Unity Over Diversity? The Politics of Territorial Autonomy in Indian Federalism

India employs a range of federal mechanisms to manage its diversity, with territorial autonomy being one of them. While existing literature often emphasizes India’s relative success in managing diversity through these mechanisms, where ‘success’ is typically defined in terms of national unity and overall political stability. This paper critiques the state-centered approach to understanding territorial autonomies and emphasizes the need for a more nuanced approach, focusing on whether these arrangements genuinely uphold the principles of self-rule for territorially concentrated groups and function as mechanisms for empowerment or merely as instruments of central authority and control to maintain stability and integrity. To explore this question, the paper examines the case of Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) territorial autonomy within Indian federalism, using a comparative approach. The autonomy was granted under Article 370 and 35-A of the Indian constitution to address region’s distinct needs and identity. However, it remained a source of constitutional and political contention as it was systematically diluted through executive orders, and ultimately repealed unilaterally by the central government in 2019. The paper draws on primary sources such as constituent assembly debates, private correspondences between national and regional leaders, parliamentary and legislative proceedings, interviews with regional elites, government reports, and newspaper accounts. These sources are supplemented by secondary literature on the territorial autonomy in post-conflict and divided societies, Indian federalism and J&K’s history and politics. While existing scholarship often attributes the ineffectiveness of J&K’s autonomy to broader geopolitical factors, this paper asserts that the underlying challenges arise from the normative and institutional foundations of India’s centralized federal structure, which enables the central government to significantly limit regional autonomy and undermine the federal and constitutional rights of autonomous regions. The paper argues that territorial autonomies in India are influenced by the state’s objectives to maintain control, security, and national unity, hence, limiting the potential of these institutions to empower territorially concentrated groups. It emphasizes the need for a more nuanced approach to federalism, where territorial autonomy serves not just as a tool for political control but as a mechanism to promote meaningful inclusion, empowerment, and self-governance for marginalized communities. By situating the case of J&K within broader academic debates, the paper underscores the need to critically evaluate whether territorial autonomies in divided societies can truly enable minority rights or if they remain constrained by the imperatives of centralized state power.