Settler Colonialism in Kashmir and the North East: India’s Inter- and Intra-State Strategies and Implications for SAARC

This qualitative study relies on a theory-driven analysis of legal and institutional sources to evaluate the application of post-colonial theory to the Kashmir issue by India, comparing the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir with India’s North-Eastern states at the intra-state level and India’s brinkmanship with South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations at the inter-state level. The paper identifies a recurring pattern of territorial hegemony in which limited political accommodation is initially granted, followed by legal and institutional restructuring that converts occupation into annexation and brings settler-colonization into play. The Indian unilateral moves of 2019 in Jammu and Kashmir is shown as set pattern and replication of strategies previously employed in India’s North-Eastern and peripheral regions. The paper makes three key contributions. First, it advances post-colonial theory by demonstrating how India, once a colonized state, itself functions as a colonizing power. Second, it provides a fact-based legal assessment of potential actions by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General under Article 99, highlighting gaps between international norms and United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Third, through a comparative approach, it evaluates Indian brinkmanship and draws strategic lessons for smaller SAARC states in future where India eyes to expand. The paper establishes that Kashmir has entered a most crucial phase of settler colonialism, placing the Kashmiri people at demographic extinction.