India has taken tactics from China and Israel to torture the people of Kashmir
Kashmir – India is using China’s Xinjiang method to criminalize Islam in the state of Kashmir. They have employed several similar policies that China imposed on Xinjiang Muslims.
Over the course of Narendra Modi’s rule, India has used extreme tactics to control the population of Kashmir. This ranges from revoking the autonomy of Kashmir and integrating it into India proper to cutting off the internet and increasing police presence.
The binary system India created for Kashmir
One of the inhuman devices employed by India is the creation of a binary system for all Kashmiris. These labels effectively allow the government to treat Kashmiris as less than humans, explained Aasif Mujtaba, a Journalist and Research scholar based in India.
“When they created a binary, they started giving labels to Kashmiri Muslims. The label initially was militant. The label initially was separatist and then it transcended into terrorists. The state successfully created a difference between the mainland Indians and the Kashmiri Muslims. When the binary or authorisation is complete, the people are looked upon as less human.”
This in turn has allowed India to perpetrate human rights violations against Kashmiris that would not go unpunished had it been done to Indians.
“If there is a human rights violation in India with any other community, the kind of behaviour or response by the activists or by the state or by the people at large is very different when it comes to such violations in Kashmir.”
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The binary system is the first step
In every country that Muslims have been persecuted in, Mujtaba pointed out that a binary system was created. This was to ensure that people looked down upon those persecuted and did not find anything wrong with it.
“The very first step if you see about the persecution of Muslims or any community in the entire world is creating a binary. The state successfully created a binary. When any human rights violations happen in Kashmir it is looked upon as less human rights violation by the other communities in India.”
Disempowering Kashmir and its people
The second step is disempowering the Kashmiri people. This took place with the amendment of Article 370 by India in August 2019. This was how political disempowerment happened, explained Mujtaba.
“In any political liberal democratic sector, the first step of disempowerment is political disempowerment … The means through which this article was broken was unconstitutional. There’s no surprise that a number of petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court regarding the same, but we are yet to see any formations of the benches for this hearing right. The Kashmiri people in one go lost their voices politically.”
After this India moved on to economically disempowering Kashmir. Mujtaba likened the methods of India to disempower the Kashmiris to Israel’s methods in Palestine. In the town of Shopian they deliberately dried up the river leading to the farms, said Mujtaba.
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Kashmiris live in a militarised zone
Even before Article 370 Kashmir was a militarised zone. It was only after Article 370 was amended that the internet was cut off to prevent any media houses from reporting on the atrocities being committed, explained Mujtaba. Although the internet has been restored, the government has started a new tactic.
“Any journalist or any media organisation that is trying to report the atrocity by the state, their lives are being threatened. The state has started targeting them under stringent anti-terror laws.”
The methods India are using to silence Kashmiris and the media are methods used by other oppressive regimes. It is clear to see that these actions violate human rights, but it remains to be seen if any countries try to intervene and help the Kashmiris.
