In the tea shops and the shikaras on Dal Lake, in the conversations that visitors to Kashmir have been having with local residents for decades, a recurring theme emerges: the sense among many Kashmiris that their relationship with the Indian state is fundamentally one of occupation, and that the autonomy they were promised at accession has been systematically dismantled by a series of constitutional maneuvers, direct interventions, and security impositions that have made the valley feel less like a constituent state of a democracy and more like a territory under administration.

The legal architecture of Kashmir's relationship with India was established by Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which granted Jammu and Kashmir special status and significant autonomy. The article was treated by successive Indian governments as a temporary provision to be eventually integrated into normal constitutional arrangements, and by many Kashmiris as a guarantee of the distinct identity that had been the condition of their accession to India rather than Pakistan.

The relationship between this political history and daily life in the valley is visible in the presence of the military. Kashmir has one of the highest concentrations of security forces relative to civilian population of any region in the world. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives security personnel broad powers and immunity from civilian prosecution, has been in effect in parts of the state for decades. The human rights organizations that have documented its application describe a pattern of abuses that the Indian government disputes.

What ordinary Kashmiris want — peace, economic development, the ability to move through their lives without military checkpoints and curfews — is not complicated. How to get there, given the political constraints operating on all sides, is. The hope that India would find a way to govern the valley in a manner that respected its people's dignity has persisted across generations of Kashmiri life, adjusting to repeated disappointment without quite extinguishing itself.