SRINAGAR, Kashmir — When the cellphone started to ring, after 71 days of silence, the crowd erupted into a loud cheer.

After imposing a complete communications blackout two months ago, the Indian government on Monday partially restored cellphone service in the Kashmir Valley, home to about eight million people.

The region’s cell service had been shut off in the hours before the Hindu nationalist government of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi announced on Aug. 5 the revocation of a constitutional provision that gave partial autonomy to Kashmir.

The elimination of cell service was one of the most difficult aspects of India’s continuing crackdown in the region, which has been caught in a longstanding and often brutal territorial dispute between India and Pakistan.