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India is using the G20 summit to further its settler-colonial ambitions in Kashmir

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Complicity, Urban renewal, Bharatiya Janata Party, Travel, United Nations, International, Violence, Tourism, Eye, Line of Control, CCTV, Kashmir, Government, Dislocation, NDP, BJP, Line, Control, G20, Amarnath Temple, Ethics, Colonialism, Federation, Commodification, International law, Sustainable development, Social media, Carpet, Nursing, Hunting, Kashmiris

In September, India will host the 2023 Group of 20 (G20) summit in the capital, New Delhi.

Key Points: 
  • In September, India will host the 2023 Group of 20 (G20) summit in the capital, New Delhi.
  • Under its G20 presidency, India will host a Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, in late May.
  • International delegates will also visit Gulmarg, a popular winter destination, under tight security provided by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs.
  • Hosting G20 delegates in Srinagar is a step towards normalizing India’s occupation of Kashmir internationally.

Normalizing occupation

    • These revitalization campaigns are designed to create a sanitized image of Kashmir for foreign delegates.
    • The region remains troubled by violence and human rights abuses, as well as draconian media restrictions.
    • Human rights activists and journalists are being arrested and there have been reports of hundreds of young people being detained by security forces.
    • This is in sharp contrast to the treatment of Kashmiris by Indian security personnel.

G20 and tourism

    • Founded in 2020, the G20’s Tourism Working Group guides the development of local and global tourism among G20 countries with an eye to achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
    • The G20 meeting is the first global event to be held in the Kashmir valley since India unilaterally removed the region’s semi-autonomous status in 2019.
    • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) long opposed Kashmir’s special status.

Tourism is big business

    • Domestic tourists from India visited Kashmir in record numbers last year.
    • Since coming into power in 2014, Modi’s government has also heavily promoted religious tourism in the disputed territory.

Tourism and settler-colonialism

    • Tourism plays a direct role in legitimizing and expanding the Indian control of Kashmiri lands.
    • Kashmir scholar Ather Zia cautions against uncritically accepting tourism as a form of development.
    • Tourism in settler-colonial contexts is an extension of imperial politics.

Decolonizing tourism

    • All of this raises questions about the ethics of tourism in occupied territories.
    • There is no simple resolution for tourism on occupied lands.
    • Tourism amid settler-colonialism manifests in exploitation, dispossession, commodification and other injustices and inequities.