Article 370 and 35a have created buzz in the country and the world community.

After the abrogation

of Article 370 and 35a some are celebrating and some are still fighting a legal battle to save these
articles. Firstly, let us go bit back into the history of jammu and kashmir to know the origin of these
articles than will talk about there benefits and later the circumstances which created this situation.

Before 1947 Jammu and Kashmir was the princely state with British paramountcy. The people of the
state were State Subjects not British colonial subjects. When Maharaja Hari Singh signed the
instrument of accession with India in 1947 he put forth some conditions before joining hands with
India. The instrument of accession says that the state must concur in the application of laws, except
those that pertain to communication, defence, finance and foreign affairs. This was the base of
Article 370. Now let us talk about the base of article 35a. In initial years of 1900 people from
neighbouring state like Punjab and Himachal started doing jobs in government departments and
buying land in the state. Because of their increasing impact in the government departments local
employees were not happy. To stop this , the dogra and kashmiri pandit community had launched a
movement demanding that the only the people of Jammu and Kashmir should be employed in the
state government jobs. Legal provisions for the people of the state were enacted by Maharaja Hari
Singh between 1912 and 1932. The 1927 Hereditary state subject order granted to the State
Subjects the right to government office and the right to land use and ownership, which were not
available to non state subjects. This was the base of article 35a which was inserted through the
constitution order 1954, which was issued by President Dr. Rajendra Prashad under Article 370, on
the advice of Jawahar Lal Nehru led union government. When the constitution was adopted in 1956,
it defined a permanent resident as someone who was a state subject on May 14,1954 or has been
resident of the state for 10 years.

But on August 5,2019 it was abrogated by the centre government and the main reason given for this
order was that these articles were undemocratic. This decision is still in Supreme Court that is why
we will not talk about it’s legality. But if we look generally we will see that Article 370 and 35a were
purely democratic because democracy is by the people and for the people. It was for the people of
Jammu and Kashmir not for the political bartering. All the three regions benefited from this special
status of the state. These articles were the self respect for the people of j&k.

As we know these articles were beneficial for our people than who created this situation. First of all
our political leaders sold our and our future generations self respect to gain their individual
interests. People in Kashmir knew the benefits of 370 and 35a but their cunning political leaders
misled and betrayed them. They used their emotions for their own benefits. In other words they sold
their emotions to gain political powers for themselves. If we talk about Jammu, the people of Jammu
region lost their self respect (which were article 370 and 35a) because of their ignorance and
communal hate for Kashmiri Muslims. Their hate for Kashmiri people was created and used by dogra
community leaders. If we look carefully than we will see that now kashmiris know but they have lost
but dogra community will take bit of time to know that they have celebrated the order of their own
destruction. Laddakh was totally ignored by the previous governments and they had created a sense
of left behind. So they wanted to parted away from Jammu and Kashmir.

Common people from all the three regions have lost everything but the gain is for the so called
political leaders. We as a common people have to think what we want do we want to beat our
chests for our communal hatred or come together and fight democratically for our and our next
generation’s better future and self respect. Let us come together and save these articles. They are
truly our self respect and dignity.
Rohit Sharma

Rohitjupiter@gmail.com