Current & Pak Affairs with TAHIR

Kashmir special status explained: What are Articles 370 and

35A?
India has scrapped a law that grants special status to India administered
Kashmir amid an indefinite lockdown and massive troop deployment in the
disputed region. The special status of Kashmiris was revoked through
Presidential Order on 5 August, 2019.
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.

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, defense, 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
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What does Revocation 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With Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status repealed, people from the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.

What is its significance?

It protects the Kashmiri state's distinct demographic character. Since
Indian-administered Kashmir is the only Muslim-majority state in India,
many Kashmiris suspect Hindu nationalist groups of encouraging Hindus
to migrate to the state. This doesn't sit well with Kashmiris given their
tumultuous relationship with India - there has been an armed revolt in the
region against Indian rule since 1989.
India blames Pakistan for fueling the unrest, a charge Islamabad denies.
Both countries claim Kashmir in its entirety but only control parts of it.
Since India's partition and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the nuclear-
armed neighbors have fought two wars and a limited conflict over the
territory
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Concluding Thought
Kashmir is a nuclear tinderbox. The two neighbors bury the hatchet and talk
eyeball-to-eyeball about it.