evidence: There, some 3,500 meters (11,550 feet) above sea level, residents are calling for Indian statehood for Ladakh to ensure political representation, as well as inclusion in the national constitution’s Sixth Schedule, which grants special rights to tribal areas. Organizers say at least 10,000 people turned out during a single day in Leh last month to support the start of an ongoing, weekslong hunger strike. Ladakh lost special controls over its land in 2019, following a controversial move by the Indian central government that stripped the former state of Jammu and Kashmir of its statehood and broke off Ladakh, which had been a part of it, into a separate territory. [...] China doesn’t recognize what its Foreign Ministry has called the "so-called union territory of Ladakh," saying the "western section of the China-India border has always belonged to China." In addition to China, the territory of Ladakh also shares a disputed border with Pakistan, another neighbor with which New Delhi has fraught relations.