{"id":88188,"date":"2026-02-17T15:39:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=88188"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:39:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:09:44","slug":"accession-of-jammu-and-kashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/accession-of-jammu-and-kashmir\/","title":{"rendered":"Accession of Jammu and Kashmir, Background, Instrument of Accession"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the <\/span><b>Indian Independence Act, 1947<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, British India was divided into <\/span><b>India and Pakistan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Around 580 princely states were given three choices: Join India, Join Pakistan, Remain independent. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to <\/span><b>Section 6(a) of the Act<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, before joining India or Pakistan, these states had to sign an <\/span><b>Instrument of Accession<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, in which they would <\/span><b>specify the terms on which they were becoming part of the new dominions. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This legal provision formed the basis of the Accession of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Accession of Jammu and Kashmir Background\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The accession of Jammu and Kashmir took place on 26th October 1947. The ruler of Jammu &amp; Kashmir, <\/span><b>Maharaja Hari Singh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, first wanted to remain independent. He <\/span><b>signed standstill agreements with India and Pakistan <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to maintain the status quo. However, in October 1947, tribesmen and soldiers from Pakistan invaded Kashmir. Facing this threat, the Maharaja asked India for military help. India agreed, but only after Kashmir formally joined India. So, the <\/span><b>Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was accepted by Governor-General Lord Mountbatten on 27 October 1947.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Instrument of Accession Key Provisions<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>The key provisions that shaped the Accession of Jammu and Kashmir were as follows:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Limited powers to India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The Indian government could make laws for Jammu &amp; Kashmir only on three subjects &#8211; Defence, External Affairs and Communications.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>No automatic change in terms (Clause 5)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The conditions of accession could not be changed by Indian laws unless the Maharaja agreed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>No compulsion to accept India\u2019s future Constitution (Clause 7)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The Maharaja was not bound to accept any future Constitution of India automatically.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Protection of land rights (Clause 6)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The Indian Parliament could not pass laws to take land in Jammu &amp; Kashmir without permission.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the Accession of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947,its relationship with India was given a special constitutional arrangement through <\/span><b>Article 370. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This provision defined how the Indian Constitution would apply to the state.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Article 370 Special Status for Jammu &amp; Kashmir<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>Article 370 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was included in the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/indian-constitution\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Constitution of India<\/strong><\/a> as a <\/span><b>temporary provision<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It granted special autonomy to Jammu &amp; Kashmir after the Accession of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Key features of Article 370 were as follows:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian Parliament could make laws for the state only on Defence, External Affairs, Communications (and later, other subjects only with the state\u2019s consent)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jammu &amp; Kashmir had its own Constitution (adopted in 1957).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state had its own flag along with the Indian national flag.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Central laws were applied to the state only through Presidential Orders with the state government\u2019s approval.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In practice, over the years, many provisions of the Indian Constitution were gradually extended to the state.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1954, another provision called <\/span><b>Article 35A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order issued under <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/article-370-of-the-indian-constitution\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Article 370<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Article 35A: Special Rights for Permanent Residents<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 35A was added to the Constitution in 1954 through a Presidential Order issued under Article 370. It <\/span><b>gave special legal status for residents of Jammu &amp; Kashmir <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">after the Accession of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Key features of Article 35A:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It empowered the Jammu &amp; Kashmir legislature to define \u201cpermanent residents\u201d of the state.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Based on this definition, the state government could give special rights and privileges only to these permanent residents. These rights included the right to own land and property, eligibility for government jobs, access to state scholarships, and other welfare benefits provided by the state government.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People from other parts of India were not allowed to buy land or get state government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir unless they were recognized as permanent residents.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In August 2019, the Government of India made major constitutional changes regarding Jammu and Kashmir. Through a Presidential Order and a resolution passed by Parliament, Article 370 was made inoperative. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since Article 35A existed only because of Article 370, it was automatically removed after these changes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the same time, the state was reorganized under the <\/span><b>Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into two Union Territories:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jammu &amp; Kashmir (with a legislature)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ladakh (without a legislature)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Later, in December 2023, the Supreme Court of India upheld this decision and confirmed that the removal of Article 370 was constitutionally valid.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Read about the Accession of Jammu and Kashmir, its 1947 background, key provisions of the Instrument of Accession, Article 370, 35A and recent changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":88280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[5483,5126,5127,5484,5485],"class_list":{"0":"post-88188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-accession-of-jammu-and-kashmir","9":"tag-history","10":"tag-history-notes","11":"tag-polity","12":"tag-polity-notes","13":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88188"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88316,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88188\/revisions\/88316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}