Khawaja Chak was supposed to be preparing to celebrate Eid, an important Islamic festival, at the weekend. Instead, he found himself organising a rally.

Key points: India's latest move undermines Kashmir's self-determination

India's latest move undermines Kashmir's self-determination But some say it will allow Hindu Pandits to return home

But some say it will allow Hindu Pandits to return home Experts say repeated injustices are causing a cycle of violence in the region

The Kashmiri Muslim, who has been studying IT in Melbourne for the past three years, was born just kilometres from the hotly contested Line of Control that cuts through Kashmir, separating it into patches of land controlled by India and Pakistan.

But the Indian Government's snap decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir of special status sent shockwaves across the world as the region was plunged into an information black hole.

"We have no contact right now. They're in lockdown," Mr Chak said.

"It's like a prison in Kashmir now."

About half of his relatives live in India-controlled Kashmir. Not knowing what's happening to them is agonising for him and others in his community.

A map of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, which will lose their special status. ( Reuters )

The events of the past week have revealed deep fault lines among the Kashmiri, Indian and Pakistani communities in Australia.

Pakistanis and some Kashmiris fear it will lead to a loss of self-determination in the Muslim majority area, but some in the Indian community welcomed the move, saying it would bring prosperity and give Hindu Pandits hailing from Kashmir a chance to return to their homeland.

'A total injustice for the people'

Khawaja Chak, centre, is studying IT in Melbourne and is dismayed about the events unfolding in his home of Kashmir. ( Supplied )

Hundreds of supporters gathered at the Unity for Free Kashmir protest at Melbourne's Federation Square on Saturday.

Accountant Aziz Ur Rehman Khan said a handful of people from the Indian community held their cameras close to the protesters and described them as "dogs" in derogatory social media posts.

"They tried to harass us," he said.

For protest organiser Mr Chak, India's latest move was just one in a long series of injustices.

"I saw by my own eyes firing from the Indian side," he said.

"Cluster bombs killed a lot of people on our side as well."

He said two of his cousins, aged just 17 and 23, had been killed by Indian soldiers for breaking curfew in recent years.

"They don't let minorities live as they want to live," he said.

"It's a total injustice for the people … I don't want India in my homeland. We want freedom."

Hindu Pandits yearn for home

Mr Razdan's in-laws, Janki Nath Tikkoo and Jayanti Tikkoo, pictured in Melbourne, long to return home to Kashmir. ( Supplied )

But for Australia's Kashmiri Pandits who were forced out of the region in the 1990s, the Modi Government's scrapping Article 370 was a sign of hope for their eventual return.

Rakhil Razdan recalls the events that led to a mass exodus of the Hindu population.

"All Hindu houses were marked with paint," he said.

Messages were broadcast over mosque speakers. He said people were murdered in broad daylight. They were hounded from their homes, he said.

"They asked the Pandit community to leave Kashmir, or else they would get rid of us," he said.

His in-laws left with a suitcase and the clothes on their backs.

Mr Razdan moved to Australia with his wife in 1990. His in-laws soon followed, in 1996.

But his father-in-law so desperately wanted to return to Kashmir that he considered converting to Islam.

"Even after moving here, his heart was back in Kashmir," Mr Razdan said.

He said the Hindu Pandit community in Australia was "unanimously over the moon" about India revoking Kashmir's status.

"I haven't been able to go back in 30 years," he said.

"We have anger, a lot of anger. But we still want peace."

His two daughters have never seen his home. But now, he says, there's a glimmer of hope.

"You always want to go back to the place where you were born and spent your childhood."

'A recipe for more violence'

A security guard during a lockdown in Srinagar after the Indian government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of autonomy. ( AFP: Sajjad Hussain )

Dr Priya Chacko, an expert in politics and international relations at the University of Adelaide, said what's unfolding in Kashmir is the culmination of a long-term nationalist project, "in which a particular version of Hindu identity is dominant and religious and ethnic minorities are treated as second-class citizens and potential threats to the nation".

She said there should have been both consultation and a constitutional process before revoking Article 370.

A Kashmiri protest was held in Melbourne on the weekend and tensions have flared on social media. ( Supplied )

"That there wasn't reflects the BJP government's growing centralisation of power and its erosion of democratic processes," she said.

Dr Chacko said reducing Jammu and Kashmir to two union territories means that Kashmiris will have less autonomy.

She said the Government sought to "demographically overwhelm" the region by trying to integrate Kashmir with the rest of the country through encouraging investment and migration, rather than "ethnically cleansing" it, which "requires a level of social engineering that isn't familiar in India".

"This move in Kashmir does appeal to a broad cross-section of the public that is sick of the Kashmir conflict and wants quick fixes to complex issues," she said.

But Dr Chacko said recent moves were repeating a destructive cycle.

"What happened to Pandits was wrong and it was the product of an insurgency that developed among Kashmiri Muslims who were disaffected because of the way they were being treated by the Indian state," she said.

"We're simply repeating that pattern now. Addressing an injustice by committing another injustice is a recipe for more violence."

Deep divisions in South Asian communities

Residents gather in support of Kashmiri people during an anti-Indian protest in Quetta, Pakistan. ( AFP: Banaras Khan )

The attack on two Christchurch mosques in March this year sparked discussion about the rise of right-wing terrorism.

The Pakistani Community in Australia expressed "deep concern" over the "escalating violence", saying that India wanted to shift the demographics in the region.

"The Indian forces have unleased a reign of terror on the unarmed, peaceful people of Kashmir," they said in a statement.

"The intended social engineering to deny the indigenous people their basic rights including the right to self determination.

"We strongly condemn the Indian actions in India-occupied Kashmir, which have put the lives of millions of Kashmiris in jeopardy and endangered regional peace and stability."

But Jay Shah, president of the Overseas Friends of BJP in Australia, said Pakistan should not interfere.

"This is something India has done internally. Pakistan has no right to say that. They should worry about themselves," he said, adding that parts of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir had been a "hotbed for terrorist camps".

"I think it's a very positive step from India. It will only bring stability, peace and prosperity to Kashmiris."

A pro-Kashmir autonomy rally was held in Melbourne over the weekend. ( Supplied )

Protest organisers said they had supporters from different communities, including the Turkish community and members of the Sikh faith, a monotheistic religion from India's northern Punjab region.

Jasbir Singh Suropada, chairman of the Sikh Interfaith Council of Victoria, said the Sikhs "always speak up for human rights and against any injustice".

"It's a very bad thing. We are just now hoping for peace on both sides," he said.

"Sikhs are also still having their wounds not heal from the 1984 genocide," he said, referring to an event sparked by the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

"[Sikhs] understand the pain that they might be going through."