Steady Decline of Democracy in Jammu & Kashmir

The fire of the nationalistic feeling has been rekindled with after the political shift in 2014 throughout India. The state of Jammu and Kashmir as it was known before the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A of the Indian constitution, was an Oasis complete with the mirage of autonomy given to the state. With the special treatment done away with and the ‘Unification’ complete, it is interesting to observe the shift in nationalism both within and outside the state, keeping an eye on the global politics all the while planning for a better unified structure of India in the future. The Social concepts of Institutionalism of the Indian state, the national Identity of the locals being challenged after each major event, the historical analysis of the circumstances that led to the shift of nationalism in the state and discussing the social facts such as religion, ethnicity and class contributing to the local resident’s allegiance to the different forms of nationalism and thus the problem of competing nationalism arising form the conflicts in the thought process of a fragile and contentious state trying to hold one form of nationalism over the rest. The analysis and explanation to these social problems in context of the wider perspective discussing both the national and International effects of this conflicting nationalism will be discussed in this paper.