Vol. III No. 1 (2025): Strategic Perspectives, Winter 2025
Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine: A Comparative Study of Identity Crisis, and Narratives of Resistance and Occupation
Syeda Saba Israr
Published December 30, 2025
Abstract
This paper examines the parallels between the conflicts in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and Palestine through the lenses of occupation, resistance, and unresolved self-determination. Rooted in post-colonial divisions, both disputes have been characterized by decades of military control, demographic engineering, and recurring youth-led uprisings against occupying forces. These conflicts have been marked by severe human rights violations, targeted assassinations, and large-scale civilian casualties, with profound implications for the identity and collective consciousness of Muslim communities at both local and transnational levels. Drawing on comparative case studies and constructivist theory, the paper analyzes how state repression, legal exceptionalism, and narrative control have contributed to enduring identity crises and grassroots solidarity while international law continues to reproduce political stalemates rather than resolution. The paper analyzes how long-term occupation in IIOJK and Palestine socially constructs identities and common narratives of resistance, and how new technologies like information control, digital governance, and surveillance systems reinforce these dynamics. The study argues that despite geographical and geopolitical differences, IIOJK and Palestine represent interconnected struggles for liberation shaped by collective trauma, ideological occupation, generational resistance, and technologically mediated forms of control and resistance.
Key Words
Conflict, Resistance, Liberation, Resolution, Occupation, Demographic Engineering, Human Rights