What is India’s new endgame in Kashmir?

The Indian government has changed its approach to the ‘Kashmir problem’ because it has new strategic priorities.

If performance and posturing were the only indicators within politics, it may be said the political scene in Indian-administered Kashmir has been abuzz with renewed activity in the past few months. Earlier this summer, New Delhi initiated a new dialogue with local collaborators it has forged inside Kashmir, signalling its willingness to once again put its trust in them to help it subdue and rule the valley’s rebel population. After August 2019, when Kashmir’s nominal autonomy was rescinded and its assimilation within India declared complete by the country’s parliament, Kashmir’s integrationist political formations had found themselves facing an existential crisis. Forever rebuffed by the Kashmiris for doing India’s bidding, they appeared to have also been abandoned by their patrons in New Delhi.