Several recent deadly attacks on Hindu migrant workers in Kashmir — as militants fight to separate the region from India — are prompting many to flee the Muslim-majority Himalayan valley, particularly the migrant workers who have participated in Kashmir's economy for decades as construction workers and street vendors.
Read MoreThe killing of at least five civilians, five soldiers and two militants in Kashmir over the past several days has plunged India’s Himalayan territory into grief and anger. The violence reminds Kashmiris of the early 1990s, when militants warring against New Delhi’s rule targeted Kashmiri Hindus, prompting 300,000 Hindus to flee the area.
Read MoreYoung Kashmiris are creating and performing new music as therapy to counter the sense of hopelessness, isolation and depression that has gripped their majority-Muslim Himalayan region of North India, which has endured years of conflict, military presence, frequent lockdowns and unpredictable internet bans under a Hindu-first government.
Read More(ANALYSIS) KASHMIR -- Nearly two years after Jammu and Kashmir was split into two Union Territories and Article 370 of the Constitution was revoked, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met 14 J&K leaders in New Delhi on June 24 to end the political impasse in the former state.
Read MoreThose who can afford cremation scatter their loved one’s ashes into the water, while the poor often wrap bodies in muslin and release them floating on planks. But during the months-long surge of deaths, cremation expenses soared along with unemployment, and many more of India’s poor are burying bodies in the sand despite the Hindu custom to cremate.
Read MoreIn the midst of a deadly second coronavirus wave and medical care shortage, Moin Mastan and his team of 25 volunteers have been working round the clock to perform the last rites, cremations and burials of 40 to 50 Indians every day who have died with COVID-19 infections in the central Indian state of Maharashtra—all while fasting daily for Ramadan, a holy month in Islam for tightened devotion in spiritual reflection, worship and prayer.
Read MoreThousands of Kashmiris are flocking to Sufi shrines this Ramadan, where their faith and worship is taking a leading role in their healing from trauma, depression, PTSD and other mental health issues.
Read MoreThousands of Rohingya refugees settled in India’s only Muslim-majority region Jammu and Kashmir are at risk of arrest and detention after the Indian government moved 175 Rohingya to a detention center March 6, saying the Myanmar government — now controlled by the military accused of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya— asked for the Rohingya to be deported back. The move follows the BJP ruling party’s promises to deport Rohingya, ahead of elections in key states this week.
Read MoreAfter fleeing violence 31 years ago, dozens of Kashmiri Hindus returned to the Himalayan valley to see their childhood temple reopened. Their temple and others have been maintained by Muslim neighbors and protected from militant violence and the land mafia. “I believe if I safeguard the temple, God will keep me safe, it’s my duty to do that,” caretaker Mohammed Sideeq said.
Read MoreOn Jan. 26, thousands of Indian farmers turned their months-long sit-in protest on the outskirts of the capital into a massive rally, driving their tractors over police barriers to enter the city and even climb up the walls of the historic Red Fort—all on one of India’s biggest national holidays, Republic Day. The farmers’ protest—led in Delhi by Sikhs— is proving one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest political headaches.
Read MoreOn Jan. 19, Kashmiri Pandits marked 31 years since their migration. In the 90’s, an estimated 300,000 Kashmiri Hindus fled for their lives and settled outside Kashmir. Many still live in migrant camps today and are eager to return to Kashmir, but their path there is uncertain.
Read MoreIndia’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lost local elections in Jammu and Kashmir Dec. 23 to a rare local political alliance that wants to reverse the sweeping constitutional changes made to the Muslim-majority region that opened it up for greater Hindu settlement, a severe lockdown and arbitrary detentions. Kashmir-based political parties put aside their differences to form the People’s Alliance For Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), explicitly to fight the BJP.
Read MoreThe Indian government has evicted hundreds of nomadic Muslims living in the forests of Kashmir and cut down their sources of income— their apple orchards. The move comes a year after a court order declaring their occupation of the land illegal, but activists say the Hindu nationalist government is ignoring a law allowing tribal people to live on government land and accusing the government of wanting to change the Muslim character of the region.
Read MoreAnalysts say if the election is fair, it could be a referendum on the constitutional changes made on Aug. 5 last year. But there is evidence that the Indian government is preventing local political parties from campaigning in India’s only Muslim-majority region.
Read MoreSeven months after deadly anti-Muslim riots in New Delhi, calm has been restored, and local Muslims have returned for prayers in the restored mosques. But those complicit in the 53 deaths, of which two-thirds were Muslims, remain at large.
Read MoreKashmiris are welcoming the Indian government’s move to restore religious sites, including a Hindu temple, now in a Muslim neighborhood, vacated when Kashmiri Hindus fled the region’s armed rebellion in the 1990’s.
Read MoreA New Delhi-based Sikh organization is sponsoring dozens of Afghan Sikhs to settle in India after the March terror attack on a Kabul gurudwara, a Sikh temple. Although Sikh has ancient history in Afghanistan, Sikhs now make up only a tiny minority in the country, while the Indian government welcomes Sikhs, whose faith formed from Hinduism.
Read MoreOver the weekend Indian security forces fired iron pellets into a peaceful Muslim procession in Kashmir that included children, citing the pandemic restrictions on large gatherings even though several Hindu pilgrimages have been allowed to continue. Although pellet fire has been used to quell political protests, this is the first time the government has used the condemned use of pellet fire on the Shia Muslim Muharram procession.
Read MoreJatindra Shunty and his family have helped cremate or bury the unclaimed poor in New Delhi for years. Now during a pandemic, they are also performing last rites for COVID-19 patients, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian, aiming to give dignity in rest to people who may not have been treated with dignity in life.
Read MoreOne year into a lockdown that has stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy, Kashmiris face the coronavirus pandemic, excessive force, arbitrary detentions, closed schools, restricted communications, religious discrimination and major job losses. Here’s how they’re coping.
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