THE Indian government’s moves to change the demographic profile of held Kashmir are continuing, with New Delhi giving more seats to the disputed region’s Hindu areas in the latest redrawing of constituencies. But as critics of the move have pointed out, such action constitutes gerrymandering, which will help the ruling BJP in India create new ‘facts on the ground’ in the occupied region.

Specifically, the delimitation gives nearly the same number of seats to the Hindu-majority Jammu area (43) as those carved out for Muslim-dominated Kashmir (47).

Read: Kashmir dilemma

Indian officials say elections in the held region will soon follow, but any electoral exercise based on such flawed constituencies, and likely to be boycotted by many Kashmiris, will seriously lack legitimacy. Even some of India’s staunch loyalists in the region, such as the PDP and the National Conference, have criticised the move.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office, meanwhile, has said the new delimitation is “aimed at disenfranchising and disempowering the Muslim-majority population” in India-held Kashmir.

It is clear that the government in New Delhi is trying its utmost to dilute Kashmir’s Muslim majority. For example, the redrawing of constituencies will allow India to further stage-manage local elections, reducing the Muslim majority in IHK’s legislature. Having a legislature of its choice will allow India to cement its iron grip on IHK.

This seems to be a natural corollary of India’s revocation of occupied Kashmir’s autonomous status in 2019. In the aftermath of that disastrous move, India has attempted to erase Kashmir’s unique culture and identity step by step. The more egregious moves allow people from outside the disputed region to be granted domiciles, paving the way for them to buy property and secure government jobs in IHK. Thousands snapped up the domiciles, much to the consternation of Kashmiris.

The gerrymandering of constituencies, therefore, is just another condemnable step aimed at engineering demographic change in IHK.

Of course, the clampdown imposed by India on IHK after the events of August 2019 cannot be forgotten, in which the rights of the Kashmiri people were severely curtailed, while the authorities rounded up and imprisoned even those amongst the Kashmiri political class who tended to toe New Delhi’s line. Amongst others, international human rights groups have also raised concerns about India’s ongoing abuse of fundamental rights in the occupied region.

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Sham elections and engineered legislatures will not change the fact that Kashmiris are not happy with New Delhi’s brutal rule and desire to carve out their own destiny through democratic means. India’s use of state violence to suppress the Kashmiri desire for freedom, as well as its deployment of legislative and administrative tricks to change Kashmir’s demography have both failed.

Instead of engineering dubious change, India must work with the Kashmiris and Pakistan to help find a long-lasting solution that can bring peace and stability to the troubled valley.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2022