India’s move to revoke Article 370 of its constitution, which conferred special privileges on the state of Jammu and Kashmir, has been kept limited to an internal matter, which indeed it is. Extraterritorial factors in the international political arena have also encouraged India to make this move. In retrospect, when the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, without accommodating the interests of various factions struggling for power, India’s security too was jeopardised. Consequently, the security situation in Kashmir reached its nadir during the heydays of the Mujahidin and later when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan. The same threat is again around the corner with the impending withdrawal of American troops. This research paper traces the nexus between instability in Afghanistan and its repercussions in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
