Losing Kashmir

The totalitarian mindset that underpins India’s occupation of Kashmir has always relied on an information blackout, both inside Kashmir and in India itself. This has meant regular crackdowns on newspapers, blocking of mobile phones and even shutting down the Internet. Within India, the task has been easier because its purportedly independent media has never questioned the morality of the occupation and eagerly regurgitated government talking points. In recent months, though, the Kashmiri people have discovered the power of social media to highlight the brutality of occupation. Videos and photographs of the humiliations heaped on Kashmiris by the Indian army have done the rounds, with the clip of Farooq Ahmed Dar, a young shawl-maker who was beaten and dragged through the streets while tied to a jeep, causing worldwide outrage. The response from the Indian government has not been to rethink its occupation or even discipline the officers involved. Rather, the BJP-Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party coalition government in Kashmir has blocked all social media sites in the valley for at least one month. The move is a sadly predictable one since it follows the playbook long established in Kashmir. Every time the brutalities of India are exposed, it uses censorship to control the flow of information under the pretext of maintaining public order. It did this after the killing of Burhan Wani last summer, shutting down internet services when Kashmiris were using social media to organise protests and raiding newspapers who were critical of the occupying force.

In the short term, the social media ban will affect the ability of Kashmiris to highlight the injustices meted out to them and make it more difficult to coordinate protests but ultimately censorship of this kind backfires on the censors. The liberation movement in Kashmir is increasingly being led by the youth, with young schoolgirls in Srinagar throwing stones at police vehicles becoming the new face of resistance. Being tech-savvy, they will find ways to get around the ban. India, meanwhile, will stand exposed for its tyrannical actions. It has already tried to keep the rest of the world out of Kashmir, refusing to allow the UN to send observers to the valley. It blocks any attempt for international mediation of the dispute. But it will find that shutting Kashmiris off from the rest of the world will be an entirely more difficult proposition. Their yearning for freedom is too strong to be crushed by such bans. Former chief minister Farooq Abdullah recently said that India is “losing Kashmir” but the reality is that Kashmir was lost a long time ago. The only question remaining is when India finally realises that.