The International Forum for Rights and Security (IFRAS), a Canada-based think tank, has released a research paper comparing Jammu & Kashmir in India with the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in China.
Jammu & Kashmir and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region - A Study in Contrasts highlights how the Indian and Chinese governments have adopted distinctly different approaches and methods to deal with comparable challenges in the two regions.
Both regions host a Muslim-majority local population, extremism, cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan and the disputed border. Despite special political status granted to the two regions, the study highlights that while China's Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law has proven largely ineffective in ensuring true self-governance by ethnic groups like the Uyghurs whereas the people of Jammu & Kashmir have been provided guarantees under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, and a strong foundation on which to build a system of local governance.
The study also observes that India has not imposed the kind of controls on Muslims of the Kashmir Valley as China has done in Xinjiang.
Interested?
Read the paper