Dear Friends,

Until recently, we have had to rely on bits and pieces of personal stories emerging from the locked-down people of Kashmir, which have clearly challenged the rosy picture being painted by Indian authorities. Now, we have an extensive fact-finding report — #KashmirCivilDisobedience - A Citizens’ Report — documenting interactions with the people under siege, thanks to Anirudh Kala, a psychiatrist and writer based in Ludhiana; Brinelle Dsouza, an academic, activist and public health professional from Mumbai; Revati Laul, a Delhi based journalist and author of `The Anatomy of Hate,' a book about the Gujarat mobs of 2002; and Shabnam Hashmi, founding trustee of Anhad, an organization that works on questions of democracy, secularism, gender rights, diversity and pluralism.

We would be doing a great injustice to the authors as well as to the people of Kashmir if we attempted to summarize this extraordinary and moving report. So, we will simply quote from the preface here, and urge you to please read the report and share it widely. 

Kashmir is on edge - humiliated, angry, disturbed and `disrobed,' as a journalist who spoke to us described it. The fact that there has been no violence has to do with the resilience of the people. It is an active and collective choice being exercised each day, to observe a civil disobedience. In feeling rejected and betrayed by the Indian state, Kashmiris have chosen to respond back, through a largely non-violent protest.

They say this may well be the lull before the storm or the making of molten mass that is bound to erupt; but regardless of what comes next, these 60 days need to be recorded as a phenomenon in its own right.

…we have spoken to a spectrum of people from politicians (those that were not in jail), bureaucrats, homemakers, schoolteachers, traders, fruit-sellers, taxi unions, students, teachers, intellectuals, poets, writers, farmers, children, journalists, civil society workers, Pandits, Sikhs and Christians and even wedding caterers across five districts over eight days.

Use this as you see fit and tag us, citing the report as, #KashmirCivilDisobedience - A Citizens' Report, when you do.

Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) is honored to share this fact-finding report on Kashmir with you and wishes to thank all those, including the authors, who are standing up to defend Indian Democracy in these critical times.