essay on article 370 and 35a

From Domicile to Dominion: India’s Settler Colonial Agenda in Kashmir

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On August 5, 2019, the Indian government revoked the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir 1 by abrogating Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution. 2 Although many saw Article 370 as largely symbolic, Article 35A of the Constitution had a practical function for preserving Kashmiri identity. Article 35A vested Kashmir’s legislative assembly with the sole authority to define “permanent residents.” Significantly, the local government was able to affix special privileges — such as the ability to purchase land — to permanent residents. The effect was that only Kashmiris could own property in a region that India has long claimed as its own. In revoking Article 35A, the Indian government unearthed a fear that Kashmiris had been wrestling with since Independence: that India would recruit non-Kashmiri settlers to dilute the region’s ethnic and religious makeup.

August 5, then, marked a critical turning point in the Kashmir dispute. Although the colonial lens has been applied to Kashmir in the past, the abrogation suggests that the settler colonial lens may be more fitting. Settler colonialism is premised on the recruitment of a settler class whose goal is not only to occupy indigenous land but also to eliminate the indigenes who stand in their way. Thus, as non-Kashmiris flood the region as new residents, India’s identity as a settler state comes to the fore.

The law often plays a crucial role in facilitating the erasure and elimination of indigenous communities in settler colonial projects. Exploring features of the post-Partition legal regime — especially military impunity, arbitrary detention, and displacement — reveals how the settler colonial mindset animated India’s relationship with Kashmir long before the events of August 5th.

This Note uses settler colonial theory to explain how the August 5 abrogation came about. It begins by laying out a theoretical framework for understanding settler colonialism. Next, it contextualizes and documents the legally momentous events of August 5, 2019, highlighting both the thwarted promises of Kashmiri autonomy and the growing settler colonial desire to control Kashmir and its land. It concludes by analyzing the legal regime that facilitated the full emergence of the settler project today. While August 5 may have been the tipping point for the settler colonial project in Kashmir, it was in no way the start.

I. Settler Colonialism as a Lens

For some, August 5 will join the unfortunate list of days of colonial and “post-colonial” violence: Australia Day, Waitangi Day, Yawm an-Nakba, and Columbus Day. 3 Scholars and commentators fear that abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A will precipitate India’s “settler colonial project” in Kashmir: India can now recruit non-Kashmiris to dilute the region’s predominantly Muslim population. 4 Settler colonial studies is a relatively new field of interest in post-colonial literature. Traditionally a school of anthropological and political thought, settler colonialism has often been applied to dissect the struggles of indigenous communities in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. 5 Scholars have also extended the framework to explain the twentieth-century settler projects waged against Palestinians. 6

Colonialism and settler colonialism are distinct, yet intertwined, modes of oppression. While both entail migration and a relationship of ascendency, their ultimate desires are fundamentally different. 7 Colonizers say, “[Y]ou, work for me,” settler colonizers say, “[Y]ou, go away.” 8

Classic colonialism is “a system of domination” facilitated by territorial acquisition. 9 The colonizers, in dominating an indigenous majority, act to fulfill the interests of their distant metropolis. 10 Their goal is not to stay in their newly sought territory, but rather to exploit profits to “sustain the permanent subordination of the colonised.” 11

The primary objective of settler colonialism, by contrast, is to permanently occupy the colonized territory: settler states recruit settler classes that “bring with them a purported sovereign prerogative to establish a new state on someone else’s land.” 12 To sustain their dominion, settler states — with the help of a local administration 13 — will spin narratives of a unique cultural identity, create independent structures of law and order, and rely on both military and economic power. 14 Law, in particular, often cements and expands a settler colonial project. 15 The law not only establishes and reestablishes the allocation of land and resources but also controls the distribution of violence in a settler regime. 16

In settler colonialism, territory is fetishized. 17 Land is the object of desire; the place where settlers can imagine a society of their choosing on land perceived as their own. 18 In the heat of this desire, settlers rationalize the elimination of the indigenous who complicate the realization of their imagined polity. 19 It is the synchronization of these forces that gives the project its distinctive feature: replacement. 20

To replace is to eliminate the indigenous population. This replacement is driven by the “logic of elimination.” The “logic of elimination,” famously coined by Professor Patrick Wolfe, 21 does not necessary entail violence. To eliminate the indigenous equally includes displacement, forced assimilation, and the induced disappearance of indigenous heritage and institutions. 22 Whereas classic colonialism is marked by a vicious cycle where the freedom of the colonized is perpetually postponed, true settler colonialism will “extinguish[] itself,” so there is no indigenous community to stand in distinction from the realized settler one. 23 The indigenous identity, unlike the colonized one, is entirely dispensable. 24

II. The Denial of Autonomy

To understand the nature of the abrogation, one first needs to understand the autonomy promised to Kashmiris in the aftermath of the Partition of British India. This Part details that history, noting not only how Article 370 came to be but also how it was subsequently whittled to a legal fiction. It shows that Kashmir’s autonomy was hollowed by no small coincidence — a growing settler desire for Kashmir and its sacralized land facilitated the modern settler colonial project in the region.

A. The Making of Article 370

The recent changes to Kashmir’s legal framework trace back to the region’s contested story in the Partition of British India. 25 In August 1947, Jammu and Kashmir was one of the largest “princely states” in the Indian subcontinent. 26 The region was culturally and topographically heterogeneous, and uniquely abutted both Indian and Pakistani frontiers. 27 It included what is now the largely Hindu, low-hilled region of Jammu; the majority-Muslim valley of Kashmir; and the Buddhist and Shia Muslim, high-peaked Ladakh. 28 Notably, the princely state, although predominantly Muslim, was ruled by a Hindu king, Maharaja Hari Singh. 29

How would Kashmir’s future manifest in a free Indian subcontinent? For other princely states, the question reduced to one of religion: majority-Muslim states would follow Pakistan and the rest, India. 30 However, given its geographic and demographic complexities, Jammu and Kashmir did not fit neatly into this binary. 31 Both the Maharaja’s own preference for an independent Kashmir 32 and a growing movement of Kashmiris revolting against the Maharaja 33 only complicated this arithmetic further.

Thus, when confronted with the question of accession, the Maharaja opted instead for “standstill agreements” that left Kashmir’s sovereignty intact. 34 But such agreements did not last very long. In what is a largely contested history, 35 the arrival of armed groups from Pakistan forced Maharaja Singh’s hand: he signed the Instrument of Accession in exchange for India’s defensive support. 36 Despite assurances for a plebiscite from Indian government officials 37 and later the United Nations, 38 an inquiry into the desires of the people never took place. Instead, what resulted was the first of three wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir 39 and the drafting of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

Article 370 set out to create an expansive, explicit, and sui generis semi-autonomous regime for the state. First, Article 370 curtailed the powers of the central government over Kashmir to three domains: defense, external affairs, and communication. 40 Only Article I of the Indian Constitution and Article 370 itself would apply to the state of their own force, 41 though other constitutional provisions could be applied through presidential orders, provided they received the “consultation” or “concurrence” of the state government. 42 Lastly, it provided that the President could render the article inoperative “by public notification,” but only with “the recommendation of the [state] Constituent Assembly.” 43 In effect, Jammu and Kashmir became the only state empowered to block the application of federal legislation by not passing it in the state legislature. 44

One of the most critical exercises of Article 370 powers was the adoption of Article 35A to the Indian Constitution via Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954. 45 The order empowered the state legislature to both define the “permanent residents” of the state and attach specific privileges to such residency, including the ability to settle in the state and purchase land and immovable property. 46

With this legal regime as the backdrop, the Constituent Assembly adopted its own state constitution to further define the relationship between the region and the government of India. 47 Building on the prior order, the Constitution notably limited “permanent residents” to long-time residents in the State. 48 The effect of this provision was to safeguard Kashmir from outsiders — a movement initially launched by Kashmiri Hindus hoping to keep “Kashmir for Kashmiris” in the 1920s. 49 Although the Constituent Assembly later dissolved, the Supreme Court maintained that Article 370 “continue[d] to be in force.” 50

B. A Hollowed Autonomy

Article 370’s “force” proved to be de minimis. Just as the plebiscite was a “pledge not redeemed,” 51 Article 370’s promise of autonomy was largely unfulfilled. In the years following Partition, forty-seven presidential orders extended 260 of the Indian Constitution’s 395 articles to Kashmir. 52 India removed Kashmir’s unique legal features — like the Prime Ministership. 53 Litigation “to remove destructive provisions of the Article 370” is not a present-day anomaly; 54 even where litigation was unsuccessful, the article’s dilution was not. 55 The federal and state administrative apparatus — from elections to Indian central rule over the state — has largely facilitated this dilution. 56 In particular, elections have largely been criticized as “showpiece[s] of [Indian] legitimacy” in Kashmir. 57 The introduction of national parliamentary elections eroded the distinction between Kashmir and the rest of India. 58 As for state elections, an interventionist central government often uninstalled, reinstalled, and hand-picked local leaders. 59 The result? A gradient of “pro-India” state political parties. 60

The use of Governor’s 61 and President’s 62 Rule in Kashmir has repeatedly subjected the region to the political whims of the central government. Both machineries effectively accomplish the same ends 63 : where the state government is perceived as inoperable, Kashmir is put under central rule of the Indian government via a federally appointed governor. 64 Having entered central rule eight times 65 and having faced the longest duration of President’s Rule of any state in India, 66 central rule has particularly silenced Kashmiri political voices. During Kashmir’s longest spell of President’s Rule, the problematic 67 Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act 68 and the Public Safety Act 69 were respectively extended to and expanded in the region. 70 And indeed, it was the use of President’s rule that enabled the 2019 abrogation. 71

As India chipped away at Kashmir’s autonomy, a Kashmiri freedom struggle was amplified. The movement has taken on rich unarmed forms, including protests, boycotts, graffiti, rap, and marking Indian Independence Day as a “Black Day.” 72 But it also has had its armed moments, which resulted in the forcible removal and killing of members of the Kashmiri Hindu minority following controversial elections in the late 1980s. 73

Parallel to the freedom movement is an Indian-launched counterinsurgency strategy, framed around terrorism and facilitated by the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops to Kashmir. 74 Human rights groups estimate that there is one armed person for every seventeen civilians and roughly seven armed personnel to every square kilometer of land in the region, 75 securing Kashmir’s title as one of the world’s most densely militarized regions. 76 These numbers stand in stark contrast to India’s estimates of perceived “militants,” which are only in the hundreds. 77 The militarization has spawned a valley rife with human rights abuse. 78

Ultimately, Article 370 was much more a symbol of Kashmir’s desired autonomy than the mechanism for implementing it. To the extent that Article 370 had more than symbolic weight, it was manifested in Article 35A, which remained largely untouched by the federal government. By safeguarding the rights to owning land, Article 35A served as Kashmir’s primary line of defense against outside interference. To tinker with these articles, then, would be “to set[] a powder keg on fire.” 79

C. Cultivating a Settler Desire

The erosion of Kashmir’s autonomy paralleled — and perhaps stemmed from — a growing narrative of desire for Kashmir. While Kashmir’s land was long “prize[d]” 80 for its fertile soil and strategic geographic location, 81 this India-crafted narrative had a more intimate fervor. Kashmir — said the first Prime Minister of India — was a “supremely beautiful woman, whose beauty is almost impersonal and above human desire.” 82 It is ultimately this desire that has furthered the settler colonial project today.

The lopsided emphasis on Kashmir’s Hindu heritage has supplied non-Kashmiri Hindus with both the reason to desire the region and the justifications to do so. 83 In particular, the promotion of the Amarnath Yatra — a Hindu pilgrimage to an ice formation believed to represent Lord Shiva 84 — has grown increasingly over the years through increased institutional support. 85 Such support has been particularly effective where it has equated the pilgrimage with national pride — where the “yearning for Moksha (salvation)” was also “a befitting gesture of solidarity with . . . soldiers . . . fighting the enemy to defend our borders.” 86

By bringing Hindu temples and relics to the fore, the Indian state and its proponents have only fueled the idea that it is Muslim Kashmiris who are the “exogenous ‘Others.’” 87 In fact, India has crafted Kashmir’s public identity into a Hindu one, as more and more highly romanticized pilgrimages emerge in the Kashmir Valley. 88 Indeed, it was the Amarnath pilgrimage that the state heavily advertised in the months leading up to the abrogation. 89 Ultimately, where India is depicted as the Hindu imaginary “Bharat Mata” (Mother India), Kashmir, in India’s eyes, is her head. 90

Kashmir’s militarization is designed to make Kashmir a place non-Kashmiri Hindus can feel entitled to claim as their own, and to reimagine a Kashmiri identity that excludes its Muslim population. The Amarnath pilgrimage is a full exercise of militarized tourism, packaged neatly under the title “Operation Shiva.” 91 By emphasizing the danger in the Valley with each annual pilgrimage, 92 the military is there to remind pilgrims not only that this is their land but also that they can feel safe in it. 93 India has similarly used the military in proposals for returning the Kashmiri Hindu diaspora back to the region, suggesting enclosed, heavily guarded colonies equipped with their own amenities. 94 This ahistorical vision of a Kashmiri society without Kashmiri Muslims underscores the state’s investment in eliminating the aspects of Kashmiri identity that challenge its settler colonial narrative.

This settler narrative, like most, was still intimately linked to the land, with the Indian state having illegally seized Kashmiri territory well before the abrogation. As of 2018, military forces had illegally grabbed nearly 54,000 acres of land in Kashmir. 95 Included in this occupied land is not just strategic borders but civilian infrastructure like hotels, sports stadiums, university facilities, and hospitals. 96 Occupied land has also frequently, and perhaps conveniently, overlapped with resource-rich regions, like those known for saffron production. 97 Although unsuccessful, the central government had even attempted to transfer forest land to construct temporary shelters and facilities for Amarnath pilgrims. 98

India’s settler-like desire has infected every aspect of life in Kashmir. Signs greeting Indian tourists in Kashmir emphasize not only that Kashmir is atoot ang — an “integral part” — of India, but also that it is “India’s crown,” and that to “[l]ove Kashmir, [is to] love India.” 99 Development projects, like the Kashmir Railway Project, underscore attempts to further Kashmir’s assimilation into the nation. 100 Bollywood cinema has also exploited Kashmir’s landscape for nationalist ends, first portraying it as “a pastoral space emptied of popular unrest or political aspirations” 101 and later “chastiz[ing] the Valley” for forgetting this imagined past. 102 Those same movies regularly depict romance between the Indian male tourist and the Kashmiri woman 103 — a not-so-subtle allegory for assimilation and replacement.

India’s settler desire was most pronounced with the 2014 election, and then 2019 reelection, of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kashmiris, in BJP’s India, were “contrapuntal symbols — of terrorist violence, illegitimate religious impulses, and sedition — for contriving [their] mythical Hindu nation.” 104 Realizing the Hindu nation required the abrogation of Article 370, an explicit promise made by the BJP in their 2019 election manifesto. 105

III. A Settler Colonial Project Realized

Before launching their legal attack on August 5, the Indian government waged a familiar psychological one. 106 It began with the further militarization of the region. 107 Then, the government evacuated thousands of Hindu pilgrims and tourists on August 3, citing a Pakistani-backed terrorist attack. 108 Non-Kashmiri students attending Kashmiri universities were also ordered to leave. 109 When pressed, Indian officials explicitly assured state political leaders that abrogating Articles 370 and 35A was not in question; any reports otherwise were “rumor mongering.” 110 Their assurances, later exposed as lies, launched Kashmiris into a familiar cadence: canceling family events, moving ill family members near hospitals, and stockpiling essentials. 111

By August 5, the siege was in full swing. India imposed a curfew and officers patrolled barbed-wired streets. 112 Former heads of state and pro-freedom leaders were arrested. 113 Both internet and cell phone services were suspended. 114 Before India even made its incendiary attack, Kashmir and its people were left in the dark.

With the political backdrop of President’s rule in Kashmir, 115 the President of India issued Constitutional Order 272. 116 Pursuant to Article 370, the order amended Article 367 — which enshrines the Constitution’s interpretative framework 117 — as it relates to Jammu and Kashmir. 118 Although Article 370 requires the state government’s concurrence to make such a change, 119 the President took the Governor’s consent as a sufficient substitute. 120

C.O. 272 had two key consequences. First, it streamlined the process to amend and abrogate Article 370, requiring only consultation with the Governor. 121 Second, by superseding 122 the constitutional order from which Article 35A germinated, it made Article 35A inoperative. 123

The legal changes that flowed from C.O. 272’s groundwork were swift. On August 5, the upper house of Parliament passed a statutory resolution recommending the President of India proceed with Article 370’s abrogation. 124 Later that day, Presidential Order C.O. 273 acted upon the recommendation, causing Article 370 to “cease to be operative” and affixing all provisions of the Indian Constitution upon Kashmir. 125 In parallel, the Parliament also passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. 126 The Act fractured the state into two union territories, 127 which would be under the direct control of the central government. One union territory included Jammu and the Kashmir Valley; the other, Ladakh. 128 Thus, over a few days, the Government of India not only revoked Kashmir’s special autonomous status but also erased its identity as a state altogether. While screams in opposition rang through the chambers of Parliament, 129 the deathly silence in Kashmir was more stifling. The entire map of Kashmir had changed without its people knowing. 130

On August 15, 2019, India would simultaneously celebrate its seventy-third Independence Day and forcibly hold Kashmiris under lockdown. 131 What seemed like a sinister irony became the norm. In the seven months that followed, 132 Kashmiris would spend Eid, 133 weddings, 134 medical emergencies, 135 and funerals 136 in an eerie blackout. The economic loss — an estimated $2.4 billion — would pale in comparison only to the human one. 137 Kashmiri lives were inundated with reported army-instigated torture of children, sexual violence against women, disappearing of young men, 138 and arbitrary detention of civilians. 139 Twenty-three petitions challenging the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A are pending in the Supreme Court of India, but the Court’s pattern of avoidance on the Kashmir issue does not bode well for Kashmiris. 140

IV. The Legal “Elimination” of the Kashmiri

The use of the settler colonial lens in Kashmir largely emerged in the aftermath of the abrogation. Critical Kashmir Studies have typically focused on the paradigms of illegal occupation, 141 armed conflict, 142 self-determination, 143 and colonization. 144 Even then, discussions of the settler colonial model in Kashmir have either focused primarily on a socio-political analysis or given a cursory legal one. 145 This Part focuses on the Indian and Kashmiri state law that has facilitated the gradual “elimination” of the indigenous Kashmiri. While the events of the abrogation were critical in making the purchase of land possible for new settlement communities, exploring Kashmir’s post-Partition legal infrastructure reveals how the settler colonial mindset has animated India’s relationship with the region long before the events of 2019. In particular, a military impunity regime, arbitrary detentions, and displacement are key facilitators of the project. In the words of Kashmiri scholars, “5 August was . . . not a beginning, not a diversion, not a rupture,” but the extension of seventy years of mass killings, blindings, torturings, disappearances, and rape, 146 all of which advanced the mission to — physically and symbolically — “eliminate” the Kashmiri.

A. Abuse and Impunity

In Kashmir, settler colonial and military machinery have “intertwine[d] with great and familiar intimacy.” 147 The latter has ultimately enabed the goal of the former: to erase. Although an official number has never been released, activists conservatively estimate that almost 700,000 members of the Indian army are stationed in Kashmir. 148 Intense human rights abuses have flowed from the militarization of Kashmiri soil. From 2008 to 2018 alone, an estimated 1,081 Kashmiri civilians were “eliminated” by security forces in extrajudicial executions. 149 Since the start of the pro-freedom uprising in 1989, activists estimate that at least 8,000 Kashmiris have been disappeared. 150 These tragedies are compounded by thousands of unknown, unmarked, and mass graves and incalculable cases of torture and sexual violence. 151

A regime of military de jure and de facto impunity has perpetuated abuse against Kashmiri bodies. At the heart of this impunity is the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act (AFSPA) of 1990. AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir is modeled off the national Armed Forces Special Powers Act 152 and was passed at a time when the state was under Governor’s Rule. 153 Similar legal regimes have been enacted in “disturbed areas” across India. 154 Although the definition of what constitutes “disturbed” is vague, the determination is the central government’s authority and is not subject to review. 155

The legislation emerged in Kashmir following a declaration that the Kashmir Valley had become “disturbed” in 1990, and has applied ever since. 156 AFSPA vests officers with sweeping authority: they can use deadly force in instances where they are not at imminent risk. 157 AFSPA grants armed forces the broad power to destroy property from which “armed attacks” are “likely” or “attempted” to be made; 158 arrest without warrant; 159 enter and search without warrant; 160 and stop, search, and seize vehicles. 161 In short, actions that would otherwise be an abuse both of Indian criminal and human rights law are now simply a “use” of AFSPA. 162 Through AFSPA, the Indian state is not only empowered to exert “free and ruthless force” 163 against Kashmiri bodies but also is invited to do so within the law.

Notably, AFSPA includes an explicit immunity clause: “No prosecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with previous sanction of the Central Government” against officials acting under AFSPA. 164 The realities of the immunity clause have been devastating. In the last twenty-eight years, neither the Home Secretary nor the Defense Secretary has approved a single prosecution under AFSPA. 165 Moreover, there is concern that AFSPA’s immunity has bled into proceedings against police officials, making them nearly impossible to launch. 166 Although activists throughout India have challenged the AFSPA’s constitutionality, the Court has held that the army’s powers are not “unreasonable” or “arbitrary.” 167

If the impunity regime created by AFSPA does not reveal India’s attempts to silence the indigenous, the AFSPA’s origins perhaps do. AFSPA took its inspiration from a British colonial ordinance — the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Ordinance of 1942 — utilized to suppress the “Quit India Movement” in India’s battle for independence. 168 The rationales for the modern-day AFSPA are not far from the colonial ones: upholding the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of India” and combating “terrorist acts.” 169 This kind of parallel is not unique to the Kashmir case — “colonial and settler colonial forms[] often coexist and mutually support each other.” 170

B. Detention

In addition to the problems created by impunity, an arbitrary detention regime has also erased Kashmiri voices from civil society. Described with other Indian detention laws as “lawless” by the Supreme Court, 171 the Public Safety Act (PSA) enables a preventative detention regime that operates largely outside the typical criminal justice system.

The state government introduced the PSA in 1978, “ostensibly to crack down on timber smugglers” in the region. 172 Since then, the PSA has been applied to a variety of perceived “dangers,” 173 including the entrance of unauthorized persons into prohibited places, 174 the circulation of documents “likely to affect public order,” 175 and, of course, individuals who “act in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order.” 176 The PSA permits the detention of individuals for one year if they’ve acted “prejudicial[ly] to the maintenance of public order,” 177 and for up to two years if they’ve acted “prejudicial[ly] to the security of the State.” 178 The detaining official must only be “satisfied” that the facts presented meet this threshold, and no criminal charge or suspicion of criminal activity is required. 179

The PSA does not include the traditional protections bestowed by the criminal justice system. For example, detaining authorities can delay communicating the grounds of detention for up to ten days, and even then, authorities have broad discretion regarding which facts they must disclose. 180 Detainees are also entirely without access to judicial authority, facing bars on accessing legal representation, judicial review of the grounds of detention, and judicial appeal. 181

The only legal remedy for arbitrary detention under the PSA is to petition the high court of the state or the Supreme Court through habeas corpus. 182 Unfortunately, habeas corpus in Kashmir is obsolete, 183 resulting in the figurative and literal disappearing of Indigenous Kashmiri bodies. At the height of India’s counterinsurgency operation in the 1990s, the concerned relatives of disappeared persons filed thousands of habeas petitions. 184 The majority went unheard due to “pervasive patterns of delays, non-compliance with judicial directions by executive and military authorities, and judicial normalization of impunity.” 185 Habeas has been no more promising in recent years. One year after the abrogation, over 400 people — including former heads of state, pro-freedom leaders, and lawyers — were detained via the PSA. 186

As with AFSPA, the PSA’s rationale illuminates a settler desire for erasure. Formally, the PSA takes a “holistic approach” to “overcome the menace of terrorism and secessionism” that “challenge[s] the integrity and sovereignty of the state.” 187 Informally, as described by a former state politician, the aim is to keep recalcitrant Kashmiris “out of circulation.” 188

The PSA has not only depicted the Kashmiri as dangerous but also, in collaboration with AFSPA, established a legal “death zone[]” 189 critical to the operation of the settler regime. It is in this zone — where impunity and detention run rampant — that Kashmiris are caged “as existential and demographic threats.” 190 The veneer of terrorism-based justifications does little to change this reality. The intense militarization of indigenous soil and the “spatially differentiated policing of populations” suggest that “the ‘terrorist’ stands in for the ‘Native.’” 191

C. Displacement

While the laws discussed above are animated by the settler colonial logic, Article 35A’s abrogation makes the recruitment of a settler community on indigenous land a reality. 192 The abrogation secures “settler colonialism’s specific, irreducible element”: “territoriality.” 193 Without Article 35A, India can now use the territory of Kashmir for investment, natural resources, and a new community of residents.

While India continued its clampdown in Kashmir, the downstream effects of the abrogation continued to materialize. The government earmarked land for non-Kashmiri investors 194 and planned an investment summit to facilitate the bidding. 195 The August 5 abrogation has also paved the way for exploitative resource extraction in the region. Kashmir’s special status ensured that nonlocal businesses were barred from operating in the region without a lease agreement with the government. 196 Starting in January following the abrogation, all mining bids were solicited online at a time when internet connectivity was still restricted in Kashmir. 197 The result was a “death blow to [Kashmiri] business” 198 : for the first time, almost seventy percent of mineral extraction contracts in Kashmir were procured by non-Kashmiris. 199

The Indian government also introduced a new domicile order 200 that expands the definition for residency and allows a new class of non-Kashmiris to move into the region. This legal maneuver mirrored the use of “registration by title” to facilitate the expropriation of indigenous lands in Palestine and Australia. 201 The order now permits Indian citizens who have lived in the region for a set period of time to claim a “domicile certificate.” 202 The children of those domiciled can also claim their own certificates, even without ever having entered the region. 203 These provisions extend to armed forces stationed in Kashmir and their children as well, 204 making the hundreds of thousands of armed forces in Kashmir a potentially new class of settlers themselves. By claiming domicile, these non-Kashmiris can now apply for all local government jobs, including those in police or administration, that were previously reserved for Kashmiris.

However, a new land order may have already superseded the domicile laws in importance, having repealed twelve former state land laws and amended fourteen others. 205 The order erased Article 35A’s vestiges, largely removing the “permanent residency” clause across Kashmir’s land regime. 206 Notably, it did not limit land transactions to newly defined domiciliaries. The law also empowers non-Kashmiris to repurpose agricultural land, which constitutes ninety percent of the region, for nonagricultural purposes. 207 Similarly concerning is the government’s ability to designate “strategic area[s]” for military use without the previously required consultation with local government. 208 While the full effects of these reforms are unknown, one thing is clear: “J&K is now up for sale . . . .” 209

Although the government has justified its actions in the name of development, 210 such pretexts have been laid bare in the American regime: “There was never a time when the white man said he was trying to help the Indian get into the mainstream of American life that he did not also demand that the Indian give up land . . . .” 211

Mahjoora des sonuy, Mahjoor, our motherland,

baagah chhu nundabonuy, Is the loveliest on earth!

ath lol gatghi baronuy, Shall we not love her best?

gulshan vatan chhu sonuy… A garden is our land!

— Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor 212

This Kashmiri freedom verse, first written in the 1980s, perhaps best evinces the threat that the abrogation poses: the loss of Kashmiris’ motherland. By giving an expanded class of non-Kashmiris access to new forms of livelihood and land, India has made the settlement of a new class of residents viable and attractive. The abrogation of Article 35A and the laws that have followed it are quintessential settler colonial violence, but so too are the legal regimes that came before the abrogation. Fueled by a growing settler narrative around Kashmir, India has long utilized the law to not just colonially oppress Kashmiris but erase them altogether.

^ Hereainafter also referred to as “Kashmir.” “Kashmir” refers to the India-occupied region of Jammu and Kashmir, which largely consists of the Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh. See Josef Korbel, Danger in Kashmir 5–6 (rev. ed. 2015).

^ India Revokes Kashmir’s Special Status , Al Jazeera (Sept. 4, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/india-revokes-kashmir-special-status-190904143838166.html [ https://perma.cc/AZ3C-GG37 ].

^ See Azeezah Kanji, A How-To Guide for the Settler Colonial Present: From Canada to Palestine to Kashmir , Yellowhead Inst . (Aug. 5, 2020), https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2020/08/05/marking-the-settler-colonial-present-from-canada-to-palestine-to-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/MR3Z-Z54V ].

^ See, e.g ., Hafsa Kanjwal, Opinion, India’s Settler-Colonial Project in Kashmir Takes a Disturbing Turn , Wash. Post (Aug. 5, 2019, 6:59 PM), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/05/indias-settler-colonial-project-kashmir-takes-disturbing-turn [ https://perma.cc/4WCQ-BMN9 ].

^ See generally A. Grenfell Price ,  White Settlers and Native Peoples (1950) (comparing the effects of white settler colonialism on indigenous populations of North America, New Zealand, and Australia).

^ See generally, e.g ., Maxime Rodinson , Israel: A Colonial-Settler State? (1973); Nadim N. Rouhana & Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, Settler-Colonial Citizenship: Conceptualizing the Relationship Between Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens , 5 Settler Colonial Stud . 205 (2015).

^ Lorenzo Veracini, Introducing Settler Colonial Studies, 1 Settler Colonial Stud . 1, 1 (2011).

^ See Natsu Taylor Saito , Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law 43 (Ediberto Roman ed., 2020) (emphasis omitted) (quoting Jürgen Osterhammel ,  Colonialism 4 (Shelley L. Frisch trans., Markus Wiener Publishers 2d ed. 2005) (1995)).

^ Id . at 45–47.

^ Veracini, supra note 7, at 2.

^ Saito , supra note 9 , at 51 .

^ A local administration is “charged with maintaining order and authority” on behalf of the settler state. Caroline Elkins & Susan Pedersen, Settler Colonialism: A Concept and Its Uses , in Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century 1, 4 (Caroline Elkins & Susan Pedersen eds., 2005).

^ See Saito , supra note 9, at 52.

^ See David Lloyd & Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonial Logics and the Neoliberal Regime , 6 Settler Colonial Stud . 109, 114 (2016).

^ See Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native , 8 J. Genocide Rsch . 387, 388 (2006).

^ See Saito , supra note 9, at 51.

^ See Wolfe, supra note 17, at 388.

^ Patrick Wolfe, Nation and MiscegeNation: Discursive Continuity in the Post-Mabo Era , 36 Soc. Analysis 93, 93 (1994).

^ See Lorenzo Veracini, Essay, The Other Shift: Settler Colonialism, Israel, and the Occupation , 42 J. Palestine Stud . 26, 28 (2013) (emphasis omitted).

^ See Veracini, supra note 7, at 3.

^ “From [the Maharaja’s decision to accede] all else has flowed; and its consequences are with us still.” Alastair Lamb , Kashmir: A Disputed Legacy, 1846–1990 , at 2 (1991).

^ The princely system relied on nested sovereignty, where princes exercised near-autonomy while still heeding the title of the British monarchy. Ramachandra Guha , India After Gandhi 36–37 (2008).

^ See id . at 59.

^ See Mona Bhan et al., “ Rebels of the Streets”: Violence, Protest, and Freedom in Kashmir , in Resisting Occupation in Kashmir 1, 5 (Haley Duschinski et al. eds., 2019).

^ Guha , supra note 26, at 60.

^ See Neera Chandhoke , Contested Secessions: Rights, Self-determination, Democracy, and Kashmir 19 (2012).

^ See Matthew J. Webb, Escaping History or Merely Rewriting It? The Significance of Kashmir’s Accession to Its Political Future , 20 Contemp. S. Asia 471, 477 (2012).

^ See Guha , supra note 26, at 64.

^ See generally Mridu Rai , Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects 224–87 (2019) (discussing Kashmiri political mobilization against the “Hindu State” under the ruling dynasty).

^ See Webb, supra note 31, at 477.

^ Hotly debated still is why and how these invaders came to Kashmir. Some accounts characterize the invasion as Pakistani orchestrated to secure Kashmir; others present an independent group rushing to liberate subjugated Muslims suffering under an oppressive Hindu rule in Kashmir. Guha , supra note 26, at 64–65.

^ The Maharaja’s Letter to the Governor-General of India, Lord Mountbatten (Oct. 26, 1947), reprinted in A.G. Noorani , Article 370: A Constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir 41–42 (2011). Circumstances surrounding the Maharaja’s signing of the Instrument of Accession are also contested, with scholars arguing that the accession was induced through false promises. See, e.g ., Chandhoke , supra note 30, at 101.

^ Letters between Lord Mountbatten and Maharaja Singh suggest that although India would aid Kashmir militarily given the invasion, “as soon as law and order ha[d] been restored in Kashmir . . . the question of the State’s accession should have been settled by a reference to the people.” Letter from Governor-General, India, Delhi, to Maharaja Sahib (Oct. 27, 1947) , reprinted in Noorani , supra note 36, at 43 [hereinafter Letter from Governor-General].

^ Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y, Occupational Hazard: The Jammu and Kashmir Floods of September 2014 , at 4–5 (2015).

^ See Letter from Governor-General, supra note 37, at 42–43.

^ India Const. art. 370, cl. 1(a–b).

^ Id . cl. 1(c).

^ Presidential orders require the “consultation” for matters within the three domains and the “concurrence” for all other matters. Id . cl. 1(d).

^ Id . cl. 3.

^ Haseeb A. Drabu, Opinion, Modi’s Majoritarian March to Kashmir , N.Y. Times (Aug. 8, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/opinion/modis-majoritarian-march-to-kashmir.html [ https://perma.cc/B3RY-NTVM ].

^ Ministry of Law, Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954, C.O. 48 (Issued on May 14, 1954).

^ Id . pt. 4, cl. (j). Other states in India have similar restrictions on land ownership as described in Vakasha Sachdev, Despite J&K Changes, You Still Can’t Buy Land in These States , The Quint (Oct. 29, 2020, 9:29 AM), https://www.thequint.com/news/india/jammu-kashmir-land-laws-amended-other-states-where-outsiders-cant-purchase-property-himachal-sikkim-arunachal-tribal-areas [ https://perma.cc/N3ES-U6N9 ].

^ Jammu and Kashmir Const., Nov. 17, 1956, arts. 3–5.

^ Specifically, “permanent residents” was limited to those who were living in the state as of May 14, 1954, when the law came into effect, and those who had lived in the state for ten years prior to that date and had legally acquired immovable property in the state. Id . art. 6.

^ See Mridu Rai, History of Betrayals in Kashmir , Frontline (Aug. 30, 2019), <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article29053014.ece ">https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article29053014.ece [ https://perma.cc/U6YN-8BHV ].

^ State Bank of India v. Santosh Gupta, AIR 2017 SC 25, ¶ 12.

^ Rai , supra note 33, at 289.

^ See Angana P. Chatterji, Kashmir: A Place Without Rights , Just Sec . (Aug. 5, 2020), https://www.justsecurity.org/71840/kashmir-a-place-without-rights [ https://perma.cc/Y4GS-QD4Z ].

^ Jeffrey Gettleman et al., India Revokes Kashmir’s Special Status, Raising Fears of Unrest , N.Y. Times (Aug. 5, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/world/asia/india-pakistan-kashmir-jammu.html [ https://perma.cc/6LEG-JZ2X ].

^ See History , Bharatiya Janata Party , http://www.apbjp.org/eng/history [ https://perma.cc/T7H3-DTQP ].

^ See We Diluted Article 370 Twelve Times Without Controversy: Congress , India Today (Nov. 3, 2019), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/we-diluted-article-370-twelve-times-without-controversy-congress-1615399-2019-11-03 [ https://perma.cc/89DG-N8B9 ].

^ In fact, it is the rhetorical ability to participate in political life that cements settler colonial power. See Veracini, supra note 23, at 30.

^ Mohamad Junaid, Death and Life Under Occupation: Space, Violence, and Memory in Kashmir , in Everyday Occupations 158, 164 (Kamala Visweswaran ed., 2013); see id . at 158–90.

^ See Haley Duschinski, “ Survival Is Now Our Politics”: Kashmiri Hindu Community Identity and the Politics of Homeland , 12 Int’l J. Hindu Stud . 41, 53 (2008).

^ See generally Sten Widmalm, The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Jammu and Kashmir , 37 Asian Surv . 1005 (1997) (detailing notable and perceived-as-rigged elections in Kashmir).

^ See Rifat Fareed, “ End of The Road” for Pro-India Politicians in Kashmir , Al Jazeera (Sept. 17, 2020), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/17/end-of-the-road-for-pro-india-politicians-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/X63V-9YFW ].

^ Jammu and Kashmir Const., Nov. 17, 1956, art. 92.

^ India Const. art. 356.

^ Kashmir is unique in that it enters into Governor’s rule for six months before President’s rule. If the state government is not restored in those six months, the state moves from Governor’s rule to President’s rule. In both situations, power is exercised over Kashmir through the centrally appointed Governor. Muzamil Jaleel, How Governor’s Rule and President’s Rule Set J&K Apart from Other States , Indian Express (Dec. 14, 2018, 1:03 PM), https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/how-governors-rule-and-presidents-rule-set-jk-apart-from-other-states-satya-pal-malik-5492730 [ https://perma.cc/4VMX-7SKB ]; see also Prabhash K. Dutta, Why Governor’s and Not President’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir , India Today (June 20, 2018), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/why-governor-s-and-not-president-s-rule-in-jammu-and-kashmir-1264794-2018-06-20 [ https://perma.cc/WM2J-5GYZ ].

^ India Const. art. 356. See generally Bhagwan D. Dua, Presidential Rule in India: A Study in Crisis Politics , 19 Asian Surv . 611 (1979) (conducting a systematic analysis of presidential rule in India and the way it has been used by the central government).

^ See Santosh Chaubey, Jammu & Kashmir Under Governor’s Rule for Eighth Time , India Today (June 20, 2018, 6:18 PM), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/jammu-kashmir-under-governor-s-rule-for-eighth-time-1265259-2018-06-20 [ https://perma.cc/7QGA-KZDP ].

^ Vignesh Radhakrishnan & Sumant Sen, How Many Times Has President’s Rule Been Imposed Across States? , The Hindu (Nov. 19, 2019, 6:08 PM), <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/how-many-times-has-presidents-rule-been-imposed-across-states/article30017580.ece ">https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/how-many-times-has-presidents-rule-been-imposed-across-states/article30017580.ece [ https://perma.cc/R74Q-QE6V ].

^ See infra sections IV.A–B, pp. 2546–49.

^ The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990.

^ Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978.

^ The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act was promulgated in the region in 1990 when Kashmir was under a six-year President’s rule. Amnesty Int’l, A “Lawless Law”: Detentions Under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act 10 (2011) , https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/asa200012011en_11.pdf [ https://perma.cc/N8KJ-Z744 ]. Originally intended to punish timber smugglers , id . at 12, the Public Safety Act caused a peak in detentions in the early to mid-1990s, id . at 13.

^ See infra p. 2542.

^ See Khurram Abbas, Strategizing Kashmiri Freedom Struggle Through Nonviolent Means , 16 Pol’y Persps . 41, 43 (2019).

^ See Duschinski, supra note 58, at 46.

^ See Bhan et al., supra note 28, at 2.

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , supra note 38, at 36–37; see also Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , Structures of Violence: The Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir 10–16 (2015) (detailing a breakdown of the armed personnel in Kashmir) [hereinafter Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc'y, Structures ].

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc'y, Structures , supra note 75, at 4.

^ See Ajaz Ashraf, “ Do You Need 700,000 Soldiers to Fight 150 Militants?”: Kashmiri Rights Activist Khurram Parvez , Scroll.in (July 21, 2016, 6:30 AM), https://scroll.in/article/812010/do-you-need-700000-soldiers-to-fight-150-militants-kashmiri-rights-activist-khurram-parvez [ https://perma.cc/VR3S-V7YU ].

^ See generally Off. of the United Nations High Comm’r for Hum. Rts ., Update of the Situation of Human Rights in Indian-Administered Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir from May 2018 to April 2019 (2019), https://www.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/Documents/Countries/IN/KashmirUpdateReport_8July2019.pdf [ https://perma.cc/SU6R-YZQR ]; Angana Chatterji et al., Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in India-Administered Kashmir (2009); Angana Chatterji et al ., Militarization with Impunity: A Brief on Rape and Murder in Shopian, Kashmir (2009).

^ “ Tinkering with Article 35A Akin to Setting Powder Keg on Fire” Mehbooba Mufti Warns Centre Against Revoking Provision , Firstpost (July 29, 2019, 1:37 AM), https://www.firstpost.com/politics/mehbooba-mufti-issues-warning-to-centre-against-revoking-article-35a-says-meddling-with-it-is-like-playing-with-fire-7069231.html [ https://perma.cc/FS4V-XFEF ].

^ Guha , supra note 26, at 78 (quoting India: Marching Through Kashmir , Time (Oct. 10, 1949), http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,800911,00.html [ https://perma.cc/CM6R-DWLD ]).

^ See Chandhoke , supra note 30, at 19.

^ Korbel , supra note 1, at 4.

^ See Lorenzo Veracini , Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview 3 (2010) (noting that settlers see themselves not as invaders, but as natives returning to their country).

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , Amarnath Yatra: A Militarized Pilgrimage 9 (2017).

^ See id . at 22–24.

^ Id . at 170 (quoting Press Info. Bureau, Amarnath Yatra — 99 Acid Test of Devotion (1997)).

^ See Lorenzo Veracini , The Settler Colonial Present 38 (2015). “Kashmiri Muslims are doubly marked as the Other: first as Muslims and second as Kashmiris who are ungovernable, and committed to a [sic] irrepressible struggle for plebiscite and sovereignty.” Ather Zia, The Haunting Specter of Hindu Ethnonationalist-Neocolonial Development in the Indian Occupied Kashmir , 63 Development 60, 61 (2020).

^ Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , supra note 84 , at 153–64.

^ Emily Schmall, India Promotes Hindu Pilgrimage as Sign of Peace in Kashmir , Seattle Times (Aug. 1, 2019, 5:41 PM), https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/india-promotes-hindu-pilgrimage-as-sign-of-peace-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/BP29-4G3F ] (describing signs tourists see upon arriving in Kashmir); see also Alasdair Pal, India Boosts Hindu Pilgrimage to Holy Cave in Conflict-Torn Kashmir , Reuters (July 28, 2019, 1:15 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-india-kashmir-pilgrimage-idUKKCN1UN04Q [ https://perma.cc/MY7T-9HUV ] (noting that the state spent “$72 million on preparations for the six-week event”).

^ See Nitasha Kaul, India’s Obsession with Kashmir: Democracy, Gender, (Anti-)nationalism , 119 Feminist Rev . 126, 132 (2018). The fifth picture depicted in Article 370: The Indians Celebrating Kashmir’s New Status , BBC (Aug. 9, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49250594 [ https://perma.cc/3NUU-YQ2L ], shows celebrating Indians after the abrogation with a poster that depicts Kashmir as the head of “Bharat Mata.”

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , supra note 38, at 60.

^ See id . In July 2019, many of the security measures taken ahead of the pilgrimage facilitated the lockdown that accompanied abrogation. See Rifat Fareed, Highway Regulation for Hindu Pilgrimage Angers Kashmir Residents , Al Jazeera (July 5, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/7/5/highway-regulation-for-hindu-pilgrimage-angers-kashmir-residents [ https://perma.cc/WU8P-AT7K ].

^ Cf . Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 114 (explaining how a part of settler colonial violence in the case of Zionism is a “persistence of a psychic ‘state of siege’: the representation of the world as . . . populated by uncivil peoples who pose . . . an ‘existential threat’ to civil subjects”).

^ See Devjyot Ghoshal & Alasdair Pal, India’s Ruling Party to Revive Plan for Hindu Settlements in Kashmir , Reuters (July 12, 2019, 4:47 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-hindu-exclusive/exclusive-indias-ruling-party-to-revive-plan-for-hindu-settlements-in-kashmir-idUSKCN1U7142 [ https://perma.cc/K94Y-M9NM ].

^ See Fayaz Wani, Over 4.30 Lakh Kanals of Land in Jammu and Kashmir Under Occupation of Security Forces , New Indian Express (Jan. 10, 2018, 8:41 PM), https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2018/jan/10/over-430-lakh-kanals-of-land-in-jammu-and-kashmir-under-occupation-of-security-forces-1750088.amp [ https://perma.cc/8793-GDBG ].

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , supra note 38, at 42.

^ See id . at 46–47.

^ See id . at 53–54.

^ Mohamad Junaid, Opinion, Peace, Tourism and Political Games in Kashmir , Al Jazeera (July 29, 2012), https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2012/7/29/peace-tourism-and-political-games-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/G7ST-6MLV ]; see also Jammu and Kashmir “Was, Is and Shall Forever” Remain Its Integral Part: India Tells Pakistan at UNHRC Meeting , Times India (Feb. 26, 2020, 10:09 PM), https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jk-was-is-and-shall-forever-remain-its-integral-part-india-tells-pakistan-at-unhrc-meeting/articleshow/74318873.cms [ https://perma.cc/SS8B-DXMS ].

^ Betwa Sharma, A Train Through Kashmir , N.Y. Times: India Ink (Oct. 30, 2013, 8:24 AM), https://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/a-train-through-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/E5Y4-Z8B2 ].

^ Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Territory of Desire 44 (2009). Bollywood directors have begun reserving film titles to tell romanticized stories of abrogation. See Kashmir Hamara Hai to Dhara 370: Filmmakers Rush to Book Titles After Article 370 Scrapped , India Today (Aug. 7, 2019, 12:30 PM), https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/bollywood/story/kashmir-hamara-hai-to-dhara-370-filmmakers-rush-to-book-titles-after-article-370-scrapped-1578182-2019-08-07 [ https://perma.cc/TWW4-LMQ9 ].

^ Kabir , supra note 101, at 48; see also id . at 45–50.

^ See Kaul, supra note 90, at 132; see also A Whole New Sub-genre of Songs Emerges About Getting Kashmiri Bahus, Buying Land in Valley , Scroll.in (Aug. 12, 2019, 10:27 AM), <a href="https://scroll.in/video/933520/watch-there-is-a-whole-new-sub-genre-of-songs-inspired-by-kashmir-and-the-article-370-controversy ">https://scroll.in/video/933520/watch-there-is-a-whole-new-sub-genre-of-songs-inspired-by-kashmir-and-the-article-370-controversy [ https://perma.cc/SE6N-WAJN ].

^ Mridu Rai, Kashmiris in the Hindu Rashtra, in Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism Is Changing India 259, 259 (Angana P. Chatterji et al. eds., 2019).

^ Bharatiya Janata Party , Sankalp Patra: Lok Sabha 2019 , at 12 (2019).

^ See Rifat Fareed, Panic in Kashmir After India Asks Tourists and Pilgrims to Leave , Al Jazeera (Aug. 2, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/8/2/panic-in-kashmir-after-india-asks-tourists-and-pilgrims-to-leave [ https://perma.cc/GT5J-7DSN ].

^ 1 Over the course of the year leading up to the abrogation, roughly 35,000 troops were sent to Kashmir in the name of “maintaining law and order” and as part of a massive security drive. See Tariq Bhat, J&K Surge: 25,000 Troops Start Arriving; Total Since 2018 Reaches 75,000 , The Week (Aug. 2, 2019, 10:54 PM), https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2019/08/02/jk-surge-25k-troops-start-arriving-total-since-2018-reaches-75.html [ https://perma.cc/X3SK-MWNK ].

^ 1 See India Orders Tourists to Leave Kashmir Over “Terror Threat ,” BBC (Aug. 3, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49222571 [ https://perma.cc/6SGG-K45K ].

^ 1 See Ather Zia, Opinion, There Is Reason to Fear for the Safety of Every Kashmiri in India , Al Jazeera (Aug. 5, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/8/5/there-is-reason-to-fear-for-the-safety-of-every-kashmiri-in-india [ https://perma.cc/RVN2-BNRE ].

^ 1 No Reason to Panic, Only Rumor-Mongering Going On: Governor Satya Pal Malik on Tensions in J&K , Fin. Express (Aug. 3, 2019, 7:00 PM), https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/no-reason-to-panic-only-rumor-mongering-going-on-governor-satyapal-malik-on-tensions-in-jk/1665200 [ https://perma.cc/P3KL-NNX5 ].

^ 1 See id .

^ 1 See Kashmir: Curfew-Like Restrictions Imposed on Movement of People , India Today (Aug. 5, 2019, 1:52 AM), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/jammu-and-kashmir-curfew-section-144-imposed-1577218-2019-08-05 [ https://perma.cc/DF5V-256L ].

^ 1 See Rifat Fareed, Key Kashmir Political Leaders Arrested by India Since August 5 , Al Jazeera (Aug. 17, 2019), <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/8/17/key-kashmir-political-leaders-arrested-by-india-since-august-5 ">https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/8/17/key-kashmir-political-leaders-arrested-by-india-since-august-5 [ https://perma.cc/4KAB-Y76J ].

^ 1 See Kashmir: Curfew-Like Restrictions Imposed on Movement of People , supra note 112.

^ 1 In June 2018, the BJP pulled out of a coalition government with state parties in Kashmir, forcing the state first into Governor’s rule and then President’s rule. See President’s Rule in J&K Extended for 6 More Months Beginning July 3 , Econ. Times (June 12, 2019, 9:20 PM), https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/president-rule-in-jk-to-be-extended-for-6-more-months/articleshow/69759938.cms [ https://perma.cc/Q4CR-FC6U ].

^ 1 Ministry of Law and Justice, The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019, C.O. 272 (Notified on August 5, 2019) [hereinafter C.O. 272].

^ 1 See India Const. art. 367.

^ 1 C.O. 272, supra note 116.

^ 1 India Const. art. 370, cl. (1)(d).

^ 1 This move was criticized as unconstitutional. See, e.g ., Gautam Bhatia, The Article 370 Amendments: Key Legal Issues , Indian Const. L. & Phil . (Aug. 5, 2019), https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2019/08/05/the-article-370-amendments-key-legal-issues [ https://perma.cc/QM53-K4YA ]; Nivedhitha K., Guest Post: Article 370: The Constitutional Challenge , Indian Const. L. & Phil . (Aug. 13, 2019), https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2019/08/13/guest-post-article-370-the-constitutional-challenge [ https://perma.cc/CS4A-7RPT ].

^ 1 Specifically, C.O. 272 made two key changes to the text: (1) the Constitution’s references to the “Government of the State” would be construed to include the “ Governor of Jammu and Kashmir”; (2) for purposes of rendering Article 370 inoperative, the “‘Constituent Assembly of the State . . .’ would read ‘ Legislative Assembly of the State.’” C.O. 272, supra note 116, at cl. 2 (emphasis added).

^ 1 Id . at cl. 1(2).

^ 1 See K. Venkataramanan, Explained: How the Status of Jammu and Kashmir Is Being Changed , Hindu (Aug. 6, 2019, 10:08 AM) , https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/explained-how-the-status-of-jammu-and-kashmir-is-being-changed/article28822866.ece?homepage=true [ https://perma.cc/8TTA-BS3T ].

^ 1 Statutory Resolution (Aug. 5, 2019), http://164.100.47.5/newlobsessions/sessionno/249/S050819.pdf [ https://perma.cc/W7WE-KYQN ].

^ 1 Ministry of Law and Justice, Declaration Under Article 370(3) of the Constitution, C.O. 273 (Notified on August 6, 2019).

^ 1 The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

^ 1 Id . §§ 3–4.

^ 1 Id . The first would have a legislature, but the second would not. Id . §§ 14, 58.

^ 1 DeshGujaratHD, Amit Shah’s Historic Announcement in Rajya Sabha on Jammu & Kashmir, 370, 35A, Ladakh , YouTube at 9:40 (Aug. 5, 2019), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlZBHsZAmI4 [ https://perma.cc/SSE4-ZUEB ].

^ 1 See Alexandra Ma, The Phone and Internet Blackout in Kashmir Is So Total that Locals Reportedly Don’t Know India Rewrote Their Constitution , Bus. Insider (Aug. 8, 2019, 6:32 AM), https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-blackout-locals-dont-know-india-revoked-autonomy-report-2019-8 [ https://perma.cc/M6P9-KF42 ].

^ 1 See India Celebrates Independence Day Despite Kashmir Being Under Lockdown , TRTWORLD (Aug. 15, 2019), https://www.trtworld.com/asia/india-celebrates-independence-day-despite-kashmir-being-under-lockdown-29026 [ https://perma.cc/NUQ5-2YX4 ].

^ 1 See India Restores Internet in Kashmir After 7 Months of Blackout , Al Jazeera (Mar. 5, 2020), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/3/5/india-restores-internet-in-kashmir-after-7-months-of-blackout [ https://perma.cc/W8ZG-VDMV ].

^ 1 See Azhar Farooq & Rebecca Ratcliffe, “ Our Hearts Are on Fire”: Kashmir Spends Eid Al-Adha in Lockdown , The Guardian (Aug. 12, 2019, 12:35 PM), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/our-hearts-are-on-fire-kashmir-spends-eid-al-adha-in-lockdown [ https://perma.cc/F28F-BMFA ].

^ 1 See Quratulain Rehbar, Weddings in the Time of Kashmir Lockdown , The Wire (Aug. 27, 2019), https://thewire.in/rights/weddings-in-the-time-of-kashmir-lockdown [ https://perma.cc/D5A9-JMKM ].

^ 1 See Preetika Rana & Vibhuti Agarwal, India’s Kashmir Clampdown Turns Hospitals into “Graveyards ,” Wall St. J . (Aug. 28, 2019, 11:52 AM), https://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-kashmir-clampdown-turns-hospitals-into-graveyards-11566990962 [ https://perma.cc/C8R3-CFMW ].

^ 1 See Kashmir Clampdown Means Even Funeral Rites Can’t Be Observed , S. China Morning Post (Aug. 10, 2019, 2:30 PM), https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/3022259/kashmir-clampdown-means-even-funeral-rites-cant-be-observed [ https://perma.cc/3F59-XRNX ].

^ 1 See Anando Bhakto, Kashmir’s Endless Agony , Frontline (Aug. 14, 2020), https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/kashmirs-endless-agony/article32184848.ece [ https://perma.cc/G72V-B7N9 ].

^ 1 See Alexandra Ma, Armed Forces in Kashmir Are Detaining Children and Molesting Women and Girls amid a State-Wide Blackout, Report Claims , Bus. Insider (Aug. 15, 2019, 7:12 AM), https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-forces-detaining-kids-molesting-girls-amid-blackout-report-2019-8 [ https://perma.cc/6TH5-F4GY ].

^ 1 See Azhar Farooq & Rebecca Ratcliffe, “ A Storm Has Hit My Life”: The Kashmiri Families Torn Apart by Mass Arrests , The Guardian (Aug. 27, 2019, 6:26 AM), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/kashmir-families-torn-apart-mass-arrests-continue-india [ https://perma.cc/6RP9-RVRL ].

^ 1 See Vakasha Sachdev, Art 370: 1 Year On, How J&K Has Been Let Down by the Supreme Court , The Quint (Aug. 5, 2020, 12:11 PM), https://www.thequint.com/news/india/1-year-of-article-370-abrogation-supreme-court-has-let-down-people-of-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/5WGJ-YGUB ].

^ 1 See, e.g ., Bhan et al., supra note 28; Haley Duschinski & Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh, Constituting the Occupation: Preventive Detention and Permanent Emergency in Kashmir , 49 J. Legal Pluralism & Unofficial L . 314 (2017); Junaid, supra note 57.

^ 1 See, e.g ., Idrees Kanth, Commentary, Writing Histories in Conflict Zones , 46 Econ. & Pol. Wkly . (2011), https://www.epw.in/journal/2011/26-27/commentary/writing-histories-conflict-zones.html [ https://perma.cc/PKQ6-TCBN ].

^ 1 See, e.g ., Chandhoke , supra note 30; Seema Kazi, Sexual Crimes by State Personnel and Kashmir’s Case for Self-Determination , Kashmir Narrator , http://kashmirnarrator.com/sexual-crimes-state-personnel-kashmirs-case-self-determination [ https://perma.cc/WJ9P-W76B ].

^ 1 See, e.g ., Goldie Osuri, Imperialism, Colonialism and Sovereignty in the (Post) Colony: India and Kashmir , 38 Third World Q . 2428 (2017); Partha Chatterjee, Opinion, Kashmir Is the Test Bed for a New Model of Internal Colonialism , The Wire (Aug. 28, 2019), <a href="https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-is-the-test-bed-for-a-new-model-of-internal-colonialism ">https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-is-the-test-bed-for-a-new-model-of-internal-colonialism [ https://perma.cc/STB2-LVMG ]; Nitasha Kaul, Argument, Kashmir Is Under the Heel of India’s Colonialism , Foreign Pol’y (Aug. 13, 2019, 10:51 PM), https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/13/kashmir-is-under-the-heel-of-indias-colonialism [ https://perma.cc/4X7A-FMZJ ].

^ 1 See, e.g ., Zainab Ramahi & Azadeh Shahshahani, Destroying to Replace: Settler Colonialism from Kashmir to Palestine , Verso (Aug. 10, 2020), https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4817-destroying-to-replace-settler-colonialism-from-kashmir-to-palestine [ https://perma.cc/SS43-324G ]; Maknoon Wani, Commentary, Kashmir and the Rise of Settler Colonialism , Himal Southasian (Sept. 1, 2020), https://www.himalmag.com/kashmir-and-the-rise-of-settler-colonialism-2020 [ https://perma.cc/VL6N-48QU ].

^ 1 Samreen Mushtaq & Mudasir Amin, Analysis, In Kashmir, Resistance Is Mainstream , Himal Southasian (Apr. 16, 2020), https://www.himalmag.com/in-kashmir-resistance-is-mainstream-2020 [ https://perma.cc/MP6C-J78B ].

^ 1 Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 115.

^ 1 See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc'y, Structures , supra note 75, at 4.

^ 1 Off. of the United Nations High Comm’r for Hum. Rts ., supra note 78, at 13.

^ 1 The Disappeared of Indian-Administered Kashmir , Al Jazeera (Aug. 30, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/videos/2019/8/30/the-disappeared-of-indian-administered-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/36Z6-3YD7 ].

^ 1 See sources cited supra note 78.

^ 1 The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.

^ 1 Hum. Rts. Watch, “Everyone Lives in Fear”: Patterns of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir 29 (2006) , https://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/india0906/india0906web.pdf [ https://perma.cc/5QVZ-4RVS ].

^ 1 The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act pmbl.

^ 1 Hum. Rts. Watch , supra note 153, at 31.

^ 1 Naseer Ganai, 25 Years On, AFSPA Remains a Dirty Word in Jammu and Kashmir , India Today (July 9, 2015, 11:14 AM), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/afspa-disagreement-jammu-and-kashmir-armed-militancy-cmp-bjp-pdp-281441-2015-07-09 [ https://perma.cc/XEM9-E5T3 ].

^ 1 For example, officers can use lethal force against persons partaking in an unlawful assembly. The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990, § 4a.

^ 1 Id . § 4b.

^ 1 Id . § 4c.

^ 1 Id . § 4d.

^ 1 Id . § 4e.

^ 1 See Haley Duschinski, Destiny Effects: Militarization, State Power, and Punitive Containment in Kashmir Valley , 82 Anthropological Q . 691, 702 (2009).

^ 1 See Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 114.

^ 1 Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990, § 7.

^ 1 See Ass’n of Parents of Disappeared Persons & Jammu Kashmir Coal. Civ. Soc’y , Torture: Indian State’s Instrument of Control in Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir 100 (2019), https://jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TORTURE-Indian-State%E2%80%99s-Instrument-of-Control-in-Indian-administered-Jammu-and-Kashmir.pdf [ https://perma.cc/UG85-BVKT ].

^ 1 Naga People’s Movement of Hum. Rts. v. Union of India, AIR 1998 SC 431, ¶ 48 (1997).

^ 1 Amnesty Int’l , India: Briefing on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 , at 3 (2005), https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/84000/asa200252005en.pdf [ https://perma.cc/L78G-BAF6 ].

^ 1 The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990, § 3.

^ 1 Veracini , supra note 87, at 29.

^ 1 Jaya Mala v. Home Sec’y, Gov’t of Jammu & Kashmir, AIR 1982 SC 1297, ¶ 7.

^ 1 Ipsita Chakravarty, Modi Wants to Give Kashmiris Same Rights as All Indians — But PSA Arrests Show that Hasn’t Happened , Scroll.in (Feb. 8, 2020, 6:30 AM), https://scroll.in/article/952478/detentions-under-psa-show-kashmir-remains-in-state-of-exception-despite-modi-governments-claims [ https://perma.cc/BD7K-LNL8 ].

^ 1 Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh, Public Safety Act: The Making and Unmaking of the Dangerous Individual in Kashmir , Café Dissensus (Feb. 20, 2017), https://cafedissensus.com/2017/02/20/public-safety-act-the-making-and-unmaking-of-the-dangerous-individual-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/GBJ3-GKJB ].

^ 1 Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, §§ 3, 4.

^ 1 Id . § 6.

^ 1 Id . § 8(3)(b).

^ 1 Id . § 18(1)(a).

^ 1 Id . § 18(1)(b).

^ 1 See id . § 8(1)(a).

^ 1 See id . § 13(1)–(2).

^ 1 See id . §§ 14–16 (referring all issues to an Advisory Board).

^ 1 See India Const. art. 32; id . art. 226; Jammu and Kashmir Const. art. 103; see also Amnesty Int’l , supra note 70, at 64 (finding that the Jammu and Kashmir High Court focused “on the procedural and nominal aspects of detention at the expense of substantive protection of human rights of the detainees”).

^ 1 See Amnesty Int’l , supra note 70, at 63–64.

^ 1 See Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh, Reflections, Crisis Constitutionalism, Permanent Emergency and the Amnesias of International Law in Jammu and Kashmir , TWAILR (May 28, 2020), https://twailr.com/crisis-constitutionalism-permanent-emergency-and-the-amnesias-of-international-law-in-jammu-and-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/WY6T-VMYT ].

^ 1 See id . The lack of justice was so devastating that it resulted in the formation of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons. See generally Ass’n of Parents of Disappeared Persons, Kashmir, A Provisional Biography of a Journey Towards Justice for the Enforced Disappeared , https://apdpkashmir.com/ebmedia/sitename_eb/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/APDP-biography-02-02-2020.pdf [ https://perma.cc/SLX9-A5W6 ].

^ 1 See Fareed, supra note 113.

^ 1 Amnesty Int’l , supra note 70, at 9 (quoting the grounds given by a magistrate for a detention under the PSA).

^ 1 Id . at 3.

^ 1 Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 114.

^ 1 Id . at 116.

^ 1 Following the abrogation, a senior Indian diplomat even went so far as to call for an Israel-like model of settlements for Hindus in Kashmir. See Anger over India’s Diplomat Calling for “Israel Model” in Kashmir , Al Jazeera (Nov. 28, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/28/anger-over-indias-diplomat-calling-for-israel-model-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/B5Z2-FUKE ].

^ 1 Wolfe, supra note 17, at 388.

^ 1 See Zulfikar Majid, Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Attend Jammu and Kashmir Global Investors’ Summit in May , Deccan Herald (Feb. 23, 2020, 11:02 AM), https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/prime-minister-narendra-modi-to-attend-jammu-and-kashmir-global-investors-summit-in-may-807308.html [ https://perma.cc/J8AJ-JVY8 ].

^ 1 See Pre-summit Investors’ Meet & Curtain Raiser, JK Glob. Invs.’ Summit , https://jkinvestorsummit.com/curtain-raiser [ https://perma.cc/F7RR-KXHN ].

^ 1 See Athar Parvaiz, In a First, Outside Companies Earn 100 Percent Mining Rights in Kashmir , Kashmir Observer (Feb. 10, 2020), https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/02/10/in-a-first-outside-companies-earn-100-percent-mining-rights-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/FCA2-G76Z ].

^ 1 See Azaan Javaid, Outside Firms Enter Mining Race in J&K, Lease Earnings Touch Crores from Lakhs , The Print (Feb. 6, 2020, 11:35 AM) , https://theprint.in/india/outside-firms-enter-mining-race-in-jk-lease-earnings-touch-crores-from-lakhs/360175 [ https://perma.cc/P6XN-T6TF ].

^ 1 See Nusrat Sidiq, Kashmir’s Mineral Contracts Largely Handed to Non-locals , Anadolu Agency (July 27, 2020), https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/kashmir-s-mineral-contracts-largely-handed-to-non-locals/1923634 [ https://perma.cc/PD4M-R5MM ].

^ 1 See Ministry of Home Affairs, Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order, 2020, S.O. 1229(E), § 14 (Notified on March 31, 2020).

^ 1 See Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 115 (discussing use of “registration by title” as a tool to “strengthen and regularize settler dispossession of Indigenous populations”).

^ 1 Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaption of State Laws) Order, 2020, § 14.

^ 1 Id .; see also Mirza Saaib Bég, Opinion, J&K’s New Domicile Order: Disenfranchising Kashmiris, One Step at a Time , The Wire (May 30, 2020), https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-domicile-law [ https://perma.cc/ZR7E-JJX9 ].

^ 1 See Ministry of Home Affairs, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Fifth Order, 2020, S.O. 3808(E) (Notified on Oct. 26, 2020) [hereinafter Reorganisation Fifth Order]; Safwat Zargar, Explainer: What Exactly Are the Changes to Land Laws in Jammu and Kashmir? , Scroll.in (Oct. 29, 2020, 6:30 AM), https://scroll.in/article/977057/explainer-what-exactly-are-the-changes-to-land-laws-in-jammu-and-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/SWT2-KT8B ].

^ 1 In particular, the Order removed the “permanent resident” protections from the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, Jammu and Kashmir Development Act, and the Jammu and Kashmir Land Grants Act, all of which regulated the lease and transfer of land. See Reorganisation Fifth Order, supra note 205.

^ 1 See id . § 3 (repealing statutory protections for agricultural land).

^ 1 Id . § 7.

^ 1 Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah), Twitter (Oct. 27, 2020, 4:06 AM), https://twitter.com/OmarAbdullah/status/1321015482544054273 [ https://perma.cc/TSN7-994N ].

^ 1 See India Revokes Kashmir’s Special Status , supra note 2.

^ 1 Lana Tatour, Citizenship as Domination: Settler Colonialism and the Making of Palestinian Citizenship in Israel , Arab Stud. J ., Fall 2019, at 13 (quoting Vine Deloria, Jr., For Your Sins: An American Manifesto 173 (1969)).

^ 1 Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor , A Garden Is Our Land (Gulshan Vatan Chhu Sonuy) , reprinted in The Best of Mahjoor 101, 103 (Triloki Nath Raina trans., 1989).

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Abrogation of Article 370 & 35A of Constitution – Explained

From Current Affairs Notes for UPSC » Editorials & In-depths » This topic

On 5 th of August 2019, the President of India promulgated the  Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019. It revokes the special status given to Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 and Article 35A.

A separate Bill – the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill 2019  – was introduced to bifurcate the State into two separate union territories of Jammu and Kashmir (with legislature), and  Ladakh (without legislature).

Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 was also introduced to extend the reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)  in educational institutions and government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir.

This topic of “Abrogation of Article 370 & 35A of Constitution – Explained” is important from the perspective of the UPSC IAS Examination , which falls under General Studies Portion.

What is Article 370?

• Article 370 was included in the Indian Constitution on October 17, 1949, as a ‘temporary provision’, which exempts Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian Constitution = allows it to draft its own Constitution and restricting the Indian Parliament’s legislative powers in the state.
• In short, it accorded special status to the state, giving the J&K legislature free rein to draft its own laws, except in the areas of communications, defence, finance, and foreign affairs.
• As a result, Jammu and Kashmir had its own constitution, flag, and penal code.

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What is Article 35A?

• Article 35A was inserted as part of amendments made through a 1954 presidential order imposed under Article 370 of the constitution.
• It gives powers to J&K to declare a class of persons as “permanent residents’ of the State
• Public employment
• Acquisition of immovable property in the State
• Settlement in different parts of the State.
• Access to scholarships
• Voting rights
• Other such aids that the State government might provide.
• Legislations to confer special rights and privileges are exempt from being annulled on the ground that they infringe on any of the fundamental rights provided under the Indian Constitution.

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Why Article 35A needs to be scrapped?

• Non-permanent residents are denied all the special rights.
• Discrimination based on gender because a male resident in J&K will not lose the right of being a permanent resident even after marriage to a woman from outside. But it is the opposite for woman and they will lose the right of being a permanent resident on marrying an outsider. It discriminates against women who marry outside the state from applying for jobs or buying a property.
• Thus Article 35A is considered to be violating Article 14 of the constitution which provides for equality before the law and equal protection of the laws, thus affecting the basic structure of the constitution.
• Therefore the petition challenges the constitutional validity of Article 35A.

What are the Arguments against scrapping Article 35A?

• Article 35A is more relevant for the Dogra people of Jammu as it protects them from domination by elite and affluent outsiders mostly from neighboring Punjab. Repealing the Article would likely impact the cultural identity and economic opportunities of those communities.
• Article 35A is required to promote the industrial development of J&K since it imposes restrictions on non-permanent residents to carry on business in the State.
• Also, the repeal of the law would lead to loss of opportunities due to the increased competition for recruitment, scholarships and other financial assistance. It will also increase pressure on landholdings, farm activity, etc. This may result in loss of opportunities for the local skilled and unskilled labour, farmers, etc.
• Moreover, Article 35A safeguards the rights and the distinct identity of the J&K people. Arguments for removing the law would only make it difficult for them to integrate with the nation as a whole.
• Apart from these arguments, there are the legal obstacles as mentioned before, there are various other arguments opposing the scrapping of Article 35A as follows.

Why can Article 35A not be scrapped?

• The law on the subject is well settled as previous benches of the Supreme Court have already approved the 1954 presidential order.
• Article 35A is not amendable based on basic structure violation since Article 370 gave J&K a set of special privileges. This includes an exemption from constitutional provisions governing other states.
• Parliament’s powers to legislate over the State are restricted to 3 core subjects viz- defence, foreign affairs, and communications.
• Parliament could legislate on other areas only through a presidential order and that too with the prior concurrence of the State government.
• However, Article 370 of the constitution empowers the President to declare the provision inoperative. But his authority can only be exercised on the prior consent of the State’s Constituent Assembly.
• Even amendments made to the Constitution under Article 368 will not automatically apply to J&K as it requires specific order to be made under Article 370. That too requires J&K government’s prior assent and ratification by the State’s Constituent Assembly.
• Therefore, as long as Article 370 exists, we cannot justify the validity of Article 35A.

Was Article 370 temporary or permanent?

There are several interpretations to Article 370 being temporary or permanent based on opinions of constitution experts, court judgements and PIL petitions as follows.

• A petition was filed by an NGO challenged the validity of Article 370 against the Delhi High Court’s April 11, 2017 order. The petition said that the continuance of the temporary provision of Article 370 even after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly of J&K, and that of J&K Constitution which has never got the assent of the President of India or Parliament or the government of India, “amounts to fraud on the basic structure of our Constitution” .
• The Article was introduced to accommodate the apprehensions of Maharaja Hari Singh who would not have acceded to India without certain concessions.
• Territorial integrity was of paramount importance to India post-independence, thus, such a special provision was inducted in the constitution.
• The plea said Article 35 A is against the “very spirit of oneness of India” as it creates a “class within a class of Indian citizens”.
• Restricting citizens from other States from getting employment or buying property within Jammu and Kashmir is a violation of fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution.
• Moreover, Article 370 could be interpreted as temporary in the sense that the J&K Constituent Assembly had a right to modify/delete/retain it. But it decided to retain it .
• Another interpretation was that accession was temporary until a plebiscite is made .

What is the recent presidential order?

• The order effectively revokes the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir under the provision of Article 370 – whereby provisions of the Constitution which were applicable to other states were not applicable to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) = The provisions of the Indian Constitution are now applicable in the State.
• It will also clear the path for abrogating Article 35A which would allow Indian citizens to purchase land and settle permanently in J&K.
• This Order comes into force “at once”, and shall “supersede the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954.”

What happens now?

Though the Presidential Order may face legal scrutiny, as matters currently stand, Jammu and Kashmir will witness historic political and geographic changes. It is to be divided into two union territories- Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir .

• Ladakh will not have a legislature, while Jammu and Kashmir will have a legislative assembly with 107 members-however, this assembly will not have the authority to pass laws relating to ‘public order and the police’.
• The single largest party in the assembly will form the government, headed by a chief minister, and the assembly will have a five-year term, not six, as was the earlier case.
• A Lieutenant Governor will govern both Union territories.
• Of the six Lok Sabha seats currently with the state of Jammu and Kashmir, five will remain with the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, while one will go to Ladakh.However, the biggest fallout for the state will stem from the abolition of its special status under Article 370 . These are the likely major changes:
• Jammu and Kashmir will no longer have separate constitution, flag or anthem.
• The citizens of Jammu and Kashmir will not have dual citizenship-they will be citizens of India alone.
• As the new union territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be subject to the Indian Constitution, its citizens will now have the Fundamental Rights enshrined in that document-until now, this was not the case.
• Article 360, which can be used to declare a Financial Emergency, will now also be applicable.
• All laws passed by Parliament will be applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, including the Right to Information Act and the Right to Education Act .
• The Indian Penal Code will replace the Ranbir Penal Code of Jammu and Kashmir
• Any Indian citizen from any part of the country can now buy property in Jammu and Kashmir, take a state government job and enjoy scholarships and other government benefits.
• Children of a woman marrying outside Jammu and Kashmir will not lose property rights.

What are the issues with the order?

Article 370 is the bedrock of the constitutional relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India.

• It has been described as a tunnel through which the Constitution is applied to J&K.
• India has used Article 370 at least 45 times to extend provisions of the Indian Constitution to J&K. This is the only way through which, by mere Presidential Orders, India has almost nullified the effect of J&K’s special status.
• By the 1954 order, almost the entire Constitution was extended to J&K including most Constitutional amendments.
• However, abrogating the article altogether  may threaten the peace in the state  which is already a hotspot of conflicts and militancy.
• It will completely change the relationship between the state and the rest of India.

It will also clear the path for abrogating Article 35A  which would allow Indian citizens to purchase land and settle permanently in J&K = This move is bound to have a significant impact on the demography, culture, and politics of J&K .

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Kashmir special status explained: What are Articles 370 and 35A?

Indian government abolishes decades-old laws that gave a measure of autonomy to the disputed Muslim-majority region.

India has scrapped a law that grants special status to Indian-administered Kashmir amid an indefinite lockdown and massive troop deployment in the disputed region.

Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi , told parliament on Monday that the president had signed a decree abolishing Article 370 of the constitution, stripping the significant autonomy Kashmir had enjoyed for seven decades.

The move is expected to further inflame tensions in the Muslim-majority region  of more than seven million people and infuriate  rival Pakistan.

The government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ), also moved a bill proposing the Jammu and Kashmir state be divided into two “union territories” directly ruled by New Delhi.

The Jammu and Kashmir union territory will include the Hindu-majority Jammu region and will have a legislative assembly.

The Buddhist-majority Ladakh region, which has a considerable population of Shia Muslims, will also be a union territory, but it will not have an assembly.

All phones, internet services and cable networks were cut off on Sunday night and pro-India leaders placed under house arrest following days of soaring tensions.

What is Article 370?

Article 370 was the basis of Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to the Indian union at a time when erstwhile princely states had the choice to join either India or Pakistan after their independence from the British rule in 1947.

The article, which came into effect in 1949, exempts Jammu and Kashmir state from the Indian constitution.

It  allows the Indian-administered region jurisdiction to make its own laws in all matters except finance, defence, foreign affairs and communications.

It established a separate constitution and a separate flag and denied property rights in the region to the outsiders.

That means the residents of the state live under different laws from the rest of the country in matters such as property ownership and citizenship.

What is Article 35A?

Article 35A was introduced through a presidential order in 1954 to continue the old provisions of the territory regulations under Article 370 of the Indian constitution.

The article permits the local legislature in Indian-administered Kashmir to define permanent residents of the region.

It forbids outsiders from permanently settling, buying land, holding local government jobs or winning education scholarships in the region.

The article, referred to as the Permanent Residents Law, also bars female residents of Jammu and Kashmir from property rights in the event that they marry a person from outside the state. The provision also extends to such women’s children.

While Article 35A has remained unchanged, some aspects of Article 370 have been diluted over the decades.

Critics of Article 35A say the provision did not have any parliamentary sanction, and that it discriminates against women.

Why are they being abolished?

The ruling BJP and its right-wing allies have challenged Article 35A which it calls discriminatory, through a series of petitions . 

Last month, a senior BJP leader hinted that the government was planning to form exclusive Hindu settlements in the region.

Prime Minister Modi led his BJP to a landslide win in May on the back of a divisive campaign that ostensibly targeted Muslims, vowing to remoe Article 370 and its 35A provision. 

“This is a straightforward pandering to the Hindu-majority electorate in India,” said Ajai Shukla, a defence analyst in New Delhi. 

“There is a political polarisation here with the ruling party trying to pander to its Hindu vote bank and to anything it sees as anti-Muslim,” he told Al Jazeera. “For the government, it is a step that it had promised and now delivered on.” 

What does this mean?

With Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status repealed, people from the rest of India would have the right to acquire property in Jammu and Kashmir and settle there permanently.

Kashmiris fear the move would lead to a demographic transformation of the region from majority-Muslim to majority-Hindu.

“They [the government] have not just struck down the provision of 370, but they have actually dismantled the fate of Jammu and Kashmir as it existed in the Indian constitution,” said Shukla.

“It now consists of union territories which are centrally governed – Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. This is a sort of a radical new provision, which many people are saying will require a constitutional amendment.”

Article 370 of the Indian constitution permits revocation of the law by presidential order. However, such an order must be introduced before the state’s Constituent Assembly.

Since that body was dissolved in 1957, experts have different views on the abrogation of the law, with some believing it needs approval by state lawmakers and others seeing a presidential order as sufficient.

According to Shukla, the order will face both legal and political challenges in the coming days.

“The first legal challenge will come from Kashmir itself. Doing away with Article 370 now opens the door for an open Palestine-type independence struggle within Kashmir,” he said.

“In India as well, there will be mounting legal challenges and political opposition which has many illustrious lawyers. It can be expected that these will be heard by a constitutional bench in the Supreme Court.”

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Explained: What are Articles 370 and 35A?

What is article 370 and 35a: a recent central ordinance, which extends reservation to scs and sts in j&k, throws the spotlight on article 35a, as well as article 370 from which it derives. what are these two provisions.

What is Article 370?

Included in the Constitution on October 17, 1949, Article 370 exempts J&K from the Indian Constitution (except Article 1 and Article 370 itself) and permits the state to draft its own Constitution. It restricts Parliament’s legislative powers in respect of J&K. For extending a central law on subjects included in the Instrument of Accession (IoA), mere “consultation” with the state government is needed. But for extending it to other matters, “concurrence” of the state government is mandatory. The IoA came into play when the Indian Independence Act, 1947 divided British India into India and Pakistan.

Explained: Here’s what has changed in Jammu and Kashmir

For some 600 princely states whose sovereignty was restored on Independence, the Act provided for three options: to remain an independent country, join Dominion of India, or join Dominion of Pakistan — and this joining with either of the two countries was to be through an IoA. Though no prescribed form was provided, a state so joining could specify the terms on which it agreed to join. The maxim for contracts between states is pacta sunt servanda, i.e. promises between states must be honoured; if there is a breach of contract, the general rule is that parties are to be restored to the original position.

A number of other states enjoy special status under Article 371, from 371A to 371I.

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What were the terms included in the IoA for Kashmir?

The Schedule appended to the Instrument of Accession gave Parliament the power to legislate in respect of J&K only on Defence, External Affairs and Communications. In Kashmir’s Instrument of Accession in Clause 5, Raja Hari Singh, ruler of J&K, explicitly mentioned that the terms of “my Instrument of Accession cannot be varied by any amendment of the Act or of Indian Independence Act unless such amendment is accepted by me by an Instrument supplementary to this Instrument”. Clause 7 said “nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit me in any way to acceptance of any future constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into arrangements with the Government of India under any such future constitution”.

How did the accession come about?

Raja Hari Singh had initially decided to remain independent and sign standstill agreements with India and Pakistan, and Pakistan in fact signed it. But following an invasion from tribesmen and Army men in plainclothes from Pakistan, he sought the help of India, which in turn sought the accession of Kashmir to India. Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947 and Governor General Lord Mountbatten accepted it on October 27, 1947.

It was India’s stated policy that wherever there was a dispute on accession, it should be settled in accordance with the wishes of people rather than a unilateral decision of the ruler of the princely state. In India’s acceptance of the IoA, Lord Mountbatten stated that “it is my Government’s wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil is cleared of the invader, the question of the State’s accession be settled by a reference to the people”. India regarded accession as purely temporary and provisional, as stated in the Government of India’s White Paper on J&K in 1948. In a letter to J&K Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah dated May 17, 1949, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with the concurrence of Vallabhbhai Patel and N Gopalaswami Ayyangar wrote: “It has been settled policy of Government of India, which on many occasions has been stated both by Sardar Patel and me, that the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir is a matter for determination by the people of the state represented in a Constituent Assembly convened for the purpose.”

How was Article 370 enacted?

The original draft was given by the Government of J&K. Following modification and negotiations, Article 306A (now 370) was passed in the Constituent Assembly on May 27, 1949. Moving the motion, Ayyangar said that though accession was complete, India had offered to have a plebiscite taken when the conditions were created, and if accession was not ratified then “we shall not stand in the way of Kashmir separating herself away from India”. On October 17, 1949, when Article 370 was finally included in the Constitution by India’s Constituent Assembly, Ayyangar reiterated India’s commitment to plebiscite and drafting of a separate constitution by J&K’s Constituent Assembly.

Was Article 370 a temporary provision?

It is the first article of Part XXI of the Constitution. The heading of this part is ‘Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions’. Article 370 could be interpreted as temporary in the sense that the J&K Constituent Assembly had a right to modify/delete/retain it; it decided to retain it. Another interpretation was that accession was temporary until a plebiscite. The Union government, in a written reply in Parliament last year, said there is no proposal to remove Article 370. Delhi High Court in Kumari Vijayalaksmi (2017) too rejected a petition that said Article 370 is temporary and its continuation is a fraud on the Constitution. The Supreme Court in April 2018 said that despite the headnote using the word “temporary’, Article 370 is not temporary. In Sampat Prakash (1969) the SC refused to accept Article 370 as temporary. A five-judge Bench said “Article 370 has never ceased to be operative”. Thus, it is a permanent provision.

Can Article 370 be deleted?

Yes, Article 370(3) permits deletion by a Presidential Order. Such an order, however, is to be preceded by the concurrence of J&K’s Constituent Assembly. Since such an Assembly was dissolved on January 26, 1957, one view is it cannot be deleted anymore. But the other view is that it can be done, but only with the concurrence of the State Assembly.

What is Article 370’s significance for the Indian Union?

Article 370 itself mentions Article 1, which includes J&K in the list of states. Article 370 has been described as a tunnel through which the Constitution is applied to J&K. Nehru, however, said in Lok Sabha on November 27, 1963 that “Article 370 has eroded”. India has used Article 370 at least 45 times to extend provisions of the Indian Constitution to J&K. This is the only way through which, by mere Presidential Orders, India has almost nullified the effect of J&K’s special status. By the 1954 order, almost the entire Constitution was extended to J&K including most Constitutional amendments. Ninety-four of 97 entries in the Union List are applicable to J&K; 26 out of 47 items of the Concurrent List have been extended.; 260 of 395 Articles have been extended to the state, besides 7 of 12 Schedules.

The Centre has used Article 370 even to amend a number of provisions of J&K’s Constitution, though that power was not given to the President under Article 370. Article 356 was extended though a similar provision that was already in Article 92 of the J&K Constitution, which required that President’s Rule could be ordered only with the concurrence of the President. To change provisions for the Governor being elected by the Assembly, Article 370 was used to convert it into a nominee of the President. To extend President’s rule beyond one year in Punjab, the government needed the 59th, 64th, 67th and 68th Constitutional Amendments, but achieved the same result in J&K just by invoking Article 370. Again, Article 249 (power of Parliament to make laws on State List entries) was extended to J&K without a resolution by the Assembly and just by a recommendation of the Governor. In certain ways, Article 370 reduces J&K’s powers in comparison to other states. It is more useful for India today than J&K.

Is there any ground in the view that Article 370 is essential for J&K being a part of India?

Article 3 of the J&K Constitution declares J&K to be an integral part of India. In the Preamble to the Constitution, not only is there no claim to sovereignty, but there is categorical acknowledgement about the object of the J&K Constitution being “to further define the existing relationship of the state with the Union of India as its integral part thereof. Moreover people of state are referred as ‘permanent residents’ not ‘citizens’.” Article 370 is not an issue of integration but of autonomy. Those who advocate its deletion are more concerned with uniformity rather than integration.

What is Article 35A?

Article 35A stems from Article 370, having been introduced through a Presidential Order in 1954. Article 35A is unique in the sense that it does not appear in the main body of the Constitution — Article 35 is immediately followed by Article 36 — but comes up in Appendix I. Article 35A empowers the J&K legislature to define the state’s permanent residents and their special rights and privileges.

Why is it being challenged?

The Supreme Court will examine whether it is unconstitutional or violates the basic structure of the Constitution. But unless it is upheld, many Presidential Orders may become questionable. Article 35A was not passed as per the amending process given in Article 368, but was inserted on the recommendation of J&K’s Constituent Assembly through a Presidential Order.

Article 370 is not only part of the Constitution but also part of federalism, which is basic structure. Accordingly, the court has upheld successive Presidential Orders under Article 370.

Since Article 35A predates basic structure theory of 1973, as per Waman Rao (1981), it cannot be tested on the touchstone of basic structure. Certain types of restrictions on purchase of land are also in place in several other states, including some in the Northeast and Himachal Pradesh. Domicile-based reservation in admissions and even jobs is followed in a number of states, including under Article 371D for undivided Andhra Pradesh . The Centre’s recent decision extending to J&K reservation benefits for SCs, STs, OBCs and those living along international borders, announced last week. throws the spotlight back on Article 35A.

Parent provision and its offshoot

Article 370.

Part of the Constitution ever since it came into effect, it lays down that only two Articles would apply to J&K: Article 1, which defines India, and Article 370 itself. Article 370 says other provisions of the Constitution can apply to J&K “subject to such exceptions and modifications as the President may by order specify”, with the concurrence of the state government and the endorsement of the J&K Constituent Assembly.

• Article 35A

Introduced by a Presidential Order of 1954, it empowers the J&K legislature to define a “permanent resident” of the state, and to provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents.

(The author is an expert of constitutional law and Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad )

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Article 370 and 35A: Origin, Provisions, and the Politics of Contestation

• First Online: 28 November 2020

Cite this chapter

• Aijaz Ashraf Wani 2 ,
• Imran Ahmad Khan 2 &
• Tabzeer Yaseen 3  

353 Accesses

In August 2019, the Indian government revoked the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), protected by Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution. The special provisions had been in place since October 1947, when its ruler acceded to India through a conditional Instrument of Accession. Although there has been significant media coverage of the abrogation and subsequent military siege in Kashmir, there remains scant awareness regarding the significance of the articles for Kashmiris. This chapter provides a historical account of how the articles came into existence and discusses why they were so highly contested. It allows the reader to appreciate better the implications of the abrogation of J&K’s special provisions and why such political fallout has come in its wake.

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Wani, A.A., Khan, I.A., Yaseen, T. (2021). Article 370 and 35A: Origin, Provisions, and the Politics of Contestation. In: Hussain, S. (eds) Society and Politics of Jammu and Kashmir. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56481-0_3

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• Article 370

Supreme Court Upholds Abrogation of Article 370

In this article, UPSC aspirants will get to know what is Article 370 and Article 35A, important dates, controversies associated with Article 370 and its revocation. Article 370 and the constitutional history of Jammu & Kashmir are important for the IAS exam .

Article 370 – A Constitutional History of J&K:- Download PDF Here

Important Points to learn:

Supreme Court Verdict On Article 370

• The judgement was passed by a five-judge constitution bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, and Surya Kant.
• The SC said that steps should be taken to conduct elections in the assembly by September 30, 2024.
• The Supreme Court did not accept the argument of petitioners that the Union government cannot take actions of irreversible consequences in Jammu & Kashmir during President’s Rule (the abrogation was done during President’s Rule).
• The Supreme Court also said Jammu and Kashmir did not retain an element of sovereignty after joining India.

Article 370 – Introduction

The key feature of Article 370 was that the Central laws passed by the Parliament did not automatically apply to the erstwhile State of J&K, and it was the right of the State Legislature to approve them by passing a parallel act. 

• Article 370 is a constitutional provision that gave Jammu and Kashmir its special status.
• As evident from the title of the Part, it was supposed to be a temporary provision and its applicability was projected to last till the formulation and adoption of the State’s constitution.
• It restricted the Parliament’s legislative powers with respect to the state of J&K.

Pandit Nehru, on the floor of Lok Sabha on 27th November 1963, said that Article 370 has been eroded and the process of gradual erosion is going on. A year later, the then Home Minister Gulzari Lal Nanda, again on the floor of Lok Sabha on 4 December 1964, said, Article 370 is a tunnel to take the Constitution of India to Jammu and Kashmir. He further said that in the end, only the shell will remain there and it will be bereft of its contents, and it will hardly make any difference whether it is kept or not.

These two statements by two tall leaders of the country speak volumes about the dilution of Article 370 of the Constitution of India just merely after one decade of its enactment. The process had right away started in the year 1950, with the issuance of the Constitutional Application Order 1950, and thereafter, a number of parlances took place between the Centre and the State leadership, which evolved into an agreement known as the Delhi Agreement of 1952 , wherein a number of subjects apart from those in the Instrument of Accession were agreed to be made applicable to the State of J&K. Some of them are as under:

• Appointment of the head of State.
• Persons having domicile in the State of J&K shall be Citizens of India.
• Fundamental Rights
• Jurisdiction of Supreme Court
• National Flag
• Financial Integration
• Emergency Powers

Presidential Orders

Under Article 370 of the Constitution of India, the President had the power of issuing orders for the application of provisions of the Constitution of India with modifications, exceptions and amendments in the provisions. And this power has been upheld in several cases by the Supreme Court, e.g., in P. L. Lakhanpal vs the State of J&K.

As already said, for the application of other provisions of the Constitution of India to the State of J&K, the only mode available was the Constitutional Application Order. And the same was to be done with the consultation and concurrence of the State Government. The Presidential Orders, broadly speaking, deal with the following subject matters:

• Enhancing the jurisdiction of the Parliament to enact laws in the State of J&K out of the Union List .
• Laws relating to an increase or decrease in the area of the State.
• Making provisions for the return of the permanent residents of the State who migrated to the territories included in Pakistan under permit for settlement.
• Providing for constitutional protection to the laws relating to permanent residents of the state, their special rights and privileges, employment under Government, acquisition of immovable property, settlement in the State, scholarship.
• Earmarking the number of seats in the House of the people, excluding the area under the occupation of Pakistan.
• Provision for delimitation of Parliament Constituencies.
• Transfer of judges from the High Court of J&K or to the said Court.
• Exclusion of the State List.
• Provision as regards the decision affecting the disposition of the State of J&K.
• Acquisition and requisition of immovable property on behalf of and at the expense of the Union.
• Provision relating to the use of the official language of the Union and in the proceedings before the Supreme Court .
• Provisions for the proclamation of emergency.
• Provisions for non-application of the amendments carried out by the Parliament of India in the Constitution of India.
• Provision for Governor and the Election Commission.

In the year 1954, the Constitutional Application Order 1950 was renamed as the Constitutional Application Order 1954 and its issuance was the first infringement on the constitutional autonomy of the State of J&K. It culminated with the issuance of the Constitution (Application to J&K) Order, 2019. Article 370 itself was used to make it weak after remaining on the Constitution book for 70 years.

Facts on Article 370

Article 370 – Temporary provisions with respect to the State of Jammu and Kashmir

(1) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution,

(a) The provisions of Article 238 shall not apply in relation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir;

(b) The power of Parliament to make laws for the said State shall be limited to

• Those matters in the Union List and the Concurrent List which, in consultation with the Government of the State , are declared by the President to correspond to matters specified in the Instrument of Accession governing the accession of the State to the Dominion of India as the matters with respect to which the Dominion Legislature may make laws for that State; and
• Such other matters in the said Lists as, with the concurrence of the Government of the State, the President may by order specify Explanation For the purposes of this article, the Government of the State means the person for the time being recognized by the President as the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir acting on the advice of the Council of Ministers for the time being in office under the Maharajas Proclamation dated the fifth day of March 1948 ;

(c) The provisions of Article 1 and of this article shall apply in relation to that State;

(d) such of the other provisions of this Constitution shall apply in relation to that State subject to such exceptions and modifications as the President may by order specify: Provided that no such order which relates to the matters specified in the Instrument of Accession of the State referred to in paragraph 1 of sub clause (b) shall be issued except in consultation with the Government of the State: Provided further that no such order which relates to matters other than those referred to in the last preceding proviso shall be issued except with the concurrence of that Government.

(2) If the concurrence of the Government of the State referred to in paragraph 2 of sub clause (b) of clause (1) or in the second proviso to sub clause (d) of that clause be given before the Constituent Assembly for the purpose of framing the Constitution of the State is convened, it shall be placed before such Assembly for such decision as it may take thereon.

(3) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this article, the President may, by public notification, declare that this article shall cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify: Provided that the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of the State referred to in clause (2) shall be necessary before the President issues such a notification.

Application of 370

• However, the State’s constituent assembly dissolved itself on 25 January 1957 without recommending either abrogation or amendment of Article 370, leaving the status of the provision on a cliffhanger.
• The provision was later held to have acquired permanent status by way of rulings of the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir.
• This implied that to apply a central law to the state on subjects included in the Instrument of Accession, mere “consultation” with the state government is required.
• However, to apply a central legislation to matters other than defence, foreign affairs and communications, ”concurrence” of the state government was mandatory.

Jammu and Kashmir Constitution

• Article 3-> Relationship of the State with the Union of India :- The State of Jammu and Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India.
• In the Preamble to the Constitution, not only is there no claim to sovereignty, but there is a categorical acknowledgement about the object of the J&K Constitution being “to further define the existing relationship of the state with the Union of India as its integral part thereof.”

Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019

• (1) This Order may be called the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019.

    (2) It shall come into force at once, and shall thereupon supersede the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954 as amended from time to time.

• All the provisions of the Constitution, as amended from time to time, shall apply in relation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir and the exceptions and modifications subject to which they shall so apply shall be as follows:-

To article 367, there shall be added the following clause, namely:-

“(4) For the purposes of this Constitution as it applies in relation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir-

(a) References to this Constitution or to the provisions thereof shall be construed as references to the Constitution or the provisions thereof as applied in relation to the said State;

(b) references to the person for the time being recognized by the President on the recommendation of the Legislative Assembly of the State as the Sadar-i-Riyasat of Jammu and Kashmir , acting on the advice of the Council of Ministers of the State for the time being in office, shall be construed as references to the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir ;

(c) references to the Government of the said State shall be construed as including references to the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir acting on the advice of his Council of Ministers; and

(d) in the proviso to clause (3) of Article 370 of this Constitution, the expression “Constituent Assembly of the State referred to in clause (2)” shall read “Legislative Assembly of the State”.

Has Article 370 been scrapped?

• The Presidential order signed by the President of India has not scrapped Article 370 .
• But invoking this very article, the special status of Jammu & Kashmir has been withdrawn.
• Thus, Article 370 is very much on the statute book.
• In other words, the move by the government gives full applicability of the Indian Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier, only a set of limited provisions such as foreign relations, communication and defence had jurisdiction over Jammu and Kashmir.

What is the status of Article 35-A?

• Since Presidential Order of August 5 has extended all the provisions of the Constitution to Kashmir , the Fundamental Rights chapter has now been extended and therefore some discriminatory provisions of Article 35-A may not be in accordance with prescribed Rules.
• Therefore the President can also declare this to be inapplicable.
• Article 35A of the Indian Constitution is an article that empowers the Jammu and Kashmir states legislature to define “permanent residents”.
• The provision mandates that no act of the state legislature coming under the ambit of Article 35A can be challenged for violating the Indian Constitution or any other law of the land.

Who Are Permanent Residents?

• as a person who was a state subject on May 14, 1954
• who had been a resident of the state for 10 years
• has lawfully acquired immovable property in the state
• The state legislature can alter the definition of a permanent resident by passing a law with a two-thirds majority .
• Permanent residents are given a Permanent Resident Certificate which forms the basis of their rights in the state.
• It also has a provision to recognize as permanent residents, people who had migrated to Pakistan and returned, though subject to certain conditions.

Rights and Privileges

• Employment under the state government/State Public Sector Jobs
• Acquisition of immovable property in the state
• Settlement in the state
• Right to scholarships and such other forms of aid as the state government may provide

Why was the move a necessity?

By reorganising Kashmir’s political status, Modi govt. is addressing a colonial mess

• In Africa and Asia, there are countless territorial conflicts. The Indo-Tibetan frontier opened up by Curzon remains a contested boundary dispute between India and China. More broadly, the buffers and protectorates constructed by the Raj to limit conflict with Russia are now zones of political contestation between India and a rising China.
• The Durand Line drawn between India and Afghanistan in 1893 , a few years before Curzon arrived in India, remains disputed between Kabul and Islamabad. Even the Taliban, nurtured by Pakistan as an instrument to gain influence in Afghanistan, does not accept the Durand Line.
• Many other peripheries of the Raj, from Balochistan in the west to Xinjiang and Kashmir in the north to Tibet and the eastern Himalayan regions between India, upper Burma and China are all in a turmoil of varying degrees.

Part of the problem lies in the nature of the frontiers that the Subcontinent inherited from the Raj.

The land borders of India were not defined by a single line, but by what Curzon identified as the three-fold frontier.

• There was the “ administrative frontier ” that marked out regions that the Raj governed to the fullest extent.
• Beyond that was the “ frontier of active defence ” like the Durand Line.
• A third was the “ strategic frontier ” consisting of the outer boundaries of protectorates over which the Raj exercised a measure of control.

Confusion over Control of Territories

• While the British Raj, Czarist Russia and Qing China found ways to live with ambiguities in remote corners of the empire, the new nationalist regimes that succeeded them have had much more difficulty.
• The Partition of the subcontinent, based on religious considerations, added an explosive dimension to an already complex inheritance.
• The successor states to the empires laid formal claims to tracts of territory that had an ambivalent status, but have struggled to realise them.

The colonial past has left territories that are claimed by many countries with significant challenges

• Pakistan has struggled to find stability on its western borderlands — where the Baloch and the Pashtun continue to challenge its claims.
• Beijing continues to claim the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh.
• But the arguments with China are now mostly political. After instigating trouble in each other’s territory for a period, Delhi and Beijing are now committed to managing the dispute peacefully, while expanding the broader relationship.
• There is a frequent spike in military tensions, but there has been no shooting war.
• India has had greater success with Bangladesh . Early on in his first term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seized the opportunities to settle the disputes with Dhaka on the land and maritime boundary inherited from the Partition.
• But unlike Dhaka and Beijing, Rawalpindi is not really prepared for a peaceful resolution. Repeated efforts by Indira Gandhi (1972), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1999), and Manmohan Singh (2005-07) ended in failure. The inherent difficulty of negotiation has been compounded by Pakistan’s use of terrorism and Kashmir’s ambiguous political status within the Indian Union .
• In confronting Pakistan’s terrorism and reorganising the political status of Kashmir, the Modi government has set a new policy template.
• The key to its success lies in finding early political reconciliation within Kashmir and persuading the Pakistan army that its interests are better served by stable, peaceful and legitimate frontier with India.

Due process

• The process of revocation of Article 370, which ties the state with India, needed the approval of J&K’s Constituent Assembly. In the absence of such an assembly, it can be removed with the concurrence of the state legislative assembly. But the assembly does not exist at the moment either, and the notification suggests that it was the Governor’s concurrence that was obtained to render the provisions irrelevant . This is clearly not sufficient.
• The process has been pushed through without consultations with Kashmir’s political leaders , who have been under detention.
• Further, the reorganisation of states requires the consent of the state assembly concerned .
• In this case, J&K has been bifurcated, and statehood diluted to UT status, without any deliberations in the assembly.

Article 3 of the Constitution

• It says that before parliament can consider a bill that diminishes the area of a state or changes its name, the bill must be “referred by the President to the Legislature of that State for expressing its views thereon”.
• This is an essential safeguard of India’s federal system and has clearly not been followed in this case.
• In Parliament, the Home Minister invoked that since the J&K assembly was dissolved and the state is under Central rule, it is parliament that gets to exercise the prerogatives of the assembly .
• This move will strain India’s social fabric not only in its impact on Jammu and Kashmir but also in the portents it holds for federalism, parliamentary democracy and diversity.
• The Centre’s abrupt move disenfranchised people on a matter that directly affects their life and sentiments.

Kashmiris seek greater democracy

• Like all Indian citizens, Kashmiris seek greater democracy.
• Elements keen to destabilize India would seek to build a narrative that Delhi is taking away powers from the local level . It is important that the process of turning the state into a UT does not lead to alienation.

Deepen communal and religious lines

• While Ladakhi Buddhists, for instance, are now celebrating the fulfilment of their long-pending demand for Union Territory status, the voices of Kargilis who are still under a strict curfew are yet to be heard.
• They may not support this decision because ‘a Union Territory without a legislature’ not only negates the idea of decentralisation of power to the grassroots (the undergirding principle of the autonomous hill council) but could well lead to a shifting of the loci of power to Leh, resulting in losing whatever gains they have assiduously made over the years.

Instrument of Accession

• In Kashmir’s Instrument of Accession in Clause 5, Raja Hari Singh, ruler of J&K, explicitly mentioned that the terms of “my Instrument of Accession cannot be varied by any amendment of the Act or of Indian Independence Act unless such amendment is accepted by me by an Instrument supplementary to this Instrument”.
• Clause 7 said “nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit me in any way to acceptance of any future constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into arrangements with the Government of India under any such future constitution”.
• In India’s acceptance of the IoA, Lord Mountbatten stated that “it is my Government’s wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil is cleared of the invader, the question of the State’s accession be settled by a reference to the people”.

Read more about the history of Instrument of Accession in the linked article.

Elections in Jammu and Kashmir were delayed

• The three independent observers appointed by the Election Commission — to assess the readiness for assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir — are learnt to have conveyed to the poll panel that the situation is conducive for elections immediately after Lok Sabha polls.

Why Jammu and Kashmir is special?

• Former MP Karan Singh, son of Maharaja Hari Singh, wrote in An Examined Life : “The right-wing seems to resent that J&K carries a special status. That has always surprised me. We are a great country, we should be large-hearted. J&K came to India under complex and difficult circumstances. Now after all these years to ask why it holds a special position is baffling. It will always be special because it was born out of a special historical event and subsequent political developments. In England they have all sorts of governing systems…, we should feel so lucky that J&K, a Muslim-majority state became a part of India despite the religion-led Partition. Cherish that; relish that; honour that.”
• In November 1963, in a debate in Parliament, when Hari Vishnu Kamath argued that Kashmir was “not fully” integrated, Nehru asserted that it was, indeed, “fully integrated” with India. He said: “The House will remember that we have some restrictions with respect to NEFA and other places; outsiders cannot buy land. This is also in some other districts, the hill districts of Assam . This is to protect them.”

Looking at these arguments from the past, the people, the local political parties in Jammu and Kashmir and the political parties in India should have been taken into confidence for bringing about an end to legislation that was indeed the bridge between India and the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

• The recent pre-emptive deployment of additional forces into Jammu and Kashmir enables the state government to deal appropriately with any situation.
• If large-scale protests do erupt, how they are handled will be extremely important.
• Pakistan can be expected to fish actively in the troubled waters of Kashmir. Buoyed by the recent statements of United States President Donald Trump on mediation, Pakistan will attempt to internationalize the issue of Kashmir.
• However, there are limits to Pakistan’s response. Hobbled by international pressure and a dire financial situation, Pakistan needs to keep its actions calibrated to ensure that the situation does not escalate to a conventional conflict.
• The Indian Army’s deployment along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir is extremely robust, and will not allow large-scale infiltration.
• It is also essential to not look at tackling the situation purely through a security approach. If the government’s action aims to find a resolution to the Kashmir conflict, it has to take the local population into confidence .
• The decision of the government must not be painted in terms of victory or defeat, but as a win-win for everyone.
• The advisory to various state governments to ensure the safety and security of the residents of Jammu and Kashmir is a step in the right direction.

It must now be followed up by a genuine outreach to the people of the state.

Union Territory Status

• There were seven union territories (UTs) specified under Part II of the First Schedule to the Constitution of India , viz. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry.
• Except for the National Capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry, UTs did not have their own legislature until now.
• Now, the state of Jammu and Kashmir has also been added along with Delhi and Puducherry to be a UT with a legislature .

Article 240 of the Indian Constitution

• According to Article 240, the President of India has the power to make regulations for UTs not having their own legislature.

Is it right to give a state Union Territory status? Yes

• Frederic Drew, who served as Governor of Ladakh in the 19th Century had rightly observed that “the territories of J&K have no other bond of cohesion than the fact of Maharaja’s rule, no simple name for it exists”.
• Ladakhis since then have consistently been demanding a separate region from the Jammu and Kashmir State and asking for the status of Union Territory for the area.
• With the United States seeking a quick exit from, and willing to let the Inter-Services Intelligence-sponsored Taliban control Afghanistan (and China deeply embedded in the power play), the heartland of Central Asia has rarely been as adverse to Indian interests since 1989, when the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan. Kashmir could, in these circumstances, become even more vulnerable to external elements than it was in the 1990s.
• The situation emerging in the western neighbourhood and the possible re-ascendance of the Taliban in Afghanistan call for greater attention and care to be taken in what will remain as J&K after bifurcation. Making it a Union Territory with a legislature makes a lot of strategic sense.
• In the interest of security, this is a good move. Once all the security measures are met, we can give statehood as it happened with Goa and Arunachal Pradesh in the past.
• It will insulate Ladakh from the happenings in the other two regions and provide for greater development of the region.
• Ladakh’s unique geographical location should offer India a huge counter-offensive potential in terms of leveraging connectivity to the Eurasian region and China.
• It is a book penned by Ex-Governor of J&K Jagmohan during 1984-1990.
• “Article 370 is nothing but a breeding ground for the parasites at the heart of the paradise. It skins the poor. It deceives them with its mirage. It lines the pockets of the ‘power elites’”.
• Geographically and metaphorically, Jammu and Kashmir is the crown of secular India. Its people and leaders had chosen secular India over Pakistan.
• The new doctrine will have to persuade the majority of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that greater integration with India will provide them with more opportunities, provide more freedom and space, and strengthen their rights much more than the alternatives proposed by other mainstream parties or separatists.
• Going forward, India should take the people of J&K into confidence, bring development which includes all sections of society and restore statehood as per its initial promise.

Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019

• The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has a legislative assembly,
• Whereas the Union Territory of Ladakh does not have a legislative assembly and is administered by the Lieutenant Governor alone.
• The Union Territory of Ladakh will include the districts Leh and Kargil which, in effect, ceased to be part of the existing state of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The remaining territories remained with Jammu and Kashmir after the bifurcation.
• Representation in the House of People: Out of the six Lok Sabha seats in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, five remained with the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and one went to the Union Territory of Ladakh.
• The Election Commission may conduct Lok Sabha elections for both the Union Territories as per the allocation of seats specified in the Delimitation of Parliamentary Constituencies Order, 1976 as amended by this act.
• The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly to have a tenure of five years unless it’s dissolved earlier by the L-G.
• This allows the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to function as a legislative assembly under an administrator appointed under the said Article. In this case, it will be the LG.
• The constituencies to be re-organised through a de-limitation exercise under the 2002 Act of Parliament.
• For the purpose of delimitation, the 2011 census figures are to be taken as the benchmark.
• The state assembly currently has 111 seats, of which 46 are in the Valley, 37 in Jammu and the remaining four are in the Ladakh division .
• Of these, 24 seats would be deemed to be vacant till the time Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir comes under the jurisdiction of the Indian state.
• With this, the existing legislative council in Jammu and Kashmir stands abolished . “Every member thereof ceases to be such member and all bills pending in the Legislative Council shall lapse.”
• Four sitting members of the council of states (Rajya Sabha) representing the existing state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be deemed to have been elected to fill the seats allocated to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir . Their term of office remains unaltered.
• The High Court of the existing state of Jammu and Kashmir is the common High Court of the two Union Territories.
• The new Assembly shall have reservations for Scheduled Caste and Tribes as in other parts of the state.

Legislative powers of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir

• The Legislative Assembly may make laws for the whole or any part of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the state list except on subjects “public order” and “police” which will remain in the domain of the Centre vis-a-vis the LG.
• In case of inconsistencies between laws made by Parliament and laws made by the Legislative Assembly, earlier law shall prevail and law made by the Legislative Assembly shall be void.

Role and powers of the Lieutenant Governor

• The Governor of the existing State of Jammu and Kashmir shall be the Lieutenant Governor for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Union Territory of Ladakh for such period as may be determined by the President.
• The L-G will be assisted by advisors appointed by the Centre since the Union Territory will not have a Legislative Assembly.
• In the case of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the L-G shall “act in his discretion” on issues which fall outside the purview of powers conferred on the Legislative Assembly , in which he is required to exercise any judicial functions, and/or matters related to All India services and the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Relevant Links

Frequently Asked Questions related to Article 370

When was article 370 removed, what are the benefits of removing article 370, what is article 370 and 35 a, who drafted article 370 for jammu kashmir.

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What’s Behind the Latest Violence in Kashmir?

Militants are attacking minorities and outsiders in pursuit of demographic hegemony..

• Anchal Vohra

A deadly wave of attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir this fall has brought back haunting memories of the 1990s, when militancy in the region was at its peak.

Kashmir, a picturesque valley nestled in the Himalayas that is often lamented as a lost paradise, witnessed a total of 39 killings in October alone, including 13 civilians and several Indian soldiers and militants. After the attacks continued into November with the shootings of a policeman and a local Muslim shop staffer, New Delhi deployed an additional 5,500 troops into the valley.  

The spate of attacks began on the evening of Oct. 5, when pharmacist Makhan Lal Bindroo was shot to death by Islamist militants in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. That same evening, a Hindu street vendor from an eastern Indian state was killed in one of the city’s bustling markets. Two days later, militants marched into a government-run school there and shot the principal and a teacher—a Sikh and a Hindu, respectively—at point-blank range.

Each killing carried a message. Bindroo’s family is among the last 800 Kashmiri Pandit families that remain in their ancestral region. In the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits—an upper-caste Hindu group native to Kashmir—fled the valley after receiving threats from radical Islamists to forcibly convert to Islam. Experts said Bindroo’s cold-blooded killing was meant to dissuade the diasporic Kashmiri Pandit community from returning.

Back up. Why is Kashmir so contentious?

The 1947 Indian Independence Act divided colonial-era British India into two new countries: India and Pakistan. Kashmir’s Hindu monarch was free to accede to either. Although initially indecisive, he chose to join India after Kashmir was invaded by a Pakistani tribal army at the behest of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. A war then broke out between Indian and Pakistani troops, and a year later, India raised the issue of Kashmir before the United Nations Security Council.

The U.N. intervened, and India and Pakistan agreed to a cease-fire. The U.N. resolution called for a referendum to ascertain the will of the Kashmiri people—but only after Pakistan withdrew its troops and India reduced its military presence to a minimum. Neither country followed through, which effectively split Kashmir into India-administered and Pakistan-administered regions.

Both India and Pakistan continue to claim Kashmir in its entirety and have had several wars over the territory. As each acquired nuclear arms, their rivalry has become a major security concern for peace and stability in the world.

While Pakistan-administered Kashmir has become religiously homogeneous over the past decades, Indian-administered Kashmir is home to several religious groups. Pakistan-administered Kashmir is 99 percent Muslim, with negligible numbers of Hindus and Buddhists registering at 0.6 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively, according to the 2017 census. In Indian-administered Kashmir, 68.3 percent of inhabitants are Muslim, 28.4 percent are Hindus, 1.9 percent are Sikhs, 0.9 percent are Buddhists, and 0.3 percent are Christians, according to the 2011 census .

Why are Kashmir’s minorities being targeted again now?

The Resistance Front (TRF), the outfit that claimed responsibility for the attacks on Bindroo and others, is reported to have said it will attack any “ stooges and collaborators ” and “outside domicile holders” to discourage them from seeking residence and buying property in Kashmir. Around 400,000 Indian workers travel to Kashmir every year to work as carpenters, tailors, and masons. But ever since the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s special status in 2019, they can seek permanent residency.

Dilbagh Singh, the director-general of police in Indian-administered Kashmir, said the TRF is a front for the Pakistan-backed terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and a local militant organization called Hizbul Mujahideen. “There is a pattern as they want to terrorize the minority community,” Singh told the Daily Excelsior .

Lashkar-e-Taiba has carried out many lethal attacks in India, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which terrorists killed as many as 166 people. Pakistan has steadily denied all charges of involvement in terrorist attacks against India.

Tell me more about Kashmir’s special status.

In August 2019, the Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which had promised autonomy to Indian-administered Kashmir. This move brought the region firmly under the central government’s control and split it into two union territories or federal units: Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Local politicians were replaced with New Delhi-appointed governors.

The Indian government also revoked Article 35A, which barred nonlocals from settling in Kashmir permanently by denying them the right to buy or own immovable property there. Since 2019, however, only two Indians have purchased properties in Jammu and Kashmir, according to a written reply by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs to parliament.

Why did Modi revoke Articles 370 and 35A?

At the time, Modi claimed Articles 370 and 35A hindered the economic development of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. Writing in the Financial Times in 2019, Indian Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar argued the change was “fully in consonance” with Modi’s vision to “spread digital access, improve skills, boost start-ups, manufacturing, generate jobs and embrace technology.” His government also said the previous state of autonomy, which was meant to be temporary, promoted instability and abetted corruption of the political elite.

Since August 2019, the Indian government has launched many projects to revive the region’s economy, including laying the foundations of hospitals and a medical college to improve Kashmir’s health infrastructure. It also boasted of an increase in tourism opposite a decrease in terrorism.

But while New Delhi has claimed success, local politicians said many recently finished projects were initiated long before Articles 370 and 35A were revoked. Moreover, they stress Kashmir performed much better on human development indicators, such as life expectancy and poverty rates, prior to August 2019 and claim the bump in tourism can be chalked up to pandemic-related restrictions on international travel.

What’s next for Kashmir? 

In April, the Modi government said there has been a 60 percent reduction in terrorist attacks in Kashmir since August 2019. Yet local politicians warned recent killings exposed that all is not “normal,” as claimed by New Delhi. In fact, violence may be on the rise: A  report by the BBC found that, since 2019, more young Kashmiris have felt drawn toward armed struggle. Many militant groups contend that, through Modi’s maneuvers, Kashmiris risk losing their land to wealthier Indians and, with it, their political identity.

But security analysts say it is too soon to spell doom for the region’s new constitutional arrangement. At least three TRF militants responsible for the recent killings have already been killed by Indian security forces, and the police maintain that as many as 130 terrorists, in their words, have been killed in the valley this year, while 700 overground workers or handlers have been arrested.

The mood in the valley, however, is tense. Many nonlocal Indian workers and Kashmiri Pandits have been moved to Indian Army camps to ensure their safety.

The good news is the cease-fire brokered between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control in February has largely held. The Indian government, nonetheless, is circumspect of Pakistan’s promises and worries Pakistan might use the Taliban’s return in Afghanistan to spawn more or hide existing anti-India jihadis to infiltrate Kashmir.

Kashmiris, for their part, are still waiting to sample the economic growth Modi guaranteed when he snatched their political autonomy. Many feel angry and frustrated that they were silenced into acquiescence by boots on the ground and the ever-looming fear of arrests by authorities.

Modi Is Trying to Engineer a Hindu Majority in Kashmir

Under the smokescreen of electoral redistricting, New Delhi is using gerrymandering to politically neuter the region’s Muslim majority.

Modi Took Complete Control of Kashmir Two Years Ago—and Got Away With It

When India revoked the disputed valley’s autonomous status, it sparked fears of diplomatic—even nuclear—war. It didn’t need to worry.

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Essay on Article 370 of Indian Constitution

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution provided special rights to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It gave most of the power to the government of this state. Centre was left with limited power over J&K.

Article 370 has recently been scrapped making it a historic event which is expected to change the face of the state for good. This move has received mixed reactions from political parties and general public though it has largely been appreciated.

Long and Short Essay on Article 370 of Indian Constitution in English

Here are long and short essay on Article 370 of the Indian Constitution of varying lengths to help you with the topic in your exams. These Article 370 essay are written in simple English language to easily convey the information, yet it does so effectively. These Article 370 essays will let you have a deeper understanding of article 370, its removal and repercussions.

After going through the following essays you will know about Article 370 and its provisions; history of Article 370; advantages and disadvantages of Article 370; how was it revoked; what will be the consequences of scrapping Article 370; what bills were passed for its revokal, etc.

Short Essay on Article 370 – (200 Words)

Article 370 that came into effect in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in the year 1949 was supposed to be a temporary provision; however, it continued for decades even though many political leaders and other prominent people in the county demanded its revocation from time to time.

The article exempted J&K from the Indian Constitution. The state attained the right to make its own laws related to any matter except foreign affairs, communications and defence.

The state government thus went on to draft a separate constitution. It also came up with a separate flag. The Fundamental Duties mentioned in the Indian Constitution were not applicable in J&K. It had its own set of rights and duties.

The condition of the state hasn’t been very good ever since the enforcement of Article 370. Life of people in the Kashmir region has especially been miserable. The place is prone to terrorist attacks.

Article 370 has been seen as a hindrance in the development of the state. It is also known to be a cause of growing corruption and terrorism in the state.

As per the constitutional order passed by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind on 5 th August 2019, Article 370 stands ineffective. The decision has been taken to improve the condition of J&K and its citizens.

Essay on Article 370: Enforcement – (300 Words)

Introduction

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was drafted in Part XXI of the Constitution: Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions. However, soon after it came to be known as a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution. It has remained in effect in J&K for decades.

The Origin of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution

Article 370 was drafted by Sheikh Abdullah in the year 1947. Abdullah had been appointed as the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir by Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir.

Abdullah wanted complete autonomy for J&K and demanded that Article 370 must not remain a temporary provision. However, the Centre deemed this demand unreasonable and did not approve of it.

Special Status Given to Jammu and Kashmir

As Article 370 came into being, the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir gained special power wherein it got the right to recommend the articles of the constitution that should be enforced on the state. It even got the power to annul Article 370 altogether.

Article 35 A and Article 370 together stated that a different set of laws apply for the residents of the state of J&K. The Indian Parliament could only exercise laws related to finance, defence, communications and foreign affairs in the state.

It required the approval of state government for applying all the other laws. The residents of J&K enjoyed completely different laws when it came to ownership of property, laws related to citizenship and fundamental rights.

As per the laws enforced by the state, the Indian citizens from other parts of the country were denied the right to purchase property in Jammu and Kashmir.

The residents of J&K fear that the scrapping of Article 370 may hamper their local business and thus be a threat to their livelihood. Adapting to the changes that are likely to follow this big decision also seems to be a cause of concern for the residents of J&K. Their concerns are genuine. We hope the condition of the place improves henceforth.

Essay on Article 370: Advantages and Disadvantages – (400 words)

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gave special power to the state of Jammu and Kashmir was annulled on 5 th August 2019. The decision taken by the Centre has been appreciated by several political parties, leaders, celebrities and majority of general public. However, many others have criticized it outright. Article 370 had few advantages and several disadvantages.

Advantages of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution

Here is a look at the advantages of Article 370:

1) Article 370 is advantageous for the citizens of J&K. The state gives priority to the interest of its local citizens. There is less competition in the state and greater opportunities for its citizens.

2) J&K boasts of its local handicraft items. The government of this state has kept its culture and local businesses alive. It has always encouraged local businesses over foreign brands.

This is the reason why several local brands are running in the state. This means more work, greater growth opportunities and good income for the locals.

Disadvantages of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution

Here is a look at the disadvantages of Article 370:

1) The state of J&K hasn’t developed as much as the other parts of the country. This is particularly true when we look at the medical facilities here. The condition of the hospitals and healthcare centres in the state are not that good.

2) The law and order in J&K is weak because the centre is not allowed to intervene. This has given rise to terrorism in the state. Terrorism is a major concern here and nothing much is being done to fight it.

3) Corruption in the state is high due to its alienation from the centre. There is no check on the government of J&K. It makes its own laws and works as per its convenience.

4) Article 370 prevented the implementation of Right to Education in the state. This is why students were forced to move to other states.

5) Outsiders cannot establish business in J&K. Professionals and industrialists are not allowed to settle here. This is a major hindrance in the growth and development of the state.

6) This provision is anti- women in nature. It has led to extreme gender bias in the state.

The disadvantages of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution clearly outweigh its advantages. The atmosphere of tension in the state is a clear evidence of the same. Scrapping of Article 370 seems like a ray of hope for the state that has been gripped by terrorism since long. We hope it sees better times ahead.

Long Essay on Article 370 – (500 words)

Article 370 is a temporary provision in the Constitution of India. It provides special autonomous status to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The provisions of the Indian Constitution that are applicable to other states of India are not applicable to J&K.

The article was adopted in November 1956 and was enforced in the state in January 1957 by Sheikh Abdullah.

Special Provisions in Jammu and Kashmir as per Article 370

Some special provisions were made in Jammu and Kashmir as Article 370 came into force in the state. These include:

• J&K acquired different national flag.
• Insulting the national flag and national symbols is considered a crime in India. It is a punishable offence. But this rule did not apply in J&K.
• The highest court orders in India did not apply in J&K.
• Jammu and Kashmir citizens enjoyed dual citizenship.
• Women in Kashmir had to abide by the Sharia law.
• The tenure of the Assembly of J&K was 6 years unlike other Indian states in which the Assembly tenure is 5 years.
• RTI, RTE and CAG were not applicable in Kashmir.
• The J&K citizenship of a woman who married a person from another Indian state ended. On the other hand, if a woman from the state married someone from Pakistan, he acquired J&K citizenship.
• If a Pakistani married a Kashmiri girl, he acquired Indian citizenship.
• Article 370 did not allow people from other states to purchase property in J&K.
• The minority group in Kashmir that consists of Hindus and Sikhs did not get 16% reservation.

Changes after the Revocation of Article 370

Now that Article 370 has been revoked, Jammu and Kashmir will no longer enjoy the autonomous status. All the special powers that came with this article have been annulled. Here are some of the other changes that are being brought about:

• All the residents of J&K shall be entitled to single citizenship only.
• Article 360 that is enforced during financial emergency is now applicable in J&K.
• People from other states shall be able to purchase property in J&K.
• Duration of Legislative Assembly has been changed to 5 years.
• RTI will be applicable in J&K.
• Minorities will be eligible for 16% reservation.
• Children will benefit from the Right to Education.
• Directive Principle of State Policy shall be applicable.
• J&K will not have a separate flag.

The Atmosphere in J&K as Article 370 Revoked

J&K’s prominent leaders, Omar Abdullah, Sajjad Lone and Mehbooba Mufti were under house arrest as the bill for abolition of Article 370 was passed in the Rajya Sabha.

Internet and mobile services in Kashmir’s Srinagar district were suspended and a ban imposed on all public gatherings.

With so many changes underway after the revocation of Article 370, it seems like J&K will finally experience peace and prosperity. This is just the first step towards the betterment of the state.

There are miles to go! Whether the decision taken by Centre is right or wrong is still being debated. We hope it proves to be beneficial for the state as well as the country as a whole.

Long Essay on Article 370: Revocation – (600 words)

Article 370 was enforced by Sheikh Abdullah on 26 th January 1957. The article gave special power to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. This was a temporary provision.

However, it remained in force for decades. Even though many political leaders and other prominent people in the country suggested its revocation from time to time, it remained intact; however, it has finally been annulled.

Indian President, Ram Nath Kovind issued constitutional order to revoke Article 370 and apply all the rules and provisions of the Indian constitution to Jammu and Kashmir. This historic move was made on 5 th August 2019.

Bill to Revoke Provisions of Article 370

Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, moved a resolution in Rajya Sabha to introduce a bill scrapping all the provisions of Article 370. This was approved by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Shah also introduced bills seeking bifurcation of the State into Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory with an Assembly and Ladakh as a Union Territory without a legislature.

The opposition benches protested against this resolution; however, the decision has been made. Revoking Article 370 of the Indian Constitution had been a major part of BJP’s agenda. Shah’s announcement was thus received with elation by the BJP leaders.

Mixed Reactions on Revocation of Article 370

While many political parties opposed the decision to scrap Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, several others extended their support to the BJP government.

Parties that Supported the Decision

Among those that showed support to this decision were the Aam Aadmi Party,   Bahujan Samaj Party, Shiv Sena, AIADMK, Shiromani Akali Dal, YSR Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Biju Janata Dal, BPF and AGP. All these parties backed the Centre’s decision.

Many of them mentioned that they awaited this move since long and welcome the decision wholeheartedly. They now look forward to peace and development in J&K. The decision of scrapping Article 370 has been termed as bold and courageous.

BSP member, Satish Chandra Misra was among the first ones in the Rajya Sabha to support this move. Mayawati also extended support to the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir.

AIADMK mentioned that their leader, Jayalalithaa had always wanted this. Shiv Sena members expressed their joy and support by celebrating outside their party head office.

BJD members said that with this decision, Jammu and Kashmir has become an integral part of the country and they are glad about it.

Parties that Opposed the Decision

The parties those opposed the Centre’s decision to revoke Article 370 include Congress, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janta Dal, Left, National Conference, DMK and People’s Democratic Party. All these parties condemned and criticised the resolution.

Congress members mentioned that this was a “catastrophic step” and it should be seen as a “black day” in the constitutional history of our country. It further said that this decision is a publicity stunt by BJP to fetch more votes. Likewise, Left mentioned that it is an attack on the Indian Constitution.

Members of People’s Democratic Party expressed their anger over the decision by shouting slogans and tearing copies of Indian Constitution. National Conference called the decision shocking and unilateral. Trinamool Congress also expressed its objection against the Centre’s decision.

DMK went on to say that this was simply the murder of democracy. It said that BJP is forcing its agenda and that it has no respect for the sentiments of the Jammu and Kashmir residents.

Revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is indeed a big decision. A major change in J&K is likely underway now. We hope things change for good for this beautiful state which has long struggled for peace and justice. The Centre must make special efforts to resurrect J&K and make it a better and safer place to live.

Related Information:

Essay on Article 35A of Indian Constitution

Speech on Article 370 of Constitution of India

Essay on Article 15 of Indian Constitution

Speech on Constitution of India

Speech on National Constitution Day

Essay on National Constitution Day

Essay on Constitution of India

Essay on Section 377 of Indian Penal Code

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• Article 370 Essay

Essay on Article 370

Through this essay on Article 370, one will learn how Article 370 of the Indian Constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, which is located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. This state has been administered by India since 1954.

The Article is drafted in part XXI of the Constitution which is titled as "Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions". The Article 370 essay in English will give a clear overview of what actually Article 370 is?

A Long Essay on Article 370 in English

The Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir after being established, has been given the power to recommend which Articles of the Indian Constitution can be applied in the state and also to cancel the 370 altogether. After being advised by the State Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, a Presidential order was issued in 1954 that specified the Articles which will be applied to the state. Through this Article 370 essay, one will learn how the Constituent Assembly didn't recommend cancellation of Article 370 before it got dissolved. As a result, the Article was deemed to become a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution.

Different Laws And Rights

The Article 370 in English essay explains how Article 370  was incorporated to keep the residents of Jammu and Kashmir under a Law that is different from the rest of the Country. The different Laws include those relating to citizenship Rights, ownership of property Rights, and different fundamental Rights. Due to these separate Laws, Indians from other states were forbidden to buy any land or property in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

While the Indian Government was planning out the Constitution of India, they requested the advice of each and every state on the number of constitutions to be incorporated. All the states agreed to have one Constitution in spite of having one for each state except the state assembly of Jammu and Kashmir. The state assembly of Jammu and Kashmir requested that only those Articles of the Constitution will be applied in the state that corresponds to the original instrument to accession and other rules will be incorporated by the state assembly after being formed. But the state assembly got dissolved, and the Article was considered as a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution. This was confirmed by various rulings of India such as the Supreme Court and High Court.

The essay on Article 370 can help one understand the four Provisions of Article 370:

The state was exempted from the complete applicability of the Constitution of India. The state has the power to form its own Constitution.

The power of the central government in this state is limited to three subjects: defense, foreign affairs, and communications.

Some central government’s constitutional power can be extended to the state only with the concurrence of the state government.

The State Government's power to give concurrence is only active until the State Constituent Assembly was convened. After the scheme of powers is dispersed by the State Constituent Assembly, no further extension of powers is possible.

As studied in the Article 370 essay, it is clear that the state of Jammu and Kashmir has a special status and can incorporate its own Constitution, no other states in the Country have these powers.

Impact On Abolition Of Article 370

With the elimination of Article 370 in 2019, people of J&K will no longer have dual citizenship and would be treated similarly to other Indian citizens. Because the citizenship clause is no longer in force, all of the additional benefits and grounds for discrimination associated with the title are effectively gone. 

One of the most significant advantages was that non-J&K residents were unable to purchase land within the state. As a result, persons living in J&K have plenty of resources that they haven't put to good use in order to have a safe place to live. Women were the worst victims of this equation, as they lost their land Rights if they married someone from outside the state. Furthermore, neither she nor her children were eligible to inherit the land. A Kashmiri man, on the other hand, was free to marry any lady from any state and preserve his property Rights. A non-resident of J&K was not permitted to vote in state legislature elections or to run for office. Non-J&K residents were unable to enrol in postgraduate professional courses since state universities in Jammu and Kashmir require a Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC). Furthermore, they were not eligible for any government help or scholarships to utilize while working for the government since permanent residence is necessary, which was not attainable at the time but is today. 

The state was not automatically rendered subject to any Laws passed by Parliament. As a result, disadvantaged populations in the state, such as SCs and STs, were denied the benefits that the Indian Constitution ordinarily provides. Even within the state, Rights such as the Right to education and the Right to information apply. More than that, the middle did not have the authority to declare a financial emergency within the state, but that is no longer the case; Kashmir now follows the same rules and regulations as the rest of the nation.

Short Essay on Article 370

150 words paragraph on article 370.

In this Article 370 short essay, one will gain some basic knowledge of Article 370. Article 370 was incorporated, especially for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This Article was formed along with Article 35a. The Article vested some important powers in the hands of the State Constituent Assembly. It restricted the Central Government from interfering with the matters of Jammu and Kashmir. One can gain a lot of knowledge from this essay on Article 370.

Article 370 gave the authority to the State Constituent Assembly to incorporate its own Constitution that will give the state several different Laws. Such separate Laws include citizenship Rights, ownership of land Rights, and many others. People from other states are restricted from buying land in this state.

In this short speech on Article 370 in English, it is clear that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is an important state of India and experiences a special status among all the other states.

The 370 Article essay in English will educate a person on how the instrument of accession affected the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Clause 7 of the Instrument of Accession signed by the Maharaja Hari Singh says that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is not compelled to accept any future Articles of the Constitution of India. The state assembly has the power to incorporate its own Constitution. The state assembly will also decide how much power should be vested in the hands of the Central Government. The state of Jammu and Kashmir was experiencing a special status because of the conflict that was prevailing on the land.The Article 370 paragraph in English explains the special status of the Jammu and Kashmir experiences.

FAQs on Article 370 Essay

1. What powers are vested by Article 370?

From the knowledge we have gained from the Article 370 essay, it is clear that the State Constituent Assembly has the power to make its own rules for the state without getting interfered with by the Central Government. The state government has the power to make separate laws in terms of citizenship, ownership of land, etc.

2. In what subjects the Central Government has power over Jammu and Kashmir?

The central Government has power on a total of three subjects that are defense, foreign affairs and communication according to an essay on Article 370. In spite of these three subjects, the central government is restricted to interfere because of the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. If the state government extents some powers then the centre can interfere.

3. What is the background of Article 370?

When India was about to gain independence and the British were departing, they gave all of India's rulers the Right to reside anywhere they wanted. Internally, this resulted in the development of hundreds of provinces. Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel's efforts resulted in all of those regions agreeing to merge to establish a country. However, one province, Jammu & Kashmir, governed by the then-king Hari Singh, was unwilling to join the union. They didn't want to be combined, and they wanted to keep their identity as a separate province. In October 1947, Pakistan attempted to capture Kashmir by invading it with its army. Hari Singh requested India's assistance in combating the Pakistani troops. India assisted on the condition that Kashmir joins India. Under Article 370 of the Indian constitution, India promised to provide it with special status.

4. What are the benefits and drawbacks of Article 370?

People in Jammu and Kashmir held dual citizenship, meaning they were citizens of both Jammu and Kashmir and India. They had a different flag than we had. In J & K, elections were held every six years. In J&K, criticising the Indian flag was not a crime. The Supreme Court of India's regulations were not applicable to J&K. A Kashmiri girl loses her Kashmiri citizenship if she marries a guy from outside the state. And if she married a Pakistani, he was automatically granted citizenship in J&K. The Right to Information Act did not apply to J&K. In J&K, there were no reservations for minorities. Outside of J&K, no one could acquire land there. J&K was exempt from financial emergencies. Kashmir has never had an issue with overcrowding or overpopulation since no one from outside the state may enter and reside there. Because employment possibilities were few in J&K, many young people turned to terrorism. There was a low GDP and a high level of corruption. China had acquired 10% of Kashmir after independence, whereas Pakistan had grabbed 30% of Kashmir. Only 60% of Kashmir is still in India's possession. Article 370 was enacted as a temporary measure, which allowed India to repeal it and eventually unite J&K with the rest of the states.

5. What is the end result of Article 370?

Article 370's revocation will have a favourable influence. It has the potential to help both the people of J&K and the rest of India. People in J&K will suddenly have a plethora of job options. A number of business opportunities will arise. Girls from J&K can now marry anyone in India. Their gross domestic product will rise. People from other states can now invest in J&K. They can establish manufacturing units, resulting in more work prospects for individuals in J&K. Foreign investors were also looking forward to the repeal of Article 370, therefore we should see an increase in FDI in J&K. Let us all wish for a strong, united, and prosperous India.

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Explainer: What are Articles 370 and 35A?

Under the Article IoK was recognized as an independent state

• with respect to any of the matters which under clause (3) of article 16, clause (3) of article 32, article 33 and article 34 may be provided for by law made by Parliament; and
• (ii) for prescribing punishment for those acts which are declared to be offences under this Part; and Parliament shall, as soon as may be after the commencement of this Constitution, make laws for prescribing punishment for the acts referred to in sub-clause (ii); (b) any law in force immediately before the commencement of this Constitution in the territory of India with respect to any of the matters referred to in sub-clause (i) of clause (a) or providing for punishment for any act referred to in sub-clause (ii) of that clause shall, subject to the terms thereof and to any adaptations and modifications that may be made therein under article 372, continue in force until altered or repealed or amended by Parliament. Explanation.-In this article, the expression "law in force" has the same meaning as in article 372.

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Abrogation of Article 370 and 35a Essay Writing

After the abrogation of Article 370 and 35a on 05th August 2019 by Indian Government, essay on  Essay on Article 370 and 35a, the burning issue of this time, has become the most important essay topic for all competitive exams. In view of this, a precise and meaningful Essay on abrogation of Article 370 and 35a has been written for all of you:

Essay on Abrogation of Article 370 and 35a  

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Article 370 and 35A: Origin, Provisions and the Politics of Contestation

2021, Serena Hussain (ed) Society and Politics of Jammu and Kashmir Palgrave Macmillan (2021)

In August 2019, the Indian government revoked the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), protected by Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution. The special provisions had been in place since October 1947, when its ruler acceded to India through a conditional Instrument of Accession. Although there has been significant media coverage of the abrogation and subsequent military siege in Kashmir, there remains scant awareness regarding the significance of the articles for Kashmiris. This chapter provides a historical account of how the articles came into existence and discusses why they were so highly contested. It allows the reader to appreciate better the implications of the abrogation of J&K’s special provisions and why such political fallout has come in its wake.

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PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences

Amitabh Hoskote

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution stipulates autonomy for the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Terms of the Article have remained mired in controversy owing its unequal dispensation within the framework of free India. This paper examines Article 370 and the validity of politics attached to it, based on four specific arguments. First, the Genesis of Article 370 spawns inequality in India. Second, its Retention implies festering of contentious issues. Third, its Ramifications forge inequality within J&K. Fourth, how Politics over Article 370 only seek limited leverage from it. These arguments have been examined through an engagement with primary and secondary sources and views analyzed in different traditions. The case universe comprises views across a spectrum of opinion. An interpretivist approach classifies this debate in the larger context of Continuation or Revocation of Article 370, based on the research question whether Article 370 has worked in the manner envisaged, or has aggravated inequality and fuelled growth of conflict in J&K.

Re-visiting Article 370: the politics of autonomy in Jammu and Kashmir

ABDUL H A S E E B MIR , Dr.Javid Ahmad Ahanger

This paper revisits one of the significant provisions of Indian Constitution visa -vis Jammu and Kashmir-Article 370. In this article, an attempt has been made to draw upon the historical trajectories of the inclusion, dilution and finally revocation of the Article 370. It also study the issue related to this provision and its criticism in the political corridors of state. The paper focuses on its political significance then and now. It scrutinises the issue related to this provision and its criticism in the political corridors of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The paper further explores the political ramification on Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation.

International journal of Research and Analytical Reviews

Tariq A Rather

The paper briefly analyses the integration of the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian Union through the Instrument of Accession (1947) under the pretext of Article 370 of the Indian constitution. Article 370 provided a special position to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the quasi-federal-oriented polity of India as envisaged in its constitutional set up. It explores legal nature and character of the Article 370 within the Indian Constitution, and also highlights the true nature and meaning of autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian Union. The author tries to highlight how after seventy four years Indian govt. arbitrarily and unilaterally abrogated Article 370 without the consent of Jammu and Kashmir constituent Assembly/Elected Government. This paper also analyses social, economic and political implications of abrogation of Article 370. It further highlightsthe exploitative nature of Indian government which was once upon a time a defender of democratic values and means.

Race and Class

Centre for Strategic and Contemporary Research

Fahad Nabeel

On 5 August, India abrogated Article 370 from its constitution through presidential order. The erasure of the Article ceased the autonomous status of Indian held Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and bifurcated the Muslim-majority state into two union territories with Buddhist-majority Ladakh getting detached from J&K. The Indian decision of revoking Article 370 came after days of uncertainty and massive military build-up in the disputed territory. Coupled with massive military build-up, a crackdown was imposed in the state by virtually cutting it off from the rest of the world both physically and virtually. This piece of writing will analyze the violations of fundamental human rights in J&K by the imposition of crackdown through international human rights law.

Dr Serena Hussain

This paper provides a brief overview of the significance of Articles 370 and 35A and why their abrogation is problematic for the future of Jammu and Kashmir. This is followed by examples of accounts in which the experiences of local people from J&K were recorded, in order to understand the ground realities of the abrogation and annexation of the state. It then provides an overview of some of the key changes that have occurred within the state since August 5th 2019. The paper therefore brings the reader up to date on: the implications of the extreme policy move for both the lived experiences of the people within J&K; and rapid amendments taking place at administrative levels.

MOHD MUBARIQ MAHIRE

Govind Bhattacharjee

From time to time, Kashmiri politicians have used Article 370 for unnecessarily stoking up hatred and anger against the Indian state. Mr Omar Abdullah has recently held out the threat of secession if article 370 is abrogated. The article argues that the special category status of Jammu & Kashmir carries much more significance for the state than the much diluted Article 370. Without the special category status, the State can’t survive.

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

Subhomoy Barman

The history of Jammu and Kashmir and ladakh which was relegated to the status of two union territories legally and constitutionally, starts a new chapter in 2019. It was accompanied by extraordinary lockdowns, curfew and shutdowns on phone and internet connections,which caused significant anxiety,particularly in the valley. There have been questions regarding whether the Indian governments claim that it can bring peace by heavily militarizing an area that is already heavily militarized or whether it is only increasing centralized control over the area. The former state of Jammu and Kashmir&#39;s special status was revoked in 2019, which has a number of effects on its citizens. Following the COVID-19 pandemic,The double lockdown once implemented in the valley,further deteriorated the situation. This paper Addresses the human rights situation in the valley after four years of article 370 annulment.

QUEST JOURNALS

Article 370 has been often a point of discussion regarding the Jammu and Kashmir state. The article is rooted in the unique historical past of the J&K state. The fact remains that Kashmir politics is inseparably tied with article 370. The article encapsulates within itself all the vicissitudes of the historical past of Kashmir especially that of 1947 and the related developments. There is a need to decode the nature of this article and contextualize its emergence within the broader parameters of Kashmir's unique political and historical past. This article is an effort in that direction. The historical tracing of the emergence of this special constitutional provision has been specially focused with a discussion of its contentious nature.

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