The people of Jammu and Kashmir have a long history of resisting foreign invasions and occupations. In this process they have rendered unprecedented sacrifices and demonstrated unique dedication to their right of self-determination. That struggle, which began under Dogra tyranny in the early twentieth century, continues today against Indian illegal occupation — now compounded by a deliberate and systematic campaign to erase the demographic and cultural identity of the Kashmiri people.
Kashmiris began resisting Dogra Rule in the early twentieth century, but the struggle remained largely covert until 1931. The events of July 13, 1931, transformed it into an overt resistance, and the day is observed as Youm-e-Shuhada-e-Kashmir by Kashmiris worldwide. Thousands gathered peacefully outside Srinagar Central Jail to attend the proceedings against Abdul Qadeer Khan, who had spoken against the desecration of the Holy Quran by the Dogra Army. When it was time for Zuhr prayers, a Kashmiri youth began the Azan. The Dogra Army opened fire, and he embraced martyrdom.
Another stepped forward to complete the Azan, he too was shot. In this way, one after another, twenty-two Kashmiri Muslims were killed by the Dogra Army in the process of completing a single Azan. This unique and unprecedented chapter of sacrifice gave the Kashmiri people a new determination and a bold course for their freedom. In the subsequent days, the first political party of Kashmir, the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, came into being, with the restoration of the political, religious, economic, and social rights of the Kashmiri people as its very first manifesto.
Tracing the history of colonialism, Kashmir has endured multiple layers of foreign subjugation across centuries. The Mughal Empire was the first foreign power to militarily invade and capture Kashmir in October 1586. After the Mughals, Kashmir remained under Afghan rule for over sixty-six years. The Battle of Shopian in 1819 brought Sikh domination, which lasted until the Kashmir Sale Deed of March 16, 1846. Thereafter, Dogra Rule was imposed for over one hundred years. Under Dogra Rule, Kashmiris were reduced to “free forced labour,” while the Muslim population was systematically deprived of basic human rights and, at times, barred from performing religious obligations.
At the end of British colonialism from the subcontinent in 1947, India militarily invaded and captured a large portion of the state. The so-called Instrument of Accession of October 26, 1947, remains deeply contested in law and in fact. While India claims its legal finality, the Instrument itself was conditional — subject to ratification by the people of Jammu and Kashmir through a democratic referendum. India initially accepted this condition but subsequently abandoned it.
The United Nations does not recognise India’s claim as legally settled and has consistently treated Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory requiring resolution through the free and impartial will of its people. India’s military invasion and subsequent occupation were, therefore, violations of the partition plan governing princely states and of the very commitments India made before the international community.
Over the last seventy-eight years, India has perpetrated untold human rights violations in IIOJK. On August 5, 2019, it illegally relegated the statehood of IIOJK and converted it into two union territories, violating UN resolutions and the Constitution of IIOJK. Since April 2020, New Delhi has been massively undertaking demographic changes in the occupied territory.
Official data presented before the IIOJK Assembly confirmed that 83,742 domicile certificates were issued to non-locals in the last two years, intensifying concerns over deliberate demographic re-engineering aimed at diluting the territory’s Muslim-majority character. The BJP regime has issued lakhs of domicile certificates to non-Kashmiris, while hundreds have purchased land in IIOJK, depriving locals of jobs and economic opportunities. The demographic assault has now entered a new phase with Census 2027, the first census since the abrogation of Article 370. Beginning in 2026, it will count hundreds of thousands of outsiders granted domicile status under laws that violate international law.
This exercise is designed to statistically consolidate demographic changes already imposed on the ground and to present an altered population reality to the world. The recent Waqf Act further extends this assault by placing Muslim religious sites in IIOJK under direct government control, curbing the religious autonomy of Kashmiris and threatening the identity of a territory whose distinct Muslim character India has sought to systematically erase since 2019.
The events of April and May 2025 demonstrated that India’s strategy of coercive integration has failed. The Pahalgam massacre, in which 26 civilians were killed, shattered India’s narrative that the revocation of Article 370 had brought normalcy to Kashmir. Rather than pursuing a transparent investigation, India launched a sweeping crackdown across IIOJK involving mass detentions, demolition of civilian homes and suspension of civil liberties — collective punishment for the actions of unknown assailants. India then launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting alleged militant infrastructure in Pakistan, triggering a four-day confrontation between two nuclear-armed states before a ceasefire on May 10. The crisis reaffirmed that repression does not resolve the Kashmir dispute; it deepens it.
The unprecedented sacrifices of the Kashmiri people for their right of self-determination, spanning nearly a century from the martyrs of July 13, 1931, to the Kashmiris facing mass detention and demolition in 2026, demand international recognition and dedicated support. The Government of Pakistan must proactively pursue Kashmir’s legitimate cause at the UN Human Rights Council, the ICJ, the ICC, and all available international forums. There is a dire need to rejuvenate this struggle at every level of international engagement. The UN and the international community must compel India to halt its demographic engineering, restore the special status of IIOJK, and take concrete steps toward a permanent resolution of the dispute in accordance with the wishes of its people.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
