ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the comparative study of the autonomist politics of Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, the two borderland states of India. In geographical terms, the two states underwent the process of territorial reorganisation as a consequence of partition that led to demographic reconfiguration in the aftermath of the communal bloodbath and mass displacement. The inherited socio-political systems based on the landed property relationships in the two states were also distinctly similar. Establishment of canal colonies in western central Punjab by the British as a result of the legislative measures like the Alienation of Land Act in 1901 provided uniqueness to the social–political structure in an undivided Punjab, creating the rural–urban divide between communities. Jammu & Kashmir was the only princely state to ‘negotiate’ its ‘accession’ with India under extraordinary circumstances that arose due to the invasion of the Pakistan-supported tribal militia.
