India, Feb. 10 -- More than six years after the abrogation of Article 370 and the downgrading of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, a familiar but politically fraught demand has resurfaced with renewed intensity: the creation of a separate state for Jammu. What distinguishes the current moment from earlier phases of the debate is not just the volume of voices from Jammu's civil society, but the sharp and ideologically divergent reactions it has triggered across the Kashmir Valley, cutting across party lines and unsettling long-held political positions.

The resurgence of the demand also unfolds against a conspicuous backdrop: the Centre's continued silence on restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, a pr...