For a region like Kashmir – already stripped of its constitutionally granted identity, political voice, and legislative autonomy – the Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025 launches a fresh attack, threatening devastation and the very fabric of Kashmiri Muslim heritage. This bill is not a mere legislation, it is a well-planned surgical strike on the cultural and spiritual base of Muslim identity.Masked as reform, development, and transparency, it empowers the government’s machinery to dismantle age-old religious endowments with chilling precision, sending a clear message: if you must live here, we will decide how. With every session of parliament, the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) further arms itself to marginalise Muslim minorities through new laws – and Kashmir has always been their central point. Since the BJP’s 2014 victory, debates around Kashmir’s religious history – including the origins of Muslim rule and cultural transitions – have resurfaced in public discourse.In 2015, the BJP and People’s Democratic Party cobbled together what they called a “holy alliance” – an arrangement supposedly meant to understand the ground realities of Kashmir, especially in Muslim-majority areas. The BJP had already penetrated the Hindu-majority Jammu region but had not breached the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley. The alliance was thus a strategic and a well-planned move – forged to politically infiltrate the region. By 2018, the so-called alliance crumbled. The BJP consciously withdrew support from the PDP, ending the coalition on a cold, calculated note – after which the region slipped into the hands of the governor appointed by the Union government.This signalled a tectonic shift: since the ground had not become fertile for BJP domination, they would instead seek to control the region directly. Then in 2019, without the consent of its people, the state was divided and downgraded to a Union Territory. Control of the former state was now directly in the hands of the Union government. For four years – and continuing to this day – power has remained solely with the Lieutenant Governor. This has resulted in all autonomous institutions being placed under the control of individuals appointed by the BJP. The Jammu and Kashmir waqf board was placed under the leadership of a BJP figure. Similar restructuring occurred to various institutions such as the Jammu and Kashmir Bank and the Kashmir Press Club – that ended on a very cold note. The club was shut down by the J&K administration in 2022. Another recent example illustrates this control: the overnight transfer of JKAS (Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services) officers, ordered unilaterally by the LG. Before that, all IAS-cadre district magistrates were reshuffled – most likely in favour of those aligned with the Union government’s preferences. This reflects a chilling precision: any district magistrate who doesn’t comply will be replaced.Concerns also emerged regarding public and religious spaces. One such instance was the plan to construct a multi-speciality hospital at the historic Eidgah in Srinagar – an area of deep religious significance. Following public outcry and widespread resentment, the plan was paused. However, the apprehension remained: this was not about healthcare, but about controlling religious endowments.These developments set the stage for the impact of the waqf(Amendment) Bill, 2025 in Kashmir. The amendment, which calls for representation “beyond religious lines,” effectively transfers the authority of community-driven waqf leadership to the District Magistrate – in the case of Kashmir, this possibly means that this official’s state head is not the chief minister but the Lieutenant Governor. With this amendment, the administration of waqf properties will no longer rest with the community, it will be a matter of political choice, dictated by the preferences of those in power at Delhi.At the heart of this legislation lies a dangerous step: the process to reclassify waqf properties – mosques, shrines, graveyards, orphanages – from sacred spaces to government-controlled assets. Previously, once a property was designated as waqf, it remained waqf forever. The very term means the property is returned to God, and no human can alter that status. But this amendment allows for a seismic shift, where a human bureaucrat can rename and reclassify the waqf properties at his own will, making them vulnerable to arbitrary re-designation.Here lies the problem: most of these bureaucrats are officers posted from across the Indian Union, with no connection to Kashmir’s unique history. This is the case with all IAS officers posted in regions far from their native origin. But in a contested region – where colonial disruptions and years of turmoil have left many waqf lands undocumented – this isn’t reform. It’s a calculated path to dispossession.Kashmir’s waqf properties are unique: decentralised, often sustained through oral legacy and spiritual inheritance. Unlike other parts of India, where many waqf properties have long been formally registered, Kashmir’s major share comprises shrines that serve as living archives of faith and history – yet remain undocumented. The architecture itself narrates a story. Local Muslims have been the primary contributors to these endowments, and many livelihoods—such as those of people who lease shops from local mosques—depend on the properties managed by the community-driven waqf.With the amendment in place, permissions for lease renewals now require approval from the District Magistrate – a bureaucratic hurdle that threatens to displace those who rely on these properties. A key obstacle in this amendment is the mandatory documentation of waqf properties. The majority of the waqf properties in Kashmir were never registered not due to neglect, but because their divine nature made formal registration seem unnecessary. After all, who would have thought to formally register property donated to serve the common good in the name of god? Yet the new amendment demands formal and documented proof, erasing oral legacies and empowering the state machinery to seize undocumented religious endowments. It also undermines the principle of waqf by use – where continued religious use sanctifies the land.Perhaps the most audacious feature of the amendment is its attack on representation. Waqf boards, meant to protect Muslim religious assets, can now include non-Muslims. The requirement for a Muslim CEO has been scrapped. This is not inclusivity – it’s dilution. Entrusting religious institutions to those who do not share the community’s faith seems to be a direct attack.This will not stop here. This opens the floodgates for encroachment on all faiths. In Kashmir – where land is more than geography, land is memory – losing waqf properties risks erasing a pluralistic heritage. Shrines that have stood for centuries, visited by people of all faiths, could disappear under the banner of “development.” This is not reform. It is cultural vandalism in policy’s clothing.If the government’s intentions are truly reformative, let it engage with the communities affected – not override them. Kashmiris deserve a political voice, not decisions handed down from above.The government must begin with restoring community-based agencies, re-establishing democratic oversight, and recognising that faith-based institutions cannot be retained through bureaucratic control but through the trust of the people they are chosen to serve. Only then will justice begin to replace dispossession, and dignity reclaim its place over domination.Yasir Altaf Zargar is a banker, cybersecurity expert and specialist in Indian polity and constitutional issues. Currently working on rural self-employment at a local bank, he uses his expertise to empower rural communities.