An attempt to amend a provision in the Indian constitution that allows only long-term residents of Kashmir to own land has sparked a controversy. Muslim groups consider it a bid to alter the state's demography.
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A Hindu right-wing group's proposal to amend Article 35A of the Indian constitution is being viewed in India-administered Kashmir as an attempt to undermine the special status of the volatile state that is in the throes of a violent separatist insurgency.
This constitutional privilege, which was introduced through a presidential order in 1954, accords special rights and privileges to the Jammu and Kashmir citizens and denies property rights to people who come to live in the state.
The constitutional provision grants Kashmir a unique status within India that allows the state to have its own constitution, a separate flag and autonomy in all matters except foreign affairs, defense and communications.
Article 35A also allows the state legislature to define the list of "permanent residents," who are eligible to vote, work for the state government, own land, secure public employment and college admissions.
Its legality has been challenged by a right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed think tank, the Jammu and Kashmir Study Center, and a non-governmental organization, We the Citizens, demanding the provision be struck down due to its "unconstitutional character." The groups have filed a petition in the Indian Supreme Court, arguing the special provisions are discriminatory.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is the ideological arm of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A further challenge to the Kashmir status has been mounted by a lawyer, Charu Wali Khanna, on the basis of gender discrimination.
The petitions are widely seen in Kashmir as an attempt by right-wing Hindu nationalist groups to alter Kashmir's demography.
"It will be an assault on the Muslim identity of Jammu and Kashmir and could change the demographic character of the state," lawyer Zaffar Shah told DW.
"If the provision is amended, all hell will break lose. The fragile relationship that Kashmir enjoys with New Delhi will be broken forever," political analyst Basheer Manzar told DW.
India's top court is contemplating setting up a bench to verify the validity of the provision.
"When the constitutional validity of an article is under challenge, it has to be referred to a constitutional bench under Article 145," said Supreme Court judges Dipak Misra and A.M. Khanwilkar earlier this week.
India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price
India and Pakistan continue to clash over Kashmir, a volatile Himalayan region that has been experiencing an armed insurgency for nearly three decades. Many Kashmiris are now fed up with both Islamabad and New Delhi.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Mustafa
An unprecedented danger?
On February 27, Pakistan's military said that it had shot down two Indian fighter jets over disputed Kashmir. A Pakistani military spokesman said the jets were shot down after they'd entered Pakistani airspace. It is the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have conducted air strikes against each other.
Image: Reuters/D. Ismail
India drops bombs inside Pakistan
The Pakistani military has released this image to show that Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistani territory for the first time since the countries went to war in 1971. India said the air strike was in response to a recent suicide attack on Indian troops based in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan said there were no casualties and that its airforce repelled India's aircraft.
Image: AFP/ISPR
No military solution
Some Indian civil society members believe New Delhi cannot exonerate itself from responsibility by accusing Islamabad of creating unrest in the Kashmir valley. A number of rights organizations demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government reduce the number of troops in Kashmir and let the people decide their fate.
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No end to the violence
On February 14, at least 41 Indian paramilitary police were killed in a suicide bombing near the capital of India-administered Kashmir. The Pakistan-based Jihadi group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility. The attack, the worst on Indian troops since the insurgency in Kashmir began in 1989, spiked tensions and triggered fears of an armed confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers.
Image: IANS
A bitter conflict
Since 1989, Muslim insurgents have been fighting Indian forces in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir - a region of 12 million people, about 70 percent of whom are Muslim. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
India strikes down a militant rebellion
In October 2016, the Indian military has launched an offensive against armed rebels in Kashmir, surrounding at least 20 villages in Shopian district. New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing the militants, who cross over the Pakistani-Indian "Line of Control" and launch attacks on India's paramilitary forces.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/C. Anand
Death of a Kashmiri separatist
The security situation in the Indian part of Kashmir deteriorated after the killing of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July 2016. Protests against Indian rule and clashes between separatists and soldiers have claimed hundreds of lives since then.
Image: Reuters/D. Ismail
The Uri attack
In September 2016, Islamist militants killed at least 17 Indian soldiers and wounded 30 in India-administered Kashmir. The Indian army said the rebels had infiltrated the Indian part of Kashmir from Pakistan, with initial investigations suggesting that the militants belonged to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group, which has been active in Kashmir for over a decade.
Image: UNI
Rights violations
Indian authorities banned a number of social media websites in Kashmir after video clips showing troops committing grave human rights violations went viral on the Internet. One such video that showed a Kashmiri protester tied to an Indian army jeep — apparently as a human shield — generated outrage on social media.
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Demilitarization of Kashmir
Those in favor of an independent Kashmir want Pakistan and India to step aside and let the Kashmiri people decide their future. "It is time India and Pakistan announce the timetable for withdrawal of their forces from the portions they control and hold an internationally supervised referendum," Toqeer Gilani, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in Pakistani Kashmir, told DW.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Singh
No chance for secession
But most Kashmir observers don't see it happening in the near future. They say that while the Indian strategy to deal strictly with militants and separatists in Kashmir has partly worked out, sooner or later New Delhi will have to find a political solution to the crisis. Secession, they say, does not stand a chance.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Mustafa
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Angry reactions
"The special status of the state is enshrined in the constitution and it cannot be tampered with or removed. It is an article of faith. Both provisions are two sides of the same coin," said Omar Abdullah, a former Kashmir chief minister.
Fears that the special status could be in jeopardy has galvanized the region's political parties, including the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition National Conference.
Prominent separatist leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, have also threatened to stage protest rallies if the RSS tried to change Kashmir's status.
The controversy could plunge India-administered Kashmir into further turmoil as the Himalayan region has been in the grip of violence since July 2016.
"All political parties are concerned. Questioning Article 35A is synonymous with questioning the accession of Jammu and Kashmir. It is very serious," Ali Mohammad Sagar, a National Conference legislator, told DW.
A ticking time bomb
Kashmir's Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, whose PDP party is in an alliance with the BJP, has slammed the move and said the Kashmiri political parties would jointly oppose it.
"The state [Kashmir] is like a jewel in a crown and it should remain like this. There are people who want to take us back to the pre-independence era. There are people in the country who want to create trouble and take us back to 1947," Mufti said in her Independence Day speech on August 15.
The BJP says the residents of Kashmir should be given a chance to hold a referendum whether they want Article 35A to remain in the constitution or not.
"The PDP and the National Conference are only trying to play up fear," Pawan Rana, the BJP state secretary, told DW.
Memories of the Amarnath Shrine row are fresh in the valley. In 2008, a violent clash erupted when the state government promised to give a piece of land to a trust that administers the Amarnath Shrine. Clashes erupted following the proposal and snowballed into one of the biggest pro-independence demonstrations in Kashmir killing 40 people and injuring hundreds. The government eventually had to withdraw the proposal.
On August 15, 1947, British India split into two nations - Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. The two countries continue to be hostile towards each other despite some efforts to improve bilateral ties.
Image: AP
Birth of two nations
In 1947, British India was divided into two countries - India and Pakistan. Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his All-India Muslim League party had first demanded autonomy for Muslim-majority areas in the undivided India, and only later a separate country for Muslims. Jinnah believed that Hindus and Muslims could not continue to live together, as they were distinctly different "nations."
Image: picture alliance/dpa/United Archives/WHA
The line of blood
The partition of British India was extremely violent. Following the birth of India and Pakistan, violent communal riots began in many western areas, mostly in Punjab. Historians say that more than a million people died in clashes, and millions more migrated from Indian territory to Pakistan and from the Pakistani side to India.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/AP Images
The 1948 war
India and Pakistan clashed over Kashmir soon after their independence. The Muslim-majority Kashmir region was ruled by a Hindu leader, but Jinnah wanted it to be part of Pakistani territory. Indian and Pakistani troops fought in Kashmir in 1948, with India taking control of most part of the valley, while Pakistan occupied a smaller area. India and Pakistan continue to clash over Kashmir.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/AP Photo/M. Desfor
Like US and Canada?
Liberal historians say that Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi wanted cordial ties between newly independent states. Jinnah, for instance, believed that ties between India and Pakistan should be similar to those between the US and Canada. But after his death in 1948, his successors followed a collision course with New Delhi.
Image: AP
The 'other'
Indian and Pakistani governments present very different accounts of the partition. While India emphasizes the Indian National Congress' freedom movement against British rulers - with Gandhi as its main architect - Pakistani textbooks focus on a "struggle" against both British and Hindu "oppression." State propaganda in both countries paints each other as an "enemy" that cannot be trusted.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/AP Photo/M. Desfor
Worsening ties
Diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan have remained acrimonious for the past seven decades. The issue of Islamist terrorism has marred relations in the last few years, with New Delhi accusing Islamabad of backing Islamist jihadists to wage a war in India-administered Kashmir. India also blames Pakistan-based groups for launching terror attacks on Indian soil. Islamabad denies these claims.
Image: Picture alliance/AP Photo/D. Yasin
The way forward
Many young people in both India and Pakistan are urging their governments to improve bilateral ties. Islamabad-based documentary filmmaker Wajahat Malik believes the best way for India and Pakistan to develop a closer relationship is through more interaction between their peoples. "Trade and tourism are the way forward for us. When people come together, the states will follow suit," Malik told DW.
