In India-administered Kashmir, many people boycotted elections for decades in protest against Indian rule. But in the run-up to the local election beginning on Wednesday, many are willing to buck that trend and use their vote to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party the power to form a local government in the disputed region. The vote is the first in a decade, and the first since Modi’s government in 2019 scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s special status and downgraded the former state to a federally governed territory.
