Since 2008, three anti-India mass uprisings occurred in Indianadministered Kashmir, resulting in a marked resurgence of the Kashmiri self-determination movement, known popularly as the Tehreek. In the resurgent Tehreek, stone-throwing -called kannijang in the local parlance, and stone pelting in the English language media -has emerged as a new and widely used act in the repertoire of Kashmiri resistance. The latest example of its use appeared after the Indian state's lockdown of Kashmir on 5 August 2019, when approximately 1193 stone-throwing protests were reported across Kashmir. For India, this protest tactic presents huge security challenges, yet for the Tehreek activists, stone pelting is an effective mode of protest that carries symbolic importance. In fact, the stone-throwing youth have become a signifier of the anti-India rebellion in post-2008 Kashmir. This article highlights the main factors that underlie the stonethrowing phenomenon in the Himalayan territory.
In August 2019, the populist Modi government, after getting re-elected in a massive landslide, rescinded the semi-autonomous status (constitutionally guaranteed under Article 370) of the disputed Muslim-majority region of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) by putting its 12 million residents under an unprecedented lockdown. This article will examine the ramifications of this decision, which earned praise in mainland India but generated anger and fear among the people of J&K, especially in the Kashmir Valley, the epicenter of the Kashmiri self-determination movement? It situates the prior measures Indian government took to impose its decision on the population which strongly opposed it and assesses the human cost of this imposition. It looks at the international community’s response to the political and human rights crisis obtained due to the siege imposed on the people of the contested Himalayan region. And, finally, the article indicates that the political future of Kashmir, which has been the main source of intense geopolitical rivalry between two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors (India and Pakistan), and a site of protracted armed conflict and unarmed anti-India resistance, is likely to remain caught in a cycle o
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