ABSTRACT
Under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019, on 31 October 2019 the state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two Union Territories, to be known as Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir lies in the northernmost part of India, in the north-west, at the apex of the country (although the most northerly parts outside Indian control now form part of the Ladakh claim). The borders of the new territory that face south-east and north-east are with the rest of India: at the southernmost end a short border with Punjab, then, extending north-eastwards, the rest of the southern length is with Himachal Pradesh; the north-eastern border itself is with Ladakh. All the other frontiers are international ones, most of which are disputed, and, indeed, great swathes of territory have been occupied. India still claims an area coterminous with what the former Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir ruled (except in the south where the princely state and Kangra—now part of Himachal Pradesh—exchanged some territories). The north of what India claims is its de jure territory is apportioned to its Ladakh territory, so the northern and west-facing parts of the border of Jammu and Kashmir lie with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir; the northwestern and western international borders of the de jure claim would be with Pakistan (beyond the occupied strip of territory in the west and north), as is the south-western border. The border dividing the state between the Pakistani zone and Indian-held territory is known as the Line of Control (LoC)—it starts just north of the Chenab, heading up through Punch (Poonch) to curve eastward round the mountains surrounding the Vale of Kashmir, continuing in an easterly direction and into Ladakh just to the north of Kargil (it reaches the Chulung Pass and the massive Siachen Glacier on the far side of Ladakh). The total area of the new Jammu and Kashmir territory is 55,538 sq km (21,443 sq miles), but, of this, 13,297 sqkmis so-called ‘Azad Kashmir’ (‘Free Kashmir’—officially, Azad Jammu and Kashmir), occupied by Pakistan. The figure given for the area of Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir (for statistical purposes) is 42,241 sq km (about 42% of the former state).
