Systematic Changes in Demographic Composition of Jammu and Kashmir by India and its Implications for the Resolution of Kashmir Conflict

Abstract

This research study on Indian demographic engineering traces specific administrative and legal measures that successive Indian governments initiated for demographic engineering in Jammu and Kashmir while the current BJP government crossed all limits and made unilateral moves to annex Kashmir in complete disregard to United Nations Security Council Resolutions and bilateral agreements between the two countries. The study is based on primary and secondary sources of data. Besides unstructured interviews conducted for this study, secondary data in the form of books, journals, official documents, newspaper reports, etc. was used. As theortical framework, the study used Theory of Political Demography developed by Jack A. Goldstone, Eric P. Kaufmann and Monica Duffy Toft that explains how international security as well as national politics is being shaped by changes in population. Indian administrative measures for demographic engineering included grab of land by occupational forces, setting up of Sainik Colonies for ex-servicemen, separate colonies for the Kashmiri Pandits, attempts to give citizenship rights to West Pakistan refugees, lease of land to non-state subjects under industrial policy, manipulation of census reports and changing the script of Kashmiri Language, etc. On the legal front, India eroded special status of the state by making continuous changes in Article 370 and arrived at a point in August 2019 that not only abrogated special status of the state but also deprived Jammu and Kashmir its status of statehood by carving out two union territories to be governed directly from the centre. The study concludes that Indian unilateral moves in Kashmir not only created serious problems for final settlement of dispute but also created tensions between two nuclear states putting at risk the regional peace and security. The study provides pertinent recommendations to deal with the situation.