India marks its 77th Republic Day by celebrating a Constitution that came into force on January 26, 1950—a document often praised for its democratic ambition and pluralist vision. Yet for the people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), this annual celebration rings hollow. The world’s largest self-described democracy has consistently failed to extend to Kashmir the very democratic rights it commemorates elsewhere.
The irony is historical as much as moral. In 1948, nearly two years before India adopted its Constitution, the United Nations Security Council addressed the Kashmir dispute through a series of resolutions that established a ceasefire and called for a UN-supervised plebiscite. These resolutions affirmed a simple principle: the people of Jammu and Kashmir must be allowed to determine their own political future in conditions free from fear, coercion, or external pressure. More than seventy years later, that commitment remains unfulfilled—rendered inert by delay, denial, and militarization.
Indian political leaders frequently invoke the language of unity, integrity, and national harmony, urging citizens to resist divisive forces in the name of collective progress. In Kashmir, however, this rhetoric is enforced not through consent but through force. Daily life unfolds under armed patrols, surveillance drones, fortified checkpoints, sealed neighborhoods, and recurring restrictions on movement and communication. This environment bears little resemblance to constitutional democracy—and even less to a republic founded on popular sovereignty.
Republic Day is meant to symbolize rule by the people. Kashmir, by contrast, is governed through extraordinary security measures that suspend normal political life. The contradiction is impossible to ignore. As Bob Dylan in 1962 once asked, “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?” For Kashmiris, the question is more urgent still: how many decades must pass before they are permitted the most basic democratic right—the right to choose their own destiny?