India’s Diverging Paths in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India—Meet Rehman and Syed. The two, both in their mid-20s, live a short distance from each other in Indian-administered Kashmir. Both live under a heavy military presence, their movements circumscribed, and are unable to question the ubiquitous men in uniform. Both had brothers who opted for militancy, taking up arms against the Indian authorities, eventually dying at the hands of the Indian army.

And now both symbolize a widening split among Kashmiris. On the one side is Rehman. His brother was killed in the 1990s, when an insurgency against the Indian government was at its peak, and his body lies in a graveyard near an apple orchard in the district of Pulwama. Yet Rehman, who asked that he not be identified by his full name for safety concerns, holds out hope that reconciliation with New Delhi is possible. On the other side is Syed, who lives in the neighboring district of Shopian. The night before I met him, he had holed up in a