Abstract

This paper interrogates the contemporary transformation of the Kashmir conflict through the theoretical lenses of settler colonialism, Gramscian hegemony, and David Harvey’s concept of accumulation by dispossession. In the aftermath of the revocation of Article 370, the Bhartiya Janata Party-led Indian government has intensified its Hindutva-oriented policies in Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir, employing coercive legal frameworks, demographic reengineering, and cultural repression. The study situates these developments within a settler colonial framework, wherein state-led infrastructural expansion and legal manipulation facilitate the displacement of indigenous populations and the restructuring of territorial control. Simultaneously, the BJP’s invocation of development and normalcy operates as a hegemonic project, relying not solely on coercion but on the cultural and institutional internalization of Hindu nationalist ideology to legitimize domination and suppress dissent. These processes are further examined through the prism of accumulation by dispossession, as land acquisition, ecological degradation, and the restructuring of the region’s agrarian economy disproportionately benefit state and corporate interests at the expense of Kashmir’s local population. The paper argues that the BJP’s policies represent an intertwined project of ideological, territorial, and economic domination, reshaping the identity, demography, and political landscape of the region under the guise of development.