According to the latest figures given in the Parliament, the region with a population of 14 million has almost 1 million drug addicts. The consequence of such a massive upswing in drug addiction has taken a heavy toll on a society pounded by conflict and political uncertainty.
Read MoreOn Jan. 19, Kashmiri Pandits marked 31 years since their migration. In the 90’s, an estimated 300,000 Kashmiri Hindus fled for their lives and settled outside Kashmir. Many still live in migrant camps today and are eager to return to Kashmir, but their path there is uncertain.
Read MoreYoung boys in Muslim-majority Kashmir say Indian police are arresting them without cause. “There is lawlessness in Kashmir,” one of their lawyers says.
Read MoreKashmiris are keeping shops closed and their kids home from school in a mass civil disobedience movement to show that life is not going back to normal after India stripped the Muslim-majority region’s autonomy from its constitution.
Read MoreTaxi drivers, hotel managers, and a musician working wedding gigs share how the shutdown in Kashmir is affecting their bottom lines.
Read MoreAfter India’s unilateral decision to rid the Muslim-majority region Kashmir’s special autonomy from the constitution, some are angry and fear a rise in Hindu settlement, while others cheer the move as a way to help Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan and Kashmir.
Read MoreThe Hindu nationalist-led Indian government has stripped Muslim-majority Kashmir of its agreed-upon terms of accession, a special status granting autonomy under the Indian constitution, and sent in more than 40,000 troops to the already heavily militarized region. Kashmiris there are living under curfews without access to phones, Internet or cable TV channels while elected representatives are under house arrest.
Read MoreThe Indian government is reportedly forming a new plan to resettle thousands of Kashmiri Hindus back to the Kashmir Valley, an army-occupied territory disputed with Pakistan. The plan would likely further inflame Hindu-Muslim tensions.
Read MoreKashmiri classical music, which blends Sufi traditions from Persia with Indian classical music, is facing threat of extinction as fewer students have leisure or funds to study the art form and fewer maestros exist to teach them. Its musicians believe the genre could bring peace to the army-occupied region, following the ways of Sufi mystics who preached peace, tolerance, pluralism and universalism.
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