Tag: india

Chapter for ISSI Book on Kashmir, June 2025

Modi, Hindutva, and Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir: A Shift in Policy and Identity

Introduction

In August of 2019, India unilaterally and without the consent of Kashmiris, changed its constitution, revoked the limited autonomy it had granted Kashmir, declared the country an ‘integral’ part of India, and began a savage repression that continues to this day. This is not to imply that India treated Kashmir and Kashmiris with any sense of justice prior to that date; no, the repression that intensified then was just an extension of the suffering under which the Kashmiris had long lived. (Fischer, 2019).

According to a 2024 blog by Amnesty International, “it has been five years since India revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status, a decision that plunged the region into a stringent lockdown marked by extensive control over freedom of the press, expression, and politics. Thousands of activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and political figures found themselves imprisoned, either within Kashmir or in facilities across India. The crackdown has shown no signs of abating, with severe media restrictions in place and pro-government media outlets having gained unprecedented influence.” (Ahmed, 2024).

Since 2019, there has been the implementation of new land laws aimed to accelerate ethnic flooding by Hindus and very possibly resulting in Muslims of the region becoming a minority. This had already been successfully done in Jammu in 1947 when the Maharaja’s troops and Hindu fanatics slaughtered up to two hundred thousand of Jammu’s Muslims and drove out just as many, making it a Hindu majority region. Today it is being done in the rest of Jammu and Kashmir through administrative action instead of slaughter.

All other Indian laws were extended to Jammu and Kashmir after the repeal of the special status purportedly to empower locals socio-economically. Yet the reality is that many laws in force in Jammu and Kashmir before the illegal annexation were much stronger than the ones subsequently enacted. Most importantly, socio-economic indicators had always been much better in Kashmir than in India before the annexation, including nutrition, health and education and especially among women and children. In fact, Jammu and Kashmir had never seen the kind of poverty levels India experiences because of land reforms enacted by Sheikh Abdullah. These reforms made it possible for every Kashmiri to own land (land to the tiller) and prohibited large landholdings to be in the hands of the rich and privileged.(Fischer, 2019)

The political changes have ushered in a wave of Indian investors securing contracts for infrastructure projects in Kashmir, often at the expense of prime agricultural land and apple orchards. These projects, including the expansion of railway operations, threaten the livelihoods of small local landowners, disturb the region’s delicate ecosystem, and contribute to rising temperatures, glacier melting, and declining water levels. Kashmir’s agricultural sector, always a cornerstone of the local economy, is now under siege from both political and climate pressures. Infrastructure projects and unchecked tourism are reducing agricultural land, straining natural resources, and eroding traditional livelihoods. Farmers are being displaced by the construction of railways and ring roads, forcing them to seek alternative employment.(Ahmed, 2024)

Any surge in tourism from India in remote rural areas disrupts pastoralist communities and exacerbates human-animal conflicts. Associated infrastructure projects have the potential to displace farming communities, disrupting their way of life, culture, and community bonds. The loss of agricultural land translates to reduced food security and economic instability for over 80% of Kashmir’s population, who depend on agriculture. (Ashraf, 2019). The new land laws have facilitated numerous projects even outside cities and towns, with Indian construction companies investing millions in shopping malls, IT towers, and industrial units, often at the expense of forests and prime agricultural land

Locals equate India’s treatment of Kashmiris to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The denial of political aspirations and restrictions on basic rights have created pent-up anger among the youth and provide fertile ground for reactivation of the next generation of local freedom fighters (Parvez, 2020) Clearly, The coerced calm cannot last forever, and the inevitable blowback, in the form of increased violence and insecurity, will likely erupt in the not-so-distant future as it already has in the Pir Panchal region of Jammu during the past couple of years

Demographic Changes

The change in Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and the dilution of privileges that its residents had enjoyed with respect to jobs, land, and businesses have deepened the fears of demographic change by political design. Previously, locals viewed security forces as the main enemy, today it is often the invasion of ordinary Indian civilians. Amid growing fears, Kashmiris are likening the changes to the West Bank or Tibet, with settlers, armed or civilian, living in guarded compounds among disenfranchised locals. The changes have now reduced the region to a colony. (Bhasin, 2023).

To facilitate this colonization, the Indian government passed the domicile rule. The measure grants a right to residency and government jobs to anyone from India who has lived in the state for 15 years or more, studied there for seven years and has taken certain exams, or served in its’ state government for 10 years or more. In the initial month of its passage, more than 400,000 people had acquired domicile certificates. At last official count, nearly 3.5 million new non-local voters have been registered in Kashmir and more than 200,000 acres of land have been appropriated by the government, resulting in the demolition of thousands of local homes, shops, schools, and mosques. These actions will result in the economic disempowerment and marginalization of the predominantly Muslim Kashmiri population (Khan, 2020)

Those receiving domicile certificates include Hindu refugees from Pakistan following the partition of the subcontinent, Gurkha soldiers from Nepal who had served in the Indian army, retired Indian soldiers and officers, outside bureaucrats working in the region and some tribal Hindu communities. Even locals must apply for residency, otherwise they risk losing government jobs and welfare benefits.

The underlying and long-term legislative intent of the domicile law is of course to alter the results of any future referendum for the resolution of the larger, international dispute over control of the territory. Promises of this referendum allowing Kashmiris to exercise their Right to Self Determination, made by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947, have been buried and replaced by a new narrative that “Kashmir is an integral part of India.” With every passing day, India’s stand on Kashmir has grown more rigid, and violence against people of Jammu and Kashmir has become a norm. India says the only unresolved issue is the return of what it calls Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (AJK) and GB to its rightful owner, India.

Kashmiri Muslims have always been wary of designs to affect a demographic change in Jammu and Kashmir. The RSS and the BJP have in the past spoken about it as a remedy to address Muslim majority aspirations. In fact, changing the demographics of Kashmir is one of the core goals of Modi’s right-wing government (Bhasin, 2023).

Idris Bhat wrote in Foreign Policy in 2023: “It seems clear that revoking Article 35A will change the nature of Kashmir. For now, it is Muslim majority, according to Indian census data from 2011, 68 percent of Jammu and Kashmir’s 12.5 million people were Muslims. With the local government no longer able to bar outsiders from land ownership, New Delhi could presumably encourage the migration of Hindus to the region in the same way China has supported the growth of Han Chinese populations in Tibet. Given the history of Indian state intervention in Kashmir, these are efforts to destroy the local, distinctive cultural identity of Kashmiris and forcibly assimilate Kashmiri Muslims into a Hindu, Indian polity.” (Bhat, 2023)

In the leadup to the most recent elections, the boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir’s electoral districts were cleverly redrawn, ostensibly to reflect new population shifts in future assembly and parliamentary elections. The exercise yielded an additional six seats in the predominantly Hindu Jammu region, where the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the recent Assembly elections.

False Claims of “Development”

Despite its claims to the contrary, the Modi government has nothing concrete to show in its report card since it illegally annexed Jammu and Kashmir. It has failed miserably on all fronts, including improving Kashmir’s economy. However, it continues to build a false narrative of how Kashmir has become better so it can be used for further communal polarization in India and in pursuit of electoral benefits.

False reports of peace, development, and stability have remained the core agenda on news channels across India, justifying the decision taken on August 5, 2019. Indians and outsiders are being brainwashed and coerced into believing that peace has been brought to the region, undermining the existing realities. The truth is that this reality is one of fear and a permanent undeclared emergency. The surge in tourism is often equated with peace, but it masks underlying socio-political problems and increasing environmental destruction. The focus on tourism and infrastructure development for political reasons overlooks the critical need for sustainable practices that protect the environment and the livelihoods of local communities (Ahmed, 2024).

Indian propaganda and the enforced calm and stability has drawn several foreign investors, particularly from countries of the Gulf. However, any economic benefits are yet to trickle down to benefit Kashmiris themselves. The government claims that $465 million has been invested in a range of industries, including infrastructure, information technology, health, handicrafts, hospitality, agriculture and the food-processing sectors. There is little evidence of this investment on the ground (Ahmed, 2024).

Indian businesses are also eying Kashmir to scale up industrialization. The developments to lure investors were ambitious: all-weather roads and tunnels connecting Jammu and Kashmir; the world’s tallest railway bridge spanning the Chenab River; improved flight connections to Delhi; and a spate of new hydro-electric projects to boost power supplies. Closer scrutiny shows that most of these connectivity projects aim to facilitate the smoother transport of Indian security forces to the region, including to the disputed border with China in Ladakh.

According to most locals, the false sense of peace created by some minor improvements in Kashmir’s economy and the security landscape belies the stark reality on the ground. In an echo of the region’s history, militancy has recently resurfaced slowly but surely. The absence of any meaningful political engagement and no prospect of a settlement of the dispute has only deepened anxiety among inhabitants.

Stifling Voices of Dissent

As the government of India continues its violations of human rights and international law, among it is the complete suppression of the work of journalists and human rights activists. An extraordinary level of state surveillance and intimidation has gone into imposing this collective silence. Fundamental rights of free speech stand suspended, and any dissenting voices, online or offline, are targets of the state machinery. In an act of self-censorship, newspapers now eschew critical reporting or opinion pieces that challenge Delhi’s official narrative. Many journalists have been charged with unlawful activities and placed on a no-fly list, preventing them from flying abroad. Sharing or liking social media posts critical of the ruling Hindu-nationalist BJP government can result in imprisonment. Academics, teachers, government employees, businesspeople and human rights activists have been subjected to police raids and detention for acting against the interest of the state.

Ifran Mehraj, a Srinagar-based journalist who worked in a research capacity for the Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), was arrested by India’s so-called counter-terrorism task force, The National Investigation Agency (NIA). Mehraj, who is the founding editor of Wande Magazine, worked with TwoCircles.net website. He has reported for several international media organizations, including Al Jazeera and Deutsche Welle.His was a voice that India could never allow to be heard as he has written for such publications as Al Jazeera, The Indian Express, TRT World, Himal Southasian, among others. Criticism of India’s brutal oppression of the Kashmiri people must never be allowed to see the light of day (Al Jazeera, 2023).

One of his ‘crimes’ was that he was an associate of Khurram Parvez, the JKCCS Program Coordinator who has been incarcerated by India since November 2021. Khurram Parvez is an internationally known human rights defender, who has been honored several times with international awards for his work. JKCCS itself was a target of the NIA, which stated the following: “JKCCS was funding terror activities in the valley and had also been in the propagation of a secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of protection of human rights.”

Ifran Mehraj was only one in a long line of Kashmiri journalists who have been jailed for exposing India’s crimes. Aasif Sultan was  incarcerated for over four years. He was charged with a variety of crimes, ranging from harboring militants, to murder, for which there was zero evidence. In July of 2018, he had written an article for the Kashmir Narrator, of which he was the editor, discussing the assassination of Burhan Wani, a Kashmiri rebel commander who was killed in 2016 by Indian forces, when he was only 22. This story, highly critical of Indian actions, was the actual reason why Aasif Sultan was in prison. (Fischer, 2018)

These and many other activists and journalist have been detained under the infamous Public Safey Act. This black law initially allowed detention for up to two years without any charges being made, let alone a trial. This was eventually changed, with the length of detention without charge or trial being reduced to one year, but in most cases, when a prisoner is released after one year, he or she is immediately rearrested on a different spurious charge (Fischer, 2018).

If silence and subdued resistance are the government’s goals, the campaign has worked, if only partially. The entire pro-freedom leadership, which long sought an end to Delhi’s rule, has been largely decimated. Yasin Malik, chief of the JKLF, was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2022 for funding terrorist activities. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was under house arrest for years, died at the age of 92, his body buried in haste by Indian armed forces to prevent mass protests. The head of the pro-freedom All Party Hurriyat Conference, Masarat Alam Bhat, has been imprisoned since 2015, while its former chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, continues to be placed under strict house arrest whenever the state deems it necessary. The APHC has now been declared illegal as has the Jamaat ul Islami. (Fischer, 2023) Just last month, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah directed security agencies to keep up the campaign to dismantle elements of what he called a “terror ecosystem” detrimental to the well-being of Kashmiris. The campaign has shown little sign of abating before his orders.

Despite all of this, increased Indian Transnational Repression has become one reason why Kashmir pro-freedom activism has declined significantly worldwide. Transnational Repression is defined as governments reaching across borders to silence dissent among diasporas and exiles, including through assassinations, illegal deportations, abductions, digital threats, foreign agency abuse, and family intimidation. Transnational Repression is not just about physical threats. India has also used US and European intelligence agencies to shut Kashmiri activists down through fake dossiers aimed at scaring them into silence. As a result, many Kashmiri activists abroad have been lying low for fear of losing their passports, OCI cards, and their families being harassed by security forces back home. After the assassination of a Khalistani activist by RAW in Canada and an attempted one of another in the US, Kashmiris are also worried about meeting a similar fate (Fischer, 2024).

Cultural Appropriation

Understanding the issue of anti-Kashmiri cultural appropriation is important because it highlights the need to respect the cultural heritage of marginalized communities and to avoid the exploitation of their identity for personal or commercial gain. It also raises questions about power dynamics and the need for cultural sensitivity and understanding.

In February 2025, a major controversy sparked in the Valley. The reason was a fashion show held by Indians at Gulmarg under the pretense of wanting to display their skiwear collection. The show sparked outrage among locals, politicians and religious leaders after fashion publisher Elle India posted a video on social media which showed some of the models wearing only underwear and bikinis. Locals were also furious about  a boisterous party held after the show, which showed people drinking alcohol outdoors. (Molan, 2025) (Mollan).

Kashmiris took particular offence with the show being held during the holy month of Ramadan. They accused the Indian designers of “mocking their faith” and “disregarding local culture and sentiments”. Some clerics called the show “obscene” and said it was like “soft porn.” The outrage had arisen not only from religious conservatism, but also from a fear of cultural imposition from “outsiders,” as has been happening ever since the reading down of Article 370. Kashmir has a rich tradition of Sufi spirituality which runs through all aspects of peoples’ lives. Kashmiri traditional attire is very modest, with locals, both men and women, often wearing a pheran, a long, loose cloak. Visting Indians and new non-Kashmiri residents have been ignoring local norms and sensitivities (Mollan, 2025).

India is demonstrably trying to dilute the spirit of resistance in Kashmiris by organizing outlandish and culturally offensive events. For several years, the Indian army has been holding fashion shows and beauty contests in remoter areas where locals are forced to attend. Some of the recent apprehensions around culture and identity is undoubtedly tied to the exponential increase in tourists to Kashmir from India. Locals claim that many Indian tourists do not respect the region’s culture.

Last year, a video showing tourists drinking alcohol during a boat ride on Dal Lake in Srinagar evoked outrage from political and religious leaders, who called the behavior “un-Islamic and unethical.” In February, locals put up posters in Srinagar, asking tourists to “respect local culture and traditions” and “avoid alcohol and use of drugs”, but these were later pulled down by the police. An unprecedented number of liquor vents have recently been opened in Srinagar and elsewhere in the Valley despite strong objections by locals (KMS, 2025)

Waqf Board Issue

Throughout India’s major cities, Muslims have been protesting the BJP’s latest effort to strip Muslims of their legal rights through an amendment to the Waqf Act. More than a dozen Muslims have been killed by Hindu counter-protesters or security forces, with hundreds more seriously injured in parts of India. The changes have garnered serious objections by both local politicians and clerics in Jammu and Kashmir. Protests were quashed by the police, and Mirwaiz Farooq was prevented from attending a meeting to discuss strategies to fight the change. He was also put under strict house arrest and not allowed to conduct Friday prayers.

Muslims throughout India are protesting what is nothing more than a cynical and shameless strategy by the Hindu nationalist regime to steal land and properties from Muslims. A waqf is a charitable or religious donation made by Muslims for properties beneficial to the community, including mosques, madrassas, graveyards and orphanages. These properties cannot be sold or used for any other purpose and are governed by the Waqf Act, 1995, which mandated the formation of state-level boards to manage them. The law applied in Jammu and Kashmir as well.

Last year, the BJP introduced a bill to amend the Waqf Act, allowing the Modi government to have more control over these properties. The bill has not only gutted provisions meant to safeguard the religious status of these properties but also puts in place concrete measures for the Hindu nationalist regime to seize and transfer ownership of waqf properties. Hindutva extremist groups have already identified thousands of mosques they wish to demolish as part of their coordinated effort to erase Muslims and Islam from Indian history. This Hindutva version of history is now propagated by BJP leaders, government-backed historians and school curriculums. It tells of an ancient Hindu nation that was cut off at its knees by ruthless and barbaric Muslim invaders during the Islamic Mughal era. They falsely claim Hindu temples were destroyed and turned into mosques, and that imagined historical wrong must be made right. Two years ago, a senior BJP leader falsely claimed that Muslims had destroyed more than 35,000 temples and that they will “reclaim all those temples, one by one.” BJP’s effort to amend the Waqf Act is designed to accomplish exactly that: the destruction of every mosque and Islamic shrine in India, including those in Jammu and Kashmir. (Werleman, 2025)

Conclusion

Hindutva nationalism and the oppression of Kashmiri Muslims has always been a reality since before the beginning of independent India. Yet, the way Kashmiri Muslims are now being marginalized day after day and demographic change is being implemented, there may no longer be a Kashmiri Muslim Nation before long. August 5, 20019 was not a singular event in Kashmir’s dark past, but the beginning of India’s most harrowing stage of  settler colonialism. Since then, the jackboots of Hindutva forces have been marching on throughout the Valley with nobody stopping their advancement despite the pro-freedom sentiment of the Kashmiris not having diminished one iota (Fischer, 2022)

The nature of the Indian occupation of Kashmir had already changed when the BJP came to power both in Delhi and in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014. The lives of Kashmir Muslims were no longer worth preserving under any circumstances under the new Hindutva rule. With Modi in power, it was not only a government having changed. Almost from day one, it was an entire nation becoming more and more fueled by Hindu majoritarian aspirations. It was the ordinary people and not only Indian soldiers, who were now baying for the blood of Kashmiri Muslims. It was everywhere, on television, in print editorials, and in the behavior of troops on the streets of Kashmir. Kashmiris were attacked throughout India, Muslims were lynched at the mere suspicion of having slaughtered a cow, and Hindutva terrorists were released from prison. It was like a deadly Saffron tidal wave. And of course history books were being rewritten, describing the Valley of Kashmir as the original abode of Hindus with Muslims being nothing but a temporary aberration. (Fischer 2022)

All of it culminated in the illegal annexation of Kashmir by India in August of 2019 and the abrogation of articles that had guaranteed at least some measure of autonomy for the Kashmiris. Most importantly, it had afforded some protection for their religious and ethnic identities. Kashmiris have now witnessed the implementation of new land laws aimed to accelerate ethnic flooding by Hindus and more than likely resulting in Muslims of the region becoming a minority. And behind the facade of stability lies a region grappling with fear of this demographic change, repression, and environmental degradation.

The international community has expressed but mild concern about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, likely out of desires to retain trade and strategic relationships with India. But are international agreements merely words intended to make the leaders who sign them feel morally just?

The unilateral and illegal changes governing Jammu and Kashmir, unabated human rights violations, denial of basic facilities and land-grabbing because of militarization are all in violation of international law, UN resolutions, India’s own constitutional framework and India’s earlier commitment to Kashmiris.  India undoubtedly feels encouraged to continue its violent policies because of the lack of international moral leadership (Parvez, 2020).

As India continues to suppress the voices of those fighting the oppression of the people of Kashmir both inside Kashmir and abroad, the efforts of journalists, human-rights activists and others who stand for peace, justice, freedom, and international law must not be in vain. These brave activists must have international support as they oppose crimes against humanity which are being perpetrated by India daily. As Kashmir navigates these tumultuous times, it is imperative to keep the conversation on Kashmir going everywhere, ensuring that the voices of its people are heard and their struggles acknowledged. Pakistan has always been the main support Kashmiris have counted on ideologically, diplomatically and emotionally. After each statement by Islamabad about Kashmir, locals begin hoping that this support has continued and always will. It must. Kashmiris depend on it.

References

“Ahmed” (Unanimous for Security Reason), “Five Years of Silence and Struggle in Kashmir,” Amnesty International Blog, 9 August 2024, https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/country-specialists/five-years-silence-and-struggle/

Al Jazeera, “India arrests Kashmir journalist Irfan Mehraj on ‘terror’ charges,” 21 March 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/21/kashmiri-journalist-irfan-mehraj-arrested-under-terrorism-charges/

Ashraf, Mohammad, “The vanishing green belt of Kashmir,” Counter Currents, 27 June 2019.

Bhasin, Anuradha, ‘Fears of a demographic change valid,’ 9 February 2023, https://frontline.thehindu.com/books/interview-anuradha-bhasin-author-of-a-dismantled-state-fears-of-a-demographic-change-valid/article66450121.ece

Bhat, Idris, “New Delhi’s Demographic Designs in Kashmir” Foreign Policy, 16 August 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/16/new-delhis-demographic-designs-in-kashmir/

Fischer, Carin, “The Jailing of Aasif Sultan, WordPress, 8 September 2018.  https://notesfromtheabyss.blog/2019/01/26/jailing-of-aasif-sultan/

Fischer, Carin, “Preliminary Rebuttal to the Lies Propagated by the Indian Ambassador to the US in the Wake of Abrogation of Article 370 and Article-35-A-and-Bifurcating the Region against the Will of the-People,” WordPress, 9 September 2019, https://notesfromtheabyss.blog/2019/09/05/my-preliminary-rebuttal-to-the-lies-propagated-by-the-indian-ambassador-to-the-us-in-the-wake-of-abrogation-of-article-370-article-35-a-and-bifurcating-the-region-against-the-will-of-the-people/

Fischer, Carin, “Shining Ugliness: A Catalogue of Fascist Bharat’s “Incredible” Crimes,” WordPress, 22 March 2022,  https://notesfromtheabyss.blog/2024/03/22/shining-ugliness-a-catalogue-of-fascist-bharats-incredible-crimes/

Fischer, Carin, Speech at the Pakistan Consulate in NY, WordPress, 27 October  2023. https://notesfromtheabyss.blog/2023/10/27/speech-at-pakistan-consulate-in-ny-on-kashmir-black-day-october-27-2023/

Fischer, Carin, Speech at APHC Kashmir Symposium, Muzaffarabad, AJK, WordPress, 2 September 2024, https://notesfromtheabyss.blog/2024/09/02/speech-at-aphc-kashmir-symposium-muzaffarabad-ajk-sept-2-2024/

Khan, Ghazal, “All you need to know about Jammu and Kashmir’s domicile law,” Economic Times, 23 July 2020, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/explainer-all-you-need-to-know-about-jammu-and-kashmirs-domicile-law/articleshow/77122595.cms

KMS, “India’s hosting of obscene fashion show in IIOJK’s Gulmarg a cultural assault, says APHC-AJK,”

11 March 2025. https://kmsnews.org/kms/2025/03/11/indias-hosting-of-obscene-fashion-show-in-iiojks-gulmarg-a-cultural-assault-says-aphc-ajk.html

Mollan, Cherylann, “Creativity or cultural invasion? A fashion show sparks a row in Kashmir,” BBC Mumbai, 15 March 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clynd24rnngo.

Parvez, Khurram, “A Year After India Revoked Kashmir’s Special Status, Kashmiris Worry About a Demographic Shift.” Time Magazine, 7 August 2020.

Salam, Kathy, “If You Think Kashmir Was Turbulent in 2019, Wait for Next Year,” https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/19/kashmir-autonomy-article-370-india-pakistan/

Werleman, CJ, “Waqf Act: Inside Indian Government’s latest effort to steal property from Muslims and erase thousands of mosques and Islamic shrines” 12 April 2025, https://www.patreon.com/posts/126529773?pr=true

Shining Ugliness: A Catalogue of Fascist Bharat’s “Incredible” Crimes


By Carin Fischer , Washington, DC

“Lastly and most importantly for my present context in the US, closely watching RAW’s growing number of RSS and anti-Pakistan linked think tanks and advocacy groups in Washington, I am only just beginning to understand the challenge India’s hybrid war against Muslims, Kashmiris, Pakistan and others represents to all of us on every level and the need to strike back when and where it counts. Hindutva was always there from the very beginning of independent India. What is new is the ever-growing marriage of Hindutva Extremism with intelligence agencies and both acting in tandem to create havoc throughout the region and now in the West. And at the root of it is both a majoritarian and an expansionist philosophy envisioning a South Asia dominated by India and more specifically Hindus. It is a fictional historical claim not dissimilar to that of the Nazis who spoke of creating a Lebensraum for the German race, or the Zionists who use the bible as the moral justifications for expansion of territory. And nobody seems to care enough again.”

As many of you know, almost everything I share on panels like this one is based on what I have personally lived through and which has made me what I am today. That sometimes gives me a very different vocabulary, one that is often more emotional and often quite angry. This anger is often reflected when I meet with lawmakers and think tankers about their double standards in Washington. Most recently, I have been handing out a brochure created by IPRI and called “Shining Ugliness: A Catalogue of Fascist Bharat’s “Incredible” Crimes. It is an excellent compilation of Modi India’s dirty deeds and one everybody must see. I believe it is time for everybody to get as angry as I have been for years.

Therefore today I must talk about the growing threat of Hindutva Extremism and how it has promoted discord and conflicts in South Asia and affected countries. I have been trying to wrap myself around this topic for the past two days because it is so crucial to talk about it now and especially in the context of Kashmir which has been the experimental lab for other places India is currently coveting. I am of course speaking in the backdrop of the recent inauguration of the Babri Ram temple. The destruction of the centuries old mosque by Hindutva zealots which caused the death of thousands of Muslims in the ensuing riots. Now it appears that 9 more mosques are already on the radar of the RSS, and evidence is being collected that the sites had also been Hindu temples. In Kashmir there is now talk about the Shah-e-Hamadan Masjid and paintings of an ancient temple on that site have already been circulated.

I moved to India shortly after 9/11. I had opposed the War on Terror, and I felt it was as good a time as any to say Goodbye to the US. Over the years, the same impressions India has been creating about itself in the West had led me to believe that I was going to be safe ideologically from what was unfolding in many other parts of the world. I had fully bought the story of it being a secular democracy, based on Gandhian philosophy, and meaning no harm to anybody, neither friend nor foe. I of course knew very little about internal or regional conflicts at the time. I had also blissfully ignored some early signs of Hindutva mobilization amongst the Indian diaspora in the US while raising money for the BJP.

It was a crude shock for me upon arrival to find an India that had just dispatched most of its troops towards the border with Pakistan in the wake of the Parliament attack. Shrill, patriotic, and war mongering frenzy was surrounding me everywhere with crowds  hoping India’s nuclear arsenal would finally teach Pakistan a lesson. Of course the same happened after Pulwama which led to the Balakot attack inside Pakistan. It was impossible to ignore the strong communal undertones in the ranting and raving. Meanwhile, many of us were questioning the true intent behind the Parliament attack with some suggesting that it may have been orchestrated by Indian agencies so India could formally join the War on Terror.

Then I traveled to Gujarat while finishing up some work I had worked on before I left the US. There I witnessed genocidal conditions after communal riots had broken out and thousands were slaughtered by Hindutva zealots with Modi at the helm. It was very much the way I had always imagined the Kristallnacht in Germany which of course was the beginning of the Holocaust and the extermination of almost all of Europe’s Jews. This is something Hindutva zealots and the RSS never tire to describe as “the Germans having had the right idea,” but of course meaning Muslims and not Jews.  To this day I will never be able to accept that one of the architects of the gruesome pogrom is the much-coveted Prime Minister of a country that is now a strategic partner of the US.

This was also the first time that I felt this all-pervasive anger in the streets of India. The anger that gets suppressed for short periods of time only to explode at the slightest of triggers, and often ending in communal riots of one sort or another. I witnessed this anger day after day in the neighborhood I lived in, whether it was directed towards Dalits, Muslims, people from the Northeast, or even animals. Often the anger turned into rape, committed by gangs of young men, and this is something most foreign and all Indian women feared whenever out at night or moving about in more deserted places.

Later while working on tribal issues in Assam, I saw how the RSS had spread out everywhere, attempting to convince tribals, who were mostly Buddhists, that they had actually been Hindus all along.  There I first saw demographic change systematically planned and implemented by the Indian State and its agencies. In predominantly tribal areas where Schedule 6 of the Constitution had guaranteed tribal autonomy, Nepalis who had served in the Indian Army were resettled in huge numbers so the districts would no longer meet the demographic thresholds to be considered tribal majority. Of course throughout Assam and other parts of the Northeast religious hatred towards Muslims was constantly being stirred up, with all Muslims being portrayed as illegals from Bangladesh, and most recently leading to the segregation of Muslims and others considered foreigners in concentration camps built for those not able to prove their citizenship. Meanwhile Hindutva zealots, the RSS, and religious hatred increasingly reign supreme in an Assam and most recently Manipur two places that used to be proud of its own language, unique culture, and diversity.

Deeply disturbed by the true nature of the Hindu state in so many different parts of India, I had grown much disenchanted with the country long before moving to Kashmir. There of course I lived through ten years of absolute terror committed on the people by the Indian state, a communalized army, and the military occupation. Most of you know about the atrocities being committed there because they have now been relatively well documented by activists, and because Pakistan has been speaking about the human rights violations at every possible forum for years. I could talk for several days about what I witnessed personally, and some of the people I knew who have been killed or tortured. All of it has been going on for decades, but for much of the past it had raged as more of a political than a religious dispute.

The nature of the dispute changed completely when the BJP under Modi came to power both in Delhi and in IIOJK in 2014. All over sudden the lives of Kashmir Muslims were no longer worth preserving under any circumstances. And this is an important point to make. With Modi assuming power and with such a majority of the vote, it was not only a government having changed. It was an entire nation becoming fueled by lethal Hindu majoritarian aspirations, almost from one day to the next. It was the ordinary people, like it had been ordinary people in Gujarat, who were now baying for the blood of Kashmiris.

It was everywhere, on television, in print editorials, and in the behavior of troops on the streets of Kashmir. Pakistan was no longer just a troubled neighbor but a place that needed to be defeated once and for all, so that Akhand Bharat spanning every nook and corner of the entire subcontinent could be restored. Kashmiris were attacked throughout India, Muslims were lynched at the mere suspicion of having slaughtered a cow, Hindutva terrorists were released from prison with some being elected to Parliament. It felt like a deadly Saffron tidal wave.

In Jammu which had already become radicalized and heavily dominated by the RSS since the uprisings of 2008, Hindutva flag marches through neighborhoods with majority Muslim populations were organized. The marchers were fully armed with swords and trishuls. And of course the history books were being rewritten, describing the Valley of Kashmir as the original abode of Hindus with Muslims being nothing but an aberration.

All of it finally culminated in the illegal annexation of Kashmir by India in August of 2019 and the abrogation of articles that had guaranteed at least some measure of autonomy for the Kashmiris. Most importantly it afforded some protection for their religious and ethnic identities. Now we were witnessing the implementation of new land laws aimed to accelerate ethnic flooding by Hindus and more than likely resulting in Muslims of the region becoming a minority. This of course had already been successfully done once in Jammu in 1947 when the Maharaja’s troops and Hindu fanatics slaughtered up to two hundred thousand of Jammu’s Muslims and drove out just as many, making it a Hindu majority region. Today it is being done through administrative action instead of slaughter.

How then could Pakistan, a legal stakeholder in the Kashmir dispute, ever be unaffected and remain uninvolved? After unilaterally altering the entire region by turning the former state of Kashmir into Union Territories directly ruled by Delhi, even China reacted militarily to protect its interests from an expansionist India that feels no longer bound by any bilateral agreements. Disturbingly, night after night, Indian channels debate the need for India to take over Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, both of which India claims as its own territory per a parliamentary act. And the entire Hindu nation is cheering on a government that promises that it will conquer what belongs to India at the earliest, with defense analysts and generals saying the army is merely waiting for the orders.

And now comes the detailed dossier prepared by Pakistan and proving India’s sponsorship of terrorist activities inside its country and most recently in Canada and the US. Anybody having lived in India and especially Kashmir and following the activities of Indian agencies throughout the region would never ever doubt any of what has been presented in the report. After years of witnessing what these agencies are capable of in Kashmir and then blaming it all on its neighbor in its never-ending propaganda war against Pakistan, there is no doubt in my mind that all of it and much more is the absolute truth.

Lastly and most importantly for my present context in the US, closely watching RAW’s growing number of RSS and anti-Pakistan linked think tanks and advocacy groups in Washington, I am only just beginning to understand the challenge India’s hybrid war against Muslims, Kashmiris, Pakistan and others represents to all of us on every level and the need to strike back when and where it counts.

Hindutva was always there from the very beginning of independent India. What is new is the ever-growing marriage of Hindutva Extremism with intelligence agencies and both acting in tandem to create havoc throughout the region and now in the West. And at the root of it is both a majoritarian and an expansionist philosophy envisioning a South Asia dominated by India and more specifically Hindus. It is a fictional historical claim not dissimilar to that of the Nazis who spoke of creating a Lebensraum for the German race, or the Zionists who use the bible as the moral justifications for expansion of territory. And nobody seems to care enough again.

With all this in mind, I feel the time for trying to strike a balance while speaking about regional tensions and the Kashmir dispute is gone. In fact, it seems unconscionable to me when South Asia Departments in Washington are trying to do that. There is a right and a wrong, and one must choose. Watching what is happening in India and Kashmir silently or without intervening is criminally enabling.

I urge Pakistani and Kashmiri activists to keep compiling facts and figures for all of us to use so we can present the correct narratives about India to the world. Too much of the history of the region was written by the occupier and those drunk on Hindutva supremacy fantasies. It needs to be exposed and stopped now.

Thank you.

 By Carin Fischer
Director Kashmir Action Network and Chinar Consulting, Washington, DC)

Kashmir Solidarity Day Speech February 2024

Speech Kashmir Solidarity Day Feb 2024

As-Salaam-Alaikum friends and colleagues. Thank you for asking me to participate on this panel. I feel extremely honored to be here.

As many of you know, almost everything I share on panels like this one is based on what I have personally lived through and which has made me what I am today. That sometimes gives me a very different vocabulary, one that is often more emotional and often quite angry. This anger is often reflected when I meet with lawmakers and think tankers about their double standards in Washington. Most recently, I have been handing out a brochure created by IPRI and called “Shining Ugliness: A Catalogue of Fascist Bharat’s “Incredible” Crimes. It is an excellent compilation of Modi India’s dirty deeds and one everybody must see. I believe it is time for everybody to get as angry as I have been for years.

Therefore today I must talk about the growing threat of Hindutva Extremism and how it has promoted discord and conflicts in South Asia and affected countries. I have been trying to wrap myself around this topic for the past two days because it is so crucial to talk about it now and especially in the context of Kashmir which has been the experimental lab for other places India is currently coveting. I am of course speaking in the backdrop of the recent inauguration of the Babri Ram temple. The destruction of the centuries old mosque by Hindutva zealots which caused the death of thousands of Muslims in the ensuing riots. Now it appears that 9 more mosques are already on the radar of the RSS, and evidence is being collected that the sites had also been Hindu temples. In Kashmir there is now talk about the Shah-e-Hamadan Masjid and paintings of an ancient temple on that site have already been circulated.

I moved to India shortly after 9/11. I had opposed the War on Terror, and I felt it was as good a time as any to say Goodbye to the US. Over the years, the same impressions India has been creating about itself in the West had led me to believe that I was going to be safe ideologically from what was unfolding in many other parts of the world. I had fully bought the story of it being a secular democracy, based on Gandhian philosophy, and meaning no harm to anybody, neither friend nor foe. I of course knew very little about internal or regional conflicts at the time. I had also blissfully ignored some early signs of Hindutva mobilization amongst the Indian diaspora in the US while raising money for the BJP.

It was a crude shock for me upon arrival to find an India that had just dispatched most of its troops towards the border with Pakistan in the wake of the Parliament attack. Shrill, patriotic, and war mongering frenzy was surrounding me everywhere with crowds  hoping India’s nuclear arsenal would finally teach Pakistan a lesson. Of course the same happened after Pulwama which led to the Balakot attack inside Pakistan. It was impossible to ignore the strong communal undertones in the ranting and raving. Meanwhile, many of us were questioning the true intent behind the Parliament attack with some suggesting that it may have been orchestrated by Indian agencies so India could formally join the War on Terror.

Then I traveled to Gujarat while finishing up some work I had worked on before I left the US. There I witnessed genocidal conditions after communal riots had broken out and thousands were slaughtered by Hindutva zealots with Modi at the helm. It was very much the way I had always imagined the Kristallnacht in Germany which of course was the beginning of the Holocaust and the extermination of almost all of Europe’s Jews. This is something Hindutva zealots and the RSS never tire to describe as “the Germans having had the right idea,” but of course meaning Muslims and not Jews.  To this day I will never be able to accept that one of the architects of the gruesome pogrom is the much-coveted Prime Minister of a country that is now a strategic partner of the US.

This was also the first time that I felt this all-pervasive anger in the streets of India. The anger that gets suppressed for short periods of time only to explode at the slightest of triggers, and often ending in communal riots of one sort or another. I witnessed this anger day after day in the neighborhood I lived in, whether it was directed towards Dalits, Muslims, people from the Northeast, or even animals. Often the anger turned into rape, committed by gangs of young men, and this is something most foreign and all Indian women feared whenever out at night or moving about in more deserted places.

Later while working on tribal issues in Assam, I saw how the RSS had spread out everywhere, attempting to convince tribals, who were mostly Buddhists, that they had actually been Hindus all along.  There I first saw demographic change systematically planned and implemented by the Indian State and its agencies. In predominantly tribal areas where Schedule 6 of the Constitution had guaranteed tribal autonomy, Nepalis who had served in the Indian Army were resettled in huge numbers so the districts would no longer meet the demographic thresholds to be considered tribal majority. Of course throughout Assam and other parts of the Northeast religious hatred towards Muslims was constantly being stirred up, with all Muslims being portrayed as illegals from Bangladesh, and most recently leading to the segregation of Muslims and others considered foreigners in concentration camps built for those not able to prove their citizenship. Meanwhile Hindutva zealots, the RSS, and religious hatred increasingly reign supreme in an Assam and most recently Manipur two places that used to be proud of its own language, unique culture, and diversity.

Deeply disturbed by the true nature of the Hindu state in so many different parts of India, I had grown much disenchanted with the country long before moving to Kashmir. There of course I lived through ten years of absolute terror committed on the people by the Indian state, a communalized army, and the military occupation. Most of you know about the atrocities being committed there because they have now been relatively well documented by activists, and because Pakistan has been speaking about the human rights violations at every possible forum for years. I could talk for several days about what I witnessed personally, and some of the people I knew who have been killed or tortured. All of it has been going on for decades, but for much of the past it had raged as more of a political than a religious dispute.

The nature of the dispute changed completely when the BJP under Modi came to power both in Delhi and in IIOJK in 2014. All over sudden the lives of Kashmir Muslims were no longer worth preserving under any circumstances. And this is an important point to make. With Modi assuming power and with such a majority of the vote, it was not only a government having changed. It was an entire nation becoming fueled by lethal Hindu majoritarian aspirations, almost from one day to the next. It was the ordinary people, like it had been ordinary people in Gujarat, who were now baying for the blood of Kashmiris. It was everywhere, on television, in print editorials, and in the behavior of troops on the streets of Kashmir. Pakistan was no longer just a troubled neighbor but a place that needed to be defeated once and for all, so that Akhand Bharat spanning every nook and corner of the entire subcontinent could be restored. Kashmiris were attacked throughout India, Muslims were lynched at the mere suspicion of having slaughtered a cow, Hindutva terrorists were released from prison with some being elected to Parliament. It felt like a deadly Saffron tidal wave. In Jammu which had already become radicalized and heavily dominated by the RSS since the uprisings of 2008, Hindutva flag marches through neighborhoods with majority Muslim populations were organized. The marchers were fully armed with swords and trishuls. And of course the history books were being rewritten, describing the Valley of Kashmir as the original abode of Hindus with Muslims being nothing but an aberration.

All of it finally culminated in the illegal annexation of Kashmir by India in August of 2019 and the abrogation of articles that had guaranteed at least some measure of autonomy for the Kashmiris. Most importantly it afforded some protection for their religious and ethnic identities. Now we were witnessing the implementation of new land laws aimed to accelerate ethnic flooding by Hindus and more than likely resulting in Muslims of the region becoming a minority. This of course had already been successfully done once in Jammu in 1947 when the Maharaja’s troops and Hindu fanatics slaughtered up to two hundred thousand of Jammu’s Muslims and drove out just as many, making it a Hindu majority region. Today it is being done through administrative action instead of slaughter.

How then could Pakistan, a legal stakeholder in the Kashmir dispute, ever be unaffected and remain uninvolved? After unilaterally altering the entire region by turning the former state of Kashmir into Union Territories directly ruled by Delhi, even China reacted militarily to protect its interests from an expansionist India that feels no longer bound by any bilateral agreements. Disturbingly, night after night, Indian channels debate the need for India to take over Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, both of which India claims as its own territory per a parliamentary act. And the entire Hindu nation is cheering on a government that promises that it will conquer what belongs to India at the earliest, with defense analysts and generals saying the army is merely waiting for the orders.

And now comes the detailed dossier prepared by Pakistan and proving India’s sponsorship of terrorist activities inside its country and most recently in Canada and the US. Anybody having lived in India and especially Kashmir and following the activities of Indian agencies throughout the region would never ever doubt any of what has been presented in the report. After years of witnessing what these agencies are capable of in Kashmir and then blaming it all on its neighbor in its never-ending propaganda war against Pakistan, there is no doubt in my mind that all of it and much more is the absolute truth.

Lastly and most importantly for my present context in the US, closely watching RAW’s growing number of RSS and anti-Pakistan linked think tanks and advocacy groups in Washington, I am only just beginning to understand the challenge India’s hybrid war against Muslims, Kashmiris, Pakistan and others represents to all of us on every level and the need to strike back when and where it counts.

Hindutva was always there from the very beginning of independent India. What is new is the ever-growing marriage of Hindutva Extremism with intelligence agencies and both acting in tandem to create havoc throughout the region and now in the West. And at the root of it is both a majoritarian and an expansionist philosophy envisioning a South Asia dominated by India and more specifically Hindus. It is a fictional historical claim not dissimilar to that of the Nazis who spoke of creating a Lebensraum for the German race, or the Zionists who use the bible as the moral justifications for expansion of territory. And nobody seems to care enough again.

With all this in mind, I feel the time for trying to strike a balance while speaking about regional tensions and the Kashmir dispute is gone. In fact, it seems unconscionable to me when South Asia Departments in Washington are trying to do that. There is a right and a wrong, and one must choose. Watching what is happening in India and Kashmir silently or without intervening is criminally enabling.

I urge Pakistani and Kashmiri activists to keep compiling facts and figures for all of us to use so we can present the correct narratives about India to the world. Too much of the history of the region was written by the occupier and those drunk on Hindutva supremacy fantasies. It needs to be exposed and stopped now.

Thank you.