Jammu & Kashmir, Article 370 and the aftermath - Part 1

Along with introducing Uniform Civil Code in India and building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, revoking Article 370 had been one of the core planks of BJP’s cultural nationalist idea of India.

The Union government has scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir by modifying Article 370 of the Indian constitution and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature (like Delhi and Puducherry) and Ladakh without legislature (like Chandigarh).

In practice, this means that Jammu and Kashmir won’t have its own constitution anymore, there will be no separate flag for the erstwhile state, its own laws will be nullified and laws passed in the Indian Parliament will be applicable, people outside the erstwhile state can buy property and invest in the region, among other things.

There are changes in the rules. What that means for politics of the region is a matter of debate: Will it lead to further isolation and alienation of locals? Will it lead to increased unrest in the valley? Will it lead to “emotional integration”, as BJP general secretary Ram Madhav put it, of the region with India? Will it lead to better economic prospects for the citizens? We can only speculate at the moment.

Anyone who found this "unexpected" or "surprising" is merely being ignorant about history: along with introducing Uniform Civil Code in India and building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, revoking Article 370 had been one of the core planks of BJP’s cultural nationalist idea of India. The RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP, had opposed Article 370 since the 1950s. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised to let go of Article 370 in its election manifesto. It delivered.

Let's unpack what happened.

Background

How Kashmir became part of India, a simplified version:

The princely state of J&K wanted to be an independent state. It did not want to India or Pakistan. An attack by Pakistani “tribesman” led the state to accede to India.
But there was a condition: “The Instrument of Accession signed by then-Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir in October 1947 specified only three subjects on which the state would transfer its powers to the Government of India: foreign affairs, defence and communications,” historian Srinath Raghavan explained in The Print

In March 1948, the Maharaja appointed an interim government in the state, with Sheikh Abdullah as the prime minister. The interim government was also tasked with convening a constituent assembly for framing a constitution for the state.

In the meantime, the Constituent Assembly of India was conducting its deliberations. In July 1949, Sheikh Abdullah and three colleagues joined the Indian Constituent Assembly and negotiated the special status of J&K, leading to the adoption of Article 370. This article limited the Union’s legislative power over Kashmir to the three subjects in the Instrument of Accession.

If the Union government wanted to extend other provisions of the Indian Constitution, it would have to issue a Presidential Order under Article 370. The state government would have to give prior concurrence to this order. Moreover, the constituent assembly of J&K would have to accept these provisions and incorporate them in the state’s constitution.

Once Kashmir’s constitution was framed, there could be no further extension of the Union’s legislative power to the state. This secured J&K’s autonomy. (The Print)

So that’s how Jammu and Kashmir was integrated in the Indian Union.

What is Article 370: It’s a carefully drafted legislation to ensure J&K is integrated on the basis of conditions it acceded to the Indian Union. It provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir: it restricted the role of Centre in the state’s affairs and allowed the state to have its own constitution and flag. Apart from three areas—foreign affairs, defence and communications—the state would draft its own laws.

However, Home Minister Amit Shah argued otherwise: he argued that Article 370 did not attach J&K to India—it was not a precursor to Kashmir acceding to Indian territory. The Instrument of Accession was signed in 1947, Shah said, while Article 370 included in 1949.

What is Article 35A: Adopted in 1954, it gave the state the power to define “permanent residents”—meaning people who can vote, hold public office, purchase property and settle in the state, get the benefit of scholarships, among other things.

Both the articles aimed to provide autonomy to J&K. The debate centers around about the implications of this autonomy.

The debate on Article 370

Arguments against Article 370 and special status for J&K:

The RSS has held Article 370 and 35A as the root cause for separatist sentiment in the valley. Autonomy creates conditions for separatism, they ague, and it against the Hindutva-inspired view of the “nation”. The step leads to the full integration of the state in the Indian Union.
Home Minister Amit Shah said Article 370 was hurting the development of the region. It has led to people stuck in poverty, rampant corruption in the government, and lack to access the benefits of reservation hurts the progress of the state. Special status has done nothing special for the citizens.
Taking off the special status will not only firmly “integrate” the region with the rest of the country, it will also yield economic benefits to the citizens of the region. Militant outfits exploit the lack of economic opportunities and plenty of unemployed youth to terrorise the region, and hence the new move is a step towards peace.
In the 1990s, around 4,00,000 Hindus—most of them Kashmiri Pandits—were forced to flee the Kashmir Valley. Some argue that removing Article 370 of the constitution is a step toward re-accommodating them in the valley.

Arguments in favour of Article 370:

J&K is already constitutionally integrated with India. Article 370 is not an issue of integration but of autonomy. And autonomy is integral to the identity of the state.

Attempts to abolish Article 35A is viewed by some as a plan to change the unique Muslim demography of the state—it is the only Muslim majority state in India. Two-thirds of the state’s 12.5 million residents were Muslims, as per 2011 census.
According to the Indian Express:

The special status guaranteed to Jammu and Kashmir was not a partisan or personal decision of the founding fathers of the Indian republic. It was based in the imperative of nation-building. It was a recognition of the role a Muslim majority state — its unique demography protected by the Constitution — would play in belying the claims on which Partition had taken place, and in strengthening the secular “idea of India”.

Yesterday, the first view prevailed and sailed through, a reflection of BJP’s increasing political clout in India.