To the Editor:

Re “The Silence Is the Loudest Sound” (Sunday Review, Aug. 18):

Thanks to Arundhati Roy for her forthright account of the illegal actions of the Modi government in India by overturning Article 370 of the Indian Constitution (which gave autonomy to Kashmir) and brutally repressing the people of Kashmir.

The targeted attack on Kashmir has been preceded and supplemented by systematic attacks on minorities (especially Muslims), evidenced in lynch mobs that go scot-free and efforts to silence academics, public intellectuals, writers, filmmakers, artists, lawyers and anyone who dares to challenge the disastrous curtailing of freedom of speech, right to assembly and academic freedom.

I applaud individuals and organizations courageously standing up for the rights of the Kashmiri people. India should not be allowed to hide behind the frequently evoked doctrine that Kashmir is an internal matter. The international community must join hands with those (particularly from Kashmir) who are protesting, challenging the actions of the government in court and courageously documenting the violence against the Kashmiri people.

Severe repression of the Muslim population in Kashmir will not redress the injustice that was done to Kashmir’s Hindu Pandit community, who should surely be compensated and an apology rendered to them. But to use one historical injustice to unleash terror on a region is vengeance, not justice. This is not the India of Gandhi, nor is it the Hinduism we, who once loved this country, want or can live with.