Jammu, October 31, 2025 – As the chill of November creeps into the Shivaliks, Jammu and Kashmir – along with its high-altitude sibling Ladakh – marks a milestone today: the sixth Foundation Day as Union Territories, a date etched in the ink of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. Six years ago, on this very day, President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to the law that redrew the map, bifurcating the erstwhile state into two UTs – Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature, and Ladakh without – following the August 5, 2019, abrogation of Article 370. It’s a day that wraps celebration in controversy, progress in pause, and unity in uneasy debate, especially for a region where borders bite and floods linger like open wounds.
The Historical Pivot: From State to UTs – A Reorganization Born in Turmoil
October 31, 2019, wasn’t born in fanfare; it was the culmination of a seismic shift that reshaped J&K’s identity. The Reorganisation Act, tabled in Parliament on August 5, 2019, by Home Minister Amit Shah, dissolved the state’s special status under Article 370 – a provision from the 1949 Constitution granting autonomy on matters like residency and land – and Article 35A, which defined permanent residents’ rights. The move, justified as ending “separatism and terrorism,” carved out Ladakh as a separate UT to address its Buddhist-majority demands for autonomy, while Jammu and Kashmir became a UT with an assembly, promising statehood “at an appropriate time.”
The backdrop? Decades of insurgency, from 1989’s armed uprising (claiming 40,000 lives) to 2019’s tensions, with 370 seen as a shield for local control but a shield for militants too. The Act’s passage sparked protests, internet blackouts (155 days in 2019-20), and a tourism nosedive (down 80% in 2020). By October 31, the new UTs were born: J&K with 90 assembly seats (20 for PoK), Ladakh with 45 in a Hill Council. President Kovind’s assent at 11:59 PM that night sealed it, a quiet midnight birth for what the Centre called “integration’s dawn.”
Celebrations Across the Nation: Unity in Diversity, Echoes in J&K
Today, the day is observed nationwide under the Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat initiative, with governors and chief ministers extending greetings that blend pomp and patriotism.