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The Dueling Narratives of India’s Kashmir Crackdown

New Delhi’s actions have been welcomed domestically, but Narendra Modi’s government will have a hard time selling its message abroad.
Source: Dar Yasin / AP

A month ago, the Indian government abruptly voided the constitutional autonomy afforded to Kashmir. The announcement was made in Parliament with no warning, resulting in the splitting of what was a single state, formally known as Jammu and Kashmir, into two federally-run units whose rulers will be picked by New Delhi.

The move once again catapulted the decades-long dispute over Kashmir—parts of which are variously administered by India, Pakistan, and China—into the global spotlight. In the United States, India’s actions have attracted almost universally negative coverage: A spate of news stories and op-eds have highlighted the of Kashmiri human rights, the of war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, the threat to Indian and , and the rise of a muscular brand of hostile to Islam. (Before its dissolution,

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