India Revokes Kashmir's Special Status

SRINAGAR, KASHMIR, INDIA - AUGUST 18: A Kashmiri Muslim woman walks past graffiti saying 'free Kashmir' written on a building in the Habba Kadal, on August 18, 2019 in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, India. Curfew like restrictions remain in place in Kashmir for the fourteenth consecutive day after India revoked articles 370 and 35A, and phone and internet services also remained suspended. Article 35A of the Indian Constitution was an article that empowered the Jammu and Kashmir state's legislature to define permanent residents of the state and provided special rights and privileges to those permanent residents, also preventing non-locals from buying or owning property in the state. Prior to 1947, Jammu and Kashmir was a princely state under the British Empire. It was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order. The Constitution Order 1954, (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) was issued by the President of India on 14 May, 1954 in accordance with Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, and with the concurrence of the Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmir has been a state under siege, with both India and Pakistan laying claim to it. Human rights organizations say more than 80,000 have died in the two decade long conflict with the Indian government claiming the number as 42,000. (Photo by Yawar Nazir/ Getty Images)