On 26 October 2020, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) imposed another order upon Jammu and Kashmir. This time annulling the region’s hard-won land laws that had ended decades of tyranny and slavery of the powerful landlords under the rule of the autocratic Dogra Hindus.

The day that the BJP chose to impose this law is also symbolic. On 27 October in 1947, the last Dogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh, had signed a conditional accession to the Indian Union and Indian troops had landed in Kashmir.

In our latest podcast, host Sarwat Javaid speaks to Dr. Suhail Rehman,  a lecturer in the department of higher education in Handwara about the current land laws are reminiscent of the land usage system under the Dogra rule and if New Delhi is turning the clock back to take Kashmir to the Dogra times by imposing these land laws. Dr. Suhail has a doctorate in the agrarian history of Jammu and Kashmir from the Aligarh Muslim University.