Vol. 3, Issue 7, Part C (2017)

Abstract
The Research Paper closely studies Chinese and Indian government policies and practices in Xinjiang and Kashmir respectively. The most critical challenge to India and China’s stability is the ethnic tension in Kashmir and Xinjiang. The issue has been intimately connected to Islamist insurgencies. From New Delhi and Beijing’s perspective, the situation in Xinjiang and Kashmir presents it with a series of troublesome characteristics. First, the Uyghur and the Kashmiris are the dominant ethnic group in Xinjiang and Kashmir. Secondly, both the Kashmiris and the Uyghur are predominantly Muslims. The purpose of this study is to try and understand what the Chinese and Indian approach to managing their ethnic minorities is and what are the various ways and means they endorse in dealing with it. This study will prove helpful in determining the minority policy elsewhere where there are other sizable ethnic groups in minority. In the context of China’s rising as a world power, it is important for India’s overall strategy to see how China manages its restive Muslims, especially the Uyghurs. This understanding may help India to avoid the errors of interpretation in its minority policy strategies and put it in a better position. The Uyghur struggle contains many elements familiar to students of ethnic movements. Two key international forces bear directly on the nature of the Uyghur issue. The first is the growing global force of identity politics and movements for national autonomy among dissatisfied minorities. The second is the tendency of Islamist movements to play growing roles in the independence movements of Muslim minorities. These two forces influence much of the politics across the region.