On Agust 5, the press around the world noted that India had ended a special status for Jammu and Kashmir. The media in the Muslim world such as Dawn and Al Jazeera shone the light only on Kashmir, So did the BBC and The New York Times. This is understandable. Given that India and Pakistan are both nuclear powers, Deutsche Welle has rightly called the conflict over Kasmir the most dangerous in the world.

Yet it makes sense to take a deep breath and examine key facts to make sense of what is going on. Many journalists forget that there is no state in India named Kashmir. The state of Jammu and Kashmir includes three distinct regions: Buddhist Ladakh, Hindu Jammu and Muslim Kashmir. These comprise 62.3%, 22.7% and 15% of the area of the state.This means that Kashmir is merely 15% of the total area of the state. The tables are turned when it comes to demographics.Kashmir is most populous, comprising 53.9% of the state population with Jammu forming 43.7% and Ladakh a mere 2.3% share.

The Roots of Conflict

Like many a political entiry, the modern state of Jammu and Kashmir is a historical accident. During the dying days of the Mughal Empire, the revolting Sikhs established their own short-lived empire. They first conquered Jammu and then expanded to Kashmir. Starting in 1834, zorawar Sing Kahuluria, the Dogra general of the sikhs, led audacious campaigns in high altitude to conquer Buddhist Ladakh and Shia Baltistan. In 1841,Kahluria ended up with a lance in his chest when he attempted to conquer western Tibet, but the Dogras now controlled a swathe of territory, which is currently shared between India, Pakistan and China.

While most royal families joined newly independent India or Pakistan, Hari Singh had illusions and delusions of grandeur. He wanted to rule a Himalayan Switzerland. Pakistan saw Muslim_majority Kashmir as a natural part of its nation-building project and dispatched Pashtun tribesmen to wrest it. In a panic, the Dogra ruler signed the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947, and Indian troops landed in srinagar.Even as Indian troops were pushing back Pashtun tribesmen, jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, took the matter to United Nations on Janary 1, 1948.

Nearly four months later, the UN Security Council called for a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir. First, Pakistan was supposed to withdraw Pashtun tribesman and its nationals. Second, India would then reduce its forces "progressively to the minimum strength required for the support of the civil power in the maintenance of law and order." Then there would be a plebiscite that would decide where the state would go. The resolution remains stillborn till this date because neither party has followed it.

Indian Government vs Indian Judiciary

               In April 2018, the Supreme Court of India ruled that Article 370 had attained permanency since the state constituent assembly has ceased to exit. To overcome this legal challenge, the Indian government instead rendered Article 370 as 'inoperative' even though it still exists in the consitution.

and now Kashmir is under lockdown.