It took 77 years for Dev Raj to be able to vote in local elections in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), and the elderly Hindu is clear about who he will thank.
“I will vote for Modi, and I will vote with pleasure,” Raj said, referring to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Three-phased polling in the occupied Muslim-majority region begins on September 18, the first election for the IIOJK regional assembly in a decade (and the first since New Delhi repealed the disputed region’s semi-autonomous status and imposed direct rule in 2019), with 8.7 million eligible voters.
Raj's case illustrates the legacy of colonialism and the complex shifting identities in the contested Himalayan region.
Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since its partition at the chaotic end of British rule in 1947, with both countries claiming the territory in its entirety.
Around 500,000 Indian troops have been deployed in the region for decades, which has seen an endless series of bans on festivals in Kashmir, curfews, crackdowns and killings of civilians and freedom fighters fighting for their right to self-determination in accordance with UN resolutions.
Raj, 90, was a teenager when Pakistan became independent and an estimated one million people on both sides of the new border were massacred.
The Hindus fled to India, the Muslims fled in the opposite direction.
Raj settled with around 5,700 Hindu families under Indian rule in IIOJK.
Since then, the descendants of these families, who today number around 150,000 people, have been classified as “West Pakistani refugees” (WPR).
They have long been recognised as Indian citizens entitled to vote in national elections, most recently in June when Modi won a third term in power.
But the special semi-autonomous status of the IIOJK—the power enshrined in the constitution to control its affairs—meant that only those descended from the territory's residents in 1934 could vote and own property.
That changed in 2019, when the Modi government scrapped those rules and imposed direct rule from New Delhi.
However, Kashmiri main parties, which demand independence or a merger with Pakistan, oppose the election, which they see as a validation of New Delhi's control.
Critics say the 90-seat assembly will have only nominal powers over education and culture. Key decisions will remain in New Delhi's hands, including the appointment of its governor.
Observers say previous governments have failed to grant full rights to the group for fear of upsetting the demographic balance.
However, the Modi government has encouraged those from outside the region to move to IIOJK, especially the Jammu district, which has had a majority Hindu population since partition.
Some, like WPR activist Labha Ram Gandhi, said they would not automatically vote for the BJP.
“They (BJP) expect that since they have given us full citizenship rights, we will vote for them, but the party has not given a single nomination to any of us,” Gandhi said. AFP“Naturally we are angry.”
Gandhi said he would vote for candidates who would help them register formal ownership of the land they live on.
But while the WPR group is not large enough to significantly change the poll results, commentators see its vote as part of a broader BJP effort to drum up Hindu support.
