In speech, India PM vows to ‘restore’ Kashmir’s ‘past glory’
NEW DELHI — Standing before the deep-red ramparts of a centuries-old fort, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed this country of more than 1.3 billion people on its Independence Day and called on them to join him in building a “new India.”
Modi is the most dominant Indian leader in nearly five decades, flush with a landslide reelection victory in May that left his opponents in disarray. He has long embraced a brand of nationalism that views India as a fundamentally Hindu country rather than a secular republic, wooing voters with a mixture of hope and fear common to right-leaning populist leaders around the globe — a group that includes President Donald Trump.
If there was any question about the seriousness of Modi’s intent to transform the world’s largest democracy, such doubts vanished last week. That is when the Modi government discarded seven decades of history and stripped Indiancontrolled Kashmir — the country’s only Muslim-majority state — of its autonomy and statehood. The move ratcheted up tensions with Pakistan, India’s nuclear-armed neighbor, which also claims the disputed Himalayan region.
The change in status for Kashmir may be just the start. Stripping the region of its autonomy is one of several key, longheld demands of Hindu nationalists. They believe this year’s thumping election victory for Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has paved the way for them to implement an agenda that emphasizes Hindu primacy in India, a diverse democracy that is also home to nearly 200 million Muslims.
What’s more, the way Modi executed the decision on Kashmir indicates what his “new India” might look like. For his supporters, the step shows Modi to be a leader of courage and ambition, unfettered by precedent and guided by a direct understanding of the popular will.
“The work that was not done in the last 70 years has been accomplished within
70 days after this new government came to power,” Modi said in his address Thursday, speaking in front of a billowing, oversize Indian flag on a podium garlanded with jasmine flowers. “I have come to accomplish the task assigned to me by my countrymen. I work selflessly.”
Modi has said the change in Kashmir will deepen national unity and improve development in the strife-torn region, which has witnessed an armed insurgency against Indian rule since 1989. But fearing violent unrest in response to last week’s decision, the government has instituted an unprecedented clampdown there — cutting all phone lines, shutting down Internet access, severely restricting residents’ movement and imprisoning hundreds of local politicians and party workers.
For his critics, Modi’s move on Kashmir is proof of his antidemocratic and majoritarian impulses.
“This is not just about Kashmir — it’s about the future of India,” said Sumantra Bose, a political scientist at the London School of Economics and the author of two books on Kashmir. Modi and his party are using Kashmir as a means by which to “advance their broader and ultimate agenda of turning India into a Hindu republic in all but name,” Bose said.
India became an independent nation 72 years ago. Pakistan declared itself to be a home for the Muslims of the subcontinent. But India’s founders had a contrasting goal — to build a secular republic where people of all faiths were equal citizens.