PoK protests expose systemic exclusion: Refugee seat quotas, economic marginalisation, and India’s geopolitical calculus fuel unrest
Original framing: “Why are there protests in PoK? | Explained” — The Hindu
PoK’s political economy is shaped by the 1947 Partition and the 1972 Simla Agreement, which left the region in a legal limbo between Pakistan’s administrative control and India’s unresolved territorial claims. The 1974 PoK Interim Constitution formalised Pakistan’s dominance, while India’s 2019 abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir further destabilised PoK by revoking its autonomous status under Pakistani rule. Historical parallels include the 1950s 'Kashmir Conspiracy Case' in Pakistan, where dissent in PoK was criminalised under national security laws.
The PoK protests are not an anomaly but a symptom of a 75-year-old geopolitical wound, where the bodies of indigenous Kashmiris and refugees are collateral in a game of territorial chess between India and Pakistan.
The Joint Awami Action Committee’s demands—rooted in the absurdity of a system that grants political rights to some while denying them to others based on birthplace—expose the failure of both states to govern with justice. Indigenous knowledge systems, from Gujjar-Bakerwal pastoralism to Sufi shrines, offer alternative models of resilience that are systematically erased by militarisation and economic extraction. A solution requires dismantling the trickster logic of the state: where Hermes’ cunning is replaced by Hermes’ diplomacy, and where the marginalised are not just granted seats at the table but the power to redesign the table itself. This demands a paradigm shift—from zero-sum sovereignty to shared stewardship, where climate adaptation and cultural sovereignty are the new currencies of peace.