Source: The Hindu
Manifest pedagogy: After reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir, a new map has been published by GoI. It only reiterates India’s stand that PoK and Aksai Chin are integral parts of India. Based on new map, geography and polity related prelims questions could be asked. At the mains stage, the significance and its implications could be asked.
In news: Government has released a new map of India showing UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh.
Placing it in syllabus: Redrawal of national boundaries
Static Dimensions:
- General description of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)
- Erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir map as per 1947
Current dimensions:
- Present reorganization of new map
- Significance of the new map
Content: General description of J&K:
- Jammu and Kashmir was a region formerly administered by India as a state from 1954 to 2019, constituting the southern and southeastern portion of the larger Kashmir region.
- The western districts of this state are known as Azad Kashmir and northern territories known as Gilgit-Baltistan are administered by Pakistan.
- Raja Gulab Singh of J&K captured Aksai Chin from the Chinese in 1842 which has provided India with its current claim to this Chinese-held territory.
- The Aksai Chin region in the east, bordering Tibet has been under Chinese control since 1962.
- In 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed by the parliament which repealed the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian constitution.
- Now the state is reorganised it into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir in the west and Ladakh in the east, with effect from 31 October 2019.
Erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir map as per 1947:
In 1947, the former State of Jammu and Kashmir had the following 14 districts – Kathua, Jammu, Udhampur, Reasi, Anantnag, Baramulla, Poonch, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Leh and Ladakh, Gilgit, Gilgit Wazarat, Chilhas and Tribal Territory.
Present reorganisation of new map:
The maps prepared by Survey General of India depicting the new UTs of J&K and Ladakh, as created on October 31, 2019, along with the map of India, are released.
- By 2019, the government of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir had reorganised the areas of 14 districts into 28 districts.
- The names of the new districts were – Kupwara, Bandipur, Ganderbal, Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Shupian, Kulgam, Rajouri, Ramban, Doda, Kishtivar, Samba and Kargil.
- Out of these, Kargil district was carved out from the area of Leh and Ladakh district.
- Now the new UT of Ladakh consists of Kargil and Leh – two districts.
- The Leh district has been defined in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Removal of Difficulties) Second Order, 2019, issued by the President of India, to include the areas of the districts of Gilgit, Gilgit Wazarat, Chilhas and Tribal Territory of 1947, in addition to the remaining areas of Leh and Ladakh districts of 1947, after carving out the Kargil District.
- The rest of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir is in the new Union Territory of J&K.
- The UT of Ladakh is spread in more area on the new Indian map while J&K is a much smaller territory.
Significance of the new map:
- Indian maps do not show Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan and Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin and Shaksgam.
- None of these four regions is under India’s actual control.
- The UT of J&K goes to the Pakistan border to include Azad Kashmir while Ladakh extends to include the other three areas.
- Terms such as “Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir”, “China-Occupied Kashmir”, or “Line of Control” also don’t appear on the Indian maps.
- Apart from creating two new Indian territories, these maps show that all of Jammu and Kashmir, occupied or otherwise, comprises “an integral part of India”, even though Indians have never set foot in the Pakistan- or Chinese- controlled parts.
