Ballots over Bullets: Kashmir’s Srinagar Records Highest Turnout Since 1996Ballots over Bullets:

Men queue up to cast their ballots at a polling station during the fourth phase of voting in India’s general election, in Ganderbal on May 13, 2024. (Photo by TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP)

When 62-year-old Ghulam Qadir Wani went to vote in his Srinagar constituency in India’s national elections, what he had uppermost in his mind was hope. A hope for the future in a region which only witnessed despair, violence, stone-pelting, and negativism for decades.

“This is not a vote in protest against our past; it is a vote of umeed (hope)...