With over seven decades crossed since 1947 followed a continuous stretch of never-ending bloodsheds in the Kashmir valley or for the reason of it. Just in past 27 years, around 41,000 lives have been lost due to this Indo-Pak dispute. The Indian army had lost many of its brave soldiers who sacrificed themselves for the safety and security of people in the valley and rest of India. With more than 950,000 soldiers deployed in Kashmir, making it world’s most strongly guarded place, shows the threat level in the valley. The current Kashmir when compared to the Maharaja Hari Singh’s Kashmir is divided into 3 major parts. Two pieces of territory are illegally occupied by the Pakistan (30%) and China (15%). The regions under Pakistan are Gilgilt, Baltistan and the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) and the region under China is Aksai-Chin which is vastly inhabited by humanity.
The Indian controlled Kashmir (55%) owns 60 per cent of the population of Kashmir in total. The Jammu and Kashmir initially under the Sikh Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, saw a shift in powers with arrival of east India company and british. The empire then switched into the Dogra Empire which was overtaken by Maharaja Gulab Singh and this continued until the independence of India in the year 1947. It was this time, when the britishers before leaving Indian territory kept an opportunity for all the 565 princely states of Indian peninsula to either join an Islamic state named Pakistan or a democratic republic of India. This stretched the long run tensions between the communities of muslims (in favour of an Islamic state) and the rest of people into a massacre of centuries. A bloodshed that no one in the world saw before, it is estimated that up to one million people were killed during the violence in 1947, and around 50,000 women were abducted. Some 12 million people were displaced from their homes in the divided province of Punjab alone, and up to 20 million in the subcontinent as a whole. Few princely states opt to merge with Islamic state of Pakistan and majority of them joined the republic of India. Kashmir on the other side chose to remain an independent state under Maharaja Hari Singh. He decided to stay independent because he expected that the State’s Muslims would be unhappy with accession to India, and the Hindus and Sikhs would become vulnerable if he joined Pakistan. On 11 August 1947, the Maharaja dismissed his prime minister Ram Chandra Kak, who had advocated independence. Observers and scholars interpret this action as a tilt towards accession to India. Pakistanis decided to pre-empt this possibility by wresting Kashmir by force if necessary. Pakistan made various efforts to persuade the Maharaja of Kashmir to join Pakistan. In July 1947, Mohammad Ali Jinnah is believed to have written to the Maharaja promising “every sort of favourable treatment,” followed by the lobbying of the State’s Prime Minister by leaders of Jinnah’s Muslim League party. Faced with the Maharaja’s indecision on accession, the Muslim League agents clandestinely worked in Poonch (west territory of Kashmir) to encourage the local Muslims to an armed revolt, exploiting an internal unrest regarding economic grievances. The authorities in Pakistani Punjab waged a ‘private war’ by obstructing supplies of fuel and essential commodities to the State. Later in September, Muslim League officials in the Northwest Frontier Province, including the Chief Minister Abdul Qayyum Khan, assisted and possibly organized a large-scale invasion of Kashmir by Pathan tribesmen. Several sources indicate that the plans were finalised on 12 September by the Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, based on proposals prepared by Colonel Akbar Khan and Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan. One plan called for organising an armed insurgency in the western districts of the state and the other for organising a Pushtoon tribal invasion. Both were set in motion.
With Pakistan’s tribesmen invasion, the Kashmir was set on fire, loot, and atrocities to Kashmiris by the Pathan’s were so grieve that it could be hardly penned down. The pathan’s did whatever they could to terrorize Kashmiri’s, they abducted, raped and murdered thousands of girls and women of all ages. This was being done to scare Kashmir and its ruler for their indecision for accession into Islamic state of Pakistan. The Pakistan’s muslim league and its military knew this for sure, that newly formed independent nation of Jammu & Kashmir is heavily outnumbered with its line of defence and weapons. The Maharaja made an urgent plea to Delhi for military assistance. Upon the Governor General Lord Mountbatten’s insistence, India required the Maharaja to accede before it could send troops. Accordingly, the Maharaja signed an instrument of accession on 26 October 1947, which was accepted by the Governor General the next day.
While the Government of India accepted the accession, it added the proviso that it would be submitted to a “reference to the people” after the state is cleared of the invaders, since “only the people, not the Maharaja, could decide where Kashmiris wanted to live.”; it was a provisional accession. The largest political party, National Conference, headed by Sheikh Abdullah, endorsed the accession. In the words of the National Conference leader Syed Mir Qasim, India had the “legal” as well as “moral” justification to send in the army through the Maharaja’s accession and the people’s support of it. The Indian troops, which were airlifted in the early hours of 27 October, secured the Srinagar airport. The visiting journalist at Srinagar city witnessed an incredible sight where volunteers of National Conference (Local political party of Kashmir) was patrolling the city from tribal Pakistani invaders and Minority Hindus, Sikhs were moving freely among Kashmiri Muslims. This was a true example of community harmony in Kashmir.
After securing Sri Nagar, the Indian army troops were set to retrieve other portions of Kashmir, captured by the Pakistani tribesmen and military. Yet, in the meantime the then prime minister of India, Mr J. L. Nehru made an announcement over all India radio, that India would seek United Nation’s (UN) mediation into this matter. This was greatly opposed by the then home minister of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Later, with intervention of United Nations group under Sir Owen Dixon (UN mediator) who came up with a plan of seizing the military conflict by mapping a stamp on territories already under control. This led regions already secured by the two countries under their jurisdictions and UN formed a Line of Control between the western and Eastern parts of Kashmir. To this day, India claims the entire region of Kashmir as per the legal instrument of accession signed by the Maharaja of Kashmir, making the whole of Kashmir an integral part of Republic Of India.
Later in the year of 1962, another war broke but this time it was between India and China. The war zone was the regions of Ladakh province to the east of Kashmir. After this Indo-China war of ’62, China captured another part of Maharaja Hari singh territory, the Aksai-Chin. India to this date demands both of its territories and had raised its voice into United Nations Security Council from time to time in the recent past. Whatever is good for Kashmir and safe for Kashmiri dreams should be implemented, to make sure that no more innocent lives are lost, no more brave soldiers are sacrificed for the love of their motherland.
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