Saffron Colonialism
Seventy-three years after the sun set on British colonial rule in India, colonialism’s shadow still haunts the people of Kashmir. The face of the coloniser has changed, but the domination of the indigenous people of Kashmir is being done using a playbook that was perfected 73 years ago.
Kashmir, Pakistan, and the World
No crystal ball is needed to see what will soon occur in India: once the Modi government restores some semblance of normalcy to the valley, the uprising will begin. Violence will spiral out of control; it will touch and reignite old prejudices between Hindu and Muslim in an India that grows more polarised under a man who must divide in order to rule. ‘National security’ will be used as an excuse to round up dissidents and critics who will be gleefully prosecuted on trumped-up charges under the amended ‘Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act’ with its more expansive definition of ‘terrorist’ allowing the government to designate any individual as a terrorist without due process. The spokes of tyranny are oiled and ready.
The Saffron Noose
But the true way to kill the soul of the Kashmiri people is through an idea imported from Israel. What my friend and columnist Asad Rahim Khan calls the “West Bank formula”. It is by taking the valley away from the Kashmiri people. With Article 35A gone, Modi is now free to populate Kashmir with Hindu settlers, achieving his goal of changing the demographic identity of the valley from majority Muslim to majority Hindu. The influx of settlers would not only destroy the valley’s identity, but also the valley’s natural beauty.
Modi’s India
Yet, in handing power over to Modi to tackle the elite, the dynastic heirs, the scary Muslim threat, India is losing its decency. By re-electing Modi, the once secular, vibrant, India is transforming into an unrecognisable bastion of Hindu superiority. Where government-sanctioned committees sit down to try and prove that Hindu scripture is fact, and that India was a nation solely for Hindus. Indian Muslims know where things are heading. As Asaduddin Owaisi, the leader of the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, told Reuters, “The government wants Muslims to live in India as second-class citizens.”
The Lies of Narendra Modi
It is strange that many people in India have fallen for what Modi is doing. A brief look at his past shows he used the same strategy of fear and hate to win a second term as Gujarat’s chief minister. Back then, Modi used the death of Hindu pilgrims to fuel anti-Muslim riots that would result in the death of thousands. All the while stoking the flames of Hindu-Muslim animosity. It worked then, Modi wants it to work again. The same strategy that got him a second term as a chief minister is being used to get him a second term as the prime minister.
War Games
You do not need to be from Pakistan or India to come to the conclusion that what is happening in India-occupied Kashmir is cruel and inhumane. Modi perhaps realises that it is the BJP’s relentless brute force policy that is the root cause behind the Pulwama attack, but it is easier to blame Pakistan.