Narendra Modi is setting himself more firmly on the path of zealous nationalism. It will lead nowhere good
princely state of Jammu & Kashmir joined the fledgling Indian union in October 1947, it had little choice in the matter. Pakistan-backed tribesmen had invaded; only Indian troops could repel them. The consolation was that Kashmir was promised a lot of autonomy. That came to include trappings of statehood—a separate constitution and flag—and more substantial differences, such as a ban on outsiders buying property.
The repeal of that provision has been a totemic issue to Hindu nationalists for decades. In their view, the state’s political privileges have fanned the flames of separatism by encouraging Kashmiris to view themselves as irredeemably different from other Indians. Direct rule would bypass Kashmir’s fossilised political dynasties, dragging the state into the political mainstream.
Second, the move is likely to compound Kashmiris’ mistrust of the Indian government. The autonomy they were promised in the republic’s earliest years had already been whittled down. As early as the 1950s, the state’s independent-minded political leaders were occasionally jailed. The government’s rigging of an election in 1987 sparked an insurgency, stoked by Pakistan.
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