Mehdi Khawaja is a writer from Kashmir.
The people of Kashmir have been left badly exposed to COVID-19 by a state that spends lavishly on tools of repression while neglecting public health services. The Indian government is using the lockdown to extend its regime of surveillance and control.
A Jacobin contributor in Kashmir interviewed dozens of ordinary Kashmiris in the midst of Modi’s brutal communications clampdown on the region. Despite the Indian government’s best efforts, Kashmiris’ demands for self-determination cannot stay invisible forever.
We journey to Indian-occupied Kashmir, where the cinemas have been turned into torture chambers.