As the 10+ day internet shutdown in Kashmir continues, pharmacists run out of drugs, people can't get cash, and online related businesses close
Pharmacists can't restock medicines; workers aren't being paid. But the government still loves to block the internet for “peace and tranquillity.” Tweets: @nihamasih , @nytimestech , @vindugoel , @puiwingtam , @dr_rita39 , @vindugoel , @shashj , and @kashhill Tweets: Niha Masih / @nihamasih : 'Masroor Nazir, a pharmacist in Kashmir's biggest city, Srinagar, has some advice for people in the region: Do not get sick" - terrific piece on the human cost of an internet shutdown by @vindugoel @sameeryasir https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytimestech : Last year, India blocked the internet 134 times, compared with 12 shutdowns in Pakistan - the world's No. 2 country in the amount of times it shut down the internet. But this latest shutdown has been far more sweeping than others, Kashmiris said. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Vindu Goel / @vindugoel : Kashmir is paralyzed as the government continues a total communications blackout. “I don't know when to sleep, when to wake up, what to do with my life,” said a resident. “There is no life without internet, even in Kashmir.” with @Karan_Singhs @sameeryasir https://www.nytimes.com/... Pui-Wing Tam / @puiwingtam : Kashmir heads into its 11th day with no internet. @vindugoel @Karah_Singhs @sameeryasir on the fallout, including how India's govt has blocked the internet in at least part of the region 54 times this year. https://www.nytimes.com/... Dr Rita Pal / @dr_rita39 : Pharmacists can't restock medicines; workers aren't being paid. But the government still loves to block the internet for “peace and tranquillity.” India Shut Down #Kashmir's Internet Access. Now, ‘We Cannot Do Anything.’ Watch the report here https://www.nytimes.com/... Vindu Goel / @vindugoel : The Indian government loves to shut down the internet, and Kashmir is its favorite place to do it. The latest shutdown has left the region paralyzed. https://www.nytimes.com/... via @nytimes Shashank Joshi / @shashj : “Shopkeepers said that vital supplies like insulin and baby food, which they typically ordered online, were running out. Cash was scarce, as metal shutters covered the doors and windows of banks and ATMs, which relied on the internet for every transaction” https://www.nytimes.com/... Kashmir Hill / @kashhill : Kashmir is on its 11th day with no internet and it's a problem. https://www.nytimes.com/... (Not just sharing because the province is indirectly my namesake.)
Context & Ripple Effects
The Kashmir blackout began as a communications cutoff and is now an economic one: pharmacists like Masroor Nazir in Srinagar cannot restock insulin or baby food ordered online, ATMs are down, and online-dependent businesses have closed with workers going unpaid. India had already blocked the internet 134 times last year, making shutdowns a routine instrument rather than an emergency measure.
The arc since this piece ran confirms the pattern hardening rather than easing — the Kashmir shutdown stretched into a fourth month, with residents even losing WhatsApp accounts under platform inactivity policies, before India extended blackouts to two more states home to 32M people during citizenship-bill protests. Later tallies priced the tactic: Top10VPN put the cost of India's 2019-2022 shutdowns at over $4.8B in lost economic activity.
First-order effects
- Kashmir's pharmacists and shopkeepers face immediate drug and supply shortages because restocking runs through online ordering that the blackout severs, while residents lose access to cash as banks and ATMs sit offline.
- Online-dependent businesses in the region close outright and workers go unpaid, converting a communications restriction into direct income loss within days.
Second-order effects
- Platforms become collateral enforcers of the shutdown — WhatsApp's inactive-account policy deletes Kashmiri accounts during the blackout, adding a digital penalty on top of the physical one.
- The measurable economic damage gives governments a comparative menu: Bloomberg's Hong-versus-Kashmir comparison argues propaganda-flooding may suppress unrest at lower cost than total blackout, pressuring states to refine rather than abandon information control.
Third-order effects
- Shutdowns normalize as standard state crisis tooling — by 2020 a report counted 29 countries intentionally throttling or cutting traffic, with India most frequent at 109 times, mostly in Kashmir — pushing economies toward offline resilience costs (cash hoarding, paper records) that disproportionately hit small traders.
- Cumulative, quantified losses like the $4.8B figure create the raw material for litigation, investor risk pricing, and international pressure to treat connectivity as a protected economic input rather than a discretionary government switch.
The trend: Governments are shifting from treating internet access as infrastructure to wielding it as an instrument of order, with India's escalating shutdown cadence the leading edge of a practice spreading across dozens of countries.