What is Article 370?

 According to the Constitution of India, Article 370 is a law that grants special autonomous
status to Jammu and Kashmir.

 The article is drafted in Part XXI of the Constitution (in Amendment section) which relates to
Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions.

 The original draft explained "the Government of the State means the person for the time
being recognised 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 Maharaja's
Proclamation dated the fifth day of March, 1948."

 On November 15, 1952, it was changed to "the Government of the State means the person
for the time being recognised by the President on the recommendation of the Legislative
Assembly of the State as the Sadr-i-Riyasat (now Governor) of Jammu and Kashmir, acting on
the advice of the Council of Ministers of the State for the time being in office."

The special status to Jammu & Kashmir

 Unlike other State legislative Assemblies, J&K legislature has a six-year term.

 Jammu & Kashmir has two flags; a separate State flag along with the National Flag.

 Insulting of national symbols is not cognizable offence in Jammu & Kashmir.

 Most of the laws except defence, foreign affairs, finance and communication, passed by
Indian Parliament need to be approved by the State Government before they are made
applicable in the State.

 The citizens of J&K are governed by State-specific laws which come under the Constitution of
Jammu and Kashmir, instead of those for the rest of India.

 Under Article 370 the Indian Parliament cannot increase or reduce the borders of the State.

 The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.

 The residents of J&K enjoy dual citizenship, but they could loose the J&K citizenship if they
marry residents of other States.

 If a woman marries a man in other Indian States, she loses her citizenship. Whereas if any
woman marries a Pakistani, she will be entitled to have a citizenship of Jammu & Kashmir.

 The Article also gives Pakistan's citizens entitlement to Indian citizenship, if he marries a
Kashmiri girl.

 Majority of Indian laws including RTE, RTI and agencies like CBI, CAG are not applicable in
J&K.

 No outsider can purchase land in the State.

 The Centre has no power to declare financial emergency under Article 360 in the State.

 It can declare emergency in the state only in case of war or external aggression.
History of Article 370

 Dr BR Ambedkar, who drafted Indian Constitution, had refused to draft Article 370.

 In 1949, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had directed Kashmiri leader Sheikh
Abdullah to consult Ambedkar in preparation of suitable draft.

 Article 370 was then drafted by Gopalaswami Ayyangar, former Diwan to Maharajah Hari
Singh of Jammu and Kashmir.

Article 370 and related controversy

 J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had earlier warned that any attempt to reopen the debate
on Article 370 would force the State to revisit its terms of accession to the Indian Union.

 In its election manifesto ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had said it is in favour of
abrogating Article 370, but said the issue will be discussed thoroughly before a decision is
made.

 During electioneering, Narendra Modi had suggested that it should be probed whether
Article 370 has indeed benefited the people of Jammu & Kashmir.

What is Article 35(A)?

Article 35A empowers Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define "permanent residents" of the state
along with their special rights and privileges. Article 35A was added through a Presidential Order in
1954

Article 35A does not form part of the 395 Articles of the Constitution. It is found in one of the
appendices of the Constitution.

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly defined Permanent Resident as a

 Person who was a state subject on May 14, 1954 or who had been a resident of the state for
10 years and has "lawfully acquired immovable property in the state."

 A person who is not a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir is not allowed to buy or
own properties in the state or vote in state Assembly election or contest election to the
state Assembly.

 An outsider cannot get a job in the Jammu and Kashmir government.

A bunch of four petitions is before the Supreme Court challenging its constitutional validity.

Two Kashmiri women have also challenged Article 35A contending that the provision is
discriminatory as it disenfranchises their children.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court in 2002 had held that the women would continue to enjoy their
rights and privileges even if they married an outsider. However, children of such women have no
claim in succession.
 Al-Jazeera Article

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 remove 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."

What next?

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."

New York Time Article

What Is Article 370, and Why Does It Matter in Kashmir?

Kashmir, a mountainous valley that borders Pakistan and India, has been a centre of conflict
between the two nuclear-armed countries since the 1947 partition of British India.

At the time of the partition, the British agreed to divide their former colony into two countries:
Pakistan, with a Muslim majority, and India, with a Hindu majority. Both nations covet Kashmir,
which is Muslim majority, and occupy portions of it with military forces.

For decades, an uneasy stalemate has prevailed, broken by occasional military incursions, terrorist
attacks and police crackdowns. But on Monday, the Indian government decided to permanently
incorporate the territory it controls into the rest of India.

The administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution,
a 70-year-old provision that had given autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which includes
the Hindu-majority area of Jammu and the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley.

The government also introduced a bill to strip the region of statehood and divide it into two parts,
both under direct control of the central government.

But Mr. Modi, a Hindu nationalist, had campaigned for re-election in part by stoking patriotic fervour
against Muslim-led Pakistan. He promised the full integration of Kashmir, a cause which his party has
championed for decades, and now he is delivering on that pledge.

Pakistan condemned India’s moves. Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, called on President
Trump to follow through on an offer he made two weeks ago to mediate the Kashmir dispute.

What are the roots of the conflict?

In 1947, the sudden separation of the area into Pakistan and India prompted millions of people to
migrate between the two countries and led to religious violence that killed hundreds of thousands.

Left undecided was the status of Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state in the Himalayas that
had been ruled by a local prince. Fighting quickly broke out, and both countries eventually sent in
troops, with Pakistan occupying about one-third of the state and India two-thirds.

The prince signed an agreement for the territory to become part of India. Regional autonomy, which
was formalized through Article 370, was a key inducement.

Despite efforts by the United Nations to mediate the Kashmir dispute, India and Pakistan continue to
administer their portions of the former princely territory while hoping to get full control of it. Troops
on both sides of the so-called “line of control” regularly fire volleys at each other.

Muslim militants have frequently resorted to violence to expel the Indian troops from the territory.
Pakistan has backed many of those militants, as well as terrorists who have struck deep inside India
— most brutally in a four-day killing spree in Mumbai in 2008, which left more than 160 people
dead.
What is Article 370?

Article 370 was added to the Indian constitution shortly after the partition of British India to give
autonomy to the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir until a decision was made about its
rule. It limited the power of India's central government over the territory. A related provision gave
state lawmakers the power to decide who could buy land and be a permanent resident -- a provision
that irked many non-Kashmiris.

Although it was intended to be temporary, Article 370 says that it can only be abrogated with the
consent of the legislative body that drafted the state constitution. That body dissolved itself in 1957,
and India's Supreme Court ruled last year that Article 370 is therefore a permanent part of the
constitution.

The Modi government disagrees and says the president of India, who is beholden to the ruling party,
has the power to revoke the article.

Why did the conflict heat up this year?

The immediate cause was the Feb. 14 suicide bombing by a young Islamic militant, who blew up a
convoy of trucks carrying paramilitary forces in Pulwama in southern Kashmir.

Indian aircraft responded to that attack by flying into Pakistan and firing airstrikes near the town of
Balakot. The Indian government claimed it was attacking a training camp for Jaish-e-Mohammed, the
terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The next day, Pakistani and Indian fighter jets engaged in a skirmish over Indian-controlled territory,
and Pakistani forces downed an Indian aircraft — an aging Soviet-era MiG-21 — and captured its
pilot. It was the first aerial clash between the rivals in five decades.

Pakistan quickly returned the pilot, easing the diplomatic tensions. But Mr. Modi exploited a wave of
a nationalist fervour over the Pulwama attack as part of his re-election campaign that helped his
Bharatiya Janata Party win a sweeping victory.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, was elected last year with the backing of his country’s
powerful military, and he wants to show that he can stand up to India, even as his country’s
economy is so weak that he sought bailouts from Saudi Arabia and China.

Will the United States and other global powers get involved?

On July 22, Mr. Trump hosted Mr. Khan at the White House. Although the meeting was focused on
how to end the war in Afghanistan, Mr. Trump told reporters that Mr. Modi had asked him to help
mediate the Kashmir dispute. Mr. Khan welcomed his involvement. The Indian government denied
making any mediation request and has long insisted on direct negotiations with Pakistan to resolve
the dispute.

Under Mr. Trump, American foreign policy has shifted away from Pakistan, a long time recipient of
American aid, toward India, which the administration views as a bulwark against China’s rising
influence in Asia.

China, meanwhile, has become a close ally and financial patron of Pakistan. The Chinese government
recently urged India and Pakistan to settle their conflicts through bilateral discussions. China shares
a border with Jammu and Kashmir State, and India and China still do not agree on the demarcation
line.
What is likely to happen next?

The constitutional changes, issued through a presidential order, could face legal challenges. Last
year, India’s Supreme Court ruled that Article 370 could not be abrogated because the state-level
body that would have to approve the change went out of existence in 1957.

“My view is that this presidential notification is illegal,” said Shubhankar Dam, a law professor at the
University of Portsmouth in Britain and the author of a book on executive power in India. “The
question is one of jurisdiction: Does the government of India have the power to do this?”

Pakistan, for its part, said it will “exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps” taken by
India.

Mr. Modi’s moves to integrate Kashmir into India are likely to be popular in much of the country. But
there is widespread panic in Kashmir, where there have been decades of protests against Indian
rule.