Kashmir Dispute

Kashmir Dispute

Even before independence, it was evident that Kashmir would be an area of contention between the future India and Pakistan.

At first, tremendous celebrations erupted across the subcontinent as both Muslims and Hindus embraced their newfound freedom. However, religious tensions, suppressed by more than a century of British control, soon erupted.

After partition, however, these various kingdoms were placed under Pakistani or Indian control. In most cases, the former kingdoms readily joined one of the two new nations. However, the situation in the border kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir remained unresolved.

Its ruler, Maharajah Hari Singh, was a Hindu, while most Kashmiris were Muslim, many of whom were interested in uniting with Pakistan. After independence, Hari Singh walked a tightrope as an independent ruler for two months. Then, in October 1947, with what India alleges was full Pakistani cooperation, tribesmen from Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province invaded Kashmir. In order to save his princely state, the maharajah turned to India for assistance. As Victoria Schofield writes in Kashmir in Crisis: India, Pakistan, and the Unfinished War, “Indian accounts maintain that the whole operation into Kashmir was instigated at the highest level in Pakistan”—meaning the new leader Mohammed, Ali Jinnah.

As both nations became nuclear powers by the end of the 1990s, this confrontation took on immense global significance. The case of Jammu and Kashmir was unique. The kingdom featured a Hindu ruler, a mostly Muslim population, and a desire to keep its independence. However, the mountainous, beautiful region proved highly attractive to both Pakistan and India.

Resentment over the disputed region festered for the next 17 years, fueled by events such as Pakistan's supposed involvement in the assassination of the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. In January 1965, Pakistan invaded the Indian state of Gujarat, in a separate border conflict. A cease-fire soon ensued, but ...