Ladakh has finally got a political status under the sun, for the region has been long suffering due to the protracted nature of the political crisis in J&K. For a long time, circumstances never allowed Ladakh to shape its own political identity. Intermittent attempts by people to voice their local aspirations were either ruthlessly crushed or skilfully outmanoeuvred by political masters from outside. None of the demands raised by Ladakh, some of them predating J&K’s merger with the Indian Union, has been fulfilled. The reasons are numerous, but essentially Srinagar and New Delhi have so far succeeded in exploiting the simplicity, backwardness and fragility of Ladakh, and also played on local faultlines to keep the region under their thumb.