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Kashmir: Ink, Irony and Insecurity

Sreejayaa Rajguru

Within the delicate situation of democracy, literature bears witness but in addition wields a sword. If one is an observer of Indian politics, the Jammu & Kashmir Dwelling Division’s announcement in August 2025 of a ban on 25 books that it labeled as “seditious” was hardly stunning. It felt much less spontaneous than a psychological act of governance: a panicked retreat right into a shroud of nationwide integrity. But the extra we peered inside this literary purge, we understood that it was not simply the ink the state feared on the web page however the creativeness, the inquiry, the unforgetting histories it mobilised.

Most of the most revered names in Indian and world scholarship on this banned checklist are Arundhati Roy, A.G. Noorani, Sumantra Bose, and Victoria Schofield. These works are usually not incendiary pamphlets or flights of fancy calling for revolt; they’re scholarly texts, journalistic investigations, and political essays chronicling the lengthy, tortuous, and too usually tragic story of Kashmir’s up to date political id. The overarching authority’s resolution to ban their circulation and reader entry was garbed within the regular threats to sovereignty and assertions that they promote terrorism. But, simply the faintest breath of scrutiny reveals how predictable and uniform such proclamations are, and crumbles them effortlessly.

The authorized rationale was offered underneath the brand new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, which replaces the colonial Indian Penal Code (IPC). Amongst a number of offences invoked are Part 152 of BNS (forfeiture of publication with seditious matter) and Part 197 of BNS (selling enmity between totally different teams). A few of these statutory devices, that are merely model new types of outdated statutory programs primarily based on colonial logic, have been used to imprison revolutionaries underneath British rule, when the identical colonial understanding was a device of the state’s energy to repress. What’s exceptional about this example is {that a} state that’s supposedly post-colonial is borrowing from colonial frameworks to police mind and tutorial thought, repressing dissenting voices and developing understandings of loyalty in its shallow phrases. This raises an necessary query: Is it potential for a republic to flourish whether it is afraid of its writers?

The political precariousness evident on this resolution doesn’t come from nowhere. For the reason that stripping of Article 370 in 2019, Kashmir has been relentlessly present process a marketing campaign of narrative consolidation. Kashmir had as soon as turn out to be a polyphony, filled with voices (native leaders, poets, historians, worldwide observers), has now been diminished to a monologue – all organized from the management room in Delhi the place the script is singular, and any deviation is now “anti-national,” a time period so usually used that it has misplaced that means altogether, its menace baritone is now an empty trumpet. On this one-note narrative setting, the banned books didn’t get banned as a result of they prompted violence, however as a result of they transpired the state-managed phantasm of ideological unity. They reminded readers that there’s a couple of story, a couple of ache, a couple of strategy to be patriotic.

For instance, Arundhati Roy’s Azadi is a meditation on freedom – its ironies and contradictions and on the way it has modified within the postcolonial Indian context. Her essays disassemble the equipment of nationalism, a critique that demonstrates how simply the language of liberation may be formed into the discourse of repression. Noorani’s volumes of labor are very legalistic and archival, presenting details which might in any other case not be offered in well-liked histories. Each Bose and Schofield present nuanced historic accounts, offering important world viewpoints that can’t be subsumed by nationalistic propaganda. Banning works like this doesn’t negate misrepresentation; it, actually, as a substitute fearfully erases tough truths.

The federal government’s language in its public discover is telling. The books had been mentioned to advertise “false narratives” and will “mislead youth”. The refined suggestion is that Indian youth are usually not able to important inquiry—that they’re “empty vessels” as a substitute of minds with the aptitude to contemplate arguments and counter-arguments. This paternalism is anti-democratic, suggesting that publicity to mental concepts is harmful, that questions are threats, and that dissent is disloyalty. However such a body can not persist in an actual democracy. If a state wants to guard its residents from books, maybe it isn’t the books which might be harmful, however the delicate foundations of the state.

In India, guide banning just isn’t legally unusual. Over time, governments of varied events have banned books starting from Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses to the writings of Periyar, and even Ambedkar’s annotations to Hindu texts. Article 19(1)(a) indicators an inherent proper to free speech and expression within the Indian Structure, but in addition instantly permits for affordable restrictions underneath Article 19(2) on numerous grounds, together with sovereignty and public order, decency, morality, and incitement of offence. The obscurity of what constitutes “affordable” restrictions has allowed a succession of governments to make the most of the clauses as a method for political functions. The most recent prohibitions in spirit will reference sovereignty as a authorities that’s much less weak, and extra prone to prohibit what constitutes an ideological problem to its follow as a authorities.

As we speak, the ideological venture of the ruling occasion in India relies not simply on electoral hegemony, but in addition on epistemic sovereignty and the power to regulate what information counts, what’s worthy of being remembered, and what should be excluded from public discourse. On this context, the guide ban just isn’t merely an remoted occasion, however part of a complete structure of silence, just like the arrest of journalists, the management of syllabi in universities, the manipulation of the press, the policing of social media customers, and so on. The whole lot converges on a stronghold of thought that permits for under the accredited historical past, whereas the opposite is heresy.

Nevertheless, repression of concepts is a paradoxical train. The extra tightly a state represses concepts, the extra these concepts slip out of its grasp. In our digital and disseminated age, a state could ban bodily copies of books, however that’s like attempting to cage a shadow. PDFs are flying round in encrypted networks, scanned pages are going viral, and underground studying teams are thriving. Every act of censorship crops a seed of resistance in these minds. Every banned guide turns into an open invitation, a forbidden fruit that’s too ripe to disregard.

When a state engages in guide censorship, it additionally lends legitimacy to the contents of these books. In banning literature, it short-circuits the creator and promotes them to a martyr of thought, imposing legitimacy on the textual content as an necessary reality that has been repressed. The state (maybe too, in its broader protection of Enlightenment values) doesn’t perceive this alchemy; its concern and violence solely flip ink into hearth. If the aim was to suppress entry, the result has carried out every part however that: curiosity multiples, and starvation for different tales intensifies.

Censorship can be an acknowledgment of defeat – A authorities that resorts to coercion and confiscation acknowledges its lack of ability to win a battle of concepts by means of debate, dialogue, and motive, and thus has succumbed to pressure. A authorities unwilling to cope with important questions questions its legitimacy. The secured don’t silence; solely the insecure are pushed to amputate elements of the general public discourse to regulate it. The face of that political insecurity is framed as a nationwide curiosity. However simply beneath that masks is one thing far more profound, a concern that if persons are uncovered to the cacophony of voices current of their histories, they could re-acquire the painful capability to pose inconvenient questions.

In Jammu & Kashmir, the place the legacies of Partition, insurgency and militarization nonetheless hang-out the shadows of the valleys, the place reality occupies an unstable floor, the place each narrative is a battle; each reminiscence, a minefield, to acknowledge previous ache; to humanize the opposite facet is to not have a good time terrorism, so to reclaim empathy from the ends of the phobia induced binaries of the state, and the multi-faceted actuality of each their and our histories. The banned texts do exactly that; they purpose to reinstate the sophisticated narrative that has been decimated to oversimplified slogan-based variations of our previous. And accordingly, they may pay the worth.

This episode additionally exemplifies the erosion of institutional independence. In a correctly functioning democracy, it’s the judiciary that holds the manager accountable. The Supreme Courtroom’s constitutional benches have regularly reaffirmed the sanctity of free expression. In Romesh Thappar v. State of Madras (1950), the Courtroom opined that freedom of expression is the “cornerstone” of democratic governance. In S. Rangarajan v. P. Jagjivan Ram (1989), the Courtroom noticed that freedom of expression can solely be suppressed when the state of affairs turns into harmful to the group and threatens public order in the same method to a spark igniting a powder keg. On this context, nonetheless, it doesn’t appear as if the judiciary doesn’t feels as if it may possibly mount a lot opposition. The silence of the establishments is deafening, identical to the federal government’s claims.

Maybe probably the most tragic irony is the federal government’s concern of its residents. The ban just isn’t geared toward overseas foes or hostile spies, it’s geared toward Indian readers. The state doesn’t belief them with thought. It doesn’t imagine that its individuals can know the distinction between reality and fiction, motive or rhetoric. It presumes a sort of mental helplessness, a populace too dumb to do something however learn the filtered truths of state-sanctioned textbooks. However the Indian citizen just isn’t so simply fooled. The historical past of India is the historical past of concepts in revolution, in reform, in resilience. This nation was born within the pages of Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, and Tagore’s Nationalism. To concern books now could be to concern the very soul of India.

On the finish of the day, a authorities that bans books communicates greater than it suppresses. It communicates its concern, its ignorance, its concern of critics. It tells the world it’s unable to be scrutinized, that it prefers to be erased to speak. Concepts are persistent. They are going to outlive governments. They be taught to fly in silence. And within the absence of legitimacy, they proceed to speak.

For Kashmir, for India, and the conscience of democracy, we should always ask: what sort of nation can we turn out to be after we are fearful of our writers?

[Sreejayaa Rajguru is a law student with a keen interest in exploring the intersections of law, justice and societal issues. Courtesy: The Leaflet, an independent platform for cutting-edge, progressive, legal & political opinion, founded by Indira Jaising and Anand Grover.]

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In Kashmir, Bookshop Raids Observe No Legal guidelines, Books Seized are Accessible in Different States and On-line

Hamaad Habibullah and Ishtayaq Rasool

Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir: It was 13 February 2025, and enterprise as regular for many booksellers in Srinagar’s business hub, Lal Chowk. A distinguished bookseller and his workers had simply completed lunch and had been about to take care of their ready prospects when 4 males in civilian garments walked in, holding an inventory of books.

They requested if these books had been accessible.

“Earlier than we may reply, they cleared the shop of all prospects and shut each the back and front doorways. They mentioned that they’re from the police,” mentioned W*, the bookstore proprietor, who requested to not be recognized. “We had been surprised and scared. Out of concern, we didn’t ask any questions and easily cooperated.”

They laid a sheet on the ground and ordered the workers to deliver out each copy of the books on their checklist. “They mentioned they’d directions from high authorities to grab all of the listed books,” mentioned W.

The seized books had been written by the Islamic scholar Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, the founding father of the pan-South Asia group Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), whose Jammu & Kashmir (J&Ok) chapter was banned by the Indian authorities, in 2019, underneath the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act, 1967, for alleged “actions towards the safety, integrity and sovereignty of the nation” and “fuelling secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir”.

Maududi’s opposition to the political worldview of secularism and perception in political Islam has prompted his writing to resonate with the secessionist motion in Kashmir. It has positioned it at loggerheads with the state.

X*, one other small bookseller within the metropolis, raided by the police on the identical day, mentioned they seized the identical books.

Each booksellers confirmed that the confiscated titles, all authored by Maududi, included Khilafat o Malukiyat (Caliphate and Monarchy), Fundamentals of Islam, Purdah (The Veil), Khutbaat (Sermons), and In the direction of Understanding Islam.

Police, following the raids, issued an announcement that mentioned, “Based mostly on credible intelligence concerning the clandestine sale and distribution of literature selling the ideology of a banned organisation, the police carried out a search in Srinagar, resulting in the seizure of 668 books. Authorized motion has been initiated underneath part 126 of the BNSS.”

Part 126 (safety for protecting the peace) within the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, offers with the chance of “a breach of the peace” or disturbances of “public tranquillity”.

Article 14 sought remark from the spokesperson of the J&Ok police by way of WhatsApp; from J&Ok police headquarters and the senior superintendent of police, Srinagar, by way of e mail on 29 April. We requested why the guide shops had been raided, how part 126 of the BNSS applies to this case, and their feedback on the books in query being accessible on-line.

They didn’t reply. We’ll replace this story in the event that they do.

‘Wider Implication Is To Curb Freedom Of Speech’

Habeel Iqbal, a lawyer from South Kashmir’s Shopian district, questioned the aim of such raids.

Iqbal mentioned such censorship appeared pointless when the literature seized, deemed inflammatory or selling supposedly undesirable ideologies, is overtly accessible on-line.

“Its (the seizure of the books) goal is one thing else—it’s controlling the narrative,” mentioned Iqbal. “The broader implication is to curb freedom of speech and expression.”

V*, a Delhi-based lawyer who practices within the Supreme Courtroom, believed that there isn’t a authorized foundation to grab a guide not proscribed by the federal government.

He questioned the part underneath which the raids and seizures had been carried out in Srinagar. “I don’t suppose the police can seize books underneath Part 126 of the BNSS, as claimed of their assertion,” V mentioned.

Explaining the prescribed process required for seizing books, he mentioned, “The federal government can declare a guide forfeited by issuing a notification underneath part 98 of the BNSS. Solely after such a declaration could the police seize the guide.”

Part 98 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, offers state governments “the facility to declare sure publications forfeited and to challenge search warrants”.

Soutick Banerjee, a Delhi-based lawyer, mentioned such an act required an authorised ban on such literature.

“Until the publication of a guide has been banned underneath related provisions of regulation, by issuance of a reasoned order, there isn’t a authorized foundation for the police to impose a blanket ban or seize books from the market,” he mentioned

Banerjee mentioned literature can solely be seized if the State can set up a hyperlink to a earlier unlawful act or potential one.

“If there isn’t a FIR which demonstrates a proximate hyperlink between the literature and any proximate likelihood or shut and direct nexus to incitement of violence, then seizure of such books is an unreasonable restriction on the liberty of speech, thought and expression,” Banerjee mentioned.

“Policing minds the place there isn’t a criminality has no place underneath the Indian structure, whose basic rights apply equally to all states and union territories,” mentioned Banerjee.

“No one Is Ever Fairly Positive What Is Being Investigated’

Advocate Shahrukh Alam, a lawyer practising within the Supreme Courtroom, mentioned that authorities may at all times cite “nationwide safety” to raid guide shops, examine, and seize books. She mentioned that every part may be included inside the purview of nationwide safety, particularly whether it is “pre-emptive” or seeks to research a not but totally shaped conspiracy.

She mentioned that such investigations could possibly be “broad-based, as a lot of a roving inquiry, as intangible, and as nebulous as authorities would love them to be”.

“No one is ever fairly positive what’s being investigated, what’s offensive, or trigger for authorized hassle,” Alam mentioned. “Throughout the very broad-based mandate of nationwide safety issues, something may be discovered to be suspect: Kashmiri college students in Delhi, sure books and literature, social media posts, evaluation of present coverage, or criticism of the federal government.”

In line with Alam, one can argue that this incident, which she known as “casting of a fishing internet”, is “overbroad and arbitrary”, however the authorities cite safety issues, and courts usually endorse their view.

Alam mentioned that, at instances, authorities proceeded primarily based on an open-ended FIR primarily based on intelligence reviews about an unspecified conspiracy.

“The raid in a Srinagar bookshop was seemingly preceded by one such open-ended FIR, which can not have named the particular bookshop or the literature accessible there, however relatively referred typically to some intelligence concerning the circulation of extremist materials or ideologies,” mentioned Alam. “Which will have began a broad investigation, together with raids.”

“If that’s the case, then the authorities would have a authorized justification for the raid,” mentioned Alam. “But what the police seize as ‘proof of extremist ideology’ is at all times a bit of absurd, a bit of exaggerated.”

‘Chilling Impact On Expression’

India has had an extended historical past of banning books. Woman Chatterley’s Lover, the 1928 novel by D H Lawrence, was banned for obscenity. Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was banned from being imported in 1988, for hurting non secular sentiments.

The ban on Rushdie’s novel not stands.

Books have additionally been withdrawn from publication on the grounds of defamation.

Jitender Bhargava’s The Descent of Air India, initially revealed in 2013, was withdrawn by Bloomsbury in January 2014 after a defamation go well with was filed by former Aviation Minister Praful Patel, but it’s at present accessible on e-commerce web sites.

Extra not too long ago, in November 2022, the Manipur authorities banned a guide titled The Complexity Known as Manipur: Roots, Perceptions and Actuality, on the grounds that it contained “grossly deceptive and scandalous” content material that would ignite communal disharmony.

Limitations on writers’ freedom of expression are allowed on the next grounds of “affordable restrictions” underneath Article 19(2) of the Structure: the sovereignty and integrity of India, safety of the state, pleasant relations with overseas states, public order, decency or morality, contempt of courtroom, defamation, and incitement of an offence.

Srinagar-based political scientist Noor Ahmad Baba mentioned measures equivalent to raids and guide bans had been unlikely to meaningfully prohibit entry to the focused literature.

In line with Baba, these actions aligned with the post-2019 coverage framework in J&Ok, underneath which, he claims, “sure freedoms have been curtailed for safety concerns.”

“Within the digital age, these bans are largely symbolic. A lot of the fabric is available on-line,” mentioned Baba. He added that the true affect is essentially “psychological and financial, significantly affecting native booksellers who could face losses”.

Tahir Sayeed, a Srinagar-based columnist and former spokesperson of the Individuals’s Democratic Social gathering, mentioned the raids mirrored a “deliberate technique to regulate Kashmir’s mental and historic narrative”.

“These actions recommend an intent of the state to suppress narratives that problem its authority or provide various ideological views,” mentioned Sayeed. “Booksellers’ silence reveals a pervasive concern, signalling a broader chilling impact on expression.”

The confiscated titles, equivalent to Khilafat o Malukiyat can be found on-line on e-commerce platform Amazon and In the direction of Understanding Islam on Flipkart.

The Raid

Through the raid on W’s store, the police seized a number of books, all authored by Maududi.

On the identical day, round 3 pm, inside hours of the preliminary raid, the station home officers (SHOs) from two close by police stations arrived on the bookstore.

“They noticed the state of affairs however didn’t mistreat us,” mentioned W.

W, whose store sells quite a lot of books along with these by Maududi, mentioned that the SHOs observed a counter close to the show with a number of pamphlets and books—all by Maulana Maududi—and one of many SHOs commented in Kashmiri, “All of the books right here appear to be by Maulana (Maududi) solely.”

“We have now clear orders from the highest to take away all his literature from bookstores. Not a single pamphlet ought to stay,” the SHO instructed W, in keeping with the bookstore proprietor.

W mentioned that after their enterprise was raided, they realized that different bookstores within the metropolis had been additionally searched, and books by Maulana Maududi had been seized.

“Out of concern, we eliminated each single copy, even Tafheem-ul-Quran, which was not listed, from our racks and counters,” mentioned W, the bookseller.

X mentioned that police had given him an inventory of Maududi titles to be seized throughout the raid on his store. Many of those titles are well-liked studying for college kids in Kashmir, students of comparative faith, political thinkers, and people with an curiosity in Islamic philosophy and reformist thought.

We tried to talk with the supervisor of one other bookshop within the neighborhood, however he refused to remark, citing issues about household. He, nonetheless, confirmed, “Police got here in civilian garments and took some books on 13 February within the afternoon. That’s all we are able to say.”

Despite the fact that his store was not raided, Y*, a bookstore supervisor in Lal Chowk, instructed us that Maulana’s Tafheem-ul-Quran was not seized—solely different books deemed “arduous for the state”.

Aftermath

The subsequent day, a number of booksellers, three of whom we spoke to, had been summoned to the closest police stations to their outlets, from the place they had been taken to a Justice of the Peace on the deputy commissioner’s workplace in Srinagar.

They had been knowledgeable that the case towards them was ‘minor’ and had been warned to not promote such books once more and suggested to stay cautious.

“We didn’t strategy the courtroom. Our households had been fearful—so had been we,” mentioned W. “That complete month, because of the disruption, I couldn’t even handle to pay the salaries to the workers.”

X mentioned that some main bookstores, the place books had been seized, had been later summoned by the Justice of the Peace and made to signal a bond pledging to not promote the listed books.

Z*, one other bookshop proprietor whose retailer was raided, instructed us that they weren’t allowed to speak concerning the raid or the incident.

“There’s no authorized process that’s adopted in Kashmir—everybody is aware of that,” mentioned Z. “They warned us to not promote such books with none discover.”

A bookseller in one of many districts of Northern Kashmir confirmed to us that they, too, had been warned by the police to not promote literature concerning the Jammat.

Although not all outlets had been raided, the ambiance created by the preliminary seizures instilled concern among the many bookselling group.

“The police didn’t go to each retailer, however the message was loud and clear. That concern made many people self-censor,” mentioned X. “It’s a type of oblique censorship, curbing tutorial freedom and freedom of expression. Nobody desires to inventory or promote these titles, despite the fact that Maulana Maududi is a important determine whose work is extensively recognised and browse.”

Elevated Demand

A supervisor at one of many bookstores noticed this as curbing civil liberties and a widespread effort to suppress tutorial freedom and literature in Kashmir.

But, the seizure of the books may need had the alternative impact, with booksellers reporting a rise in demand for them.

“Mockingly, after the seizures, extra individuals got here to our store on the lookout for these very books,” he mentioned.

Different booksellers agreed.

“Mockingly, after the incident, demand for these books surged throughout Kashmir. Many individuals got here to the shop wanting particularly for these books,” mentioned W in April 2025. “We instructed them the books are banned in Kashmir—however they’ll nonetheless be ordered on-line or purchased from Delhi.”

Not one of the books seized had been revealed in J&Ok. Delhi-based publishers produced all of them.

“Ever for the reason that seizures, the demand for these books has gone up,” mentioned X. “Many individuals have visited our shops particularly asking for them.”

Maududi & Jamaat-e-Islami

Maududi and his work have had a substantial affect on the revival of Islamic political thought, significantly within the Indian subcontinent.

In his guide The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution, political scientist Vali Nasr wrote, “Jamaat-e-Islami offered probably the most coherent and organised articulation of political Islam in South Asia. Maududi’s concepts not solely formed Islamist politics in Pakistan but in addition influenced Islamic actions in Bangladesh and India, setting the framework for faith-based political mobilisation.”

Although he was a powerful voice in favour of Islamic rule in Pakistan, Maududi vehemently opposed the partition of India.

The J&Ok chapter of JeI (JIJK) was based in 1953. Regardless of questioning J&Ok’s accession to India, it was a part of mainstream politics within the valley, with influential members like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, elected to the state meeting in 1972, 1977 and 1987.

It additionally had a social affect within the area, founding and operating over 389 colleges, which had been shut down after the 2019 ban.

It fought the notorious 1987 elections as a part of the Muslim United Entrance. After the elections, which had been reportedly rigged, the valley noticed the rise of a pro-freedom motion, adopted by violence. Subsequently, the JIJK shunned mainstream politics and have become a constituent and influential member of the pro-freedom Hurriyat Convention.

The JIJK was banned within the area in 2019, and lots of of its members had been put in jail.

The Books

Maududi, in probably the most well-known of the seized books, Khilafat o Malukiyat (Caliphate and Monarchy) delved into elements of the caliphate and differentiated it from historic Muslim kingships, whereas tracing the circumstances and occasions that led to the evolution of Islamic authorities.

One other of Maududi’s seized books, Fundamentals of Islam, summarises Islamic beliefs and practices, emphasising the importance of the Quran, adherence to divine regulation, and the necessity for a full Islamic lifestyle.

Maududi advocated for a complete strategy to Islam and offered Islam not as a faith, however as encompassing each side of life, together with non secular, social, and political elements, which challenges the up to date social, political and financial setup.

John L Esposito, an American tutorial and professor of Faith, Worldwide Affairs, and Islamic Research at Georgetown College, in The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, in contrast Maududi’s affect on political Islam to that of Marx on Communism.

Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, American-Iranian political scientist and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze College of Superior Worldwide Research, in his guide Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism, wrote, “No Islamic thinker within the trendy period has had as profound an affect as Maududi. His concepts turned the mental basis for Islamist actions from Egypt to Indonesia.”

Nevertheless, A Faizur Rahman, the secretary-general of the Islamic Discussion board for the Promotion of Average Thought, a Chennai-based organisation working to advertise secularism and communal concord, in October 2022, described Maududi’s interpretation of Islam as “slim” and his writings as “supremacist”.

In 2022, Aligarh Muslim College dropped Maududi’s books from the Division of Islamic Research syllabus after 25 lecturers wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Modi claiming the curriculum was “openly Jihadi”.

The Pakistan-based modernist Islamic scholar Fazal Rehman Malik mentioned that Maududi’s writings had been “shallow” and crafted “solely to bag the eye of muddled younger males craving an imagined faith-driven Utopia.”

*Identify modified on request

[Hamaad Habibullah is an independent journalist based in New Delhi and Ishtayaq Rasool is an independent journalist from Kashmir. Courtesy: Article 14.com, a joint effort between lawyers, journalists, and academics that provides intensive research and reportage, data and varied perspectives on issues necessary to safeguard democracy and the rule of law.]