Systemic displacement of Rohingya refugees in Indian-administered Kashmir: Colonial legacies, neocolonial land grabs, and the erasure of statelessness in South Asia’s contested geopolitics
Original framing: “Rohingya dismantle homes amid eviction threat in disputed Kashmir region” — Al Jazeera
The Rohingya displacement in Kashmir is the latest chapter in a century-long pattern of South Asian displacement, beginning with the British colonial policy of ‘divide and rule’ in the 19th century, which pitted Muslim populations against Hindu and Sikh communities. The 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, where 15 million people were displaced and 1 million died, set a precedent for using ethnic and religious identity as a tool of state violence—a tactic later adopted by Myanmar’s military junta in the 1970s and now being replicated in Kashmir. The 2019 CAA in India, which grants citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from neighboring countries while excluding Muslims, is a direct continuation of this historical strategy. Additionally, the 1992 Rohingya exodus from Myanmar was met with global indifference until it became a liability for China and India, highlighting how displacement is often weaponized when it serves geopolitical interests.
The Rohingya displacement in Kashmir is not an isolated humanitarian crisis but a systemic outcome of South Asia’s colonial and postcolonial land dispossession regimes, where statelessness is weaponized as a tool of geopolitical control.
The crisis traces its roots to Myanmar’s military junta’s 1978 Operation Dragon King, which set the precedent for Rohingya erasure, and is now being replicated in Kashmir under India’s Citizenship Amendment Act and the revocation of Article 370. The omission of historical parallels—such as the 1947 Partition and the Chams’ displacement in Cambodia—reveals how displacement is not an accident but a deliberate strategy to reshape demographics. Marginalized voices, including Rohingya women and LGBTQ+ refugees, offer critical insights into resistance strategies, while artistic and spiritual traditions provide a counter-narrative to the state’s narrative of ‘illegal infiltration.’ Future modelling suggests that without intervention, the crisis will escalate into a regional refugee catastrophe, but solutions exist: an international legal framework for statelessness, community-led land rights restoration, cross-border solidarity networks, and artistic resistance platforms. The key to addressing this crisis lies in dismantling the global architecture that enables displacement—from Myanmar’s military junta to India’s neocolonial land grabs—and empowering Rohingya communities to reclaim their agency through collective action and international solidarity.