And so it begins. India’s settler-colonial project in Kashmir has arrived.

On 5 August 2019 India abrogated Article 370 that ended Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status. On 31 October 2019, these changes come into effect.

 

When the clock strikes midnight on 31 October 2019, India’s settler-colonial project in Kashmir will begin.

 

The foundation for this project was laid since the military invasion and occupation of Kashmir in 1947, and more explicitly with the decision to abrogate Article 35A on 5 August 2019.

 

October 31 is the day when Kashmir officially becomes a fully annexed territory and whose historical residents will be effaced as rights-bearing subjects.

October 31 marks the day Indian state begins to create a new material reality on the ground to permanently deny the people of Kashmir a legitimate say in determining their own future.

 

As a UN Human Rights statement put it: “Major political decisions about the future status of Jammu & Kashmir have been taken without the consent, deliberation or active and informed participation of the affected population. Their leaders are detained.”

 

 

Under settler colonialism, the Indian state will start its long plan to permanently settle Indian nationalists in Kashmir to alter Kashmir’s demography.

 

The intention is to force Kashmiris to give up their historical demand for the right to self-determination guaranteed by several UN Security resolutions. Given the openly fascist nature of India’s current Hindutva regime, which enjoys a strong electoral majority, violence is not just built into the settler project but also seen by many in India as the desired method to achieve this. RSS led India wants to remove native Kashmiris from Kashmir.

 

October 31 is also the beginning of the process of auctioning off Kashmir’s fragile ecologies and lands to Indian capitalists in the name of “development” and “investment.”

With the removal of 35A and derogation of Kashmir to a Union Territory status, India sees no need to consult any Kashmiri about how the land and its resources are to be used.

 

Kashmiris will have no way other than active resistance to protect the region’s critical threatened environment.

We call upon our international allies and friends to stay vigilant.

 

Every step India takes on Kashmir is to erase our presence and our history, to make us invisible and to appropriate Kashmiri resources to profit the crony capitalists that back the RSS regime.

 

For more resources on the history of Kashmir – visit: Stand With Kashmir