How Smartphones are Shaping Kashmir's Insurgency by Justin Rowlatt, BBC
It is all too easy to dismiss the upsurge in violence in Indian-administered Kashmir this weekend as just another cycle in a conflict that has ebbed and flowed ever since the country's independence in 1947.
But that would be to ignore a new factor that is transforming the nature of protest in the region.
There's a clue to what is happening in the government's response to the threat of disorder.
They [Smartphones] are the fastest selling gadgets in history, outstripping the popularity of even the mobile phones that proceeded them. And nowhere is the revolution more pronounced than in India…
Here you can pick up a basic but perfectly functional smartphone for as little as $30 (£22).
Even these humble devices pack in more number-crunching muscle than NASA had when it put men on the moon…
What's changed in Kashmir is how many people are now able to receive the messages.
Until the rise of smartphones, accessing these kind of messages meant a trip to the local Internet café - something only a tiny minority ever did.
Now they flash up on your Facebook feed as you are doing the dishes or feeding the goats.
And, with data prices plummeting - in 2005 a megabyte of data would cost you $10, now it is just a couple of cents - everyone can afford to listen in.
No surprise then that the ready audience Wani found in the now-connected valleys of Kashmir has become a key factor in the evolution of the unrest here.
It isn't good news for India…