India’s Modi Stokes Tensions Over Kashmir

FEATURING  WAQAS SYED – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to revoke the semi-autonomous rule of its northern-most state of Kashmir has been met with widespread denunciation. Kashmir has been at the center of long-simmering tensions and even war between India and Pakistan for decades going all the way back to the end of British colonization. But Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist government has inflamed tensions at a time when both India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed states.

While Indian troops have long occupied the majority-Muslim state, thousands more troops have been sent to quell anger and enforce a curfew.

Waqas Syed, national coordinator for North American Indian Muslim Association (NAIMA) and the California State coordinator for ICNA Council for Social Justice.