When Maharaja of Kashmir signed the 'instrument of accession' because of which Kashmir officially became a part of India he was a desperate man. A king with his territory engulfed by foriegn invasion. He would have signed anything that India wanted. Then, how did this special status for Kashmir thing happened? Let us see, at the time of Independance Kashmir was ruled by a Pandit King and Indian prime minister also happens to be a Kashmiri Pandit. This special status thing (article 370) ensured Indians from other parts of India would not be able to settle down in Kashmir permenantly which means Pandits though minority would continue to remain a dominant community in the valley. The tragedy is what was meant to have protected the community actually went against them and what their great community leader(Nehru) and king did has actually have forced them to live as refugees. Just think why Nehru did not let Patel who integrated all the remaining princely states to handle this one coz this place happens to belong to the people of his CASTE. Yes just like many of our secularists Nehru, could have been a castist. The lesson is we have to eliminate Caste system at the earliest and only then we could unite to take on other challanges.
