article 35a essay

Abrogation of Article 370 & 35A of Constitution – Explained

From Current Affairs Notes for UPSC » Editorials & In-depths » This topic

On 5 th of August 2019, the President of India promulgated the  Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019. It revokes the special status given to Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 and Article 35A.

A separate Bill – the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill 2019  – was introduced to bifurcate the State into two separate union territories of Jammu and Kashmir (with legislature), and  Ladakh (without legislature).

Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 was also introduced to extend the reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)  in educational institutions and government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir.

This topic of “Abrogation of Article 370 & 35A of Constitution – Explained” is important from the perspective of the UPSC IAS Examination , which falls under General Studies Portion.

What is Article 370?

• Article 370 was included in the Indian Constitution on October 17, 1949, as a ‘temporary provision’, which exempts Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian Constitution = allows it to draft its own Constitution and restricting the Indian Parliament’s legislative powers in the state.
• In short, it accorded special status to the state, giving the J&K legislature free rein to draft its own laws, except in the areas of communications, defence, finance, and foreign affairs.
• As a result, Jammu and Kashmir had its own constitution, flag, and penal code.

Express Learning Programme (ELP)

• Optional Notes
• Study Hacks
• Prelims Sureshots (Repeated Topic Compilations)
• Current Affairs (Newsbits, Editorials & In-depths)
• Ancient Indian History
• Medieval Indian History
• Modern Indian History
• Post-Independence Indian History
• World History
• Art & Culture
• Geography (World & Indian)
• Indian Society & Social Justice
• Indian Polity
• International Relations
• Indian Economy
• Environment 
• Agriculture
• Internal Security
• Disasters & its Management
• General Science – Biology
• General Studies (GS) 4 – Ethics
• Syllabus-wise learning
• Political Science
• Anthropology
• Public Administration

SIGN UP NOW

What is Article 35A?

• Article 35A was inserted as part of amendments made through a 1954 presidential order imposed under Article 370 of the constitution.
• It gives powers to J&K to declare a class of persons as “permanent residents’ of the State
• Public employment
• Acquisition of immovable property in the State
• Settlement in different parts of the State.
• Access to scholarships
• Voting rights
• Other such aids that the State government might provide.
• Legislations to confer special rights and privileges are exempt from being annulled on the ground that they infringe on any of the fundamental rights provided under the Indian Constitution.

Prelims Sureshots – Most Probable Topics for UPSC Prelims

A Compilation of the Most Probable Topics for UPSC Prelims, including Schemes, Freedom Fighters, Judgments, Acts, National Parks, Government Agencies, Space Missions, and more. Get a guaranteed 120+ marks!

Why Article 35A needs to be scrapped?

• Non-permanent residents are denied all the special rights.
• Discrimination based on gender because a male resident in J&K will not lose the right of being a permanent resident even after marriage to a woman from outside. But it is the opposite for woman and they will lose the right of being a permanent resident on marrying an outsider. It discriminates against women who marry outside the state from applying for jobs or buying a property.
• Thus Article 35A is considered to be violating Article 14 of the constitution which provides for equality before the law and equal protection of the laws, thus affecting the basic structure of the constitution.
• Therefore the petition challenges the constitutional validity of Article 35A.

What are the Arguments against scrapping Article 35A?

• Article 35A is more relevant for the Dogra people of Jammu as it protects them from domination by elite and affluent outsiders mostly from neighboring Punjab. Repealing the Article would likely impact the cultural identity and economic opportunities of those communities.
• Article 35A is required to promote the industrial development of J&K since it imposes restrictions on non-permanent residents to carry on business in the State.
• Also, the repeal of the law would lead to loss of opportunities due to the increased competition for recruitment, scholarships and other financial assistance. It will also increase pressure on landholdings, farm activity, etc. This may result in loss of opportunities for the local skilled and unskilled labour, farmers, etc.
• Moreover, Article 35A safeguards the rights and the distinct identity of the J&K people. Arguments for removing the law would only make it difficult for them to integrate with the nation as a whole.
• Apart from these arguments, there are the legal obstacles as mentioned before, there are various other arguments opposing the scrapping of Article 35A as follows.

Why can Article 35A not be scrapped?

• The law on the subject is well settled as previous benches of the Supreme Court have already approved the 1954 presidential order.
• Article 35A is not amendable based on basic structure violation since Article 370 gave J&K a set of special privileges. This includes an exemption from constitutional provisions governing other states.
• Parliament’s powers to legislate over the State are restricted to 3 core subjects viz- defence, foreign affairs, and communications.
• Parliament could legislate on other areas only through a presidential order and that too with the prior concurrence of the State government.
• However, Article 370 of the constitution empowers the President to declare the provision inoperative. But his authority can only be exercised on the prior consent of the State’s Constituent Assembly.
• Even amendments made to the Constitution under Article 368 will not automatically apply to J&K as it requires specific order to be made under Article 370. That too requires J&K government’s prior assent and ratification by the State’s Constituent Assembly.
• Therefore, as long as Article 370 exists, we cannot justify the validity of Article 35A.

Was Article 370 temporary or permanent?

There are several interpretations to Article 370 being temporary or permanent based on opinions of constitution experts, court judgements and PIL petitions as follows.

• A petition was filed by an NGO challenged the validity of Article 370 against the Delhi High Court’s April 11, 2017 order. The petition said that the continuance of the temporary provision of Article 370 even after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly of J&K, and that of J&K Constitution which has never got the assent of the President of India or Parliament or the government of India, “amounts to fraud on the basic structure of our Constitution” .
• The Article was introduced to accommodate the apprehensions of Maharaja Hari Singh who would not have acceded to India without certain concessions.
• Territorial integrity was of paramount importance to India post-independence, thus, such a special provision was inducted in the constitution.
• The plea said Article 35 A is against the “very spirit of oneness of India” as it creates a “class within a class of Indian citizens”.
• Restricting citizens from other States from getting employment or buying property within Jammu and Kashmir is a violation of fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution.
• Moreover, Article 370 could be interpreted as temporary in the sense that the J&K Constituent Assembly had a right to modify/delete/retain it. But it decided to retain it .
• Another interpretation was that accession was temporary until a plebiscite is made .

What is the recent presidential order?

• The order effectively revokes the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir under the provision of Article 370 – whereby provisions of the Constitution which were applicable to other states were not applicable to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) = The provisions of the Indian Constitution are now applicable in the State.
• It will also clear the path for abrogating Article 35A which would allow Indian citizens to purchase land and settle permanently in J&K.
• This Order comes into force “at once”, and shall “supersede the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954.”

What happens now?

Though the Presidential Order may face legal scrutiny, as matters currently stand, Jammu and Kashmir will witness historic political and geographic changes. It is to be divided into two union territories- Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir .

• Ladakh will not have a legislature, while Jammu and Kashmir will have a legislative assembly with 107 members-however, this assembly will not have the authority to pass laws relating to ‘public order and the police’.
• The single largest party in the assembly will form the government, headed by a chief minister, and the assembly will have a five-year term, not six, as was the earlier case.
• A Lieutenant Governor will govern both Union territories.
• Of the six Lok Sabha seats currently with the state of Jammu and Kashmir, five will remain with the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, while one will go to Ladakh.However, the biggest fallout for the state will stem from the abolition of its special status under Article 370 . These are the likely major changes:
• Jammu and Kashmir will no longer have separate constitution, flag or anthem.
• The citizens of Jammu and Kashmir will not have dual citizenship-they will be citizens of India alone.
• As the new union territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be subject to the Indian Constitution, its citizens will now have the Fundamental Rights enshrined in that document-until now, this was not the case.
• Article 360, which can be used to declare a Financial Emergency, will now also be applicable.
• All laws passed by Parliament will be applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, including the Right to Information Act and the Right to Education Act .
• The Indian Penal Code will replace the Ranbir Penal Code of Jammu and Kashmir
• Any Indian citizen from any part of the country can now buy property in Jammu and Kashmir, take a state government job and enjoy scholarships and other government benefits.
• Children of a woman marrying outside Jammu and Kashmir will not lose property rights.

What are the issues with the order?

Article 370 is the bedrock of the constitutional relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India.

• It has been described as a tunnel through which the Constitution is applied to J&K.
• India has used Article 370 at least 45 times to extend provisions of the Indian Constitution to J&K. This is the only way through which, by mere Presidential Orders, India has almost nullified the effect of J&K’s special status.
• By the 1954 order, almost the entire Constitution was extended to J&K including most Constitutional amendments.
• However, abrogating the article altogether  may threaten the peace in the state  which is already a hotspot of conflicts and militancy.
• It will completely change the relationship between the state and the rest of India.

It will also clear the path for abrogating Article 35A  which would allow Indian citizens to purchase land and settle permanently in J&K = This move is bound to have a significant impact on the demography, culture, and politics of J&K .

J&K Reorganisation Act 2019: Key Features *

GET MONTHLY COMPILATIONS

Related Posts

J&K Order on Government Employees

Security Clearance Circular in J&K

J&K Civilian Deaths

New Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Domicile Rules – Implications & Criticisms...

There was a problem reporting this post.

Block Member?

Please confirm you want to block this member.

You will no longer be able to:

• See blocked member's posts
• Mention this member in posts

Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

From Domicile to Dominion: India’s Settler Colonial Agenda in Kashmir

• See full issue

On August 5, 2019, the Indian government revoked the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir 1 by abrogating Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution. 2 Although many saw Article 370 as largely symbolic, Article 35A of the Constitution had a practical function for preserving Kashmiri identity. Article 35A vested Kashmir’s legislative assembly with the sole authority to define “permanent residents.” Significantly, the local government was able to affix special privileges — such as the ability to purchase land — to permanent residents. The effect was that only Kashmiris could own property in a region that India has long claimed as its own. In revoking Article 35A, the Indian government unearthed a fear that Kashmiris had been wrestling with since Independence: that India would recruit non-Kashmiri settlers to dilute the region’s ethnic and religious makeup.

August 5, then, marked a critical turning point in the Kashmir dispute. Although the colonial lens has been applied to Kashmir in the past, the abrogation suggests that the settler colonial lens may be more fitting. Settler colonialism is premised on the recruitment of a settler class whose goal is not only to occupy indigenous land but also to eliminate the indigenes who stand in their way. Thus, as non-Kashmiris flood the region as new residents, India’s identity as a settler state comes to the fore.

The law often plays a crucial role in facilitating the erasure and elimination of indigenous communities in settler colonial projects. Exploring features of the post-Partition legal regime — especially military impunity, arbitrary detention, and displacement — reveals how the settler colonial mindset animated India’s relationship with Kashmir long before the events of August 5th.

This Note uses settler colonial theory to explain how the August 5 abrogation came about. It begins by laying out a theoretical framework for understanding settler colonialism. Next, it contextualizes and documents the legally momentous events of August 5, 2019, highlighting both the thwarted promises of Kashmiri autonomy and the growing settler colonial desire to control Kashmir and its land. It concludes by analyzing the legal regime that facilitated the full emergence of the settler project today. While August 5 may have been the tipping point for the settler colonial project in Kashmir, it was in no way the start.

I. Settler Colonialism as a Lens

For some, August 5 will join the unfortunate list of days of colonial and “post-colonial” violence: Australia Day, Waitangi Day, Yawm an-Nakba, and Columbus Day. 3 Scholars and commentators fear that abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A will precipitate India’s “settler colonial project” in Kashmir: India can now recruit non-Kashmiris to dilute the region’s predominantly Muslim population. 4 Settler colonial studies is a relatively new field of interest in post-colonial literature. Traditionally a school of anthropological and political thought, settler colonialism has often been applied to dissect the struggles of indigenous communities in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. 5 Scholars have also extended the framework to explain the twentieth-century settler projects waged against Palestinians. 6

Colonialism and settler colonialism are distinct, yet intertwined, modes of oppression. While both entail migration and a relationship of ascendency, their ultimate desires are fundamentally different. 7 Colonizers say, “[Y]ou, work for me,” settler colonizers say, “[Y]ou, go away.” 8

Classic colonialism is “a system of domination” facilitated by territorial acquisition. 9 The colonizers, in dominating an indigenous majority, act to fulfill the interests of their distant metropolis. 10 Their goal is not to stay in their newly sought territory, but rather to exploit profits to “sustain the permanent subordination of the colonised.” 11

The primary objective of settler colonialism, by contrast, is to permanently occupy the colonized territory: settler states recruit settler classes that “bring with them a purported sovereign prerogative to establish a new state on someone else’s land.” 12 To sustain their dominion, settler states — with the help of a local administration 13 — will spin narratives of a unique cultural identity, create independent structures of law and order, and rely on both military and economic power. 14 Law, in particular, often cements and expands a settler colonial project. 15 The law not only establishes and reestablishes the allocation of land and resources but also controls the distribution of violence in a settler regime. 16

In settler colonialism, territory is fetishized. 17 Land is the object of desire; the place where settlers can imagine a society of their choosing on land perceived as their own. 18 In the heat of this desire, settlers rationalize the elimination of the indigenous who complicate the realization of their imagined polity. 19 It is the synchronization of these forces that gives the project its distinctive feature: replacement. 20

To replace is to eliminate the indigenous population. This replacement is driven by the “logic of elimination.” The “logic of elimination,” famously coined by Professor Patrick Wolfe, 21 does not necessary entail violence. To eliminate the indigenous equally includes displacement, forced assimilation, and the induced disappearance of indigenous heritage and institutions. 22 Whereas classic colonialism is marked by a vicious cycle where the freedom of the colonized is perpetually postponed, true settler colonialism will “extinguish[] itself,” so there is no indigenous community to stand in distinction from the realized settler one. 23 The indigenous identity, unlike the colonized one, is entirely dispensable. 24

II. The Denial of Autonomy

To understand the nature of the abrogation, one first needs to understand the autonomy promised to Kashmiris in the aftermath of the Partition of British India. This Part details that history, noting not only how Article 370 came to be but also how it was subsequently whittled to a legal fiction. It shows that Kashmir’s autonomy was hollowed by no small coincidence — a growing settler desire for Kashmir and its sacralized land facilitated the modern settler colonial project in the region.

A. The Making of Article 370

The recent changes to Kashmir’s legal framework trace back to the region’s contested story in the Partition of British India. 25 In August 1947, Jammu and Kashmir was one of the largest “princely states” in the Indian subcontinent. 26 The region was culturally and topographically heterogeneous, and uniquely abutted both Indian and Pakistani frontiers. 27 It included what is now the largely Hindu, low-hilled region of Jammu; the majority-Muslim valley of Kashmir; and the Buddhist and Shia Muslim, high-peaked Ladakh. 28 Notably, the princely state, although predominantly Muslim, was ruled by a Hindu king, Maharaja Hari Singh. 29

How would Kashmir’s future manifest in a free Indian subcontinent? For other princely states, the question reduced to one of religion: majority-Muslim states would follow Pakistan and the rest, India. 30 However, given its geographic and demographic complexities, Jammu and Kashmir did not fit neatly into this binary. 31 Both the Maharaja’s own preference for an independent Kashmir 32 and a growing movement of Kashmiris revolting against the Maharaja 33 only complicated this arithmetic further.

Thus, when confronted with the question of accession, the Maharaja opted instead for “standstill agreements” that left Kashmir’s sovereignty intact. 34 But such agreements did not last very long. In what is a largely contested history, 35 the arrival of armed groups from Pakistan forced Maharaja Singh’s hand: he signed the Instrument of Accession in exchange for India’s defensive support. 36 Despite assurances for a plebiscite from Indian government officials 37 and later the United Nations, 38 an inquiry into the desires of the people never took place. Instead, what resulted was the first of three wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir 39 and the drafting of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

Article 370 set out to create an expansive, explicit, and sui generis semi-autonomous regime for the state. First, Article 370 curtailed the powers of the central government over Kashmir to three domains: defense, external affairs, and communication. 40 Only Article I of the Indian Constitution and Article 370 itself would apply to the state of their own force, 41 though other constitutional provisions could be applied through presidential orders, provided they received the “consultation” or “concurrence” of the state government. 42 Lastly, it provided that the President could render the article inoperative “by public notification,” but only with “the recommendation of the [state] Constituent Assembly.” 43 In effect, Jammu and Kashmir became the only state empowered to block the application of federal legislation by not passing it in the state legislature. 44

One of the most critical exercises of Article 370 powers was the adoption of Article 35A to the Indian Constitution via Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954. 45 The order empowered the state legislature to both define the “permanent residents” of the state and attach specific privileges to such residency, including the ability to settle in the state and purchase land and immovable property. 46

With this legal regime as the backdrop, the Constituent Assembly adopted its own state constitution to further define the relationship between the region and the government of India. 47 Building on the prior order, the Constitution notably limited “permanent residents” to long-time residents in the State. 48 The effect of this provision was to safeguard Kashmir from outsiders — a movement initially launched by Kashmiri Hindus hoping to keep “Kashmir for Kashmiris” in the 1920s. 49 Although the Constituent Assembly later dissolved, the Supreme Court maintained that Article 370 “continue[d] to be in force.” 50

B. A Hollowed Autonomy

Article 370’s “force” proved to be de minimis. Just as the plebiscite was a “pledge not redeemed,” 51 Article 370’s promise of autonomy was largely unfulfilled. In the years following Partition, forty-seven presidential orders extended 260 of the Indian Constitution’s 395 articles to Kashmir. 52 India removed Kashmir’s unique legal features — like the Prime Ministership. 53 Litigation “to remove destructive provisions of the Article 370” is not a present-day anomaly; 54 even where litigation was unsuccessful, the article’s dilution was not. 55 The federal and state administrative apparatus — from elections to Indian central rule over the state — has largely facilitated this dilution. 56 In particular, elections have largely been criticized as “showpiece[s] of [Indian] legitimacy” in Kashmir. 57 The introduction of national parliamentary elections eroded the distinction between Kashmir and the rest of India. 58 As for state elections, an interventionist central government often uninstalled, reinstalled, and hand-picked local leaders. 59 The result? A gradient of “pro-India” state political parties. 60

The use of Governor’s 61 and President’s 62 Rule in Kashmir has repeatedly subjected the region to the political whims of the central government. Both machineries effectively accomplish the same ends 63 : where the state government is perceived as inoperable, Kashmir is put under central rule of the Indian government via a federally appointed governor. 64 Having entered central rule eight times 65 and having faced the longest duration of President’s Rule of any state in India, 66 central rule has particularly silenced Kashmiri political voices. During Kashmir’s longest spell of President’s Rule, the problematic 67 Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act 68 and the Public Safety Act 69 were respectively extended to and expanded in the region. 70 And indeed, it was the use of President’s rule that enabled the 2019 abrogation. 71

As India chipped away at Kashmir’s autonomy, a Kashmiri freedom struggle was amplified. The movement has taken on rich unarmed forms, including protests, boycotts, graffiti, rap, and marking Indian Independence Day as a “Black Day.” 72 But it also has had its armed moments, which resulted in the forcible removal and killing of members of the Kashmiri Hindu minority following controversial elections in the late 1980s. 73

Parallel to the freedom movement is an Indian-launched counterinsurgency strategy, framed around terrorism and facilitated by the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops to Kashmir. 74 Human rights groups estimate that there is one armed person for every seventeen civilians and roughly seven armed personnel to every square kilometer of land in the region, 75 securing Kashmir’s title as one of the world’s most densely militarized regions. 76 These numbers stand in stark contrast to India’s estimates of perceived “militants,” which are only in the hundreds. 77 The militarization has spawned a valley rife with human rights abuse. 78

Ultimately, Article 370 was much more a symbol of Kashmir’s desired autonomy than the mechanism for implementing it. To the extent that Article 370 had more than symbolic weight, it was manifested in Article 35A, which remained largely untouched by the federal government. By safeguarding the rights to owning land, Article 35A served as Kashmir’s primary line of defense against outside interference. To tinker with these articles, then, would be “to set[] a powder keg on fire.” 79

C. Cultivating a Settler Desire

The erosion of Kashmir’s autonomy paralleled — and perhaps stemmed from — a growing narrative of desire for Kashmir. While Kashmir’s land was long “prize[d]” 80 for its fertile soil and strategic geographic location, 81 this India-crafted narrative had a more intimate fervor. Kashmir — said the first Prime Minister of India — was a “supremely beautiful woman, whose beauty is almost impersonal and above human desire.” 82 It is ultimately this desire that has furthered the settler colonial project today.

The lopsided emphasis on Kashmir’s Hindu heritage has supplied non-Kashmiri Hindus with both the reason to desire the region and the justifications to do so. 83 In particular, the promotion of the Amarnath Yatra — a Hindu pilgrimage to an ice formation believed to represent Lord Shiva 84 — has grown increasingly over the years through increased institutional support. 85 Such support has been particularly effective where it has equated the pilgrimage with national pride — where the “yearning for Moksha (salvation)” was also “a befitting gesture of solidarity with . . . soldiers . . . fighting the enemy to defend our borders.” 86

By bringing Hindu temples and relics to the fore, the Indian state and its proponents have only fueled the idea that it is Muslim Kashmiris who are the “exogenous ‘Others.’” 87 In fact, India has crafted Kashmir’s public identity into a Hindu one, as more and more highly romanticized pilgrimages emerge in the Kashmir Valley. 88 Indeed, it was the Amarnath pilgrimage that the state heavily advertised in the months leading up to the abrogation. 89 Ultimately, where India is depicted as the Hindu imaginary “Bharat Mata” (Mother India), Kashmir, in India’s eyes, is her head. 90

Kashmir’s militarization is designed to make Kashmir a place non-Kashmiri Hindus can feel entitled to claim as their own, and to reimagine a Kashmiri identity that excludes its Muslim population. The Amarnath pilgrimage is a full exercise of militarized tourism, packaged neatly under the title “Operation Shiva.” 91 By emphasizing the danger in the Valley with each annual pilgrimage, 92 the military is there to remind pilgrims not only that this is their land but also that they can feel safe in it. 93 India has similarly used the military in proposals for returning the Kashmiri Hindu diaspora back to the region, suggesting enclosed, heavily guarded colonies equipped with their own amenities. 94 This ahistorical vision of a Kashmiri society without Kashmiri Muslims underscores the state’s investment in eliminating the aspects of Kashmiri identity that challenge its settler colonial narrative.

This settler narrative, like most, was still intimately linked to the land, with the Indian state having illegally seized Kashmiri territory well before the abrogation. As of 2018, military forces had illegally grabbed nearly 54,000 acres of land in Kashmir. 95 Included in this occupied land is not just strategic borders but civilian infrastructure like hotels, sports stadiums, university facilities, and hospitals. 96 Occupied land has also frequently, and perhaps conveniently, overlapped with resource-rich regions, like those known for saffron production. 97 Although unsuccessful, the central government had even attempted to transfer forest land to construct temporary shelters and facilities for Amarnath pilgrims. 98

India’s settler-like desire has infected every aspect of life in Kashmir. Signs greeting Indian tourists in Kashmir emphasize not only that Kashmir is atoot ang — an “integral part” — of India, but also that it is “India’s crown,” and that to “[l]ove Kashmir, [is to] love India.” 99 Development projects, like the Kashmir Railway Project, underscore attempts to further Kashmir’s assimilation into the nation. 100 Bollywood cinema has also exploited Kashmir’s landscape for nationalist ends, first portraying it as “a pastoral space emptied of popular unrest or political aspirations” 101 and later “chastiz[ing] the Valley” for forgetting this imagined past. 102 Those same movies regularly depict romance between the Indian male tourist and the Kashmiri woman 103 — a not-so-subtle allegory for assimilation and replacement.

India’s settler desire was most pronounced with the 2014 election, and then 2019 reelection, of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kashmiris, in BJP’s India, were “contrapuntal symbols — of terrorist violence, illegitimate religious impulses, and sedition — for contriving [their] mythical Hindu nation.” 104 Realizing the Hindu nation required the abrogation of Article 370, an explicit promise made by the BJP in their 2019 election manifesto. 105

III. A Settler Colonial Project Realized

Before launching their legal attack on August 5, the Indian government waged a familiar psychological one. 106 It began with the further militarization of the region. 107 Then, the government evacuated thousands of Hindu pilgrims and tourists on August 3, citing a Pakistani-backed terrorist attack. 108 Non-Kashmiri students attending Kashmiri universities were also ordered to leave. 109 When pressed, Indian officials explicitly assured state political leaders that abrogating Articles 370 and 35A was not in question; any reports otherwise were “rumor mongering.” 110 Their assurances, later exposed as lies, launched Kashmiris into a familiar cadence: canceling family events, moving ill family members near hospitals, and stockpiling essentials. 111

By August 5, the siege was in full swing. India imposed a curfew and officers patrolled barbed-wired streets. 112 Former heads of state and pro-freedom leaders were arrested. 113 Both internet and cell phone services were suspended. 114 Before India even made its incendiary attack, Kashmir and its people were left in the dark.

With the political backdrop of President’s rule in Kashmir, 115 the President of India issued Constitutional Order 272. 116 Pursuant to Article 370, the order amended Article 367 — which enshrines the Constitution’s interpretative framework 117 — as it relates to Jammu and Kashmir. 118 Although Article 370 requires the state government’s concurrence to make such a change, 119 the President took the Governor’s consent as a sufficient substitute. 120

C.O. 272 had two key consequences. First, it streamlined the process to amend and abrogate Article 370, requiring only consultation with the Governor. 121 Second, by superseding 122 the constitutional order from which Article 35A germinated, it made Article 35A inoperative. 123

The legal changes that flowed from C.O. 272’s groundwork were swift. On August 5, the upper house of Parliament passed a statutory resolution recommending the President of India proceed with Article 370’s abrogation. 124 Later that day, Presidential Order C.O. 273 acted upon the recommendation, causing Article 370 to “cease to be operative” and affixing all provisions of the Indian Constitution upon Kashmir. 125 In parallel, the Parliament also passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. 126 The Act fractured the state into two union territories, 127 which would be under the direct control of the central government. One union territory included Jammu and the Kashmir Valley; the other, Ladakh. 128 Thus, over a few days, the Government of India not only revoked Kashmir’s special autonomous status but also erased its identity as a state altogether. While screams in opposition rang through the chambers of Parliament, 129 the deathly silence in Kashmir was more stifling. The entire map of Kashmir had changed without its people knowing. 130

On August 15, 2019, India would simultaneously celebrate its seventy-third Independence Day and forcibly hold Kashmiris under lockdown. 131 What seemed like a sinister irony became the norm. In the seven months that followed, 132 Kashmiris would spend Eid, 133 weddings, 134 medical emergencies, 135 and funerals 136 in an eerie blackout. The economic loss — an estimated $2.4 billion — would pale in comparison only to the human one. 137 Kashmiri lives were inundated with reported army-instigated torture of children, sexual violence against women, disappearing of young men, 138 and arbitrary detention of civilians. 139 Twenty-three petitions challenging the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A are pending in the Supreme Court of India, but the Court’s pattern of avoidance on the Kashmir issue does not bode well for Kashmiris. 140

IV. The Legal “Elimination” of the Kashmiri

The use of the settler colonial lens in Kashmir largely emerged in the aftermath of the abrogation. Critical Kashmir Studies have typically focused on the paradigms of illegal occupation, 141 armed conflict, 142 self-determination, 143 and colonization. 144 Even then, discussions of the settler colonial model in Kashmir have either focused primarily on a socio-political analysis or given a cursory legal one. 145 This Part focuses on the Indian and Kashmiri state law that has facilitated the gradual “elimination” of the indigenous Kashmiri. While the events of the abrogation were critical in making the purchase of land possible for new settlement communities, exploring Kashmir’s post-Partition legal infrastructure reveals how the settler colonial mindset has animated India’s relationship with the region long before the events of 2019. In particular, a military impunity regime, arbitrary detentions, and displacement are key facilitators of the project. In the words of Kashmiri scholars, “5 August was . . . not a beginning, not a diversion, not a rupture,” but the extension of seventy years of mass killings, blindings, torturings, disappearances, and rape, 146 all of which advanced the mission to — physically and symbolically — “eliminate” the Kashmiri.

A. Abuse and Impunity

In Kashmir, settler colonial and military machinery have “intertwine[d] with great and familiar intimacy.” 147 The latter has ultimately enabed the goal of the former: to erase. Although an official number has never been released, activists conservatively estimate that almost 700,000 members of the Indian army are stationed in Kashmir. 148 Intense human rights abuses have flowed from the militarization of Kashmiri soil. From 2008 to 2018 alone, an estimated 1,081 Kashmiri civilians were “eliminated” by security forces in extrajudicial executions. 149 Since the start of the pro-freedom uprising in 1989, activists estimate that at least 8,000 Kashmiris have been disappeared. 150 These tragedies are compounded by thousands of unknown, unmarked, and mass graves and incalculable cases of torture and sexual violence. 151

A regime of military de jure and de facto impunity has perpetuated abuse against Kashmiri bodies. At the heart of this impunity is the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act (AFSPA) of 1990. AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir is modeled off the national Armed Forces Special Powers Act 152 and was passed at a time when the state was under Governor’s Rule. 153 Similar legal regimes have been enacted in “disturbed areas” across India. 154 Although the definition of what constitutes “disturbed” is vague, the determination is the central government’s authority and is not subject to review. 155

The legislation emerged in Kashmir following a declaration that the Kashmir Valley had become “disturbed” in 1990, and has applied ever since. 156 AFSPA vests officers with sweeping authority: they can use deadly force in instances where they are not at imminent risk. 157 AFSPA grants armed forces the broad power to destroy property from which “armed attacks” are “likely” or “attempted” to be made; 158 arrest without warrant; 159 enter and search without warrant; 160 and stop, search, and seize vehicles. 161 In short, actions that would otherwise be an abuse both of Indian criminal and human rights law are now simply a “use” of AFSPA. 162 Through AFSPA, the Indian state is not only empowered to exert “free and ruthless force” 163 against Kashmiri bodies but also is invited to do so within the law.

Notably, AFSPA includes an explicit immunity clause: “No prosecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with previous sanction of the Central Government” against officials acting under AFSPA. 164 The realities of the immunity clause have been devastating. In the last twenty-eight years, neither the Home Secretary nor the Defense Secretary has approved a single prosecution under AFSPA. 165 Moreover, there is concern that AFSPA’s immunity has bled into proceedings against police officials, making them nearly impossible to launch. 166 Although activists throughout India have challenged the AFSPA’s constitutionality, the Court has held that the army’s powers are not “unreasonable” or “arbitrary.” 167

If the impunity regime created by AFSPA does not reveal India’s attempts to silence the indigenous, the AFSPA’s origins perhaps do. AFSPA took its inspiration from a British colonial ordinance — the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Ordinance of 1942 — utilized to suppress the “Quit India Movement” in India’s battle for independence. 168 The rationales for the modern-day AFSPA are not far from the colonial ones: upholding the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of India” and combating “terrorist acts.” 169 This kind of parallel is not unique to the Kashmir case — “colonial and settler colonial forms[] often coexist and mutually support each other.” 170

B. Detention

In addition to the problems created by impunity, an arbitrary detention regime has also erased Kashmiri voices from civil society. Described with other Indian detention laws as “lawless” by the Supreme Court, 171 the Public Safety Act (PSA) enables a preventative detention regime that operates largely outside the typical criminal justice system.

The state government introduced the PSA in 1978, “ostensibly to crack down on timber smugglers” in the region. 172 Since then, the PSA has been applied to a variety of perceived “dangers,” 173 including the entrance of unauthorized persons into prohibited places, 174 the circulation of documents “likely to affect public order,” 175 and, of course, individuals who “act in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order.” 176 The PSA permits the detention of individuals for one year if they’ve acted “prejudicial[ly] to the maintenance of public order,” 177 and for up to two years if they’ve acted “prejudicial[ly] to the security of the State.” 178 The detaining official must only be “satisfied” that the facts presented meet this threshold, and no criminal charge or suspicion of criminal activity is required. 179

The PSA does not include the traditional protections bestowed by the criminal justice system. For example, detaining authorities can delay communicating the grounds of detention for up to ten days, and even then, authorities have broad discretion regarding which facts they must disclose. 180 Detainees are also entirely without access to judicial authority, facing bars on accessing legal representation, judicial review of the grounds of detention, and judicial appeal. 181

The only legal remedy for arbitrary detention under the PSA is to petition the high court of the state or the Supreme Court through habeas corpus. 182 Unfortunately, habeas corpus in Kashmir is obsolete, 183 resulting in the figurative and literal disappearing of Indigenous Kashmiri bodies. At the height of India’s counterinsurgency operation in the 1990s, the concerned relatives of disappeared persons filed thousands of habeas petitions. 184 The majority went unheard due to “pervasive patterns of delays, non-compliance with judicial directions by executive and military authorities, and judicial normalization of impunity.” 185 Habeas has been no more promising in recent years. One year after the abrogation, over 400 people — including former heads of state, pro-freedom leaders, and lawyers — were detained via the PSA. 186

As with AFSPA, the PSA’s rationale illuminates a settler desire for erasure. Formally, the PSA takes a “holistic approach” to “overcome the menace of terrorism and secessionism” that “challenge[s] the integrity and sovereignty of the state.” 187 Informally, as described by a former state politician, the aim is to keep recalcitrant Kashmiris “out of circulation.” 188

The PSA has not only depicted the Kashmiri as dangerous but also, in collaboration with AFSPA, established a legal “death zone[]” 189 critical to the operation of the settler regime. It is in this zone — where impunity and detention run rampant — that Kashmiris are caged “as existential and demographic threats.” 190 The veneer of terrorism-based justifications does little to change this reality. The intense militarization of indigenous soil and the “spatially differentiated policing of populations” suggest that “the ‘terrorist’ stands in for the ‘Native.’” 191

C. Displacement

While the laws discussed above are animated by the settler colonial logic, Article 35A’s abrogation makes the recruitment of a settler community on indigenous land a reality. 192 The abrogation secures “settler colonialism’s specific, irreducible element”: “territoriality.” 193 Without Article 35A, India can now use the territory of Kashmir for investment, natural resources, and a new community of residents.

While India continued its clampdown in Kashmir, the downstream effects of the abrogation continued to materialize. The government earmarked land for non-Kashmiri investors 194 and planned an investment summit to facilitate the bidding. 195 The August 5 abrogation has also paved the way for exploitative resource extraction in the region. Kashmir’s special status ensured that nonlocal businesses were barred from operating in the region without a lease agreement with the government. 196 Starting in January following the abrogation, all mining bids were solicited online at a time when internet connectivity was still restricted in Kashmir. 197 The result was a “death blow to [Kashmiri] business” 198 : for the first time, almost seventy percent of mineral extraction contracts in Kashmir were procured by non-Kashmiris. 199

The Indian government also introduced a new domicile order 200 that expands the definition for residency and allows a new class of non-Kashmiris to move into the region. This legal maneuver mirrored the use of “registration by title” to facilitate the expropriation of indigenous lands in Palestine and Australia. 201 The order now permits Indian citizens who have lived in the region for a set period of time to claim a “domicile certificate.” 202 The children of those domiciled can also claim their own certificates, even without ever having entered the region. 203 These provisions extend to armed forces stationed in Kashmir and their children as well, 204 making the hundreds of thousands of armed forces in Kashmir a potentially new class of settlers themselves. By claiming domicile, these non-Kashmiris can now apply for all local government jobs, including those in police or administration, that were previously reserved for Kashmiris.

However, a new land order may have already superseded the domicile laws in importance, having repealed twelve former state land laws and amended fourteen others. 205 The order erased Article 35A’s vestiges, largely removing the “permanent residency” clause across Kashmir’s land regime. 206 Notably, it did not limit land transactions to newly defined domiciliaries. The law also empowers non-Kashmiris to repurpose agricultural land, which constitutes ninety percent of the region, for nonagricultural purposes. 207 Similarly concerning is the government’s ability to designate “strategic area[s]” for military use without the previously required consultation with local government. 208 While the full effects of these reforms are unknown, one thing is clear: “J&K is now up for sale . . . .” 209

Although the government has justified its actions in the name of development, 210 such pretexts have been laid bare in the American regime: “There was never a time when the white man said he was trying to help the Indian get into the mainstream of American life that he did not also demand that the Indian give up land . . . .” 211

Mahjoora des sonuy, Mahjoor, our motherland,

baagah chhu nundabonuy, Is the loveliest on earth!

ath lol gatghi baronuy, Shall we not love her best?

gulshan vatan chhu sonuy… A garden is our land!

— Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor 212

This Kashmiri freedom verse, first written in the 1980s, perhaps best evinces the threat that the abrogation poses: the loss of Kashmiris’ motherland. By giving an expanded class of non-Kashmiris access to new forms of livelihood and land, India has made the settlement of a new class of residents viable and attractive. The abrogation of Article 35A and the laws that have followed it are quintessential settler colonial violence, but so too are the legal regimes that came before the abrogation. Fueled by a growing settler narrative around Kashmir, India has long utilized the law to not just colonially oppress Kashmiris but erase them altogether.

^ Hereainafter also referred to as “Kashmir.” “Kashmir” refers to the India-occupied region of Jammu and Kashmir, which largely consists of the Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh. See Josef Korbel, Danger in Kashmir 5–6 (rev. ed. 2015).

^ India Revokes Kashmir’s Special Status , Al Jazeera (Sept. 4, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/india-revokes-kashmir-special-status-190904143838166.html [ https://perma.cc/AZ3C-GG37 ].

^ See Azeezah Kanji, A How-To Guide for the Settler Colonial Present: From Canada to Palestine to Kashmir , Yellowhead Inst . (Aug. 5, 2020), https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2020/08/05/marking-the-settler-colonial-present-from-canada-to-palestine-to-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/MR3Z-Z54V ].

^ See, e.g ., Hafsa Kanjwal, Opinion, India’s Settler-Colonial Project in Kashmir Takes a Disturbing Turn , Wash. Post (Aug. 5, 2019, 6:59 PM), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/05/indias-settler-colonial-project-kashmir-takes-disturbing-turn [ https://perma.cc/4WCQ-BMN9 ].

^ See generally A. Grenfell Price ,  White Settlers and Native Peoples (1950) (comparing the effects of white settler colonialism on indigenous populations of North America, New Zealand, and Australia).

^ See generally, e.g ., Maxime Rodinson , Israel: A Colonial-Settler State? (1973); Nadim N. Rouhana & Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, Settler-Colonial Citizenship: Conceptualizing the Relationship Between Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens , 5 Settler Colonial Stud . 205 (2015).

^ Lorenzo Veracini, Introducing Settler Colonial Studies, 1 Settler Colonial Stud . 1, 1 (2011).

^ See Natsu Taylor Saito , Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law 43 (Ediberto Roman ed., 2020) (emphasis omitted) (quoting Jürgen Osterhammel ,  Colonialism 4 (Shelley L. Frisch trans., Markus Wiener Publishers 2d ed. 2005) (1995)).

^ Id . at 45–47.

^ Veracini, supra note 7, at 2.

^ Saito , supra note 9 , at 51 .

^ A local administration is “charged with maintaining order and authority” on behalf of the settler state. Caroline Elkins & Susan Pedersen, Settler Colonialism: A Concept and Its Uses , in Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century 1, 4 (Caroline Elkins & Susan Pedersen eds., 2005).

^ See Saito , supra note 9, at 52.

^ See David Lloyd & Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonial Logics and the Neoliberal Regime , 6 Settler Colonial Stud . 109, 114 (2016).

^ See Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native , 8 J. Genocide Rsch . 387, 388 (2006).

^ See Saito , supra note 9, at 51.

^ See Wolfe, supra note 17, at 388.

^ Patrick Wolfe, Nation and MiscegeNation: Discursive Continuity in the Post-Mabo Era , 36 Soc. Analysis 93, 93 (1994).

^ See Lorenzo Veracini, Essay, The Other Shift: Settler Colonialism, Israel, and the Occupation , 42 J. Palestine Stud . 26, 28 (2013) (emphasis omitted).

^ See Veracini, supra note 7, at 3.

^ “From [the Maharaja’s decision to accede] all else has flowed; and its consequences are with us still.” Alastair Lamb , Kashmir: A Disputed Legacy, 1846–1990 , at 2 (1991).

^ The princely system relied on nested sovereignty, where princes exercised near-autonomy while still heeding the title of the British monarchy. Ramachandra Guha , India After Gandhi 36–37 (2008).

^ See id . at 59.

^ See Mona Bhan et al., “ Rebels of the Streets”: Violence, Protest, and Freedom in Kashmir , in Resisting Occupation in Kashmir 1, 5 (Haley Duschinski et al. eds., 2019).

^ Guha , supra note 26, at 60.

^ See Neera Chandhoke , Contested Secessions: Rights, Self-determination, Democracy, and Kashmir 19 (2012).

^ See Matthew J. Webb, Escaping History or Merely Rewriting It? The Significance of Kashmir’s Accession to Its Political Future , 20 Contemp. S. Asia 471, 477 (2012).

^ See Guha , supra note 26, at 64.

^ See generally Mridu Rai , Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects 224–87 (2019) (discussing Kashmiri political mobilization against the “Hindu State” under the ruling dynasty).

^ See Webb, supra note 31, at 477.

^ Hotly debated still is why and how these invaders came to Kashmir. Some accounts characterize the invasion as Pakistani orchestrated to secure Kashmir; others present an independent group rushing to liberate subjugated Muslims suffering under an oppressive Hindu rule in Kashmir. Guha , supra note 26, at 64–65.

^ The Maharaja’s Letter to the Governor-General of India, Lord Mountbatten (Oct. 26, 1947), reprinted in A.G. Noorani , Article 370: A Constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir 41–42 (2011). Circumstances surrounding the Maharaja’s signing of the Instrument of Accession are also contested, with scholars arguing that the accession was induced through false promises. See, e.g ., Chandhoke , supra note 30, at 101.

^ Letters between Lord Mountbatten and Maharaja Singh suggest that although India would aid Kashmir militarily given the invasion, “as soon as law and order ha[d] been restored in Kashmir . . . the question of the State’s accession should have been settled by a reference to the people.” Letter from Governor-General, India, Delhi, to Maharaja Sahib (Oct. 27, 1947) , reprinted in Noorani , supra note 36, at 43 [hereinafter Letter from Governor-General].

^ Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y, Occupational Hazard: The Jammu and Kashmir Floods of September 2014 , at 4–5 (2015).

^ See Letter from Governor-General, supra note 37, at 42–43.

^ India Const. art. 370, cl. 1(a–b).

^ Id . cl. 1(c).

^ Presidential orders require the “consultation” for matters within the three domains and the “concurrence” for all other matters. Id . cl. 1(d).

^ Id . cl. 3.

^ Haseeb A. Drabu, Opinion, Modi’s Majoritarian March to Kashmir , N.Y. Times (Aug. 8, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/opinion/modis-majoritarian-march-to-kashmir.html [ https://perma.cc/B3RY-NTVM ].

^ Ministry of Law, Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954, C.O. 48 (Issued on May 14, 1954).

^ Id . pt. 4, cl. (j). Other states in India have similar restrictions on land ownership as described in Vakasha Sachdev, Despite J&K Changes, You Still Can’t Buy Land in These States , The Quint (Oct. 29, 2020, 9:29 AM), https://www.thequint.com/news/india/jammu-kashmir-land-laws-amended-other-states-where-outsiders-cant-purchase-property-himachal-sikkim-arunachal-tribal-areas [ https://perma.cc/N3ES-U6N9 ].

^ Jammu and Kashmir Const., Nov. 17, 1956, arts. 3–5.

^ Specifically, “permanent residents” was limited to those who were living in the state as of May 14, 1954, when the law came into effect, and those who had lived in the state for ten years prior to that date and had legally acquired immovable property in the state. Id . art. 6.

^ See Mridu Rai, History of Betrayals in Kashmir , Frontline (Aug. 30, 2019), <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article29053014.ece ">https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article29053014.ece [ https://perma.cc/U6YN-8BHV ].

^ State Bank of India v. Santosh Gupta, AIR 2017 SC 25, ¶ 12.

^ Rai , supra note 33, at 289.

^ See Angana P. Chatterji, Kashmir: A Place Without Rights , Just Sec . (Aug. 5, 2020), https://www.justsecurity.org/71840/kashmir-a-place-without-rights [ https://perma.cc/Y4GS-QD4Z ].

^ Jeffrey Gettleman et al., India Revokes Kashmir’s Special Status, Raising Fears of Unrest , N.Y. Times (Aug. 5, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/world/asia/india-pakistan-kashmir-jammu.html [ https://perma.cc/6LEG-JZ2X ].

^ See History , Bharatiya Janata Party , http://www.apbjp.org/eng/history [ https://perma.cc/T7H3-DTQP ].

^ See We Diluted Article 370 Twelve Times Without Controversy: Congress , India Today (Nov. 3, 2019), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/we-diluted-article-370-twelve-times-without-controversy-congress-1615399-2019-11-03 [ https://perma.cc/89DG-N8B9 ].

^ In fact, it is the rhetorical ability to participate in political life that cements settler colonial power. See Veracini, supra note 23, at 30.

^ Mohamad Junaid, Death and Life Under Occupation: Space, Violence, and Memory in Kashmir , in Everyday Occupations 158, 164 (Kamala Visweswaran ed., 2013); see id . at 158–90.

^ See Haley Duschinski, “ Survival Is Now Our Politics”: Kashmiri Hindu Community Identity and the Politics of Homeland , 12 Int’l J. Hindu Stud . 41, 53 (2008).

^ See generally Sten Widmalm, The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Jammu and Kashmir , 37 Asian Surv . 1005 (1997) (detailing notable and perceived-as-rigged elections in Kashmir).

^ See Rifat Fareed, “ End of The Road” for Pro-India Politicians in Kashmir , Al Jazeera (Sept. 17, 2020), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/17/end-of-the-road-for-pro-india-politicians-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/X63V-9YFW ].

^ Jammu and Kashmir Const., Nov. 17, 1956, art. 92.

^ India Const. art. 356.

^ Kashmir is unique in that it enters into Governor’s rule for six months before President’s rule. If the state government is not restored in those six months, the state moves from Governor’s rule to President’s rule. In both situations, power is exercised over Kashmir through the centrally appointed Governor. Muzamil Jaleel, How Governor’s Rule and President’s Rule Set J&K Apart from Other States , Indian Express (Dec. 14, 2018, 1:03 PM), https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/how-governors-rule-and-presidents-rule-set-jk-apart-from-other-states-satya-pal-malik-5492730 [ https://perma.cc/4VMX-7SKB ]; see also Prabhash K. Dutta, Why Governor’s and Not President’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir , India Today (June 20, 2018), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/why-governor-s-and-not-president-s-rule-in-jammu-and-kashmir-1264794-2018-06-20 [ https://perma.cc/WM2J-5GYZ ].

^ India Const. art. 356. See generally Bhagwan D. Dua, Presidential Rule in India: A Study in Crisis Politics , 19 Asian Surv . 611 (1979) (conducting a systematic analysis of presidential rule in India and the way it has been used by the central government).

^ See Santosh Chaubey, Jammu & Kashmir Under Governor’s Rule for Eighth Time , India Today (June 20, 2018, 6:18 PM), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/jammu-kashmir-under-governor-s-rule-for-eighth-time-1265259-2018-06-20 [ https://perma.cc/7QGA-KZDP ].

^ Vignesh Radhakrishnan & Sumant Sen, How Many Times Has President’s Rule Been Imposed Across States? , The Hindu (Nov. 19, 2019, 6:08 PM), <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/how-many-times-has-presidents-rule-been-imposed-across-states/article30017580.ece ">https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/how-many-times-has-presidents-rule-been-imposed-across-states/article30017580.ece [ https://perma.cc/R74Q-QE6V ].

^ See infra sections IV.A–B, pp. 2546–49.

^ The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990.

^ Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978.

^ The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act was promulgated in the region in 1990 when Kashmir was under a six-year President’s rule. Amnesty Int’l, A “Lawless Law”: Detentions Under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act 10 (2011) , https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/asa200012011en_11.pdf [ https://perma.cc/N8KJ-Z744 ]. Originally intended to punish timber smugglers , id . at 12, the Public Safety Act caused a peak in detentions in the early to mid-1990s, id . at 13.

^ See infra p. 2542.

^ See Khurram Abbas, Strategizing Kashmiri Freedom Struggle Through Nonviolent Means , 16 Pol’y Persps . 41, 43 (2019).

^ See Duschinski, supra note 58, at 46.

^ See Bhan et al., supra note 28, at 2.

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , supra note 38, at 36–37; see also Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , Structures of Violence: The Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir 10–16 (2015) (detailing a breakdown of the armed personnel in Kashmir) [hereinafter Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc'y, Structures ].

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc'y, Structures , supra note 75, at 4.

^ See Ajaz Ashraf, “ Do You Need 700,000 Soldiers to Fight 150 Militants?”: Kashmiri Rights Activist Khurram Parvez , Scroll.in (July 21, 2016, 6:30 AM), https://scroll.in/article/812010/do-you-need-700000-soldiers-to-fight-150-militants-kashmiri-rights-activist-khurram-parvez [ https://perma.cc/VR3S-V7YU ].

^ See generally Off. of the United Nations High Comm’r for Hum. Rts ., Update of the Situation of Human Rights in Indian-Administered Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir from May 2018 to April 2019 (2019), https://www.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/Documents/Countries/IN/KashmirUpdateReport_8July2019.pdf [ https://perma.cc/SU6R-YZQR ]; Angana Chatterji et al., Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in India-Administered Kashmir (2009); Angana Chatterji et al ., Militarization with Impunity: A Brief on Rape and Murder in Shopian, Kashmir (2009).

^ “ Tinkering with Article 35A Akin to Setting Powder Keg on Fire” Mehbooba Mufti Warns Centre Against Revoking Provision , Firstpost (July 29, 2019, 1:37 AM), https://www.firstpost.com/politics/mehbooba-mufti-issues-warning-to-centre-against-revoking-article-35a-says-meddling-with-it-is-like-playing-with-fire-7069231.html [ https://perma.cc/FS4V-XFEF ].

^ Guha , supra note 26, at 78 (quoting India: Marching Through Kashmir , Time (Oct. 10, 1949), http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,800911,00.html [ https://perma.cc/CM6R-DWLD ]).

^ See Chandhoke , supra note 30, at 19.

^ Korbel , supra note 1, at 4.

^ See Lorenzo Veracini , Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview 3 (2010) (noting that settlers see themselves not as invaders, but as natives returning to their country).

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , Amarnath Yatra: A Militarized Pilgrimage 9 (2017).

^ See id . at 22–24.

^ Id . at 170 (quoting Press Info. Bureau, Amarnath Yatra — 99 Acid Test of Devotion (1997)).

^ See Lorenzo Veracini , The Settler Colonial Present 38 (2015). “Kashmiri Muslims are doubly marked as the Other: first as Muslims and second as Kashmiris who are ungovernable, and committed to a [sic] irrepressible struggle for plebiscite and sovereignty.” Ather Zia, The Haunting Specter of Hindu Ethnonationalist-Neocolonial Development in the Indian Occupied Kashmir , 63 Development 60, 61 (2020).

^ Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , supra note 84 , at 153–64.

^ Emily Schmall, India Promotes Hindu Pilgrimage as Sign of Peace in Kashmir , Seattle Times (Aug. 1, 2019, 5:41 PM), https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/india-promotes-hindu-pilgrimage-as-sign-of-peace-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/BP29-4G3F ] (describing signs tourists see upon arriving in Kashmir); see also Alasdair Pal, India Boosts Hindu Pilgrimage to Holy Cave in Conflict-Torn Kashmir , Reuters (July 28, 2019, 1:15 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-india-kashmir-pilgrimage-idUKKCN1UN04Q [ https://perma.cc/MY7T-9HUV ] (noting that the state spent “$72 million on preparations for the six-week event”).

^ See Nitasha Kaul, India’s Obsession with Kashmir: Democracy, Gender, (Anti-)nationalism , 119 Feminist Rev . 126, 132 (2018). The fifth picture depicted in Article 370: The Indians Celebrating Kashmir’s New Status , BBC (Aug. 9, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49250594 [ https://perma.cc/3NUU-YQ2L ], shows celebrating Indians after the abrogation with a poster that depicts Kashmir as the head of “Bharat Mata.”

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , supra note 38, at 60.

^ See id . In July 2019, many of the security measures taken ahead of the pilgrimage facilitated the lockdown that accompanied abrogation. See Rifat Fareed, Highway Regulation for Hindu Pilgrimage Angers Kashmir Residents , Al Jazeera (July 5, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/7/5/highway-regulation-for-hindu-pilgrimage-angers-kashmir-residents [ https://perma.cc/WU8P-AT7K ].

^ Cf . Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 114 (explaining how a part of settler colonial violence in the case of Zionism is a “persistence of a psychic ‘state of siege’: the representation of the world as . . . populated by uncivil peoples who pose . . . an ‘existential threat’ to civil subjects”).

^ See Devjyot Ghoshal & Alasdair Pal, India’s Ruling Party to Revive Plan for Hindu Settlements in Kashmir , Reuters (July 12, 2019, 4:47 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-hindu-exclusive/exclusive-indias-ruling-party-to-revive-plan-for-hindu-settlements-in-kashmir-idUSKCN1U7142 [ https://perma.cc/K94Y-M9NM ].

^ See Fayaz Wani, Over 4.30 Lakh Kanals of Land in Jammu and Kashmir Under Occupation of Security Forces , New Indian Express (Jan. 10, 2018, 8:41 PM), https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2018/jan/10/over-430-lakh-kanals-of-land-in-jammu-and-kashmir-under-occupation-of-security-forces-1750088.amp [ https://perma.cc/8793-GDBG ].

^ See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc’y , supra note 38, at 42.

^ See id . at 46–47.

^ See id . at 53–54.

^ Mohamad Junaid, Opinion, Peace, Tourism and Political Games in Kashmir , Al Jazeera (July 29, 2012), https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2012/7/29/peace-tourism-and-political-games-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/G7ST-6MLV ]; see also Jammu and Kashmir “Was, Is and Shall Forever” Remain Its Integral Part: India Tells Pakistan at UNHRC Meeting , Times India (Feb. 26, 2020, 10:09 PM), https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jk-was-is-and-shall-forever-remain-its-integral-part-india-tells-pakistan-at-unhrc-meeting/articleshow/74318873.cms [ https://perma.cc/SS8B-DXMS ].

^ Betwa Sharma, A Train Through Kashmir , N.Y. Times: India Ink (Oct. 30, 2013, 8:24 AM), https://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/a-train-through-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/E5Y4-Z8B2 ].

^ Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Territory of Desire 44 (2009). Bollywood directors have begun reserving film titles to tell romanticized stories of abrogation. See Kashmir Hamara Hai to Dhara 370: Filmmakers Rush to Book Titles After Article 370 Scrapped , India Today (Aug. 7, 2019, 12:30 PM), https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/bollywood/story/kashmir-hamara-hai-to-dhara-370-filmmakers-rush-to-book-titles-after-article-370-scrapped-1578182-2019-08-07 [ https://perma.cc/TWW4-LMQ9 ].

^ Kabir , supra note 101, at 48; see also id . at 45–50.

^ See Kaul, supra note 90, at 132; see also A Whole New Sub-genre of Songs Emerges About Getting Kashmiri Bahus, Buying Land in Valley , Scroll.in (Aug. 12, 2019, 10:27 AM), <a href="https://scroll.in/video/933520/watch-there-is-a-whole-new-sub-genre-of-songs-inspired-by-kashmir-and-the-article-370-controversy ">https://scroll.in/video/933520/watch-there-is-a-whole-new-sub-genre-of-songs-inspired-by-kashmir-and-the-article-370-controversy [ https://perma.cc/SE6N-WAJN ].

^ Mridu Rai, Kashmiris in the Hindu Rashtra, in Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism Is Changing India 259, 259 (Angana P. Chatterji et al. eds., 2019).

^ Bharatiya Janata Party , Sankalp Patra: Lok Sabha 2019 , at 12 (2019).

^ See Rifat Fareed, Panic in Kashmir After India Asks Tourists and Pilgrims to Leave , Al Jazeera (Aug. 2, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/8/2/panic-in-kashmir-after-india-asks-tourists-and-pilgrims-to-leave [ https://perma.cc/GT5J-7DSN ].

^ 1 Over the course of the year leading up to the abrogation, roughly 35,000 troops were sent to Kashmir in the name of “maintaining law and order” and as part of a massive security drive. See Tariq Bhat, J&K Surge: 25,000 Troops Start Arriving; Total Since 2018 Reaches 75,000 , The Week (Aug. 2, 2019, 10:54 PM), https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2019/08/02/jk-surge-25k-troops-start-arriving-total-since-2018-reaches-75.html [ https://perma.cc/X3SK-MWNK ].

^ 1 See India Orders Tourists to Leave Kashmir Over “Terror Threat ,” BBC (Aug. 3, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49222571 [ https://perma.cc/6SGG-K45K ].

^ 1 See Ather Zia, Opinion, There Is Reason to Fear for the Safety of Every Kashmiri in India , Al Jazeera (Aug. 5, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/8/5/there-is-reason-to-fear-for-the-safety-of-every-kashmiri-in-india [ https://perma.cc/RVN2-BNRE ].

^ 1 No Reason to Panic, Only Rumor-Mongering Going On: Governor Satya Pal Malik on Tensions in J&K , Fin. Express (Aug. 3, 2019, 7:00 PM), https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/no-reason-to-panic-only-rumor-mongering-going-on-governor-satyapal-malik-on-tensions-in-jk/1665200 [ https://perma.cc/P3KL-NNX5 ].

^ 1 See id .

^ 1 See Kashmir: Curfew-Like Restrictions Imposed on Movement of People , India Today (Aug. 5, 2019, 1:52 AM), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/jammu-and-kashmir-curfew-section-144-imposed-1577218-2019-08-05 [ https://perma.cc/DF5V-256L ].

^ 1 See Rifat Fareed, Key Kashmir Political Leaders Arrested by India Since August 5 , Al Jazeera (Aug. 17, 2019), <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/8/17/key-kashmir-political-leaders-arrested-by-india-since-august-5 ">https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/8/17/key-kashmir-political-leaders-arrested-by-india-since-august-5 [ https://perma.cc/4KAB-Y76J ].

^ 1 See Kashmir: Curfew-Like Restrictions Imposed on Movement of People , supra note 112.

^ 1 In June 2018, the BJP pulled out of a coalition government with state parties in Kashmir, forcing the state first into Governor’s rule and then President’s rule. See President’s Rule in J&K Extended for 6 More Months Beginning July 3 , Econ. Times (June 12, 2019, 9:20 PM), https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/president-rule-in-jk-to-be-extended-for-6-more-months/articleshow/69759938.cms [ https://perma.cc/Q4CR-FC6U ].

^ 1 Ministry of Law and Justice, The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019, C.O. 272 (Notified on August 5, 2019) [hereinafter C.O. 272].

^ 1 See India Const. art. 367.

^ 1 C.O. 272, supra note 116.

^ 1 India Const. art. 370, cl. (1)(d).

^ 1 This move was criticized as unconstitutional. See, e.g ., Gautam Bhatia, The Article 370 Amendments: Key Legal Issues , Indian Const. L. & Phil . (Aug. 5, 2019), https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2019/08/05/the-article-370-amendments-key-legal-issues [ https://perma.cc/QM53-K4YA ]; Nivedhitha K., Guest Post: Article 370: The Constitutional Challenge , Indian Const. L. & Phil . (Aug. 13, 2019), https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2019/08/13/guest-post-article-370-the-constitutional-challenge [ https://perma.cc/CS4A-7RPT ].

^ 1 Specifically, C.O. 272 made two key changes to the text: (1) the Constitution’s references to the “Government of the State” would be construed to include the “ Governor of Jammu and Kashmir”; (2) for purposes of rendering Article 370 inoperative, the “‘Constituent Assembly of the State . . .’ would read ‘ Legislative Assembly of the State.’” C.O. 272, supra note 116, at cl. 2 (emphasis added).

^ 1 Id . at cl. 1(2).

^ 1 See K. Venkataramanan, Explained: How the Status of Jammu and Kashmir Is Being Changed , Hindu (Aug. 6, 2019, 10:08 AM) , https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/explained-how-the-status-of-jammu-and-kashmir-is-being-changed/article28822866.ece?homepage=true [ https://perma.cc/8TTA-BS3T ].

^ 1 Statutory Resolution (Aug. 5, 2019), http://164.100.47.5/newlobsessions/sessionno/249/S050819.pdf [ https://perma.cc/W7WE-KYQN ].

^ 1 Ministry of Law and Justice, Declaration Under Article 370(3) of the Constitution, C.O. 273 (Notified on August 6, 2019).

^ 1 The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

^ 1 Id . §§ 3–4.

^ 1 Id . The first would have a legislature, but the second would not. Id . §§ 14, 58.

^ 1 DeshGujaratHD, Amit Shah’s Historic Announcement in Rajya Sabha on Jammu & Kashmir, 370, 35A, Ladakh , YouTube at 9:40 (Aug. 5, 2019), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlZBHsZAmI4 [ https://perma.cc/SSE4-ZUEB ].

^ 1 See Alexandra Ma, The Phone and Internet Blackout in Kashmir Is So Total that Locals Reportedly Don’t Know India Rewrote Their Constitution , Bus. Insider (Aug. 8, 2019, 6:32 AM), https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-blackout-locals-dont-know-india-revoked-autonomy-report-2019-8 [ https://perma.cc/M6P9-KF42 ].

^ 1 See India Celebrates Independence Day Despite Kashmir Being Under Lockdown , TRTWORLD (Aug. 15, 2019), https://www.trtworld.com/asia/india-celebrates-independence-day-despite-kashmir-being-under-lockdown-29026 [ https://perma.cc/NUQ5-2YX4 ].

^ 1 See India Restores Internet in Kashmir After 7 Months of Blackout , Al Jazeera (Mar. 5, 2020), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/3/5/india-restores-internet-in-kashmir-after-7-months-of-blackout [ https://perma.cc/W8ZG-VDMV ].

^ 1 See Azhar Farooq & Rebecca Ratcliffe, “ Our Hearts Are on Fire”: Kashmir Spends Eid Al-Adha in Lockdown , The Guardian (Aug. 12, 2019, 12:35 PM), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/our-hearts-are-on-fire-kashmir-spends-eid-al-adha-in-lockdown [ https://perma.cc/F28F-BMFA ].

^ 1 See Quratulain Rehbar, Weddings in the Time of Kashmir Lockdown , The Wire (Aug. 27, 2019), https://thewire.in/rights/weddings-in-the-time-of-kashmir-lockdown [ https://perma.cc/D5A9-JMKM ].

^ 1 See Preetika Rana & Vibhuti Agarwal, India’s Kashmir Clampdown Turns Hospitals into “Graveyards ,” Wall St. J . (Aug. 28, 2019, 11:52 AM), https://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-kashmir-clampdown-turns-hospitals-into-graveyards-11566990962 [ https://perma.cc/C8R3-CFMW ].

^ 1 See Kashmir Clampdown Means Even Funeral Rites Can’t Be Observed , S. China Morning Post (Aug. 10, 2019, 2:30 PM), https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/3022259/kashmir-clampdown-means-even-funeral-rites-cant-be-observed [ https://perma.cc/3F59-XRNX ].

^ 1 See Anando Bhakto, Kashmir’s Endless Agony , Frontline (Aug. 14, 2020), https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/kashmirs-endless-agony/article32184848.ece [ https://perma.cc/G72V-B7N9 ].

^ 1 See Alexandra Ma, Armed Forces in Kashmir Are Detaining Children and Molesting Women and Girls amid a State-Wide Blackout, Report Claims , Bus. Insider (Aug. 15, 2019, 7:12 AM), https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-forces-detaining-kids-molesting-girls-amid-blackout-report-2019-8 [ https://perma.cc/6TH5-F4GY ].

^ 1 See Azhar Farooq & Rebecca Ratcliffe, “ A Storm Has Hit My Life”: The Kashmiri Families Torn Apart by Mass Arrests , The Guardian (Aug. 27, 2019, 6:26 AM), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/kashmir-families-torn-apart-mass-arrests-continue-india [ https://perma.cc/6RP9-RVRL ].

^ 1 See Vakasha Sachdev, Art 370: 1 Year On, How J&K Has Been Let Down by the Supreme Court , The Quint (Aug. 5, 2020, 12:11 PM), https://www.thequint.com/news/india/1-year-of-article-370-abrogation-supreme-court-has-let-down-people-of-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/5WGJ-YGUB ].

^ 1 See, e.g ., Bhan et al., supra note 28; Haley Duschinski & Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh, Constituting the Occupation: Preventive Detention and Permanent Emergency in Kashmir , 49 J. Legal Pluralism & Unofficial L . 314 (2017); Junaid, supra note 57.

^ 1 See, e.g ., Idrees Kanth, Commentary, Writing Histories in Conflict Zones , 46 Econ. & Pol. Wkly . (2011), https://www.epw.in/journal/2011/26-27/commentary/writing-histories-conflict-zones.html [ https://perma.cc/PKQ6-TCBN ].

^ 1 See, e.g ., Chandhoke , supra note 30; Seema Kazi, Sexual Crimes by State Personnel and Kashmir’s Case for Self-Determination , Kashmir Narrator , http://kashmirnarrator.com/sexual-crimes-state-personnel-kashmirs-case-self-determination [ https://perma.cc/WJ9P-W76B ].

^ 1 See, e.g ., Goldie Osuri, Imperialism, Colonialism and Sovereignty in the (Post) Colony: India and Kashmir , 38 Third World Q . 2428 (2017); Partha Chatterjee, Opinion, Kashmir Is the Test Bed for a New Model of Internal Colonialism , The Wire (Aug. 28, 2019), <a href="https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-is-the-test-bed-for-a-new-model-of-internal-colonialism ">https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-is-the-test-bed-for-a-new-model-of-internal-colonialism [ https://perma.cc/STB2-LVMG ]; Nitasha Kaul, Argument, Kashmir Is Under the Heel of India’s Colonialism , Foreign Pol’y (Aug. 13, 2019, 10:51 PM), https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/13/kashmir-is-under-the-heel-of-indias-colonialism [ https://perma.cc/4X7A-FMZJ ].

^ 1 See, e.g ., Zainab Ramahi & Azadeh Shahshahani, Destroying to Replace: Settler Colonialism from Kashmir to Palestine , Verso (Aug. 10, 2020), https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4817-destroying-to-replace-settler-colonialism-from-kashmir-to-palestine [ https://perma.cc/SS43-324G ]; Maknoon Wani, Commentary, Kashmir and the Rise of Settler Colonialism , Himal Southasian (Sept. 1, 2020), https://www.himalmag.com/kashmir-and-the-rise-of-settler-colonialism-2020 [ https://perma.cc/VL6N-48QU ].

^ 1 Samreen Mushtaq & Mudasir Amin, Analysis, In Kashmir, Resistance Is Mainstream , Himal Southasian (Apr. 16, 2020), https://www.himalmag.com/in-kashmir-resistance-is-mainstream-2020 [ https://perma.cc/MP6C-J78B ].

^ 1 Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 115.

^ 1 See Jammu Kashmir Coal. of Civ. Soc'y, Structures , supra note 75, at 4.

^ 1 Off. of the United Nations High Comm’r for Hum. Rts ., supra note 78, at 13.

^ 1 The Disappeared of Indian-Administered Kashmir , Al Jazeera (Aug. 30, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/videos/2019/8/30/the-disappeared-of-indian-administered-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/36Z6-3YD7 ].

^ 1 See sources cited supra note 78.

^ 1 The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.

^ 1 Hum. Rts. Watch, “Everyone Lives in Fear”: Patterns of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir 29 (2006) , https://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/india0906/india0906web.pdf [ https://perma.cc/5QVZ-4RVS ].

^ 1 The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act pmbl.

^ 1 Hum. Rts. Watch , supra note 153, at 31.

^ 1 Naseer Ganai, 25 Years On, AFSPA Remains a Dirty Word in Jammu and Kashmir , India Today (July 9, 2015, 11:14 AM), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/afspa-disagreement-jammu-and-kashmir-armed-militancy-cmp-bjp-pdp-281441-2015-07-09 [ https://perma.cc/XEM9-E5T3 ].

^ 1 For example, officers can use lethal force against persons partaking in an unlawful assembly. The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990, § 4a.

^ 1 Id . § 4b.

^ 1 Id . § 4c.

^ 1 Id . § 4d.

^ 1 Id . § 4e.

^ 1 See Haley Duschinski, Destiny Effects: Militarization, State Power, and Punitive Containment in Kashmir Valley , 82 Anthropological Q . 691, 702 (2009).

^ 1 See Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 114.

^ 1 Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990, § 7.

^ 1 See Ass’n of Parents of Disappeared Persons & Jammu Kashmir Coal. Civ. Soc’y , Torture: Indian State’s Instrument of Control in Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir 100 (2019), https://jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TORTURE-Indian-State%E2%80%99s-Instrument-of-Control-in-Indian-administered-Jammu-and-Kashmir.pdf [ https://perma.cc/UG85-BVKT ].

^ 1 Naga People’s Movement of Hum. Rts. v. Union of India, AIR 1998 SC 431, ¶ 48 (1997).

^ 1 Amnesty Int’l , India: Briefing on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 , at 3 (2005), https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/84000/asa200252005en.pdf [ https://perma.cc/L78G-BAF6 ].

^ 1 The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990, § 3.

^ 1 Veracini , supra note 87, at 29.

^ 1 Jaya Mala v. Home Sec’y, Gov’t of Jammu & Kashmir, AIR 1982 SC 1297, ¶ 7.

^ 1 Ipsita Chakravarty, Modi Wants to Give Kashmiris Same Rights as All Indians — But PSA Arrests Show that Hasn’t Happened , Scroll.in (Feb. 8, 2020, 6:30 AM), https://scroll.in/article/952478/detentions-under-psa-show-kashmir-remains-in-state-of-exception-despite-modi-governments-claims [ https://perma.cc/BD7K-LNL8 ].

^ 1 Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh, Public Safety Act: The Making and Unmaking of the Dangerous Individual in Kashmir , Café Dissensus (Feb. 20, 2017), https://cafedissensus.com/2017/02/20/public-safety-act-the-making-and-unmaking-of-the-dangerous-individual-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/GBJ3-GKJB ].

^ 1 Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, §§ 3, 4.

^ 1 Id . § 6.

^ 1 Id . § 8(3)(b).

^ 1 Id . § 18(1)(a).

^ 1 Id . § 18(1)(b).

^ 1 See id . § 8(1)(a).

^ 1 See id . § 13(1)–(2).

^ 1 See id . §§ 14–16 (referring all issues to an Advisory Board).

^ 1 See India Const. art. 32; id . art. 226; Jammu and Kashmir Const. art. 103; see also Amnesty Int’l , supra note 70, at 64 (finding that the Jammu and Kashmir High Court focused “on the procedural and nominal aspects of detention at the expense of substantive protection of human rights of the detainees”).

^ 1 See Amnesty Int’l , supra note 70, at 63–64.

^ 1 See Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh, Reflections, Crisis Constitutionalism, Permanent Emergency and the Amnesias of International Law in Jammu and Kashmir , TWAILR (May 28, 2020), https://twailr.com/crisis-constitutionalism-permanent-emergency-and-the-amnesias-of-international-law-in-jammu-and-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/WY6T-VMYT ].

^ 1 See id . The lack of justice was so devastating that it resulted in the formation of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons. See generally Ass’n of Parents of Disappeared Persons, Kashmir, A Provisional Biography of a Journey Towards Justice for the Enforced Disappeared , https://apdpkashmir.com/ebmedia/sitename_eb/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/APDP-biography-02-02-2020.pdf [ https://perma.cc/SLX9-A5W6 ].

^ 1 See Fareed, supra note 113.

^ 1 Amnesty Int’l , supra note 70, at 9 (quoting the grounds given by a magistrate for a detention under the PSA).

^ 1 Id . at 3.

^ 1 Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 114.

^ 1 Id . at 116.

^ 1 Following the abrogation, a senior Indian diplomat even went so far as to call for an Israel-like model of settlements for Hindus in Kashmir. See Anger over India’s Diplomat Calling for “Israel Model” in Kashmir , Al Jazeera (Nov. 28, 2019), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/28/anger-over-indias-diplomat-calling-for-israel-model-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/B5Z2-FUKE ].

^ 1 Wolfe, supra note 17, at 388.

^ 1 See Zulfikar Majid, Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Attend Jammu and Kashmir Global Investors’ Summit in May , Deccan Herald (Feb. 23, 2020, 11:02 AM), https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/prime-minister-narendra-modi-to-attend-jammu-and-kashmir-global-investors-summit-in-may-807308.html [ https://perma.cc/J8AJ-JVY8 ].

^ 1 See Pre-summit Investors’ Meet & Curtain Raiser, JK Glob. Invs.’ Summit , https://jkinvestorsummit.com/curtain-raiser [ https://perma.cc/F7RR-KXHN ].

^ 1 See Athar Parvaiz, In a First, Outside Companies Earn 100 Percent Mining Rights in Kashmir , Kashmir Observer (Feb. 10, 2020), https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/02/10/in-a-first-outside-companies-earn-100-percent-mining-rights-in-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/FCA2-G76Z ].

^ 1 See Azaan Javaid, Outside Firms Enter Mining Race in J&K, Lease Earnings Touch Crores from Lakhs , The Print (Feb. 6, 2020, 11:35 AM) , https://theprint.in/india/outside-firms-enter-mining-race-in-jk-lease-earnings-touch-crores-from-lakhs/360175 [ https://perma.cc/P6XN-T6TF ].

^ 1 See Nusrat Sidiq, Kashmir’s Mineral Contracts Largely Handed to Non-locals , Anadolu Agency (July 27, 2020), https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/kashmir-s-mineral-contracts-largely-handed-to-non-locals/1923634 [ https://perma.cc/PD4M-R5MM ].

^ 1 See Ministry of Home Affairs, Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order, 2020, S.O. 1229(E), § 14 (Notified on March 31, 2020).

^ 1 See Lloyd & Wolfe, supra note 15, at 115 (discussing use of “registration by title” as a tool to “strengthen and regularize settler dispossession of Indigenous populations”).

^ 1 Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaption of State Laws) Order, 2020, § 14.

^ 1 Id .; see also Mirza Saaib Bég, Opinion, J&K’s New Domicile Order: Disenfranchising Kashmiris, One Step at a Time , The Wire (May 30, 2020), https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-domicile-law [ https://perma.cc/ZR7E-JJX9 ].

^ 1 See Ministry of Home Affairs, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Fifth Order, 2020, S.O. 3808(E) (Notified on Oct. 26, 2020) [hereinafter Reorganisation Fifth Order]; Safwat Zargar, Explainer: What Exactly Are the Changes to Land Laws in Jammu and Kashmir? , Scroll.in (Oct. 29, 2020, 6:30 AM), https://scroll.in/article/977057/explainer-what-exactly-are-the-changes-to-land-laws-in-jammu-and-kashmir [ https://perma.cc/SWT2-KT8B ].

^ 1 In particular, the Order removed the “permanent resident” protections from the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, Jammu and Kashmir Development Act, and the Jammu and Kashmir Land Grants Act, all of which regulated the lease and transfer of land. See Reorganisation Fifth Order, supra note 205.

^ 1 See id . § 3 (repealing statutory protections for agricultural land).

^ 1 Id . § 7.

^ 1 Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah), Twitter (Oct. 27, 2020, 4:06 AM), https://twitter.com/OmarAbdullah/status/1321015482544054273 [ https://perma.cc/TSN7-994N ].

^ 1 See India Revokes Kashmir’s Special Status , supra note 2.

^ 1 Lana Tatour, Citizenship as Domination: Settler Colonialism and the Making of Palestinian Citizenship in Israel , Arab Stud. J ., Fall 2019, at 13 (quoting Vine Deloria, Jr., For Your Sins: An American Manifesto 173 (1969)).

^ 1 Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor , A Garden Is Our Land (Gulshan Vatan Chhu Sonuy) , reprinted in The Best of Mahjoor 101, 103 (Triloki Nath Raina trans., 1989).

• Foreign & Comparative Law

May 10, 2021

More from this Issue

Constitutional waivers by states and criminal defendants, de pena-paniagua v. barr.

First Circuit Indicates Receptiveness to Gender Per Se Social Groups.

Williams v. Medley Opportunity Fund II, LP

Third Circuit Rules that Tribal Payday Lenders Cannot Compel Arbitration.

Kashmir special status explained: What are Articles 370 and 35A?

Indian government abolishes decades-old laws that gave a measure of autonomy to the disputed Muslim-majority region.

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 remoe 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.”

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.”

How Article 35A Returned To Spotlight In Supreme Court's J&K Hearing

Article 35a empowered jammu and kashmir's legislature to decide who the erstwhile state's permanent residents were.

Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the decision to scrap J&K's special status

The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on petitions challenging the centre's 2019 decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status has brought Article 35A of the Constitution back into the spotlight.

What was Article 35A?

Article 35A empowered Jammu and Kashmir's legislature to decide who the erstwhile state's permanent residents were and to extend special rights and privileges to them. This was added to the Constitution in 1954 by a presidential order issued under Article 370.

Who were J&K's Permanent Residents?

Permanent residents were defined as those who lived in Jammu and Kashmir when the law was approved in 1954 or those who lived there for 10 consecutive years after that and own property there. Permanent Residents received a certificate s proof.

What Article 35A Changed?

This Article barred outsiders from owning property in Jammu and Kashmir. It also made them ineligible for government jobs or scholarships in state-run educational institution. Under the Article, women who married non-residents did not have the right to own property -- this changed after a 2002 court order.

What Changed In 2019?

When the centre revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories in 2019, a new Presidential order was issued that applied all provisions of the Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir residents. In effect, this meant that the privileges enjoyed by Permanent Residents under Article 35A became inoperative.

Promoted Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com

Chief Justice's Big Remark

Article 35A, now defunct, resurfaced during the Supreme Court hearing on Article 370. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said in a strong remark yesterday that this provision had deprived people not residing in Jammu and Kashmir of some key constitutional rights. Equality of opportunity, employment in the state government and right to buy land -- "all this article snatches away from citizens... Because the residents (of Jammu and Kashmir) had special rights, the non-residents were excluded," he said.

Track Budget 2023 and get Latest News Live on NDTV.com.

Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world .

India Elections | Read Latest News on Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Live on NDTV.com . Get Election Schedule , information on candidates, in-depth ground reports and more - #ElectionsWithNDTV

Watch Live News:

Essay on Article 35A in English

Table of Contents

Essay on Article 35A in English: Article 35 A of the Indian Constitution was issued on 14 th May 1954 by the then President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasad. It gave Jammu and Kashmir’s legislature the right to decide as to who will get permanent residency in the state. It also provided special privileges to its permanent residents. The article barred outsiders to purchase property in J&K. It also barred them from acquiring government jobs in the state.

Fill Out the Form for Expert Academic Guidance!

Please indicate your interest Live Classes Books Test Series Self Learning

Verify OTP Code (required)

I agree to the terms and conditions and privacy policy .

Fill complete details

Target Exam ---

The article was scrapped on 5 th August 2019. All the special privileges of the article have thus been annulled.

Long and Short Essay on Article 35A in English

Here are essay on Article 35 A of the Indian Constitution of varying lengths to help you with the topic in your exam.

After going through Article 35A essay you will know all the details of Article 35A, procedure for the revocation of Article 35A, reaction of other nations on revocation of Article 35A, which political parties were in support of Article 35A and which were supporting its abolition, the situation in Kashmir following the abolition of Article 35A and how this move is advantageous for the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

So, go ahead and choose the best one for you:

Short Essay on Article 35A of Indian Constitution (200 Words) – Essay 1

Article 35 A of the Indian constitution gave special power to the J&K government. Unlike, the governments of other states in India, the legislature of J&K gained the right to define the residents of the state. It had its own constitution and adhered to the laws mentioned in the same.

As per the constitution of J&K which was adopted in 1956, two years after the issuance of Article 35A, only those who were residents of J&K at the time Article 35A came into being would enjoy the privilege of being called the permanent residents of the state. Those who lived in J&K for 10 consecutive years and lawfully owned a property in the state also got its permanent residency. The permanent residents of J&K were entitled to many special privileges under the new law.

On 5 th August 2019, Home Minister, Amit Shah passed a resolution in Rajya Sabha to introduce a bill for the revocation of Article 35A and Article 370 that gave special rights to J&K government. President Ram Nath Kovind approved it and all the provisions under this article were thus abrogated.

The residents of J&K who had enjoyed special rights until now have to abide by the laws mentioned in the Indian Constitution henceforth. This has created a feeling of discomfort and discontentment among the general public as well as the political leaders of J&K. However, the BJP government claims that it has made this move for the betterment of the state.

Essay on Article 35A of Indian Constitution: Revocation (300 Words) – Essay 2

Introduction

Article 35 A, that was adopted back in 1954, has come into limelight recently after its annulment. The residents of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed many special rights under this article. Its sudden revocation has created an atmosphere of tension in the state. While a large chunk of general public residing in different parts of India and leaders belonging to different political parties have appreciated this move others are sceptic about it yet others have condemned it completely. Our neighbouring countries have also shared their opinion on the same.

Law Passed by Maharaja Hari Singh

Hari Singh, the former Maharaja of Kashmir, had passed a law similar to Article 35 A in the year 1927. It is said that it was the Kashmiri Hindus who recommended this. Singh made this decision to restrict the rights of people from Punjab entering the state of J&K.

Pakistan’s Reaction on the Revocation of Article 35 A

Pakistan has strongly condemned the decision of the Indian government to abrogate Article 35A and Article 370. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement expressing its discontentment over the move, calling it illegal. Pakistan has also said that it will look for all options to counter this step. It cited that Jammu and Kashmir has been recognized as disputed territory by the United Nation and that the Indian government cannot take any such step unilaterally. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi went on to say that this decision has resurrected the Kashmir issue.

China’s Reaction on the Revocation of Article 35 A

China has shown concern over the Indian government’s decision to revoke Article 35 A. It has also opposed the step to turn Ladakh into a Union Territory. Reacting to the same, the Modi government has reminded China of its own internal issues. It has further mentioned that India does not interfere in the internal issues of other countries and expects the same from others.

While the neighbouring country’s reactions to the revocation of Article 35A and Article 370 have not been pleasant, majority of the Indian population is hopeful that this would bring about a positive change in the state as well as the country as a whole.

Essay on Article 35A of Indian Constitution (400 Words) – Essay 3

Article 35A of the Indian Constitution was issued seven years after India attained independence from the British rule. With this, the legislature of Jammu and Kashmir received the power to define the permanent residents of the state and thus began the discrimination among the people residing this princely state. The special privileges given to the permanent residents of Kashmir stand ineffective now as Article 35 A has been scrapped. The decision is said to have been taken to improve the economic, social and political conditions in the state.

What is Article 35A?

Here is a detailed look at what Article 35 A of the Indian Constitution is all about:

• This article was adopted as a result of presidential order. Parliament’s review wasn’t done before adding it to the constitution.
• Following the issuance of Article 35 A and Article 370, J&K formed its own constitution. The J&K constitution was adopted on 17 th November 1956. It came into effect on 26 th January 1957.
• Only those who lived in J&K in 1954 when Article 35 A was issued or lived there for 10 consecutive years after that and lawfully bought a property in the state attained its permanent residency.
• Only the permanent residents of J&K were entitled to government jobs in the state.
• Only the permanent residents of J&K were given admission in professional colleges run by state government and only they were entitled to scholarships in educational institutions run by the state.
• Those belonging to other parts of the country could not purchase property in the state. The reason given for the same was that it could bring about major changes in the demographics of the state.
• Right to own property was denied to women who married non-residents. However, this clause was altered by a court order in the year 2002. Those who were residents of the state got a certificate as a proof of their permanent residency.

The permanent residents of J&K who had been enjoying special rights under Article 35 A have expressed anger and discontentment over the decision to abrogate the article. The news has caused a lot of commotion in the country particularly in the J&K region.

Since the Modi government took all the measures to ensure peace in the country following the announcement of abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A, there hasn’t been any report of physical violence anywhere. However, the decision is being criticized by many political parties in India as well as by our neighbouring country, Pakistan. This has created a situation of tension in the country.

Long Essay on Article 35A of Indian Constitution (500 Words) – Essay 4

Article 35 A, that was issued by former Indian President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, back in 1954 was revoked on 5 th August 2019. The article granted special rights to the legislature of Jammu and Kashmir. This has been a major event in the history of the Indian Constitution and has received mixed reactions from the general public as well as political parties across India. While many believe that it is a great move to improve the condition of the state others have condemned it outright.

Here is a look at the political parties that are in favour of revocation of Article 35 A and those that are against it.

Political Parties in Favour of Article 35 A Revocation

Many political parties came forward to support the decision of abrogating Article 35 A. Aam Aadmi Party, Shiv Sena, Shiromanu Akali Dal, Biju Janata Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party were among those who appreciated this move by the BJP government. These parties believe that this was a much awaited change and that it would improve the condition of J&K.

Political Parties Against Article 35 A Revocation

Several political parties have shown discontentment over the revocation of Article 35 A. They have called it inappropriate and unjust. Many leaders from the Congress party expressed shock at this decision. They are openly criticizing the Modi government for this move. Other parties that are against it include Janata Dal (United), National Conference, DMK, People’s Democratic Party, Rashtriya Janta Dal and Trinamool Congress among others. Many leaders from these parties have expressed their anger and fear over the same. As per them, this may lead to major issues in the state that may impact the entire country.

Situation in Kashmir

The announcement of revocation of Article 370 and Article 35A was seen as a historic step. It will undoubtedly bring about a major change in J&K. While everyone in India as well as the neighbouring countries was abuzz about the changes it will bring about, the people who were to be impacted the most by this decision had no clue about what was coming.

As a precautionary measure, the government of India had shut down all the phone lines and internet services in Kashmir Valley ahead of the announcement. Curfew was imposed in many parts of the state. This is because shutting down of services and imposing curfew makes it difficult for people to organize protests. The Kashmiris only knew that something major was on cards but had not imagined it to be this big.

Prominent political leaders of Kashmir including Former Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were arrested as the bill for revocation of Article 370 and 35 A and the bifurcation of the state was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 5 th August 2019. All this was done so as to bar any kind of violence in the state.

Like every coin has two sides, every decision comes with its own set of pros and cons. While on one hand, revocation of Article 35 A is being seen as an opportunity for J&K to grow and prosper, on the other it has created an atmosphere of tension across the country as those against the decision have been enraged.

Long Essay on Article 35A of Indian Constitution: Advantages (600 Words) – Essay 5

Article 35A was implemented in the state of Jammu and Kashmir through the Constitution Order, 1954. The then President of India, Rajendra Prasad issued the order under Article 370. It was done on the advice of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The permanent residents of J&K enjoyed special privileges under this article. The enforcement of this article in the state was often questioned but none of the governments in power took any concrete step against it. The abrogation of this article was on BJP’s agenda since decades and it has finally been done. The sudden scrapping of this article has raised many eyebrows.

Here is a look at the pros and cons of scrapping Article 35 A:

Advantages of Scrapping Article 35 A

The arguments given in favour of scrapping Article 35 A are as follows:

• Economic Prosperity

The scrapping of Article 35 A will ensure economic prosperity in the state of J&K. Industrialists and professionals from other parts of the country will be encouraged to establish their businesses in the state. This will not only give more employment opportunities to the locals but will also help in the development of the area.

• Better Educational Prospects

Many skilled and educated teachers in J&K are denied jobs in government schools and colleges just because they are not permanent residents of the state. A lot of talent is thus being wasted. Scrapping of the article will open the doors of opportunity for them. Teachers from various parts of the country will be able to apply for jobs in government schools and colleges in the state. This will bring more talent to the place. Students will get better education.

Besides, meritorious students in J&K are denied scholarships in state-run educational institutions on the basis that they do not possess a permanent residency. The abrogation of 35 A will give equal opportunity to all the students.

• Better Leadership

The law and order situation in J&K has often hit the headlines. The state has experienced numerous terrorist attacks. Kashmir is particularly prone to these attacks. Scrapping of article 35A will allow learned and experienced non-permanent residents of the state as well as eligible candidates from other parts of the country to contest elections in J&K. This may bring in better jurisdiction and likely improve the law and order in the state.

• Improvement in the Medical Services

The J&K medical facilities largely rely on local practitioners. Thus, the medical services offered here (especially in the Kashmir Valley) are not very good. Scrapping of 35 A is expected to improve medical services in J&K as knowledgeable and experienced professionals who are non permanent residents of J&K will also be able to get jobs in government hospitals and clinics in the state. Also those from other parts of the country will also be allowed to serve there. Skilled serving hands will thus increase.

Non-permanent residents in J&K are often seen as second-class citizens. They aren’t treated well. There is often a rift/ cold war between the permanent residents and non-permanent residents of the state. The abrogation of 35 A is likely to ensure equality among the citizens. This will help build a better atmosphere.

While many political parties have criticized this decision because it is unilateral in nature, it seems like the people of J&K are finally going to see better days ahead. A lot of opportunities are likely to open for them following this decision. The law and order situation of J&K should also improve as centre will have control over all the major decisions in the state. We are hopeful that the scrapping of Article 35 A will bring peace and prosperity in J&K.

Related Topics on Indian Constitution

Related content

Talk to our academic expert!

Language --- English Hindi Marathi Tamil Telugu Malayalam

Get access to free Mock Test and Master Class

Register to Get Free Mock Test and Study Material

Offer Ends in 5:00

Self Study Mantra

• Essay for IBPS PO Mains
• Essay for State PSC
• Essay for Banking Exam
• Important Essays
• Letter Writing
• हिन्दी निबंध
• One Word Substitution
• Computer Knowledge
• Important Days
• जीवन परिचय
• Government Schemes List

Abrogation of Article 370 and 35a Essay Writing

After the abrogation of Article 370 and 35a on 05th August 2019 by Indian Government, essay on  Essay on Article 370 and 35a, the burning issue of this time, has become the most important essay topic for all competitive exams. In view of this, a precise and meaningful Essay on abrogation of Article 370 and 35a has been written for all of you:

Essay on Abrogation of Article 370 and 35a  

Effect of Abrogation of Article 370 and 35a

• Essay on Free and Fair Election
• Essay on Social Media Addiction
• Essay on Mission Chandrayaan 3

You may like these posts

Post a comment.

• Download PDF Essay for All Exams

Download PDF Essay for All Exams Most important essays ranging from 250 words to 1000 …

Popular this Month

Trending Essay Topics | Important Essay Topics for Competitive Exams

20 Most Important Essay Topics for CAPF 2024 | UPSC CAPF Essay Topics 2024

My Family Essay in English 10 Lines, Essay on My Family

My School Essay in English 10 Lines, Essay on My School

20 Most Important Letter Writing Topics for Competitive Exams

20 Most Important Formal Letter Topics for Class 10 | Formal Letter Topics for Class 10

Important Days in 2024 | Important National and International Days | Important Days and Dates

Essay on One Nation One Election for Competitive Exams

20 Most expected essay topics for IBPS PO Mains Exam | Important Essay Topics for IBPS PO Mains Exam | Essay for IBPS PO Mains

One word substitution (download here👇👇).

Essay Writing in English

Important Topics

• Essay in English
• Essay in Hindi
• 20 Essays for IBPS PO Descriptive Paper
• Trending Essay Topics
• IBPS PO Previous Year Descriptive Paper
• Important Essays for UPSC
• Essay Topics for UPSC CAPF AC Exam
• How To Crack SSC CGL In First Attempt?
• 100 Most Important One Word Substitution
• Essay on Artificial Intelligence
• Latest Jobs | Admit Card | Result
• Essay on Global Warming
• पर्यावरण प्रदूषण: नियंत्रण के उपाय
• Essay on Women Empowerment
• Daily Homework for Class 1 to 5

Blog Archive

Quick links.

• Paragraph in English
• Advertise With Us
• Career with Us
• Privacy Policy
• Disclaimer, Terms and Condition
• Shipping and Delivery Policy
• Cancellation and Refund Policy
• Products and Pricing
• 10 Lines 13
• Best Books for SSC CGL 2
• Biography 6
• Education System 6
• English Grammar 1
• Essay in Hindi 18
• Essay Topics 32
• essay writing 152
• Farmer Welfare Schemes 1
• Important National and International Days 34
• Mathematics 5
• One Word Substitution 2
• Online Classes 3
• Paragraph Writing 19
• Political Science 1
• Pollution 7
• Republic Day 1
• Speech in Hindi 1
• SSC Exams 5
• Study Tips 7
• जीवन परिचय 6

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Essay in English

Essay on Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Classes

Copyright (c) 2019-24 Self Study Mantra All Rights Reseved

Article 370 and 35A: Origin, Provisions, and the Politics of Contestation

• First Online: 28 November 2020

Cite this chapter

• Aijaz Ashraf Wani 2 ,
• Imran Ahmad Khan 2 &
• Tabzeer Yaseen 3  

357 Accesses

In August 2019, the Indian government revoked the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), protected by Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution. The special provisions had been in place since October 1947, when its ruler acceded to India through a conditional Instrument of Accession. Although there has been significant media coverage of the abrogation and subsequent military siege in Kashmir, there remains scant awareness regarding the significance of the articles for Kashmiris. This chapter provides a historical account of how the articles came into existence and discusses why they were so highly contested. It allows the reader to appreciate better the implications of the abrogation of J&K’s special provisions and why such political fallout has come in its wake.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Aaron, S. 2019. “The Siege in Kashmir is Damaging India’s Image Abroad.” The Wire , November 1. Accessed November 2, 2019, https://thewire.in/politics/the-siege-in-kashmir-is-damaging-indias-image-abroad .

Abdullah, S. M. 1993. Flames of Chinar: An Autobiography . Translated by Khushwant Singh. New Delhi: Viking.

Google Scholar  

Agarwala, J. S. 2015. “Article 370 of the Constitution—A Genesis.” Economic and Political Weekly 50, no. 16 (April 18): 25–27.

Agarwal, K. 2019. “In Leh, Celebrations Give Way to Concerns Over Land and Job Protections.” The Wire , August 28. Accessed January 6, 2020, https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-article-370-leh-ladakh-land-job-reservation .

Akbar, M. J. 2002. Kashmir Behind the Vale . New Delhi: Roli Books.

Akmal, M. 2019. “Job Policy for 1.5 Lakh Qualified Youth on Anvil.” Greater Kashmir , October 20.

Al Jazeera. 2019. “India revokes Kashmir’s Special Status.” September 4. Accessed January 17, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/india-revokes-kashmir-special-status-190904143838166.html .

Anand, A. S. 1998, The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir: Its Development and Comments . 3rd ed. Delhi: Universal Law Publishers.

Anand, A. S. 2016. The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir: Its Development and Comments . 8th ed. Delhi: Universal Law Publishers.

Bashir, A. 2019. “Kashmir Uncertainty Completes 100 Days.” Greater Kashmir , November 13.

Bazaz, P. N. 2009. The History of Struggle for Freedom in Kashmir . Srinagar: Gulshan Books. First published in 1954 by Kashmir Publishing Company (New Delhi).

BBC News. 2019. “Article 370: Kashmiris Express Anger at Loss of Special Status.” August 7. Accessed January 16, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49261322 .

van Beek, M. 2004. “Dangerous Liaisons: Hindu Nationalism and Buddhist Radicalism in Ladakh.” In Religious Radicalism and Security in South Asia, edited by Satu P. Kimaye, Robert G. Wirsing, and Mohan Malik, 193–219. Honolulu: Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies.

Behera, N. C. 2006. Demystifying Kashmir . Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Bhalla, A. 2019. “No Space to Hold Detainees, Private Properties Turn Holding Centres in Kashmir.” India Today , August 16. Accessed January 17, 2020, https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kashmir-detained-political-leaders-terrorists-valley-1581468-2019-08-16 .

Drabu, H. 2019. “Article 35 A: Myth and Reality.” Greater Kashmir , April 3.

Duschinski, H. and S. N. Ghosh. 2017. “Constituting the Occupation: Preventive Detention and Permanent Emergency in Kashmir.” The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 49, no. 3: 314–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/07329113.2017.1347850 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Financial Express . 2019. “If Article 370 Was So Important, Why Was It Kept Temporary for 70 Years’: PM Modi’s Stinging Attack on Congress in I-Day Speech.” August 15. Accessed January 16, 2020, https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/pm-modi-independence-day-speech-slams-congress-over-article-370-jammu-and-kashmir-red-fort-latest-news/1676294 .

Ganai, N. 2019. “Everything Is ‘Normal’ in the Wonderland That Is Kashmir.” Outlook , October 1. Accessed May 8, 2020, https://www.outlookindia.com/blog/story/india-news-everything-is-normal-in-the-wonderland-that-is-kashmir/4134 .

Government of Jammu and Kashmir. 2000. Report of the State Autonomy Committee . Srinagar/Jammu: General Administration Department.

Government of Jammu and Kashmir. 2003. The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir . Srinagar: Department of Law and Parliamentary Affairs.

Greater Kashmir. 2019. “Took 70 Years to Remove What Was Temporary: PM Modi.” August 24.

Greater Kashmir. 2020. “Review Curbs on Internet: SC Directs J&K Govt.” January 11.

Greater Kashmir Desk. 2019. “Rajya Sabha Approves Revoking Art 370, Splitting State into Two UTs.” Greater Kashmir , August 6.

India Today Desk. 2019. “Article 370 Only Temporary Provision, Not Permanent: Amit Shah.” India Today , June 28. Accessed January 12, 2020, https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/amit-shah-article-370-jammu-kashmir-lok-sabha-president-rule-1558046-2019-06-28 .

Jah, P. S. 2019. “Why Revoking Special Status Is the Final Betrayal of Kashmir.” The Wire , August 10, Accessed January 17, 2020. https://thewire.in/politics/kashmir-special-status-revocation-final-betrayal .

Jain, A. 2019. “Amit Shah Says Situation In Kashmir Is Normal. Is It Though?” November 10. Accessed January 17, 2020, https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/amit-shah-says-situation-in-kashmir-is-normal-is-it-though_in_5def4cbae4b00563b856cd44 .

Jain, M. P. 2003. Indian Constitutional Law. 4th ed. New Delhi: LexisNexis.

Jaitley, A. 2019. “The Rule of Law and the State of Jammu and Kashmir.” Facebook, March 28. Accessed May 11, 2020, https://www.facebook.com/notes/arun-jaitley/the-rule-of-law-and-the-state-of-jammu-kashmir/985486068306608/ .

Jamwal, S. 2011. Jammu and Kashmir: Autocracy to Democracy . Jammu: Sakshan Books International.

Jones, O. B. 2002. Pakistan: Eye of the Storm . Gurgaon Haryana: Penguin Random House India.

Kessing’s Contemporary Archives. 1947. Vol. VI. London: Longmans.

Khosla, M. 2002. The Indian Constitution . Oxford and London: Oxford University Press.

Koithara, V. 2004. Crafting Peace in Kashmir . New Delhi: Sage.

Korbel, J. 1954. Danger in Kashmir . Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Book   Google Scholar  

Krishnan, V. R., and S. Sen. 2019. “Is J&K Underdeveloped as Stated by Amit Shah?” The Hindu, August 7.

Lakhanpal, P. L. 1965. Essential Documents and Notes on Kashmir Dispute . 2nd ed; rev. ed. New Delhi: Transnational Books.

Machaiah, M. Gautham. 2019. “J&K as Union Territory: L-G Will Be Supreme.” Deccan Herald , August 16, Accessed January 20, 2020, https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/jk-as-union-territory-l-g-will-be-supreme-754647.html .

Madhok, B. 1987. Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh: Problem & Solution . Reliance Publishing House. India.

Maharaja Government’s Notification. 1927. State Subject Definition Notification dated the 20th April, 1927, no. I-L/84 (vice Private Secretary’s Letter No. 2354, dated the 31st January, 1927 to the Revenue Member of Council).

Maharaja Government’s Notification. 1932. Notification dated 27th June, 1932 (14thHar., 1989, Published in Government Gazette dated 24thHar. 1989). No. 13L/1989.

Majid, Z. 2019. “Why Are Kargil People Against Art 370 Abrogation?” Deccan Herald , August 9. Accessed November 13, 2019, https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/why-are-kargil-people-against-art-370-abrogation-753196.html .

Maqbool, U. 2019. “Fiddling with J&K’s Special Status, Trifurcation, Delimitation Will be Aggression Against People.” Greater Kashmir, August 5.

Mustafa, F. 2019. “Explained: What are Articles 370 and 35A?” Indian Express , August 6. Accessed November 17, 2019, https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/understanding-articles-370-35a-jammu-kashmir-indian-constitution-5610996 .

Nabi, S. 2019. “’Will Suffer Losses But Won’t Open Shops’: Street Vendors’ Unique Protest in J&K.” The Wire , October 25. Accessed November 13, 2019, https://thewire.in/business/will-suffer-losses-but-wont-open-shops-street-vendors-unique-protest-in-jk .

Noorani, A. G. 2011. Article 370: A Constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Noorani, A. G. 2013. The Kashmir Dispute 1947–2012 . 2 vols. New Delhi: Tulika Books.

Noorani, A. G. 2018. “Article 35 A.” The Dawn , August 11. Accessed November 17, 2019, https://www.dawn.com/news/1426344 .

Press Trust of India. 2019a. “Ladakh Leaders Urge Centre for Tribal-Area Status to Protect Land, Identity.” The Hindu, August 18. Accessed December 22, 2019, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ladakh-leaders-urge-centre-for-tribal-area-status-to-protect-land-identity/article29125320.ece .

Press Trust of India. 2019b. “Abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A—Centre Justifies Decision in Apex Court.” Greater Kashmir , November 12.

Ratcliffe, R. 2019. “India Set to Withdraw Kashmir’s Special Status and Split It Into Two.” The Guardian , August 5.

Salam, A. 2019. “100 Days of Internet Ban: Scribes Protest.” Greater Kashmir , November 13.

Sethi. R. P. 2005. Commentary of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir . New Delhi: Ashoka Law House.

Sharma, S. N. 2019. “Life After 370: Beyond the Silence of Kashmir Valley.” Economic Times , August 11. Accessed January 17, 2020, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/life-after-370-is-a-silent-crisis-simmering-in-kashmir/articleshow/70622668.cms .

Snedden, C. 2017. Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris . New Delhi: Speaking Tiger.

Teng, M. K., R. K. K. Bhatt, and Santosh Kaul. 1977. Kashmir Constitutional History and Documents . New Delhi: Light & Life Publishers. http://ikashmir.net/historicaldocuments/index.html .

The Dawn . 2019. “India to Formally Divide Held Kashmir Today.” October 31. Accessed May 11, 2020, https://www.dawn.com/news/1513947 .

The Wire Staff. 2019a. “Modi Addresses Nation: ‘Jammu and Kashmir Will Now See Economic Development and Integration.” The Wire , August 8. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://thewire.in/government/narendra-modi-address .

The Wire Staff. 2019b. “As Ladakh Separates from J&K, Protests Break Out in Kargil.” The Wire , October 31. Accessed January 17, 2020, https://thewire.in/rights/as-ladakh-separates-from-jk-protests-break-out-in-kargil .

Tillin, L. 2016. “Asymmetric Federalism.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution , edited by Sujit Choudhry, Madhav Khosla, and Pratap B. Mehta, 540–59. Oxford and London: Oxford University Press.

Times of India . 2013. “Narendra Modi’s Demand for Debate on Article 370 Sparks Political Row.” December 2.

Wani, A. A. 2019. What Happened to Governance in Kashmir? New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Zargar, S. 2020. “Jammu Welcomed the Scrapping of Special Status. Now, Political Resentments Are Brewing.” Scroll.in , January 11. Accessed January 23, 2020, https://scroll.in/article/949192/jammu-welcomed-the-scrapping-of-special-status-now-political-resentments-are-brewing .

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Political Science, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India

Aijaz Ashraf Wani & Imran Ahmad Khan

Government College for Women, Cluster University, Srinagar, India

Tabzeer Yaseen

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations, Coventry, UK

Serena Hussain

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Wani, A.A., Khan, I.A., Yaseen, T. (2021). Article 370 and 35A: Origin, Provisions, and the Politics of Contestation. In: Hussain, S. (eds) Society and Politics of Jammu and Kashmir. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56481-0_3

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56481-0_3

Published : 28 November 2020

Publisher Name : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-56480-3

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-56481-0

eBook Packages : Political Science and International Studies Political Science and International Studies (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Article 35A of the Indian Constitution

What is Article 35A

Article 35A says that all laws which apply to India will not be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir, and the President with the consultation of the State assembly will decide which laws will be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir. Further, Article 35A declares that which people are declared or decided to be permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

Permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir enjoys special powers and privileges, and the people who are not permanent resident are restricted with certain limitation – Like the right to vote which is basic right is only given to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

Who is a Permanent Resident of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 35A?

To be a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir, a person has to be: 1. A person who was a state subject on May 14, 1954, or 2. Who has been a resident of the state for 10 years, or 3. Who has lawfully acquired immovable property in the state.

Article 35A Creates Discrimination Against Women

Article 35A creates significant discrimination to women. If a Kashmiri woman marries a non-Kashmiri man then she loses all her property rights.

A woman resident of Jammu and Kashmir, Parabhjit Kour Modi , has been continuously living and working in the state after her marriage, along with her non-Jammu and Kashmir resident husband, and two children. She had appealed in the High court of Jammu and Kashmir against the provision of Article 35A violating the principles of gender equality by discriminating against women residents of the state who marry a person from another state. Her children are not entitled to the Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) or the benefits of the state subject in Jammu and Kashmir like the right to acquire immovable property, getting admissions to professional colleges, and employment under government jobs.

In 2002, the women of the state won the right to retain their permanent resident status after marriage. But the discrimination continues with their children as they are still not eligible for the PRC. They even cannot inherit their mother’s property!

Article 35A: A Symbol of Kashmiri Separatism

Article 35A proved to be the symbol of Kashmiri Separatism that discriminated against the rest of the people living in India from those belonging to Kashmir. It limits the rights and liberties of other Indian citizens in J&K.

Years back, the introduction of Article 35A itself was an attack on the secular and democratic fabric of India. Non-permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir cannot buy immovable property in Jammu and Kashmir. They are not eligible for employment in the state government jobs of Jammu and Kashmir. Non-permanent residents cannot contest or vote in local bodies or Legislative Assembly elections. Those who have no state subject cannot avail of scholarships and other grants offered by the state government to its permanent residents. They cannot pursue any appeal for compensation of their rights in any court, local or national!

5th August 2019: Article 35A Scrapped

On the 5th of Aug 2019, the President of India promulgated the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019. The order effectively abrogates (repeals) the special status accorded to J&K under the provision of Article 370, where the provisions of the Constitution, which were applicable to other states, did not apply to J&K.

According to the Order , provisions of the Indian Constitution are now applicable in Jammu and Kashmir , which is no longer a state but a Union Territory.

Right to Equality and Liberty which is the core of democracy in the Indian Constitution was being hurt under the provisions of Article 35A. The provisions of Article 35A violated the principles of gender equality by discriminating against women and their children. Article 35A discouraged the corporate sector from investing in the state due to the provisions preventing them from buying immovable property. Overall, it was discriminatory against everyone who was a part of the rest of India! It has now gone away for good…

What’s your take on this?

Read Next : 10 Reasons Why Indian Central Government is Powerful than State Governments

This is a guest post that has been written by the below-mentioned author. Opinions expressed are theirs.

Inspiration: The Hindu

First time came to know Art 35A this much violation in Jammu and Kashmir. It’s too good to abrogate it. Thank you writer Prachi Gupta and WritingLaw for this knowledge.

Glad you found this helpful.

Comments are closed.

How to Start Studying Law – For New, Existing, and Old Students

How to Study and Prepare for Judiciary Exams (13 tips)

11 Tips to Pass AIBE With Bare Acts and MCQ Tests in 2024

How to Write the Best Answer in Judiciary Mains Exam

10 Legal Jobs and Career Options After Law in 2024

Best Books for Judiciary Exam Preparation in 2024

My name is Ankur . I am a law graduate. I was my college topper for five years. In March 2018, I started WritingLaw.com . The main motive was to make a modern law website that is clean and comfortable.

Everything is going well . This is because of law students, advocates, judges and professors like you, who give me satisfaction, hope and the motivation to keep working. Thank you for your love and support. I hope you have a fruitful time here.

Law Study Material

© 2018-2024 | About Us |  Contact Us | Privacy Policy | T&C | Disclaimer | Cookies | Sitemap

Essay on Article 370 of Indian Constitution

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution provided special rights to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It gave most of the power to the government of this state. Centre was left with limited power over J&K.

Article 370 has recently been scrapped making it a historic event which is expected to change the face of the state for good. This move has received mixed reactions from political parties and general public though it has largely been appreciated.

Long and Short Essay on Article 370 of Indian Constitution in English

Here are long and short essay on Article 370 of the Indian Constitution of varying lengths to help you with the topic in your exams. These Article 370 essay are written in simple English language to easily convey the information, yet it does so effectively. These Article 370 essays will let you have a deeper understanding of article 370, its removal and repercussions.

After going through the following essays you will know about Article 370 and its provisions; history of Article 370; advantages and disadvantages of Article 370; how was it revoked; what will be the consequences of scrapping Article 370; what bills were passed for its revokal, etc.

Short Essay on Article 370 – (200 Words)

Article 370 that came into effect in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in the year 1949 was supposed to be a temporary provision; however, it continued for decades even though many political leaders and other prominent people in the county demanded its revocation from time to time.

The article exempted J&K from the Indian Constitution. The state attained the right to make its own laws related to any matter except foreign affairs, communications and defence.

The state government thus went on to draft a separate constitution. It also came up with a separate flag. The Fundamental Duties mentioned in the Indian Constitution were not applicable in J&K. It had its own set of rights and duties.

The condition of the state hasn’t been very good ever since the enforcement of Article 370. Life of people in the Kashmir region has especially been miserable. The place is prone to terrorist attacks.

Article 370 has been seen as a hindrance in the development of the state. It is also known to be a cause of growing corruption and terrorism in the state.

As per the constitutional order passed by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind on 5 th August 2019, Article 370 stands ineffective. The decision has been taken to improve the condition of J&K and its citizens.

Essay on Article 370: Enforcement – (300 Words)

Introduction

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was drafted in Part XXI of the Constitution: Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions. However, soon after it came to be known as a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution. It has remained in effect in J&K for decades.

The Origin of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution

Article 370 was drafted by Sheikh Abdullah in the year 1947. Abdullah had been appointed as the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir by Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir.

Abdullah wanted complete autonomy for J&K and demanded that Article 370 must not remain a temporary provision. However, the Centre deemed this demand unreasonable and did not approve of it.

Special Status Given to Jammu and Kashmir

As Article 370 came into being, the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir gained special power wherein it got the right to recommend the articles of the constitution that should be enforced on the state. It even got the power to annul Article 370 altogether.

Article 35 A and Article 370 together stated that a different set of laws apply for the residents of the state of J&K. The Indian Parliament could only exercise laws related to finance, defence, communications and foreign affairs in the state.

It required the approval of state government for applying all the other laws. The residents of J&K enjoyed completely different laws when it came to ownership of property, laws related to citizenship and fundamental rights.

As per the laws enforced by the state, the Indian citizens from other parts of the country were denied the right to purchase property in Jammu and Kashmir.

The residents of J&K fear that the scrapping of Article 370 may hamper their local business and thus be a threat to their livelihood. Adapting to the changes that are likely to follow this big decision also seems to be a cause of concern for the residents of J&K. Their concerns are genuine. We hope the condition of the place improves henceforth.

Essay on Article 370: Advantages and Disadvantages – (400 words)

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gave special power to the state of Jammu and Kashmir was annulled on 5 th August 2019. The decision taken by the Centre has been appreciated by several political parties, leaders, celebrities and majority of general public. However, many others have criticized it outright. Article 370 had few advantages and several disadvantages.

Advantages of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution

Here is a look at the advantages of Article 370:

1) Article 370 is advantageous for the citizens of J&K. The state gives priority to the interest of its local citizens. There is less competition in the state and greater opportunities for its citizens.

2) J&K boasts of its local handicraft items. The government of this state has kept its culture and local businesses alive. It has always encouraged local businesses over foreign brands.

This is the reason why several local brands are running in the state. This means more work, greater growth opportunities and good income for the locals.

Disadvantages of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution

Here is a look at the disadvantages of Article 370:

1) The state of J&K hasn’t developed as much as the other parts of the country. This is particularly true when we look at the medical facilities here. The condition of the hospitals and healthcare centres in the state are not that good.

2) The law and order in J&K is weak because the centre is not allowed to intervene. This has given rise to terrorism in the state. Terrorism is a major concern here and nothing much is being done to fight it.

3) Corruption in the state is high due to its alienation from the centre. There is no check on the government of J&K. It makes its own laws and works as per its convenience.

4) Article 370 prevented the implementation of Right to Education in the state. This is why students were forced to move to other states.

5) Outsiders cannot establish business in J&K. Professionals and industrialists are not allowed to settle here. This is a major hindrance in the growth and development of the state.

6) This provision is anti- women in nature. It has led to extreme gender bias in the state.

The disadvantages of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution clearly outweigh its advantages. The atmosphere of tension in the state is a clear evidence of the same. Scrapping of Article 370 seems like a ray of hope for the state that has been gripped by terrorism since long. We hope it sees better times ahead.

Long Essay on Article 370 – (500 words)

Article 370 is a temporary provision in the Constitution of India. It provides special autonomous status to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The provisions of the Indian Constitution that are applicable to other states of India are not applicable to J&K.

The article was adopted in November 1956 and was enforced in the state in January 1957 by Sheikh Abdullah.

Special Provisions in Jammu and Kashmir as per Article 370

Some special provisions were made in Jammu and Kashmir as Article 370 came into force in the state. These include:

• J&K acquired different national flag.
• Insulting the national flag and national symbols is considered a crime in India. It is a punishable offence. But this rule did not apply in J&K.
• The highest court orders in India did not apply in J&K.
• Jammu and Kashmir citizens enjoyed dual citizenship.
• Women in Kashmir had to abide by the Sharia law.
• The tenure of the Assembly of J&K was 6 years unlike other Indian states in which the Assembly tenure is 5 years.
• RTI, RTE and CAG were not applicable in Kashmir.
• The J&K citizenship of a woman who married a person from another Indian state ended. On the other hand, if a woman from the state married someone from Pakistan, he acquired J&K citizenship.
• If a Pakistani married a Kashmiri girl, he acquired Indian citizenship.
• Article 370 did not allow people from other states to purchase property in J&K.
• The minority group in Kashmir that consists of Hindus and Sikhs did not get 16% reservation.

Changes after the Revocation of Article 370

Now that Article 370 has been revoked, Jammu and Kashmir will no longer enjoy the autonomous status. All the special powers that came with this article have been annulled. Here are some of the other changes that are being brought about:

• All the residents of J&K shall be entitled to single citizenship only.
• Article 360 that is enforced during financial emergency is now applicable in J&K.
• People from other states shall be able to purchase property in J&K.
• Duration of Legislative Assembly has been changed to 5 years.
• RTI will be applicable in J&K.
• Minorities will be eligible for 16% reservation.
• Children will benefit from the Right to Education.
• Directive Principle of State Policy shall be applicable.
• J&K will not have a separate flag.

The Atmosphere in J&K as Article 370 Revoked

J&K’s prominent leaders, Omar Abdullah, Sajjad Lone and Mehbooba Mufti were under house arrest as the bill for abolition of Article 370 was passed in the Rajya Sabha.

Internet and mobile services in Kashmir’s Srinagar district were suspended and a ban imposed on all public gatherings.

With so many changes underway after the revocation of Article 370, it seems like J&K will finally experience peace and prosperity. This is just the first step towards the betterment of the state.

There are miles to go! Whether the decision taken by Centre is right or wrong is still being debated. We hope it proves to be beneficial for the state as well as the country as a whole.

Long Essay on Article 370: Revocation – (600 words)

Article 370 was enforced by Sheikh Abdullah on 26 th January 1957. The article gave special power to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. This was a temporary provision.

However, it remained in force for decades. Even though many political leaders and other prominent people in the country suggested its revocation from time to time, it remained intact; however, it has finally been annulled.

Indian President, Ram Nath Kovind issued constitutional order to revoke Article 370 and apply all the rules and provisions of the Indian constitution to Jammu and Kashmir. This historic move was made on 5 th August 2019.

Bill to Revoke Provisions of Article 370

Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, moved a resolution in Rajya Sabha to introduce a bill scrapping all the provisions of Article 370. This was approved by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Shah also introduced bills seeking bifurcation of the State into Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory with an Assembly and Ladakh as a Union Territory without a legislature.

The opposition benches protested against this resolution; however, the decision has been made. Revoking Article 370 of the Indian Constitution had been a major part of BJP’s agenda. Shah’s announcement was thus received with elation by the BJP leaders.

Mixed Reactions on Revocation of Article 370

While many political parties opposed the decision to scrap Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, several others extended their support to the BJP government.

Parties that Supported the Decision

Among those that showed support to this decision were the Aam Aadmi Party,   Bahujan Samaj Party, Shiv Sena, AIADMK, Shiromani Akali Dal, YSR Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Biju Janata Dal, BPF and AGP. All these parties backed the Centre’s decision.

Many of them mentioned that they awaited this move since long and welcome the decision wholeheartedly. They now look forward to peace and development in J&K. The decision of scrapping Article 370 has been termed as bold and courageous.

BSP member, Satish Chandra Misra was among the first ones in the Rajya Sabha to support this move. Mayawati also extended support to the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir.

AIADMK mentioned that their leader, Jayalalithaa had always wanted this. Shiv Sena members expressed their joy and support by celebrating outside their party head office.

BJD members said that with this decision, Jammu and Kashmir has become an integral part of the country and they are glad about it.

Parties that Opposed the Decision

The parties those opposed the Centre’s decision to revoke Article 370 include Congress, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janta Dal, Left, National Conference, DMK and People’s Democratic Party. All these parties condemned and criticised the resolution.

Congress members mentioned that this was a “catastrophic step” and it should be seen as a “black day” in the constitutional history of our country. It further said that this decision is a publicity stunt by BJP to fetch more votes. Likewise, Left mentioned that it is an attack on the Indian Constitution.

Members of People’s Democratic Party expressed their anger over the decision by shouting slogans and tearing copies of Indian Constitution. National Conference called the decision shocking and unilateral. Trinamool Congress also expressed its objection against the Centre’s decision.

DMK went on to say that this was simply the murder of democracy. It said that BJP is forcing its agenda and that it has no respect for the sentiments of the Jammu and Kashmir residents.

Revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is indeed a big decision. A major change in J&K is likely underway now. We hope things change for good for this beautiful state which has long struggled for peace and justice. The Centre must make special efforts to resurrect J&K and make it a better and safer place to live.

Related Information:

Essay on Article 35A of Indian Constitution

Speech on Article 370 of Constitution of India

Essay on Article 15 of Indian Constitution

Speech on Constitution of India

Speech on National Constitution Day

Essay on National Constitution Day

Essay on Constitution of India

Essay on Section 377 of Indian Penal Code

Find More Information about Indian Independence Day:

Indian Independence Day  |  Independence Day Essay  |  Importance of Independence Day in India Essay  |  Independence Day Speech  |  Speech on Independence Day for Teachers  |  Independence Day Speech for Principal  |  Slogans on Independence Day  |  Paragraph on Independence Day  |  Facts about Independence Day of India  |  Speech on 15 August 1947 by Nehru  |  Independence Day Quotes  |  Live Celebration Ceremony of 69th Independence Day of India at Red Fort Delhi  |  President’s Address to the Nation on the eve of Independence Day

Related Posts

Money essay, music essay, importance of education essay, education essay, newspaper essay, my hobby essay.

The families risking everything to keep Ukraine’s trains running – photo essay

Dutch photographer Jelle Krings has been documenting the workers of the Ukrainian railway since the war began. Here, he revisits the families that have kept a war-torn country moving, often to great personal sacrifice

• Words and pictures by Jelle Krings

I n the early hours of 24 February 2022, when Russian bombs and rockets struck Ukrainian cities and infrastructure throughout the country, railway workers boarded trains heading east. Determined to get as many people as possible to safety , they would end up evacuating millions to Ukraine’s borders in the west.

Ukraine’s new railway chief Yevhen Liashchenko was in the team that guided the network through the first stages of the war. He says his people acted not because they were instructed to but because “they didn’t know any other way”. There was no time for bureaucracy, “decisions were made by the people on the ground, and they love the railway, not as a business but as a family”.

It takes more than 230,000 people to keep the trains running in Ukraine.

The railway station in Lyman, Donbas, destroyed by shelling

Yevhen Liashchenko, chief executive of Ukrainian railways, has been leading Ukraine’s 230,000 railway workers through the war

Together they run a vast railway network of more than 15,000 miles (24,000km) of track, one that has been invaluable for Ukraine’s ability to withstand the invasion. Despite continual bombing, the network has largely remained operational. Damage to the tracks is swiftly repaired, and shell-hit critical infrastructure is promptly restored.

Over two years, we followed families and workers living by the tracks near the frontlines to find out how the war and the struggle to keep the trains running is shaping their lives.

The Neschcheryakovas

Nadiya Neschcheryakova works as an attendant at a railway crossing in Bucha, about 10 miles from Kyiv. She works in shifts, sharing her post with her mother and two other women. On the morning of the invasion, the sound of explosions pierced the sky above the thick pine forests surrounding her home. She went to work anyway. A few days later, her post at the railway crossing was occupied by Russian troops. Her home in the next village along the track was now at the frontline of the war.

Nadiya Neschcheryakova operates her railway crossing in Bucha, near Kyiv . A freight train passes transporting materials such as wood for possible use in Ukraine’s defensive efforts along the frontline

Remnants of the Neschcheryakovas’ family house, destroyed by shelling, lie in the yard at Spartak, Kyiv oblast

Nadiya Neschcheryakova with her husband, Yuriy, their daughter Kateryna and grandson Andriy. Yuriy built a new house after their home was destroyed by shelling early in the war

With her husband, daughter and grandson, Nadiya managed to flee to the west where they stayed for a month waiting for the Russian withdrawal from Kyiv. When they returned home, they found their home had been reduced to rubble.

The Petrovs

When the city of Kherson was liberated after nine months of Russian occupation in November 2022, Oleksandr Petrov was sent on a mission to repair the tracks leading to the city. When he set out in a van with a team of repairmen in the morning, he knew the risks: the fields along the tracks were heavily mined in an attempt to slow the Ukrainian advance.

Railway workers wash their wounds after driving over a mine in the Kherson region, 13 November 2022. They were carrying out repair works just days after Kherson was liberated. Oleksandr Petrov lost a leg in the incident

Oleksandr shows his prosthetic leg to workers in a railway repair team in Voznesensk, Mykolaiv oblast. Since his injury, Oleksandr has been given a desk job

Oleksandr Petrov at his parents’ house in Voznesensk. Family members spend a day at the cemetery to maintain their relatives’ graves and pay their respects

Russian troops were expected to start shelling the city once they’d had a chance to regroup on the other side of the Dnipro River. The civilians left in the city would have to be evacuated by train, so Oleksandr went anyway. Later that day, Oleksandr lost his leg after they drove over a Russian anti-vehicle mine.

The Lyman community

When Ukrainian troops recaptured the railway hub of Lyman from Russian troops in November 2022, it had been under Russian occupation for six months. Since then, it has been on the frontline of the war in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Yet, a small community of railway families continues to live in the basements of their battered apartment buildings on the outskirts of the city.

The Rosokha family mourn the death of Nina Rosokha, who was killed by a Russian artillery strike on Lyman. Nina had worked in a railway service department, her husband was a train driver for 36 years. During the funeral, sounds of fighting could be heard in the nearby Kreminna forest

A forest on the outskirts of Lyman smoulders after shelling. Firefighters do not go into the forests for fear of mines

Fedya, 13, plays his accordion outside the apartment building where he lives with his mother and grandmother, both of whom work for the railway. Evelyna, 12, with one of her cats

The families in the community stay underground most of the time. The frontline is too close for the air raid alert system to be effective, and artillery and missiles can strike at any moment. The community have paid a heavy price in the war . Railway worker Nina Rosokha was killed on her way to the post office in a Russian artillery strike on a market. During another attack, Lyubov Surzhan’s top-floor apartment was obliterated. A piece of shrapnel skimmed Fedya’s head during a strike on a nearby railway depot. Yet the railway is their home and, despite the danger, they don’t want to leave.

The Mykolaychuks

The Mykolaychuk brothers live in an apartment building in the centre of Podilsk. Both are fifth generation locomotive drivers. Before the invasion, their jobs were mostly local, transporting grain from the region to the port of Odesa. Now, they go farther east towards the frontlines of the war, driving evacuation trains and weapons transports.

Alla Valeriyivna Mykolaychuk in Podilsk with her daughter and niece, both aged one

They don’t get paid if they don’t work, and jobs have become less frequent since the war. With money hard to come by, they have had to sell their family car to make ends meet.

The Tereshchenkos

Olha Tereshchenko survived a Russian attack on a convoy of civilians fleeing the then occupied city of Kupiansk. Her husband and five-year-old son were killed. Consumed with grief, she now works at a railway office in Kharkiv and gets support from her fellow workers there. Urns containing the ashes of her husband and son still sit on a shelf in a nearby crematorium. She hopes to bury them near their home in Kupiansk one day, when the frontline is further away.

Olha Tereshchenko in Saltivka, the area of Kharkiv where she now lives

Olha’s husband and son, photographed as a baby, were killed in a Russian attack on a civilian convoy. Olha is overcome when she visits their remains in a nearby crematorium: she hopes one day to bury her husband and son near their home in Kupiansk

• Rights and freedom
• Rail transport

Most viewed

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

The Complex, Gender-Bending History Behind ‘Florals for Spring’

Essayist Olivia Laing delves into the surprisingly subversive lore behind the motif.

We got married at a University of Cambridge college, in a 15th-century hall decorated with Pre-Raphaelite exuberance in the same unusual black, red, and green palette as the dress. There were heraldic roses and other botanical motifs everywhere you looked, rising up the walls and swarming across the painted ceiling. It was like entering a fantastical Eden, at once traditional and anarchic.

Flowers are often coded as sweetly feminine, especially in fashion, but their historical use is far stranger and more subversive. Before I became a writer, I trained as an herbalist, falling deep under the spell of medieval herbs, with their bewitching floral associations. Flowers had once formed a kind of secret language, an arcane code that only an adept could read. Bouquets, paintings, even dresses could carry a hidden message, by way of the humble plants they contained.

While I was researching my new book, The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise , I came across a historical study with the beguiling title of Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d . It was an account of the marvelous dresses the Tudor queen had worn, many of them densely embroidered with flowers, which broadcast a coded message about her virtues. The dress worn by Elizabeth in the famous Hardwick Portrait includes pansies for humility, lilies for purity, and roses to emphasize her Tudor lineage. They appear on a dress swimming with floral, animal, and even monstrous life. It wouldn’t look out of place on a catwalk now, perhaps worn by Gwendoline Christie at Maison Margiela .

It was William Morris who brought the lost language of flowers back into everyday circulation. He’d pored over medieval herbals as a child, and their flowers reemerged in his fluid, fertile prints. Morris wanted everything to be as beautiful as possible, and he covered the staid bedrooms and stiff drawing rooms of the Victorian world with a restless profusion of marigolds and roses, chrysanthemums and lilies. His flowers encoded a subversive dream of a shared Eden, a secret message he even managed to install in the Throne Room of St James’s Palace.

The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing

There’s a similar sort of subversion going on in the clothes of Steven Stokey-Daley, a young British designer much loved by Harry Styles. Stokey-Daley is a gay working-class man who draws his inspiration from the elitist and highly coded uniforms of British public schools. His label S.S. Daley deploys the distinctive shapes and styles of an aristocratic wardrobe, creating a gorgeous Brideshead Revisited world of dressing gowns, flowing shirts, and rowing blazers. It’s not so much an emulation of privilege as an exposure and reclamation of how power is worn.

Since presenting his debut collection in 2020, Stokey-Daley has incorporated flowers into his work, often using 16th-century botanical prints. One of my prized possessions is an oversize S.S. Daley men’s shirt, finely striped and covered in an angular tracery of orange poppies. His flowers spell out a distinctive and defiant queerness, disrupting the conventional language of gender.

Simone Rocha’s spring 2024 collection was also awash with gender-bending florals. She sent both male and female models down the catwalk in shirts and jackets cunningly folded to create outsize floppy roses. Some models carried roses; others had rose transfer tattoos on their legs. The pièce de résistance was a series of tulle dresses stuffed with real roses. “They smelled amazing,” she told me. Rocha is a keen gardener, especially of roses, and it felt natural to incorporate the flowers she loves into her clothes. What excited her was “to contrast the natural with the man-made. In particular, the stuffed rose dresses were almost to mimic the boning of a garment, but trapping it and exposing it in tulle.”

This is the kind of floral fashion I love. Queen Elizabeth I would have understood its appeal: clothes that are like walking inside a private garden, in bloom summer and winter alike.

Olivia Laing’s new book, The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise, is published by W. W. Norton.

A version of this story appears in the June/July 2024 issue of ELLE.

Anya Taylor-Joy on Being ‘Utterly in Love’

Honor Levy Says ‘Goodnight Meme’

A Closer Look at Dior Délicat

How Tyla Became South Africa’s Biggest Pop Star

girl in red Says What She Wants

Tate McRae Loves Being Your Gen Z Pop Star

Coco Jones Does It Her Way

Flo Milli, Queen of TikTok, Isn’t Going Anywhere

From Blackpink to Boygenius, Band Fashion Is Back

McKayla Maroney Is Done Being Unimpressed

Musicians Are in Their Eras Era

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Letter of Recommendation

What I’ve Learned From My Students’ College Essays

The genre is often maligned for being formulaic and melodramatic, but it’s more important than you think.

By Nell Freudenberger

Most high school seniors approach the college essay with dread. Either their upbringing hasn’t supplied them with several hundred words of adversity, or worse, they’re afraid that packaging the genuine trauma they’ve experienced is the only way to secure their future. The college counselor at the Brooklyn high school where I’m a writing tutor advises against trauma porn. “Keep it brief , ” she says, “and show how you rose above it.”

I started volunteering in New York City schools in my 20s, before I had kids of my own. At the time, I liked hanging out with teenagers, whom I sometimes had more interesting conversations with than I did my peers. Often I worked with students who spoke English as a second language or who used slang in their writing, and at first I was hung up on grammar. Should I correct any deviation from “standard English” to appeal to some Wizard of Oz behind the curtains of a college admissions office? Or should I encourage students to write the way they speak, in pursuit of an authentic voice, that most elusive of literary qualities?

In fact, I was missing the point. One of many lessons the students have taught me is to let the story dictate the voice of the essay. A few years ago, I worked with a boy who claimed to have nothing to write about. His life had been ordinary, he said; nothing had happened to him. I asked if he wanted to try writing about a family member, his favorite school subject, a summer job? He glanced at his phone, his posture and expression suggesting that he’d rather be anywhere but in front of a computer with me. “Hobbies?” I suggested, without much hope. He gave me a shy glance. “I like to box,” he said.

I’ve had this experience with reluctant writers again and again — when a topic clicks with a student, an essay can unfurl spontaneously. Of course the primary goal of a college essay is to help its author get an education that leads to a career. Changes in testing policies and financial aid have made applying to college more confusing than ever, but essays have remained basically the same. I would argue that they’re much more than an onerous task or rote exercise, and that unlike standardized tests they are infinitely variable and sometimes beautiful. College essays also provide an opportunity to learn precision, clarity and the process of working toward the truth through multiple revisions.

When a topic clicks with a student, an essay can unfurl spontaneously.

Even if writing doesn’t end up being fundamental to their future professions, students learn to choose language carefully and to be suspicious of the first words that come to mind. Especially now, as college students shoulder so much of the country’s ethical responsibility for war with their protest movement, essay writing teaches prospective students an increasingly urgent lesson: that choosing their own words over ready-made phrases is the only reliable way to ensure they’re thinking for themselves.

Teenagers are ideal writers for several reasons. They’re usually free of preconceptions about writing, and they tend not to use self-consciously ‘‘literary’’ language. They’re allergic to hypocrisy and are generally unfiltered: They overshare, ask personal questions and call you out for microaggressions as well as less egregious (but still mortifying) verbal errors, such as referring to weed as ‘‘pot.’’ Most important, they have yet to put down their best stories in a finished form.

I can imagine an essay taking a risk and distinguishing itself formally — a poem or a one-act play — but most kids use a more straightforward model: a hook followed by a narrative built around “small moments” that lead to a concluding lesson or aspiration for the future. I never get tired of working with students on these essays because each one is different, and the short, rigid form sometimes makes an emotional story even more powerful. Before I read Javier Zamora’s wrenching “Solito,” I worked with a student who had been transported by a coyote into the U.S. and was reunited with his mother in the parking lot of a big-box store. I don’t remember whether this essay focused on specific skills or coping mechanisms that he gained from his ordeal. I remember only the bliss of the parent-and-child reunion in that uninspiring setting. If I were making a case to an admissions officer, I would suggest that simply being able to convey that experience demonstrates the kind of resilience that any college should admire.

The essays that have stayed with me over the years don’t follow a pattern. There are some narratives on very predictable topics — living up to the expectations of immigrant parents, or suffering from depression in 2020 — that are moving because of the attention with which the student describes the experience. One girl determined to become an engineer while watching her father build furniture from scraps after work; a boy, grieving for his mother during lockdown, began taking pictures of the sky.

If, as Lorrie Moore said, “a short story is a love affair; a novel is a marriage,” what is a college essay? Every once in a while I sit down next to a student and start reading, and I have to suppress my excitement, because there on the Google Doc in front of me is a real writer’s voice. One of the first students I ever worked with wrote about falling in love with another girl in dance class, the absolute magic of watching her move and the terror in the conflict between her feelings and the instruction of her religious middle school. She made me think that college essays are less like love than limerence: one-sided, obsessive, idiosyncratic but profound, the first draft of the most personal story their writers will ever tell.

Nell Freudenberger’s novel “The Limits” was published by Knopf last month. She volunteers through the PEN America Writers in the Schools program.