The Indian government’s abrogation of article 370 of the constitution – ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and dividing the state into two separate union territories – in 2019 has set an unexpected chain of events in motion in the Himalayan region of Ladakh.
Leh’s dominant population of Buddhists, who had cheered the UT move the loudest, have become its bitterest opponents like their Shia Muslim counterparts in Kargil. The Ladakhi people now want the government to overturn the UT status and are gathering political and religious forces to push for statehood. Their drive to build political consensus has galvanised them to resolve a long-standing religious feud that had kept communal peace at abeyance in the high-altitude remotest regions.
