Beyond Quotas: How Reservations Became a Tool of Disempowerment in Post-370 Kashmir 

India’s 2024 reservation policy in Jammu & Kashmir has intensified regional disparities, disproportionately benefiting the Hindu-majority Jammu region over Muslim-majority Kashmir. Data reveals stark imbalances: 100% of Scheduled Caste benefits went to Jammu (Kashmir: 0%), while Jammu received 92% of Economically Weaker Sections quotas.

The policy breaches constitutional safeguards by exceeding the 50% reservation cap, violating Supreme Court precedent and local laws. Simultaneously, reduced quotas for Kashmiri-centric categories and a controversial domicile law erode local rights. Analysts argue these measures aim to demographically reengineer the region, consolidate BJP support in Jammu, and systematically disempower Kashmiris politically and economically.

Legal challenges and protests highlight fears of institutionalized marginalization, turning affirmative action—intended for empowerment—into a tool of division and control.

Beyond Quotas: How Reservations Became a Tool of Disempowerment in Post-370 Kashmir 

The contentious debate over reservations in India often centers on social justice. Yet in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), a revised reservation policy implemented in 2024 reveals a more unsettling reality: the potential weaponization of affirmative action to reshape demographics, deepen regional fault lines, and consolidate political power at the expense of Kashmiris. 

The Stark Data Telling an Unsettling Story 

Government data presented during J&K’s 2024 budget session paints a picture impossible to ignore: 

• Scheduled Castes (SCs): 100% of 67,112 beneficiaries since April 2023 are from the Jammu region. Kashmir recorded zero. This is rooted in the 1956 Order restricting SC status to Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists – effectively excluding Muslim-majority Kashmir. 

• Scheduled Tribes (STs): Jammu beneficiaries (459,493) outnumber those from Kashmir (79,813) by a ratio of nearly 6:1. While Jammu houses 60% of J&K’s ST population (2011 Census), the disparity suggests implementation skews heavily towards Jammu. 

• Economically Weaker Sections (EWS): Jammu claimed 92.3% of beneficiaries; Kashmir only 7.7%. Reports suggest stricter certification criteria in Kashmir fuel suspicions of systemic bias. 

• Border Categories: Residents near the Line of Actual Control (LoAC) saw 94.3% of benefits go to Jammu. The International Border category had zero beneficiaries from Kashmir versus 551 from Jammu. 

Beyond Disparity: A Strategy of Demographic and Political Reshaping 

This isn’t merely bureaucratic imbalance. Analysts and Kashmiri leaders perceive a deliberate strategy unfolding since the 2019 abrogation of Article 370 and J&K’s demotion to Union Territory status: 

• Favouring Jammu’s Hindu Majority: The policy drastically reduces opportunities for the “General” category (69% of the pre-2019 state’s population) to just 30-40% of seats. Crucially, Kashmir’s population is overwhelmingly General category or Residents of Backward Areas (RBA). Simultaneously, RBA quotas were halved (20% to 10%). The net effect disproportionately harms Kashmiri Muslims. 

• Breaching the 50% Cap: The policy pushes reserved seats to 60-70%, blatantly violating the Supreme Court’s Indira Sawhney judgment (1992) and the J&K Reservation Act (2004), both mandating a 50% ceiling. This legal overreach prioritizes political gain over constitutional principle. 

• Creating New Vote Banks: The creation of a separate 10% ST quota for the Pahari ethnic group (on top of the existing 10% for Gujjar-Bakarwals), despite Gujjar objections about Pahari economic status, is widely seen as an attempt to cultivate new loyal constituencies in Jammu. The significant increase in OBC reservations (4% to 8%) serves a similar purpose. 

• Demographic Engineering: The 2020 Domicile Law, granting non-Kashmiris rights to jobs and land ownership – previously protected under Article 35A – works in tandem with the reservation policy. It facilitates changing the region’s demographic composition and diluting Kashmiri political influence long-term. 

• Gerrymandering Power: The 2022 delimitation exercise significantly boosted Jammu’s electoral weight. Despite Kashmir having 55% of the UT’s population (2011 Census), it gained only one new seat compared to Jammu’s six. This shift empowers Jammu-centric parties like the BJP. 

The Political Trap and the Silenced Kashmiri Voice 

Sajad Lone (People’s Conference) articulated the Kashmiri fear succinctly: the policy is a tool “to exclude the Kashmiri-speaking population from the power structure and reorder the social hierarchy.” The National Conference (NC)-led government, reliant on Pahari votes gained partly due to the new quotas, finds itself paralyzed. Reversing the policy risks alienating new supporters; maintaining it fuels Kashmiri alienation and protests. 

Legal challenges are pending, and a government review panel missed its deadline. The silence is deafening for Kashmiris witnessing a rapid erosion of their political agency and economic prospects. Aspirants face higher cut-offs and stricter scrutiny, reminiscent, as lawyer Aurif Muzafar notes, of exclusionary practices under the pre-independence Dogra rule. 

Conclusion: A Betrayal of Social Justice 

India’s reservation system was conceived as an instrument of empowerment for historically marginalized groups. In post-370 Jammu and Kashmir, evidence suggests it has been cynically repurposed. The BJP-led central government appears to be using quotas not for upliftment, but as a lever for demographic change, regional favoritism towards Jammu, and the consolidation of its own political base. 

The consequence is the accelerated disempowerment of the Kashmiri Muslim majority – a process initiated by the removal of autonomy and accelerated through legislative and policy maneuvers like the 2024 reservation rules. This represents a profound betrayal of the constitutional ideals of equality and social justice, replacing them with a divisive strategy that risks entrenching conflict and resentment for generations. The weaponization of reservations in Kashmir stands as a stark warning about how tools of equity can be perverted into instruments of control.