The principle and the realpolitik

Kashmir has moved a long way from enjoying the pride of place in newly independent India to being regarded by many Indians as a bad penny, a state which wants to secede and start the process of breakup of the Indian Union. Little do they realise that Kashmir stands not as a problem but as a potential answer to the problems of the Union. For Art. 370 of the Indian Constitution, granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir state, is a sound and thoughtful example of an innovative political and constitutional mechanism geared to the social realities of India's plural and diverse polity. It has the seeds of an alternative model of state-making—a path that was not taken by the nationalist leadership of modern India.

The reluctance of the politicians to countenance autonomy as promised by Art. 370 was indeed why Kashmir is today perceived as a problem. At the same time, there can be no forgetting that the same lofty principle embedded in the article—providing autonomy to sub-identities—was not followed by the Muslim leadership of the Kashmir Valley with regard to the Hindu and Buddhist minorities of the state. Much as the Indian state has sought to impose its worldview on Kashmir, so did the Valley leadership try to force its idea among the sub-identities of the state. This had a crucial role to play in ensuring that the problem remained unresolved.