Article 370: This all started in the year 1947 when a democratic society was being established in India and the different princely states were now bound to integrate into the democratic world by any means possible.
The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir touched the borders of the two different nations and remained an important matter of fact for both nations. Pakistan had its evil eyes on the land and wanted to capture it by force.
After independence, there were 552 princely states present in India out of which 549 agreed to join the Indian government, and the remaining three including Junagarh, Hyderabad, and Kashmir refused to form an alliance with the Indian government denying the history of India to be democratic.
The state of Junagarh and Hyderabad were taken by the police force and the state of Kashmir was still not under the Indian alliance.
Seeing this, Pakistan tried to capture Kashmir by force which resulted in the first Indo-Pak war in 1947. After this, Vallabhbhai Patel offered to safeguard Kashmir, but only after Kashmir agrees to be part of India.
Hari Singh agreed and an "Instrument of Accession" was signed by him which designated Kashmir as an integral part of India.
After this, when Jawaharlal Nehru acknowledged this to the Governor-General of India (Louis Mountbatten), he suggested Plebiscite Act or Referendum decide the future of Kashmir by its people.
But a condition was also put forth by him, which said that the forces of both nations must be forged back from the territory of Kashmir to conduct this referendum.
Both nations denied this and the referendum didn't take place. But Vallabhbhai Patel protected Kashmir under the Instrument of Accession and gave dominion status to Maharaja Hari Singh.
The provisions provided under Article 370 of the constitution allowed Kashmir to have a separate constitution, a state flag, and autonomy of internal administration.
After all these years on 5th August 2019, Article 370 was decentralized and the laws of the Indian Constitution were initiated in the territory of Kashmir.
From this day onwards, the population of Kashmir has to follow the Indian constitution and have to obey the IPC (Indian Penal Code) rather than RPL (Ranbir Penal Code).
This is how after 72 years of independence, the princely state of Kashmir has been integrated into India.
The integration of Kashmir into India has some major key points which commemorate the integration as the right decision.
Before Article 370 was suspended in Kashmir, there were a lot of inequalities between the people of the same country as the people of Kashmir had 2 citizenships and also a penal code itself. The local of J&K has the right to insult the Indian constitution and they can even burn the national flag of India if they wanted.
Article 35A of the special provisions of Jammu and Kashmir defines permanent citizens with special rights and privileges. Using this article, the people of J&K did not discriminate against permanent citizens as they were classified as second-class citizens in Kashmir and were not allowed to buy immovable property in Kashmir.
Scholarships, employment and every other government facility were given priority for those who were permanent citizens as compared to second-class citizens.
This violated the basic fundamental rights given to the people of India under Article 14.
Also, the gender equality of the people of Kashmir has been targeted under Article 35A, which in no way supports the Indian Constitution.
Under this article, If a woman of Kashmir marries a man from another state then her permanent citizenship is considered diluted and she gets entitled to second-grade citizenship which was not for the men out there.
This again can be considered a direct attack on the dignity of the people of India and its constitution.
After the decentralization of Article 370, J&K has now become a Union Territory which is attracting new business owners to set up manufacturing houses in Kashmir promoting employment in the area.
Various skill projects have also been introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to encourage the youth toward a better future.
Because of this abrogation, the practice of Sharia Law has lessened and women have been provided with equal rights as men in society.
After the implication of the Indian Constitution in Kashmir, there are fewer criminal activities going on in society. People are now happy with the growth in the secondary and tertiary sectors of society.
It became practical to uphold the nation as one and to work for every part of the country as well. The living of non-permanent residents has been great after this uniting of the princely state of Kasmir to India...
