The eristwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir: From instrument of accession to instrument of coercion

Despite of India‘s long democratic history, Jammu and Kashmir has remained a contentious issue for her. The princely state had opted for India to protect its identity and autonomy rather than spreading the separatism. The instrument of accession was complete, legal and unconditional. The articles 370 and 35A were introduced to materialize the political responsibility of Union towards the State and latter‘s integrity with the Union. Both nationalism and State‘s identity should have been complementary and supplementary rather than contradictory to each other. Efforts should have been made to implement the special status to implement the concurrence of the people by availing them the services for good life rather than implementing the things forcibly. The use of coercion not only alienated and divided the population politically, regionally, communally and nationally but convert instrument of accession into instrument of coercion. The paper explores centre government‘s exit from respecting instrument of accession to use of instrument of coercion (reorganization of state into UT) to govern the state and its implications for all three regions and sub regions of the erstwhile state.