“I last spoke to my family on August 4. After that, I don’t even know if they are dead or alive. None of our messages are reaching,” says Mohammad Arshad Chauhan, a research scholar and Kashmiri. His voice is one of the many gathered at Mandi House in Delhi today, expressing their anguish, dissent and concern regarding the announcement of the abrogation of Article 370. The announcement triggered debates and discussions across the country. 

On August 7, protesters rallied from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar. The crowd included prominent leaders like Brinda Karat, Dipankar Bhattacharya and Kavita Krishnan. The rally was organised predominantly by the Communist Party Of India, All India Students Association and All India Central Council of Trade Unions. The air was filled with slogans against the Centre’s decision and offering support to Kashmiris struggling for their rights. 

Among the protesters were Kashmiri students—worried and frustrated about the inaccessibility of their region, where Internet, phone and television networks have been snapped.

“There is no social media availability. Political leaders who have been our chief ministers are under house arrest,” Mohammad says. “Zulm ke intehaan dekhiye Kashmir ka issue hai to ek Kashmiri leader ko bolne nai diya jaata hai (Look at the level of injustice, they are talking about Kashmir and a Kashmiri leader was not allowed to speak).”

The air was filled with slogans against the Centre’s decision.

Brinda Karat calls it the “butchering” of democracy. “The people who are celebrating do not realise that they are celebrating the death of people in Kashmir. They do not realise that it is not just a piece of land. It is a state with its own identity, culture, people.” 

N Sai Balaji, president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, questions the “righteousness” of Article 370’s abrogation if the whole state of Jammu & Kashmir has to be cut off from information and kept in darkness. “When Article 370 was implemented, it could have repealed only on one condition: that is if the people of the state want to. The people of the state were not taken into consideration at all.”

While the rally was taking place, on the opposite side of the road, a few people with the national flag were sloganeering for the government. “We have come here to show that whatever the government is doing, we know it is for us,” says Karthik, a student from Delhi. “If you protest against it, then we will have to come in solidarity and to show our unity as well. We are here to support [the abrogation]. We have friends in Jammu, they know about this article getting repealed and they are happy about it.” 

Newslaundry asks Karthik how his friend contacted him when communication lines are down. He says, “I don’t know how he called; he is from Jammu and has assured [us] that everything is all right. You saw a lot of terrorists and separatists growing in Kashmir. There should be some reason for it. Now it will stop.” 

The Kashmiri students at the protest, however, disagree with him. Mohammad Akram, a resident of Poonch and a PhD student at JNU, says, “The situation there was bad for the last few days but no one knew what the reasons are. The main political parties didn’t know what was happening. When I spoke to my family, that was four, five days ago. All they knew was a curfew will be implemented in a few days. I asked my family to get important medicines. But after that, I have been unable to talk to them. It has been 5-6 days now. We don’t even know if they are alive or dead.”

For protesting students from Kashmir, the battle is to reach their parents.

He continues: “I would like to let you know that by repealing this article, India has made a great mistake and it wants to convert Kashmir into a huge graveyard. I have a request: we need to know what is happening with our family. The people who were ill, the pregnant women who were at their due dates for delivery—I ask the people of India to stand with us.” 

 Gargi Chakravarthy, vice-president of the National Federation of India Women, calls this the fall-out of a long drawn campaign. “When the Constitution was drafted, we didn’t opt for a theocratic state. We didn’t agree with their idea of Hindu Rashtra. Ambedkar rejected this idea, Nehru rejected this idea, Patel rejected this idea … but now with a strong majority, things are happening one after another,”

Chakravarthy says that being a history teacher herself, she thinks a sense of history is lacking in the present and earlier generations. “They don’t read Patel where he says ours is a secular state and Muslims should not feel unsafe. We need a people’s movement to go and talk and represent their narratives. It is a battle of narratives.”

For students from Kashmir, the battle is to reach their parents. They blame political parties and the media for their present situation. “We can’t say anything. If we say anything, the reaction is, then why are you people here? You have caged our parents inside their own homes. We are not able to speak to our parents, that is the most important concern,” says Mehvish Bashir, a student from Kashmir.

Zaira, a Kashmiri student at Delhi University, says, “For all those people who are celebrating this, all I can say is I pity you. They are looking at things at face value and not critically analysing it; this means there is a lack of knowledge. They think scrapping this article is all about purchasing land. If they knew, they could never have celebrated.” 

She adds: “The media is largely at fault. The way they portrayed Kashmir has had an impact.” 

Another protester, Afnan, is also a Kashmiri student at Delhi University. She last spoke to her parents on Sunday, August 4. “For the first time, landline connections have also been closed. Even in 2016 (when Burhan Wani died), at least the landline was working. Nothing is working; there is absolutely zero communication. People need to understand that.” 

In the aftermath of Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement of the abrogation, various news reports highlighted the celebrations of Kashmiri Pandits across the country. Shehla Rashid, member of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement party, points out: “They wouldn’t want to go back to the Kashmir they have now. We never stopped them from coming in. We should realise the fact that we chose India when we were asked to choose.”