The connection runs deep sufficient that the area has lengthy been nicknamed Irani Sagir (or Mini Iran.)
Throughout cities and villages, portraits of Khamenei appeared at donation occasions the place residents contributed no matter they might spare: banknotes, gold jewelry and even copper utensils.
The gathering drives, held in late March in cities together with Budgam and Srinagar, allowed proceeds to be wired on to the Iranian embassy in New Delhi. Iran’s embassy in India has additionally posted a QR code for donations on X since March 23.
In only one week, practically ₹18 crore (about $2 million) was collected throughout Kashmir, excluding quantities deposited instantly into the embassy’s account, in accordance with local media reports.
One contribution seen by Iran Worldwide was ₹26 lakh (round $28,000).
The fundraising got here weeks after widespread protests erupted throughout Kashmir following the US-Israeli airstrike that killed Khamenei on Feb. 28.
Demonstrations in Srinagar turned violent in locations, leaving no less than 12 folks injured, together with 5 cops. Authorities responded with tear fuel and batons, shut colleges, throttled cellular web for 5 days and arrested no less than 50 folks.
Among the many outpouring of grief had been requires revenge from some protesters.“Those that oppress Muslims—we are going to kill them,” one unnamed demonstrator in Srinagar instructed Reuters on March 1.
The unrest prompted authorities to research a number of political figures accused of spreading inflammatory content material on-line. Amongst them was Srinagar MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, an influential Shia cleric with a cross-sectarian following.
“Some fools in J&Okay Police and administration assume that by withdrawing/downgrading my safety element and suspending my Fb account will cease me from calling out their atrocities. It’s laughable,” Mehdi wrote on Facebook.
Former Srinagar mayor Junaid Azim Mattu additionally had his safety withdrawn after condemning Khamenei’s killing on X.
Citrinowicz, Danny Citrinowicz, a fellow on the Institute for Nationwide Safety Research in Tel Aviv and former head of the Iran department in Israeli army intelligence, warned that the donations had been a attainable indication {that a} post-Ali Khamenei Islamic Republic, probably dominated by the IRGC, would show extra operationally aggressive, not much less.
“Those that assume it would keep solely on the degree of donations are completely mistaken,” he mentioned.
For students of South Asian Islam, the reactions in Kashmir replicate a longstanding—although usually misunderstood—connection between the area and Iran.
Justin Jones, a specialist in fashionable Islam in South Asia at Oxford College, mentioned that for many Indian Shias the Islamic Republic capabilities primarily as a political image relatively than a direct non secular authority.
“The precise political considered Velayat-e Faqih doesn’t lower very deep in a lot of India,” he mentioned, referencing the Islamic Republic’s central doctrine of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist, based by Ruhollah Khomeini after Iran’s 1979 revolution.
“It’s merely a type of imaginary of Shia energy, which has some psychological impact, however possibly not a political one.”
Kashmir, nevertheless, is completely different.
“Kashmir is likely one of the locations that has been most receptive to Iranian affect,” Jones mentioned, citing each themes of political justice that resonate with native Shia communities and ideological currents linked to Iran’s doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih.
“Iran is perceived because the consultant of the Muslim world,” human rights activist Javed Beigh instructed Iran Worldwide.
“There was no different Muslim chief perceived as strongly towards america and its allies as Seyyed Ali Khamenei,” mentioned Beigh, who’s a Shia Muslim primarily based in Budgam.
That notion, he added, has additionally resonated with some Sunni Muslims throughout the subcontinent, significantly amid Israel’s battle in Gaza.
A Kashmiri legislation scholar who requested to not be recognized described two completely different responses amongst youthful Shias.
One group, he mentioned, views the Islamic Republic as a political system that should survive — and would discover its collapse “virtually existentially shattering”. The opposite sees Iran’s 1979 revolution as a historic course of which will endure even when the present regime falls.
“They consider it as one thing in evolution,” he mentioned. “It would fail quickly, however they’ve a robust perception within the attainable resurgence and resurrection of the system sooner or later.”
Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, an affiliate professor on the Hebrew College of Jerusalem who research Shia Islam in South Asia and the Center East, mentioned the Islamic Republic’s affect within the area extends past politics.
“For them, Iran could be very a lot a spiritual panorama—an enchanted place the place you could have a Shia-run state,” he mentioned.
“The symbolic capital of Iran has not weakened… for South Asian Shia, Iran has been perceived as somebody who stands by them and protects them.”
That connection has deepened as Iranian-trained clerics return to South Asia and pilgrims journey by means of Iran to succeed in holy websites in Iraq, experiencing the nation as a part of a broader sacred geography.
The Kashmiri scholar mentioned many Shias within the area view that geography, stretching from Iran to Iraq, as central to the way forward for Shia political actions.
“Iran and Iraq are seen to inhabit the symbols of the sacred geography of the Shiite custom,” he mentioned. “If such a motion goes to be reborn, it have to be round that geography—not exterior it.”
He estimated that roughly 60 to 70 % of Kashmiri Shias maintain that view: that any future resurgence of the ideology would belong within the Center East relatively than South Asia.
These ties are strengthened by establishments that function independently of Tehran.
The Imam Khomeini Memorial Belief, an Iranian-linked organisation energetic in Kashmir, trains native clerics and funds non secular schooling, in accordance with analysis by the Center East Discussion board.
Al-Mustafa Worldwide College, headquartered in Qom and funded instantly by Iran’s Supreme Chief, operates affiliated seminaries throughout India and Pakistan whose graduates return to run non secular establishments, in accordance with analysis by United Towards Nuclear Iran.
“Many individuals, even from my village, are nonetheless in Iran — dwelling there, doing enterprise, finding out,” Beigh mentioned. “That’s the way you truly develop a robust bond between two communities.”
For some safety analysts, nevertheless, these connections increase issues about political radicalisation.
Sajid Yousuf Shah, a political analyst in Jammu and Kashmir with India’s ruling Hindu nationalist BJP celebration, mentioned ideological loyalty to the Islamic Republic runs deep throughout the area’s Shia neighborhood.
“They don’t need modernisation. They don’t need westernisation. They don’t need any regime change in Iran,” he mentioned, arguing that many supporters hope for the Islamic Republic’s survival relatively than its replication elsewhere.
Abhinav Pandya, CEO of the Usanas Basis, a geopolitical assume tank in India, mentioned Tehran’s ideological outreach has fostered what he described as “extraterritorial loyalties”.
“More and more, the Shia Muslims in India have come beneath the affect of the Iranian regime,” he mentioned. “That could be very problematic.”
Pandya additionally pointed to contacts between Iran-aligned militant teams resembling Hamas and Hezbollah and anti-India militant networks within the area, citing Indian media experiences linking such teams to militant exercise in Kashmir.
It was an identical concern voiced by Citrinowicz, who mentioned Iran’s scholar and non secular networks in India may probably function recruitment channels.
“The platform they’re able to construct—by means of management of spiritual centres, by means of academia, by means of social media—has reworked these locations into fertile floor for recruitment,” he mentioned.
Citrinowicz factors to the Islamic Republic’s historical past of retaliating globally following the killing of its senior figures, with plots disrupted throughout Africa, Europe and Asia after the assassinations of Qasem Soleimani and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020.
“No one needs to be stunned if you happen to’ll see within the subsequent couple of weeks or months (Iran) once more tries to do one thing towards India.”
Indian officers aware of the difficulty, nevertheless, say such fears could also be overstated.
A former official at India’s Nationwide Safety Council Secretariat mentioned the solidarity expressed after Khamenei’s killing mirrored non secular sentiment greater than political mobilisation.
“The reverence is extra on the non secular facet than on a wrestle facet,” he mentioned, describing the protests as a type of collective mourning typical of Shia communities.
Whereas authorities had been monitoring the donation drives, he mentioned they didn’t contemplate them important sufficient to warrant intervention. The donations themselves additionally reveal a extra complicated image.
Native media reported that some Hindu donors sympathetic to Iran’s historic ties with the subcontinent additionally contributed to the fundraising drive.
Fabrizio Speziale, a Professor of Indo-Persian historical past on the Faculty for Superior Research within the Social Sciences in Paris, mentioned the cultural connecti
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