Demography of Kashmir - Can India Change Kashmir To A Muslim Minority State?

By Sikander Hayat

Kashmir is slowly being gobbled up by India by ethinic cleansing and population transfer from the rest of India to Kashmir. Pakistan’s options are limited in terms of taking it back from India through an open armed conflict given the disparity between the two countries in terms of economy and resources. Pakistan can only play a long game by improving its economy, get richer, have good relations with richer/influential nations and wait for the Kashmiris to fight for their right of self determination.

Pakistan has made some good progress in terms of constitutional clarity for the people of Gilgit Balistan and Azad Kashmir both of which are effectively now fifth and sixth provinces of Pakistan. Azad Kashmir is now a semi autonomous region with its own President (Masood Khan) , Prime Minister (Raja Farooq Haider Khan) and Supreme Court. Azad Kashmir has its own constitution to provide international clarity in terms of status of Indian occupied Kashmir vis a vis Azad Kashmir and eventual withdrawal of Indian army from the occupied Kashmir and its merger with Azad Kashmir.

Gilgit Baltistan is a completely different matter as it is and always was part of mainland Pakistan and it has been granted the status of the fifth province of Pakistan with seats in Pakistan’s national assembly and Senate. This status will stay until the Indian army withdraws from Indian Occupied Kashmir at which point a new status may be established. Gilgit Baltistan has a directly elected Chief Minister (Khalid Khurshid Khan) who was directed in provincial general elections in 2020. Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir are the major beneficiaries of the CPEC project which connects China with the Arabian Sea through Gwadar and Karachi. Major construction projects have been initiated in Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan to lift up the economic prosperity of the two regions.

At the moment, situation of Indian occupied kashmir is bleak in terms of the status of its muslim majority. Indian occupied kashmir may not have a muslim majority for very long as Indian government is taking steps to make Kashmir a Hindu majority state to quell the aspirations of Kashmiris once and for all. Steps taken by Indian occupation establishment are as follows but not limited to the below list:

Any Indian can buy land in Kashmir. This replicates the Israeli tactics of occupation and annexation in Palestine.
Any Indian can get domicile in Kashmir to give equal rights vis a vis Kashmiris.
Status of Kashmir has been downgraded to a territory controlled by Indian government directly without any local legislature.
Kashmir has been divided into two territories of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir.
Indian appointed governor currently runs the show in Kashmir.
Number of Indian occupation troops has been increased to levels so high that currently there is one soldier for every seven Kashmiris in the occupied territory.

It is the policy of Indian occupation government to convert the Kashmir into a muslim minority state in next ten years. Kashmir will lose its national character, its local population and its muslim heritage. The question is if Indian occupation regime can achieve this goal?

With Pakistan struggling economically, it is a very distinct possibility that Indian occupation regime will achieve all or most of its goals in Kashmir and local kashmiris will be marginalised forever. BJP (the hindu nationalist ruling party of India) has not only made Kashmir a living hell for the Muslims but Muslims living in other parts of India are increasingly being lynched by hindu mobs under the auspices of BJP. BJP’s goal is to make India a Hindu Rashtra (A hindu theocratic regime with apartheid for Muslims).

They are changing the name of every city in India which sounds Muslim. They are rewriting the history of India to expunge every muslim achivment and they portray Muslim heros as villians. This is all happening under the auspices of so called western liberal democracies which only see India as a huge market to sell to and as a defence against Chinese aspirations. It is time for western nations and only others who claim to fight for the human rights to wake up and tell india that ethinic genocide is unacceptable. They need to take a stand but they will not as realpolitik dictates that India must be propped up against China and contain China within the local region.