ABSTRACT
The chapter is an attempt to evaluate the first post-Partition government of Sheikh Abdullah in the parts of Jammu and Kashmir that came under the control of the Indian Union. The analysis revolves mainly around four issues. First, to what extent did the Sheikh’s government succeed in implementing the New Kashmir Manifesto published first in 1945? Second, how did the relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian Union and between the different provinces within the state evolve? Third, which major structural changes were introduced in the state and how these were responded to by society? Fourth, how far had Sheikh Abdullah succeeded in laying the foundations of democracy in the state?
