ABSTRACT
India's partisan perception of Kashmiri population is strongly influenced by propaganda policies orchestrated by the nexus of civilian politicians, Hindutva ideologues, the military and the media. This is a corollary of a general decline in India's democratic institutions in the era of Narendra Modi. Biased, subjective misreporting produces a negative portrayal of Kashmir. Unsuprisingly, 53% of India's population is in favour of military rule, one of the highest support worldwide. After August 2019, two-thirds approve Narendra Modi's handling of the situation in, and further militarisation of Kashmir, the most militarised region of the world. This explains why numerous denial narratives refuting the large scale of human rights violations and deprivation of civil rights in Kashmir produced by the army are popularly accepted in India, and the widespread abuse of human and civil rights there ignored and dismissed. Kashmir has a symbolic dimension that captures the imagination of Indians: this is the place which is popularly believed to have given India numerous illustrious personages, philosophers and artists. And therefore, for large number of Indians, the Kashmiri demand for self-determination is an anathema. India's policy of faits accomplis in Kashmir it has administered since 1947 seems to have utterly failed.
