"In the old days, liberal governments in imperial Britain or France justified a dual policy of democracy at home and autocracy in the colonies by pointing out that even though democracy was universally the best form of government, the colonial peoples were not yet ready for it. They needed a spell of enlightened authoritarian rule before they could be trusted with the rights of freedom. Those are the words that BJP leaders are now using to justify the extraordinary clampdown in Kashmir. They admit that conditions are harsh but it is all for the ultimate good of Kashmiris.
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... in a complete reversal of the normal process of integration of the federating parts into the whole, a state that has existed since the beginning of the constitution has been demoted to a Union territory, supposedly in order to make it better suited for development and democracy. One cannot think of a more colonial reasoning than that.
It is distressing that even those parties and leaders who should have been most concerned about the implications of this move for the federal polity have fallen in line or remained silent. The thrust of this majoritarian logic of colonising nationalism will not stop at Kashmir. Every minority identity that appears to stand in the way of a homogeneous nationhood – language, religion, caste, gender – will come under attack. Only the Hindu upper-caste male who speaks Hindi will have the sovereign privilege of not having to prove his Indianness.
Unlike the old kind of colonialism which was discredited by the international order after decolonisation, internal colonialism is a domestic matter that has no rules. Is India becoming the laboratory for developing the constitutional rules of internal colonialism? Unfortunately, those who may be its next victims seem not to be worried."
Read more:
https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-is-the-test-bed-for-a-new-model-of-internal-colonialism
