In the Northwest of india bordering China there happens to be a small Union Territory by the name of Ladakh, the area had only become a Union Territory 4 years ago, when the indian Government revoked article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and made Ladakh a separate union territory, a demand that Ladakh has had for decades starting with the 1950s itself, this demand has lead to periods of unrest and protests which have made the Ladakh people’s sentiment clear on the matter and eventually the government gave them their own union territory.
What Is The Background Of Ladakhs demand for Statehood
To this we must go back to the period of the Dogra Raj, during the colonial period of Dogra Raj ladakh was the least developed place in J&K and had little to no representation, the people hoped that if a democratic government was to come into power they would finally get some development and become on a par with the neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir regions, both regions while poor had gotten decent amount of growth under the reign of Maharaja Hari Singh the final ruler of Dogra Raj.
When India took control of J&K, Ladakhis had at first welcomed it, even joining the indian army en mass but soon relations soured due to chief minister Sheikh Abdullah’s favouritism towards the Kashmir valley and ignorance towards Ladakh and and Jammu, by 1954 the leader of the Buddhist community of Ladakh had written a letter to Prime Minister at the time Jawahar Lal Nehru asking him to separate ladakh from kashmir by trying to prove the uniqueness of the Ladakhi people, in response the Prime Minister had pleaded with him to not engage in Separatism.
Ladakh would have sporadic unrests throughout the 60s till the 80s which culminated in the period of 1989-1992 where a series of protests and riots pressured the Indian government to give Ladakh a autonomous hill council, the riots were a major development and in one incident lead to a police firing incident killing 4 civilians, the tensions in that period came from the rising militancy in the Kashmir valley which lead to an uneasy feeling for the ladakhi people and thus caused the Ladakh Buddhist Association to agitate again for a separate state.
What Are the Current Issues Leading to Unrest In Ladakh
After separation from J&K ladakhis have been fearful on the Lackluster perks of being a Union Territory, Ladakhis have been asking for more to protect their identity from being taken over by foreign elements, there’s a variety of problems that the Ladakhi leaders are agitating to be solved in the following years as the Ladakh problem is multi faceted, which includes land rights cultural protection and more to make sure Ladakh remains Ladakhi.
Their main Campaign has been for a separate state, being a separate state allows for much more control for the people than a Union Territory can, a union territory fails to have autonomous powers and Ladakh for instance is ruled directly from the central government rather than by the ladakhi people, puducherry and Delhi are the only 2 Union Territories which have their own elected governments and outside of that no Union Territory has that honour, which is a reason statehood is needed for Ladakh.
Land rights have been a big demand in the protest, the scrapping of 370 has made a fear that the migrants in Ladakh might demographically replace them eventually, currently there is a heavy migrant population in the region making up upto 10-20% of ladakh, being a small region of only 300k people a large amount of people is not needed to reach the high percentages already shown of migrant workers and that is what has caused the tensions in Ladakhis that if they don’t gain land rights others might starting buying and taking over Ladakhi land.
Ladakhis are calling for the addition of the Ladakhi people into the Sixed Schedule, the Sixed Schedule of the Indian Constitution is meant to protect regions with Indigenous or Tribal populations from being harmed from things such as Demographic change, this is a safeguard for both cultural and physical Change in Ladakh and would be a great relief for the Ladakhis to have, Sonam Wengchuk a Ladakhi Leader has pushed for it going so far as to say that Ladakh might become another Tibet if the demands the Ladakhis are asking for aren’t met.
Lastly Ladakhis wish for the officialisation of their languages, as of now no languages of Ladakh hold any recognition and even in Ladakhi Schools the two languages people are given the option of being taught are Arabic for Muslims and Tibetan for Buddhists, neither Bhoti, Purkhi, Shina, or Balti have been safeguarded in the slightest, this is in contrast to Dogri and Kashmiri which both became Scheduled languages, Ladakhis never got any such recognition before their separation from the UT nor have they been able to get recognition afterwards as well.
Currently most migrants in Ladakh are Labourers who go back home after their jobs are done and are usually from states such as Bihar, Nepal and Utrakhand, but Ladakhis know the threat of Permanent migration is always there and thus want to make sure they cannot be displaced from their own state, their call for a state should be heard as with a population of 300k it has the capability of being a state, the smallest region to become a state was Sikkim and when it had become a state it had a mere population of 250k but today holds a population of 600k, with that there’s no reason for Ladakh a peaceful region with a large land mass and decently sized population to not have their demands met.