This time it's final. India's Supreme Court on Monday upheld a decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to end the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir, home to a decades-long insurgency. The 2019 decision, which allowed New Delhi to directly administer the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region, represented “the culmination of the integration process and, thus, the legitimate exercise of power,” the country's highest court said in its ruling.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately welcomed the decision which he said was “historic”. It is “a glimmer of hope, a promise of a better future and a testimony to our collective resolve to build a stronger and more united India,” said the Hindu nationalist leader on X (formerly Twitter).
India's Supreme Court also ordered on Monday that elections be held in Jammu and Kashmir next year, saying they should be brought into line with other Indian states as soon as possible,” with voting to be held on September 30, 2024.
Communication breakdown
The abrogation of Kashmir's limited autonomy was accompanied by the imposition of direct rule from New Delhi, mass arrests, a total shutdown of the state and a months-long communications blackout, as India beefed up its armed forces in the region to contain protests. The decision was opposed by pro-India Kashmiri political parties, local bar associations and individuals, resulting in Monday's verdict.
Prime Minister Modi's tough policies have been highly controversial in Kashmir, but have been widely celebrated across India as an insurgency that left tens of thousands dead over decades has subsided. Authorities have deployed hundreds of soldiers, paramilitary forces and police in the main city of Srinagar to thwart any protests.
Abolishing Article 370 has been a key part of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) agenda since its inception, and the Supreme Court's decision comes ahead of next year's elections.
“Some battles are fought to be lost”
Kapil Sibal, one of the lawyers arguing for the repeal to be declared unconstitutional – the Supreme Court has been hearing the matter for 16 days – is philosophical. “Some battles are fought to be lost,” he wrote in X, even before the verdict was announced. He said the lawsuit was intended to ensure that “history records the facts that would be unpleasant for future generations to know.” “History itself is the final arbiter of the moral compass of historic decisions,” he added.
Since the suspension of Article 370 in 2019, Indian authorities have restricted media freedom and public protests, drastically curtailing civil liberties. The change allowed Indians from outside the territory to buy land there and seek government jobs and scholarships, a policy that human rights advocates denounced as “settler colonialism.”
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which since independence in 1947 has claimed sovereignty over the entire Himalayan region. It was the cause of two of the three wars between them since then. The Indian-controlled region has been plagued by unrest for more than three decades, which has left tens of thousands dead. Delhi accuses Pakistan of supporting separatists, which Islamabad denies.
Since 2019, a separatist insurgency has been largely crushed in Indian Kashmir, although youth continue to join the insurgency. More than half a million Indian troops were deployed in the region to control a rebellion that broke out in 1989. In 2023, more than 120 people were killed, two-thirds of them rebels.
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