Statement against the persecution of Kashmiris and attacks on Muslims in the wake of the attacks in Pahalgam

We, India Labour Solidarity, write with grave concern about the brutal state violence unleashed in Kashmir and the wave of hate-fuelled attacks targeting Muslims and Kashmiris across India following the tragic incident in Pahalgam on 22 April, which claimed the lives of 26 people.

The Indian state has responded not with justice, but with vengeance—deploying militarised might and bypassing due process. In Kashmir, there are reports of arbitrary detentions—nearly 2000 people held since the attacks. Allegations of extrajudicial killings and fake encounters have surfaced. Homes belonging to families of those merely alleged to be involved have been demolished, in open defiance of Supreme Court orders prohibiting collective punishment and demolition as retribution.

This is not law and order. This is collective punishment. This is terror by the state.

We see this as one aspect of the wider pattern of State militarized violence and oppression, underpinned by the Brahmanical Hindutva ‘Akhand Bharat’ project, and thus linked to the other Indigenous land struggles in India – of the Adivasis in Bastar in Chhattisgarh and the tribal communities of Manipur.

We also see through the demonisation and hateful rhetoric of Hindutva. Indian Islamaphobia is a manifestation of caste violence/discrimination. When masses of Dalit-Bahujans were converting to Islam because of Sufi preachings of its egalitarian principles and the alternative worldview it offered; it threatened the Brahmanical  social order and caste fabric of its society. 

In the late 19th century, in one decade, 50,000 people of one Dalit caste converted to Islam in south Malabar. 75% of Indian muslims are Dalit converts. We see through the propaganda of Brahmanical Hindutva of othering muslims when they have deep indigeneity and are an intimate part of Indian history. 

Kashmir was already one of the most militarised zones in the world—one soldier for every twelve civilians. A brutal occupation where dissent is met with torture, where journalists, lawyers, activists routinely languish in jail under draconian sedition laws, where “peace” is imposed at gunpoint. The silence that preceded this violence was not peace—it was suppression.

What is unfolding now is even more sinister. Across India, the hateful rhetoric spewed by politicians from across the spectrum, amplified by television anchors baying for a "final solution" Gaza-style, has opened the floodgates for violence against Kashmiris living in other parts of India and Muslims generally  . The language of the state is mirrored on the streets. We see videos of mobs using the same dehumanising phrases uttered by leaders and pundits alike.

And this is not just happening in the usual places. Even in so-called “progressive” states like Kerala under a Left government, people expressing dissent are being harassed, silenced, arrested. One can only imagine what is happening elsewhere.

We demand:

The Indian government and opposition parties must immediately cease their hateful rhetoric and the dangerous politics of vengeance.

Holding accountable all the media figures who have turned their platforms into weapons of incitement.

We call upon citizens to resist the politics of hate and to reject this wave of state-sponsored and street-level violence. Peace cannot be built on the backs of crushed communities. Justice cannot be delivered through bulldozers and bullets.