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India - Ladakh - Gen Z protests

01/10/2025

Protests similar to Nepal's Gen Z uprising had taken place in the capital Leh of Ladakh in northern India, and the Modi government has responded by arresting the well-known personality Sonam Wangchuk on alleged claims of inciting violence in India's sensitive region along the Himalaya near Tibet, China. Modi government has faced several challenges lately as Pakistan has succeeded to cozy back with Washington, and signed a mutual defense alliance with Saudi Arabia. 

Sonam's hunger strike triggered youth of the mountains to take to the streets and turned violent as the security forces cracked down on he protests. The fact that the Modi government had taken away Ladakh's autonomy by placing the region directly under the center administration by bisecting it from the erstwhile state Jammu and Kashmir ( also now under the center Delhi) sowed the seeds of discontent and insecurity. As per the local people, the central government did not follow up on their promise to bring investment and jobs, or safeguards the people's interests with quotas and protections in public positions and extend other special protections such as land not being able to be purchased by Indians of other regions. Now they demand statehood for Ladakh and the 'sixth schedule'. The schedule refers to Indian constitution's protection of some tribal areas in the north east. 

India's northern belts along the Himalayas mostly belong to people or tribal communities and naturally they required special treatment and the Indian government's policies have been to address that cautiously given the geographical sensitivity of the regions. However, there are several social and political complications in Kashmir or India's north east, and there has not been any equilibrium of policies or people's demands which result often in violent protests and crackdowns. Modi government was being criticized recently  for failing to tackle the problems of India's north east, and now his solution to simply arrest the scientist activist Sonam (reportedly a patriot for his contributions)  shows yet another incident of lack of freedom of expression in the north.  

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