in Kashmir is contribution to the revocation of Article 370 in 2019. The BJP government is actively implementing Hindutva ideology in the country, and this demographic shift is significant because it is expected to replace the Muslim population with Hindus.
For this purpose, the BJP-led government is implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Manipur and revoked Articles 35A and 370 in India Illegally Occupied Kashmir (IIOJK). This purported plan also includes the recent development of registering non-Muslim voters in Kashmir.
The primary motive behind voter registration is to reduce the Muslim majority regions into a Muslim minority region; this will distort the population ratio and reduce the representation of Kashmir Muslims in decisive positions. This indicates the fascist ambitions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is reluctant to impose the Hindutva ideology.
The impact of evolving demographics and abolishing special status:
In Jammu’s Hindu-majority region, the gerrymandering of six constituencies will strengthen Hindu voters and pave the way for the BJP to bring its chief minister to the area. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government has initiated the imposition of hundreds of Indian federal rules and regulations on Kashmir that are similar to China’s practices in Hong Kong.
New Delhi has rapidly devastated the self-governance institutions in Kashmir. The Indian government allowed foreign property ownership under Indian management, expedited the process of acquiring domicile rights, and revoked previous land reforms. Consequently, the proportion of Kashmiri candidates entering the Indian public sector decreased from 50% to 33%, resulting in a greater number of foreign officials supervising Kashmir in the future.
The Indian military has the authority to designate any area of the disputed territory as “strategic,” and the 131-year-old designation of Urdu as the region’s official language has ended. As of August 2019, the laws and policies of these other Indian states did not apply to Kashmir, as Kashmir had its own constitution and legislative assembly with the exclusive authority to enact legislation.
The Indian administration has recently taken certain steps affecting Jammu and Kashmir’s demography. Recently annexed Rajouri and Poonch, predominantly Muslim areas, now fall under the Anantnag constituency, potentially leading to a dilution of the Muslim majority in these areas. The Anantnag extension has introduced mechanisms, such as incentives, to legalize the settler’s allocation of the Jammu territory to the voter’s list.
The region’s central government signed a new political compact with the local population to share citizenship with Indians and purchase land. This compact includes eliminating the area’s special status and enacting a controversial new domicile law. Under Prime Minister Modi’s guidance, the government has distributed five Marla’s of land to 9,000 people, most of whom are Hindus.
Granting domicile certificates to non-locals is projected to be a component of India’s strategy to replace the demographic map of IIOJK, which would, in turn, enhance the probability of converting the Muslim majority into a minority. The Indian army and paramilitary forces already occupy 53,353 hectares of land, including agricultural and forest areas. Beginning in January 2023, India will facilitate the integration of out-of-state applicants into 336 flats, with plans to accommodate 10,000 houses and the residents of Jammu and Ladakh.
A recent amendment to the IIOJK Development Act grants the Indian armed forces almost unrestricted powers to claim any land as a “strategic environment” and confiscate it. Hindu fanatics are attacking mosques and building temples on Muslim properties. The non-recognition of these UN resolutions poses a substantial threat to peace and stability in the region.
Despite the tension surrounding the decisions of the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNHRC), Amnesty International, and other human rights organizations, India continues disregarding international conventions and responsibilities in the IIOJK. At this moment, the international community must essentially step in and bring these human rights abuses to the table, thereby holding the government accountable.
Conclusion:
The saffron movement’s ascent of Hindutva ideology has been fraught with risk and threatens the fabric of India’s society. By using supposed legislative acts against the minority, India possibly sparks social conflicts that may end at the national level, typical of anarchy. Tensions running at peak levels through the Indian government’s decisions, such as distributing domicile certificates to non-locals and seizing properties for Hindu temples, are causing the problem.
If India fails to address the situation promptly and effectively, it could spark riots by the majority against the oppressed, potentially leading to India’s democratic collapse. At the international level, it is crucial to rescue the people and establish India as a repository of international law. India can only sustain peace and stability if it pursues inclusionary polices.
It is the view of a bigoted Muslim who hates the democratic policies of the Indian government to give equal rights and representation to all uprooted and disadvantaged non-muslim minority communities in J&K. The whole problem in J&K is the Islamic fundamentalism that refuses to integrate with Indian democracy and secularism. Just because Muslims are the majority there, they dream of carving out another Pakistan.