Opinion | Kashmir’s special status only fuelled its real problem: Islamism
- Article 370 was supposed to protect Jammu and Kashmir’s ‘unique identity’
- Instead, it only encouraged the separatist mindset, distracting from the corrosive religious ideology of jihad
Amid the hubbub around the abrogation of Article 370 and restrictions placed thereafter by government, there has hardly been any focus on whether the constitutional provision had done more to benefit or harm the state over the past 70 years.
The refrain around Article 370 had been that it was needed to protect the unique identity of Jammu and Kashmir – as if other regions of India didn’t have a unique identity. Under the garb of identity, the said provision created political and economic hegemony of one region (Kashmir) over the other two regions (Jammu and Ladakh) with control in the hands of a few families.
Kashmir should pause and ponder about what went wrong down the years that led to the bloodshed of the past three decades. How did violence creep in to the pristine environment of Kashmir, which has been the core of Indian civilisation, and the seat of knowledge and excellence?
