Unraveling Autonomy: India’s Supreme Court upholds Article 370 abrogation

Feb 29, 2024 | Blog, Monthly Blogs

For decades, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has had one singular goal: To seize Jammu and Kashmir and forcibly integrate it into India and erase its unique cultural, ethnic, and religious heritage.

In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi succeeded in abrogating Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, depriving the J & K region of its special status and invading and occupying it.

The move was and still is an illegal annexation. However, at the end of 2023 – the Indian Supreme Court capitulated and ruled that the abrogation of 370 was legal.

How India’s Supreme Court got it wrong

In the chaos of the partition of India, Jammu and Kashmir ascended to India on the condition that a referendum would be held to determine its status. The United Nations Security Council reinforced this decision with Resolution 47

Security conditions and the advent of the Cold War prevented the plebiscite from being held. To protect the autonomy and rights of Kashmir, Article 370 was incorporated into the Indian Constitution. This granted the region the ability to have its constitution, security, flag, parliament, president, and prime minister. Article 35A subsequently granted the region the ability to protect its native citizens by incorporating property rights and restrictions from those outside the region from owning property or taking jobs in the area.

Both articles protect the region’s autonomy and unique character. Article 370 stated that only the constituent assembly had the power to nullify the amendment and since the assembly dissolved itself in 1957 without doing so, the article is self-executing and does not give New Delhi the ability to alter or abolish it.

India’s Supreme Court ignored this fact when it issued its ruling:

Article 370 was an interim arrangement due to war conditions in the state,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said. Jammu and Kashmir did not retain any sovereignty after accession to India…Jammu and Kashmir should be restored to the same statehood as any other Indian state – with no separate autonomy rights – “at the earliest and as soon as possible.”

New Delhi’s Endgame

Since Modi revoked 370 in 2019, he has led an illegal occupation and security crackdown on the region. His government has also engaged in a lengthy campaign of settler colonialism to force Kashmiri Muslims out of the region and replace them with Hindu colonists.

It is no coincidence that before the ruling that local opposition leaders were placed under house arrest, their homes chained shut, and their movements monitored by the state.

Mehbooba Mufti, who was detained before the ruling, was a former chief minister until being deposed in 2019 called the ruling unjust, illegal, and unconstitutional” and that its justification by the Supreme Court was “no less than news of a death sentence not only for Jammu and Kashmir but also for the idea of India.”

In the same ruling by the Indian Supreme Court, they ordered that new elections be held for the region in September 2024. There is no reason to believe that these elections will be anything remotely resembling free or fair.

The ruling also stated that a truth and reconciliation committee be established. However, like the promise of elections, there is no reason to believe that the commission will be empowered to do anything other than tow the political line to the Modi government.

Modi has arrested and indefinitely detained political opposition leaders, prevented those same parties from engaging in political activities, and gerrymandered the region to purposefully dilute the Muslim vote.

Final thoughts: The official end of Indian Democracy

One of the hallmarks of democratic backsliding around the world is the subjugation of the judicial branch to the whims of political parties. This has occurred in countries such as Poland, Hungary, and the United States.

It is unfortunately not surprising to see it happen in India – where the BJP has waged a decade-long battle to fully subvert the government and civil service to its Hindu nationalist ideology.

Article 370 may have been revoked in 2019, but it did not happen in a vacuum. It was the stated goal of the BJP – but a long series of Indian Prime Ministers have undermined Kashmir Autonomy wherever they could get away with it until it was rendered a dead letter.

India’s first Prime Minister and Indian nationalist, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was one of the architects of Article 370 fully backtracked on its protections not 10 years after its adoption. In 1963 he declared in the Lok Sabha, “Article 370 has been eroded and Kashmir stands fully integrated. We feel that this process of gradual erosion of Article 370 is going on. Some fresh steps are being taken and in the next month or two, they will be completed. We should allow it to go on.”

Just over 60 years later, the Supreme Court Granted this wish.

Reclaiming autonomy and the Independence of Jammu and Kashmir will be no easy task. It will be a long road.

Omar Abdullah, former chief minister and vice president of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference party, posted on X( Formerly Twitter).

‘Disappointed but not disheartened. The struggle will continue. It took the BJP decades to reach here. We are also prepared for the long haul.’
The World Kashmir Awareness Forum stands in solidarity with this sentiment. We are in this for the long haul and we will continue to stand for the lives, dignity, and freedom of the people of Jammu and Kashmir until autonomy and human rights are restored.