India’s supreme court upholds Kashmir’s loss of special autonomous status

India’s Supreme Court has upheld the government’s decision to revoke special status for the state of Jammu and Kashmir, regarded as a measure taken by the ruling party's quest to clamp down on India’s only Muslim-majority region.

As reported by Mint, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the article, numbered 370, which granted the region semi-autonomy back in 2019 after seven decades since the special status was introduced following the first Indian-Pakistani war. There have been multiple petitions and motions challenging this move since August 2023, with Indias' highest court deciding on December 11 unanimously to uphold Modi’s decision, confirming the claim that the special status for Jammu and Kashmir had been only temporary.

The ruling is likely to boost the poll ratings of PM Modi’s governing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, as the 2019 move resonated in much of the country, where the Modi government was cheered by supporters for fulfilling a long-held Hindu nationalist pledge to end the Muslim-majority region's special status.

Although the PM described the development as "a beacon of hope" for a "more united India" on his official X account, several former top officials of the region reported that they were put under house arrest since the day of the decision.

The AP recalls, that when Britain divided its Indian colony into a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan in 1947, the status of what was then the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was left undecided. This soon led to a war erupting between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which ended with both countries controlling parts of the territory, divided by a heavily militarized frontier.

A 1948 United Nations resolution called for a referendum in Kashmir for the residents to decide whether to join Pakistan or India, but it never happened. The part of Kashmir controlled by India was granted semi-autonomy and special privileges in exchange for accepting Indian rule.