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ArticleHistoryGeographyPoliticsJammu and Kashmir (1954 - 2019)


Jammu and Kashmir is a union territory of India, having previously being part of a state by the same name with special status (given by Article 370) which was made into an union territory on 31 October 2019 and bifurcated further into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh upon the abolition of Article 370. Jammu and Kashmir was also India's only state with a majority of population following the religion of Islam.

It is a union territory with a legislature, the lieutenant governor is Manoj Sinha, it has a unicameral legislative assembly consisting of 114 seats which is currently dissolved, and the Chief Minister post is Vacant with the last elections having occurred in 2014 and the last Chief Minister before the dissolution of the assmebly in 2018 having being Mehbooba Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party (PDP).

The official languages are Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri, Urdu, and English. The main spoken languages are Kashmiri (52.72 percent of the population) and Dogri (20 percent), with Urdu acting as a lingua franca across the state.

It consists of 20 districts divided into two major regions consisting of 10 districts each: Jammu and Kashmir.

An uncontrolled 13,297 square kilometers of area (with a population of 4 million) are disputed with Pakistan, with India claiming it to be a legal territory of India having being handed over by the accession of the old Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir to India, while it is controlled by Pakistan as part of its Azad Jammu and Kashmir (better known simply as Azad Kashmir) territory, this area along with Gilgit Baltistan is commonly referred to as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) by Indian officials.

It's summer capital is Srinagar (May to October), and the winter capital is Jammu (November to April).

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