Article 370: What removing Kashmir’s special status means for the region’s future

Kashmiri voices react cautiously to India’s Supreme Court upholding a 2019 decision by prime minister Narendra Modi’s government to revoke Article 370 of the constitution which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Maroosha Muzaffar reports

People gather to protest the upholding of the Indian government’s decision in Muzaffarabad (EPA)

India’s Supreme Court has upheld the Narendra Modi government’s decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, a constitutional clause that allowed the country’s only Muslim-majority region a high degree of devolved power.

The 2019 decision to revoke Article 370 was accompanied by a massive lockdown by the Indian security forces and a months-long shutdown of internet access for people living in the region, such was the concern from New Delhi that it would be met with unrest.

As well as revoking the clause, in 2019 the government withdrew the region’s statehood and divided it into centrally-controlled union territories. The combined reforms were immediately met with legal petitions questioning their constitutionality.