Srinagar, July 29 -- In a remote corner of south Kashmir's Shopian district, 16-year-old Insha logs into a YouTube channel to revise her physics lessons. The Wi-Fi signal is unstable. The electricity, unreliable. But she keeps going, like thousands of students across the valley, who now rely on digital devices to pursue their education, connect with the outside world, and imagine futures their parents could not have dreamed of.

This is the face of Kashmir's digital transformation. It's a story of hope, but also one riddled with fault lines.

With smartphones in most pockets, and social media shaping everything from community calls to career ambitions, Kashmir is now a digital society, without having had time to prepare for it.

Over the ...