Jammu & Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is a Union Territory in the western Himalaya, created in October 2019 when the former state was reorganised and Ladakh was separated from it. The territory has two capitals — Jammu in winter and Srinagar in summer. It has three broad divisions: the Jammu plains in the south, the Kashmir valley in the centre, and the mountainous districts toward Ladakh in the east.

The Kashmir valley is a broad, fertile basin at about 1,600 m, drained by the Jhelum and ringed by mountains; its economy rests on apples, rice, saffron, walnuts and handicrafts — pashmina, carpets and woodwork — together with tourism. Jammu’s plains are hotter and more agricultural. Hydroelectric potential is large, and the Indus Waters Treaty governs the rivers that flow west into Pakistan.

The territory has been the centre of a decades-long armed insurgency and a heavy security presence. Its political status has been contested since 1947, and the 2019 reorganisation — which removed the state’s special constitutional position, downgraded it to a Union Territory and stripped its legislature of its former powers — remains the defining political fact. Assembly elections were held in 2024 and a government was formed, but statehood has not been restored.