13 May 2025 | Asia and Pacific, India, News and features, Newsletters, Pakistan
A crisis is often seized as an opportunity, especially by those eager to silence dissent – and no more so than in Narendra Modi’s India. Following the deadliest civilian incident in Kashmir in decades, the government has rolled out a coordinated campaign of information control. The Ministry of External Affairs has contacted global news outlets including the BBC, Reuters and the Associated Press, criticising them for using the word “militant” rather than “terrorist” in their coverage. Social media accounts of major Pakistani and Kashmiri news organisations have been blocked, including 8,000 accounts on X, and dozens of Pakistani YouTube channels. Meanwhile, dissenting voices are being targeted under sweeping legal charges. This week alone, the police filed cases against folk singer Neha Singh Rathore and university professor Madri Kakoti, accusing them of “endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India” over posts critical of the government’s response.
Such suppression is far from new for those living in Modi’s India, as we highlighted two years ago in our magazine issue devoted to the country. It’s worse still for the residents of Kashmir. Since 2019, when the Indian government revoked the special autonomous status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian constitution, censorship and surveillance have become rife. Journalists from Kashmir have frequently written for us about internet blackouts, media bans and a broader clampdown on dissent. It’s been a grinding war on free expression that rarely garners global headlines.
Now, with tensions at a new high, that suppression is intensifying. A correspondent on the ground described a bleak reality to me this week. In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack last month, which left 25 Indians and one Nepali national dead, thousands of Kashmiris have reportedly been detained, accused of being “overground workers”, a term often used vaguely to suggest militant affiliation. Civilians face beatings for being out after dark. Perhaps most alarming is the growing call from prominent Indian figures for a vengeful response against both Kashmiris and Muslims in line with Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.
The rhetoric has dire consequences. Prominent Kashmiri journalist Hilal Mir was recently arrested on what sources close to him describe as a trumped-up charge. Authorities allege he was “actively engaged in posting and sharing content aimed at inciting sentiments among young minds and instigating secessionist sentiment by portraying Kashmiris as victims of systemic extermination.” In another instance the body of Imtiaz Ahmad Magray, 23, was found shortly after he was detained, after he reportedly jumped into a river trying to escape. According to police he had confessed to being an overground worker. His family refute such claims.
When asked if Modi’s government is using this crisis to crack down on dissent, the response from the correspondent I’m in touch with was blunt: “Without a doubt.”
9 May 2025 | Asia and Pacific, India, News and features, Pakistan
As conflict intensifies between India and Pakistan, those in the disputed region of Kashmir have long faced human rights violations, including a higher level of surveillance and suppression of free speech.
On a cloudy day in January, 30-year-old Hanan* perched on a rock in a nearby forest close to his house in the Handwara area of India-controlled Kashmir. Amongst the daily hustle and bustle in his neighborhood, Hanan and his friends discussed a recent citizens’ survey allegedly conducted by the Indian Army. According to residents, the survey had required them to share private details about their families alongside photos.
“What is really concerning for the locals is [soldiers requesting photos of women],” said Hanan, as he braved the wintry cold breeze in the woods.
His friend, Anzar*, said he had been asked to share a photo of his family members, and had been threatened with severe consequences if he did not comply.
Last year, a similar data collection exercise was conducted throughout Kashmir by the local police force. Alongside personal information being requested, residents were also allegedly asked to share a geotagged photo of the house they were residing in.
Sheeraz* said he first heard about last year’s survey from his younger brother. He fears that the police are sourcing information which could be used to instigate “ethnic cleansing” of the area in future. He likened the surveillance to similar methods used by Israeli forces in order to monitor and track Palestinians, such as facial recognition technology.
Kashmir’s 2024 invasive policing exercise, which was termed “Village X Ray”, sought residents’ details such as their vehicle registration numbers, their affiliations with banned organisations and their Aadhaar numbers (a unique identity card provided by the Indian government).
“They are trying to shrink the space for us in ways unimaginable for many in other parts of the world,” said Sheeraz.
A new era of surveillance
Surveillance of the local population is not new in the contested piece of land between India and Pakistan, but fears have heightened since the region’s autonomy was further eroded in 2019.
In 1987, a state election took place in Jammu and Kashmir that was widely believed to be rigged. The years following this saw an armed rebellion. In an attempt to quell the uprising, India’s government brought approximately 600,000 troops into the region, forcing people to name sympathisers and supporters of the cause against Indian rule, making arbitrary detentions and using torture to stop dissent. It also used various repressive legislative measures, including laws such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Three decades later in August 2019, Narendra Modi’s right-wing Indian government revoked the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region’s special status (Article 370), which had previously granted it semi-autonomy over its administration.
Article 35A was also scrapped, meaning that non-Kashmiris can now buy property in the region, giving a green light for outsiders to acquire the land of indigenous people. This has raised fears that the Indian government is trying to drastically change the demographic of the Muslim-majority region.
“Not only will we lose jobs, the only Muslim-majority [region] will be prone to communal conflicts after this arbitrary decision by the central government,” said Hanan.
Silencing voices
On the night of 5 January 2022, a young journalist from Bandipora’s Hajin area called Sajad Gul was arrested by men in uniform at his home. He was questioned for uploading a video clip to the social media platform X of women in a nearby area allegedly protesting the killing of a local militant leader. He had attended the protest to report on the incident.
The local police detained him under the Public Safety Act, which allows for a maximum two-year detention, among other charges, and transferred him to and from various jails. He was ultimately imprisoned for 910 days for reporting on a story.
In November 2023, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed his detention, saying that there was no concrete evidence or specific allegations proving his actions were prejudicial to the security of the state.
Press freedom has deteriorated since the removal of Kashmir’s special status in 2019. Abdul Aala Fazili, a research scholar, was also arrested in April 2022 by the Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) for an article he wrote in 2011 for the online magazine The Kashmir Walla, titled “The shackles of slavery will break”. The news website has been blocked in India since August 2023.
“Since the nullification of the hollowed-out special status, not only are journalists in Kashmir being silenced by various intimidation techniques, but the general public is equally feeling the forced gag,” said Owais*, a history student who is well-versed with what is happening in the region. “People are scared of posting anything remotely related to the region’s disputed status on any social media platforms because they know the consequences.”
“We are all suspects here”
Leaning forward in his chair, a local politician called Saleem* spoke to me from his office in the outskirts of Handwara. When asked about the increasing surveillance in the region, his sharp and incisive response was: “The government of India sees us all as strangers. We are all suspects here for them.” These are strong words from someone who has taken an oath on India’s constitution.
The revoking of Article 370 has caused dynamics to shift, he said. “There was a lot in our hands back in the early 1990s, however now we have lost that bargaining power in the corridors of power.”
In 2022, the Jammu and Kashmir government took another step towards monitoring locals’ movements, even on roads and in shops. An order administered via its policing wing in the Srinagar region put pressure on shopkeepers to install CCTV cameras or face a penalty.
Many opposed it, saying they couldn’t afford the installation costs. Some were wary of installing cameras outside the front of their shops. “I clearly said to the party that I cannot install [it] because there is no need for installation,” said one shopkeeper. “Installing inside makes sense for my business, but not in front of the shop.”
History student Owais said that the attempt to silence people in Kashmir is now “two-pronged”: “One is reporting anyone who speaks for rights on social media platforms, and another is constant police raids at residences just to intimidate not only the suspects but the general public at large in the valley.”
Hanan, strolling back from the woods and towards his home, echoed Owais’s worries about the future of Kashmir. “I do not know what to do in these situations. I am not only concerned for my career, but now, for the last few years, my focus is more on the land I belong to, which I feel will be snatched away from me anytime by a single order of the government.”
* names have been changed to protect the identities of interviewees
12 Jun 2024 | Asia and Pacific, India, News and features
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi readies for his third term, he formally took the oath of office on Sunday, casting a shadow over the nation’s landscape of free speech and press freedom. With each successive term, Modi’s administration has faced criticism for tightening control over the media and curbing dissenting voices, with instances of journalists and activists facing harassment, intimidation, and even legal action for criticisng the government or expressing views contrary to the official narrative.
India’s extensive six-week election period concluded with a tally of 640 million votes on 4 June. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) secured an outright majority by winning 292 seats out of the 543 seats, surpassing the 272 seats required for a clear majority in India’s lower house of Parliament.
Meer Faisal, a 23-year-old journalist and the founder of The Observer Post, an online news portal based in Delhi, holds little optimism regarding Modi’s government when it comes to censorship and freedom of expression in India. He has faced significant censorship in the past during Modi’s tenure for his coverage on atrocities against Muslims in India. In October last year, his Twitter account faced restrictions in India due to his reporting.
“As a journalist, especially being a Muslim, it invites more censorship and trouble. The Modi government aims to silence every voice that speaks against them. They want to build a narrative in the country and label everyone who criticises government policies as anti-national,” said Faisal.
Faisal is among many in India who express fear concerning Modi’s third term, citing concerns beyond censorship to include threats to freedom of speech.
Since August 2019, the Modi government has also barred many Kashmiri journalists from travelling abroad, offering no explanation for restricting their fundamental rights.
“In Modi’s third term, I fear that there will be more harsh policies against journalists and more tactics will be employed to intimidate us. This will directly impact our reporting abilities and help authorities in curbing the voice of people,” said Faisal.
In the 2024 edition of the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, India is ranked 159th out of the 180 nations considered. “With violence against journalists, highly concentrated media ownership, and political alignment, press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy”, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right,” RSF stated while releasing the data.
Asif Mujtaba, 34, an advocate for people’s rights and director of the Miles2smile Foundation—which works with survivors of mob lynching, communal violence, and selective communal demolition—believes that the space for dissent has significantly decreased since Modi came to power, and public participation in protests has also diminished.
“It’s become a tough task for social and political activists, regardless of any religion, to work for people’s rights under Modi’s regime. The government can use any stringent law to frame you and silence your voice,” saidMujtaba.
According to Mujtaba, many people in India are apprehensive about openly criticising Modi because they are aware of the potential repercussions. A significant number of individuals who were once vocal against the regime have now become quiet..
“Modi’s administration is aware of the escalating dissent and the potential for increased protests against their policies in the third term. The growing public dissent will force Modi to resort to heavy-handed tactics to silence the people,” said Mujtaba.
In the first four months of 2024, India has experienced at least 134 instances of free speech violation, impacting journalists, academics, YouTubers, and students, according to a report published by the Free Speech Collective in early May. The organisation tracks and categorises free speech violations and offers support to those affected.
Niranjan K S, 22, a fourth-year law student at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, and a member of the All India Revolutionary Students Organisation (AIRSO), argues that the suppression of dissent is driven by the corporate-Hindutva fascist nexus, which aims to transform the country into a fascist dictatorship. As a result, free speech will be stifled, and only those who support the ruling forces will retain their right to free expression.
“The surge in the enforcement of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the uptick in political detentions, particularly aimed at students and activists like Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid, who were involved in the anti-CAA protests of 2019, demonstrate a systematic use of these draconian laws to quash all forms of dissent,” said Niranjan.
During the protests, students played an active role in amplifying the voices of the oppressed within the country. However, the BJP regime labeled these students as “anti-national” and “terrorists,” attempting to delegitimise their activism and dissent.
Niranjan emphasised that secularism and communal harmony are already under significant threat due to the Hindutva ideology of the current regime, which could further hinder free speech. “In this third term of the Modi government, the non-state elements of fascism will be more utilised to advance their offensive than the state elements,” said Niranjan.
Index on Censorship sought a response from a BJP spokesperson regarding censorship as Modi embarks on his historic third term. Answer came there none.
