Kashmiris call India's rule settler-colonialism - and we should listen to them Submitted by Sanaa Alimia on Fri, 06/26/2026 - 16:03 Such analysis reflects their lived realities, amid ongoing shifts in the region's land, law and demography Indian paramilitary troopers stand deployed as Kashmiri Muslims take part in a ceremonial Ashura procession in Srinagar on 24 June 2026 (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP) On A rich body of journalism, creative writing and scholarship lays bare the violence of Indian military occupation and human rights abuses in Kashmir. It is quite a feat that Kashmiris themselves, facing state surveillance and the threat of detention and violence, are producing much of this work. Both within the country and in the diaspora, Kashmiris are seeking to write their own histories.
By explaining the structures of power and their effects in Kashmir, they are producing some of the most precise analyses of the situation. They teach those of us who do not live under occupation not only what is happening, but why, including the historical forces and material conditions that sustain it. Kashmiri voices are not just soundbites of suffering.
In recent years, both Kashmiri and non-Kashmiri thinkers have been unflinching in explaining India’s grip over Kashmir - not simply through tired debates around constitutional integration or the India-Pakistan territorial dispute, but through a rethinking of power and control. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); They ask a fundamental question: how should we understand the form of rule exercised over Kashmir? For some, the answer lies in the framework of settler-colonialism.
In Colonizing Kashmir, author Hafsa Kanjwal traces the long-term colonial logic of India’s occupation, while anthropologist Ather Zia’s scholarship documents the lived experiences of militarisation, disappearance and everyday governance under occupation, contributing to an emerging body of scholarship that interprets these dynamics through a colonial lens. In addition, journalist Azad Essa’s book Hostile Homelands situates Kashmir within a broader geopolitical framework, showing how deepening India-Israel ties are underpinned by shared Islamophobia, racialised ideologies, and alignment on ever-more explicit settler-colonial policies. Transformations on the ground These framings of India’s colonial logic in Ka…
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