Srinagar: The Indian BJP government’s settler-colonial agenda and attempts at demographic change in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir have begun taking practical shape through the upcoming census and the acquisition of Kashmiri properties, including land, in the name of establishing township colonies, industries, and railway projects.
According to Kashmir24, the new census is scheduled to be conducted in the coming months. At the same time, industrial groups, including the Mumbai-based Jindal Group, laid the foundation stone of a steel processing unit in 2023 in the occupied territory. The plant, being set up in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, is described as the first major such project established after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A in August 2019. These Articles had guaranteed special status to IIOJK and exclusive rights to its residents.
The BJP regime revoked the special status of IIOJK on August 5, 2019, and subsequently introduced new domicile and land laws allowing Indian citizens to acquire land and secure government jobs in the occupied territory—privileges that were previously reserved for the state subjects of Jammu and Kashmir.