Kashmiris Are Voting Again. But Do They Have a Voice?

The Tao cafe in Srinagar, capital of the disputed Kashmir region in India, is a bustling place. At outdoor tables shaded by majestic trees, Himalayan trout is served with loaves of fresh bread to the young, affluent Kashmiris who frequent it.

But when conversation turns to politics, a hush falls, even though it’s an election season. People describe a loss of direction, a drift into an unsettled future.

They are not sure what place mostly Muslim Kashmir has in an increasingly Hindu-nationalist India. They see themselves as caught between India and Pakistan, the two powers still bitterly at odds over the region. They feel trapped in cycles of oppression by India’s government and violent resistance to that authority.

On Wednesday, people began voting in the first election for Kashmir’s regional legislature in a decade. The vote will restore a degree of self-rule five years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped Kashmir of its semiautonomous status and brought it more tightly under Indian control.

But many young Kashmiris say the return of democracy is partial at best. They say the ballot will not fully restore their voices, taken away by what they call India’s criminalization of dissent and freedom of expression in Kashmir.