Jammu and Kashmir was a region formerly administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019, constituting the southern and southeastern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since the mid-20th century. The underlying region of this state were parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, whose western districts, now known as Azad Kashmir, and northern territories, now known as Gilgit-Baltistan, are administered by Pakistan. The Aksai Chin region in the east, bordering Tibet, has been under Chinese control since 1962.
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was an Indian politician who served twice as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, during November 2002–November 2005 and March 2015–January 2016. He was also Minister of Tourism in Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet and Home Minister of India in V. P. Singh's cabinet. He started in the wing of the National Conference led by G. M. Sadiq, which later merged into the Indian National Congress. He switched to Janata Dal in 1987, eventually founding his own regional party, People's Democratic Party (PDP). He The PDP continues to be a political force in Jammu and Kashmir, currently led by his daughter Mehbooba Mufti.
Mehbooba Mufti is an Indian politician of the PDP, who served as the 9th and last Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 4 April 2016 to 19 June 2018. She was the first Female CM of J&K. After the revocation of the special status (autonomy) of the state in August 2019, Mufti was detained without any charges at first and later under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act. She was released only in October 2020, after the Supreme Court of India quizzed the government about the length of her detention.
Bhim Singh was an Indian politician, activist, lawyer and author. He was the founder, president and chief patron of the socialist and secular Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP). Singh was Panthers Party chairman for 30 years from 1982-2012, chief patron from 2012-2021, and president from 14 February 2021-31 May 2022. In effect with over 40 years of controlling leadership, he was India’s longest serving political party leader, and one of the longest serving leaders in the world.
The Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party is a socialist and secular state political party in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The party was founded on 23 March 1982 by Prof. Bhim Singh and a few prominent youth political personalities of the time including Jay Mala, former President of the Indian Students Congress. Its aim is to "demolish corruption, communalism, criminalization, drug menace" and to establish a real democracy through ultimate revolution. Panthers Party had campaigned for over three decades for the abolition of Article 370 and Article 35A, demanding that the special status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir be revoked, and for it to be fully assimilated into the Republic of India. These demands were finally met by a presidential order in August 2019 that revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status. Panthers Party campaigns for a further division of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, with the recognition of Hindu-majority Jammu Division as a new and separate state of India.
Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, a region located in the northern part of Indian subcontinent and part of the larger region of Kashmir which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since 1947. Jammu and Kashmir was administered by India as a state from 1952 to 31 October 2019, and Article 370 conferred on it the power to have a separate constitution, a state flag, and autonomy of internal administration.
The National Archives of India (NAI) is a repository of the non-current records of the Government of India and holds them in trust for the use of administrators and scholars. Originally established as the Imperial Record Department in 1891, in Calcutta, the capital of British India, the NAI is situated at the intersection of Janpath and kartavya path, in Delhi. It functions as an Attached Office of the Department of Culture under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
Jammu and Kashmir is administered by the Republic of India within the framework of a federal parliamentary republic as a union territory, like the union territory of Puducherry, with a multi-party democratic system of governance. Until 2019, it was governed as a state administered by India. Politics in the region reflects the historical tension and dispute that the state has been a part of in the form of the Kashmir conflict. The head of state is the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, currently Manoj Sinha, while the head of government is the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, currently vacant. Legislative power is vested in the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, although this was dissolved by the Governor on 21 November 2018. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Greater Kashmir is an English daily newspaper printed and published from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. The newspaper initially began its edition in 1987 as a weekly newspaper and later, started its first daily publication in 1989.
Narinder Nath Vohra, popularly referred as N. N. Vohra, is a retired 1959 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Punjab cadre who was the 12th governor of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. He was the first civilian governor of Jammu and Kashmir in eighteen years after Jagmohan.
Praveen Swami is an Indian journalist and author specialising on international strategic and security issues. He is currently the Group Consulting Editor at Network18 Group. He was the Diplomatic Editor of The Daily Telegraph newspaper between September 2010 – October 2011, after which, he became the National Editor of The Indian Express newspaper from August 2014- January 2017. Swami is the author of two books on the India-Pakistan conflict in Kashmir. He was described by the BBC as "one of India's foremost experts of Islamist terrorism".
Censorship in Kashmir involves the censorship of both news media and social media as part of the Kashmir conflict.
Mohammad Shahnawaz Choudhary is an Indian political activist. Till 2014 he was President of J&K Pradesh Youth Congress and later General Secretary of the Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee. currently he is a DDC member of Surankote A constituency. He defeated Choudhary Mohd Akram by 2675 votes. He raise his voice at different platforms for the welfare of poonch district people. He was the first elected President of the J&K Pradesh Youth Congress. He joined course B.A L.L.B at The law school, University of Jammu.
In September 2014, the Kashmir region suffered disastrous floods across many of its districts caused by torrential rainfall. The Indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the Pakistani administered territories of Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the province of Punjab were affected by these floods. By 24 September 2014, nearly 277 people in India and about 280 people in Pakistan had died due to the floods.
In the wake of heavy monsoon rain and flash floods in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Armed Forces were deployed in increasing numbers starting 2 September 2014 to conduct search, rescue, relief, relocation, humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation missions in Jammu and Kashmir. By 18 September, over 298,514 people were rescued from the various parts of Jammu and Kashmir by the Armed forces. The Jammu and Kashmir floods, the worst in a century according to Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, paralyzed the state government. Omar Abdullah, responding to public criticism, told the media "I had no government" in the first few days following the floods, as "My secretariat, the police headquarters, the control room, fire services, hospitals, all the infrastructure was underwater." Adding "I had no cell phone and no connectivity. I am now starting to track down ministers and officers." The Jammu and Kashmir floods of 2014 have been blamed on heavy rainfall, about 8 inches (200mm) on 4 September alone, on climate change, unplanned and uncontrolled development, encroachment of river banks, lakes, ponds, and massive loss of wet lands, absence of local government flood forecasting system, and poor governance. The Armed Forces humanitarian assistance mission in response to the floods was named Mission Sahayata (assistances). Northern Command's humanitarian assistance to Civil authorities was named 'Operation Megh Rahat'. The Indian Army, Air Force, and the Navy, committed large resources to the assistance mission including over 30,000 troops, 15 engineer task forces, 84 Indian Air Force and Army Aviation Corps fixed wing transport aircraft and helicopters, naval commandos and rescue specialists, and Base Hospital, four field hospitals, over 106 medical detachments. "Operation Megh Rahat", ended on 19 September 2014, but "Operation Sadbhavna", the relief and medical assistance support, according to government press release, will continue in "close synergy with the civil administration and the police".
Popular sports in Jammu and Kashmir include cricket, football and winter sports along with sports like golf, water sports, Ice stock sport and adventure sports. The National Winter Games have been held in Gulmarg in 1996, 2004 and 2009. The first Khelo India Winter Games were held in February and March 2020 in Leh and Gulmarg. Jammu and Kashmir won the most gold medals while the Indian Army team came second with 8 gold medals. The second edition of the winter games were also held successfully in Gulmarg in 2020 with Jammu and Kashmir coming first and Karnataka second.
Media in Jammu and Kashmir (JK) consists of media houses such as Kashmir Times, Greater Kashmir,’’Kashmir Observer’’, Rising Kashmir and Daily Excelsior and digital news outlets like Free Press Kashmir, The Chenab Times, The Kashmir Walla and radio stations such as AIR Srinagar, AIR Jammu, Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, Red FM 93.5 and Radio Sharda. DD Kashir is state television broadcaster. Major private channels are News18 Urdu and Gulistan News. Various books have been written about the region, a large number being related to the Literature of Kashmir, Culture of Kashmir, Lal Ded and Nund Rishi. Koshur, Dogri, Punjabi, Pahari, Gojri, Hindi-Urdu and English are the main languages used.
Jammu and Kashmir is a region administered by India as a union territory and consists of the southern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947, and between India and China since 1962. The Line of Control separates Jammu and Kashmir from the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the west and north. It lies to the north of the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and to the west of Ladakh which is administered by India as a union territory.
On 6 August 2019, the Government of India revoked the special status, or autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir—a region administered by India as a state which consists of the larger part of Kashmir which has been the subject of dispute among India, Pakistan, and China since 1947.
Zafar Choudhary is an Indian journalist, author, policy analyst, and practitioner of peace-building. He is founder and Chief Editor of The Dispatch. Educated at the London School of Economics and Political Science, he is Asia Society Fellow (2012). He was born in a remote village Rehan in district Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir in 1975.
