Erasing Resistance: India’s Legal and Demographic War on Kashmir’s Identity

Erasing Resistance: India’s Legal and Demographic War on Kashmir’s Identity


By Mehr un Nisa Rehman

Kashmir stands at a defining moment in its history, as its resistance movement faces an increasing onslaught from a state determined to undermine it through force, legal manipulation and demographic changes. Beneath the surface of constitutional promises and national unity, the Indian government has set in motion a carefully planned campaign aimed at dismantling the very foundations of Kashmir's struggle for self-determination. This effort is far from coincidental, it is a deliberate, well-thought-out action executed with disturbing legal and political precision.


The abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 marked a decisive rupture in India’s relationship with Kashmir. It stripped the region of its limited autonomy and opened the floodgates for laws and policies that would profoundly alter its demography, identity and political fabric. Post-2019 developments must be read not as isolated actions but as components of a larger settler-colonial design aimed at dissolving Kashmiri identity and assimilating the region into the ideological and administrative framework of the Indian state.


Now the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2025 is presented as a reform in the management of religious charitable endowments. However, beneath this legal façade, the bill functions as a tool of state control and dispossession. It transfers the authority over waqf properties from community-led bodies to government-appointed revenue officials, effectively dismantling a system that allowed local Muslim communities to manage their own religious and social institutions. This shift is not merely administrative, it carries profound political and cultural implications. The Waqf board in Kashmir administers property worth billions, which has long supported education, religious activities and welfare initiatives. This bill is a deliberate move to disempower the community by cutting off both its spiritual and socio-economic roots.


The new legislation effectively disempowers local religious bodies, denying Kashmiris the autonomy to manage their own sacred trusts. It also paves the way for large-scale land acquisition by the state. According to official estimates, more than 1.5 lakh kanals of Waqf land have already come under the scanner for "unauthorised use," a pretext used to reclaim and redistribute it. This is not governance, it is legalised dispossession. Such policies mirror colonial tactics where religious endowments were seized to control both land and faith, silencing resistance by severing its spiritual and material lifelines.


India’s demographic reconfiguration of Kashmir is no less strategic. Since the introduction of the Domicile Law in May 2020, over 4 million domicile certificates have been issued, many to non-residents. These include employees from other Indian states, migrant workers and even security personnel who have served in Kashmir. The law lowers the residency threshold to a mere 15 years, with provisions that allow central government employees and their children to obtain domicile status even faster.


The implications are clear, this is not mere administrative restructuring; it is the groundwork for settler colonialism. India is marginalising the indigenous Kashmiri Muslim population through incentives that encourage migration and land acquisition by outsiders. The purchase of land by non-Kashmiris, once prohibited under Article 35A, is now fully legal. Reports reveal that vast tracts of land have already been transferred to industries and government agencies under the guise of development. These developments betray an intent to permanently alter the region’s demography and dilute its Muslim-majority character, this is an echo of Zionist settlement strategies in occupied Palestine.


A key feature of the post-2019 strategy has been the forced realignment of political loyalties. Kashmiri political figures and activists are being pressured, often under threat of detention or property seizure, to distance themselves from pro-resistance positions. Once known for their firm commitment to the Kashmiri cause, many Hurriyat leaders are now being forced to sign affidavits that declare their loyalty to the Indian Constitution. These affidavits are not the result of free will but of sustained pressure, threats and coercion. This tactic aims to delegitimize the resistance from within by presenting its leaders as having abandoned the struggle. Such forced loyalty shifts undermine the moral authority of the resistance camp. They create confusion and distrust among the people of Kashmir, who have long looked up to these leaders. This strategy helps India promote a false image of peace and normalcy in the region. In reality, dissent is being silenced and political space is shrinking.


The use of legal tools, media narratives and targeted intimidation ensures that alternative voices are discredited or removed. The coerced betrayal of resistance values not only damages the credibility of pro-freedom leadership but also weakens the collective will of the Kashmiri people. This deliberate collapse of resistance leadership is part of a broader plan to erase the political identity of Kashmir.


Despite the state’s relentless attempts to erase resistance, the spirit of defiance persists. From the quiet dignity of mothers holding photographs of disappeared sons to students organising anonymous reading circles, resistance in Kashmir has taken new, resilient forms. This is precisely why India is intensifying its campaign, it fears a revival of collective memory and political agency.


India’s strategic designs in Kashmir reveal a comprehensive architecture of control, legal, demographic and ideological. But the identity that has been shaped over generations by history cannot be destroyed, no matter the force used to suppress it. It cannot extinguish the collective will of a people who, for generations, have resisted militarisation, dispossession and denial. The struggle for self-determination in Kashmir is not a minor chapter in South Asian history, it is a powerful reminder of the ongoing fight for justice.

 

The author is head of the research and human rights department of the Islamabad-based think tank Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR). She can be contacted at the following email address: mehr_dua@yahoo.com on Twitter at @MHHRsays

Facebook Twitter

Related Detail