kashmir problem and its solution essay

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India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation?

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Ten Potential Solutions to the Kashmir Conflict

Published: September 2010
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A permanent peaceful resolution to Kashmir's conflict will require solemn diplomatic agreements between India and Pakistan that have the full support of Kashmir's most popular leaders. The most realistic solution to the Kashmir conflict would appear to be acceptance of the current Line of Control that now divides the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir as the northernmost international border of India and Pakistan. It is also important for Pakistan's elected leaders to control the Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who inhabit its entire Afghan frontier, and to end the nurturing of suicide bombers bent on killing Indians, Americans, Sri Lankans, or other innocent people the world over. The people of Kashmir must be permitted to choose their own leaders in free and fair elections, as do Indians in every other state in that union, and New Delhi should solemnly commit to supporting Kashmir's provincial autonomy and the human rights of its people, as it does the autonomy and rights of the people of Punjab, Maharashtra, or West Bengal.

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A possible solution to the Kashmir issue | OPINION

Here are some ideas that can be implemented to resolve the kashmir issue once and for all..

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A possible solution to the Kashmir issue | OPINION

Recently, a movie, The Kashmir Files , was released. It portrayed horrific experiences of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s and their subsequent struggle.

In the wake of recent happenings in the last few weeks, many parallels are being drawn in the media to compare both scenarios (then versus now) and suggest that nothing changed, even with the abrogation of Article 370. While there are merits in the abrogation of Article 370, there could still be some areas of concern left unaddressed for a few.

However, when it comes to Terror against Tiranga, we can keep all concerns aside and focus only on how best the Tricolour's prestige can be upheld and common citizens live in Kashmir without fear.

Here are some key ideas for consideration that try to see how the Kashmir issue can be resolved once and for all.

The government could make a Bismarckian move to integrate the state of Punjab with Kashmir (P&K- the new state comprising Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir).

The government can also integrate Ladakh with Himachal to form "Himachal and Ladakh" - ( H&L) to complete the cycle of integration. If required, this can precede P&K to test the waters.

A combined (P&K) will negate the claim of Kashmir (J&K) having a Muslim majority in one stroke.

This will mean the United Nations plebiscite (even if a later government after a few years is forced) cannot be taken ahead in an undivided P&K. It will be null and void.

Sikhs and Marathas have a long history of fighting injustice and had kingdoms in pre-British India. But Punjab being geographically closer is best suited for a merger with Kashmir.

Sikhs also have a quality of non-submission when their pride is involved or when they feel they haven't got justice.

The Kashmir conflict: How did it start?

The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir was sparked by a fateful decision in 1947, and has resulted in decades of violence, including two wars.

Since 1947, India and Pakistan have been locked in conflict over Kashmir, a majority-Muslim region in the northernmost part of India. The mountainous, 86,000-square-mile territory was once a princely state. Now, it is claimed by both India and Pakistan.

The roots of the conflict lie in the countries’ shared colonial past. From the 17th to the 20th century, Britain ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, first indirectly through the British East India Company, then from 1858 directly through the British crown. Over time, Britain’s power over its colony weakened, and a growing nationalist movement threatened the crown’s slipping rule.

Though it feared civil war between India’s Hindu majority and Muslim minority, Britain faced increasing pressure to grant independence to its colony. After World War II, Parliament decided British rule in India should end by 1948.

Britain had historically had separate electorates for Muslim citizens and reserved some political seats specifically for Muslims; that not only hemmed Muslims into a minority status, but fueled a growing Muslim separatist movement. Mohammad Ali Jinnah , a politician who headed up India’s Muslim League, began demanding a separate nation for India’s Muslim population.

“It is high time that the British Government applied their mind definitely to the division of India and the establishment of Pakistan and Hindustan, which means freedom for both,” Jinnah said in 1945 .

As religious riots broke out across British India, leaving tens of thousands dead , British and Indian leaders began to seriously consider a partition of the subcontinent based on religion. On August 14, 1947, the independent, Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan was formed. The Hindu-majority independent nation of India followed the next day.

Under the hasty terms of partition, more than 550 princely states within colonial India that were not directly governed by Britain could decide to join either new nation or remain independent.

The maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, in June 1946.

At the time, the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which had a majority Muslim population, was governed by maharaja Hari Singh, a Hindu. Unlike most of the princely states which aligned themselves with one nation or the other, Singh wanted independence for Kashmir. To avert pressure to join either new nation, the maharaja signed a standstill agreement with Pakistan that allowed citizens of Kashmir to continue trade and travel with the new country. India did not sign a similar standstill agreement with the princely state.

As partition-related violence raged across the two new nations , the government of Pakistan pressured Kashmir to join it. Pro-Pakistani rebels, funded by Pakistan, took over much of western Kashmir, and in September 1947, Pashtun tribesmen streamed over the border from Pakistan into Kashmir. Singh asked for India’s help in staving off the invasion, but India responded that, in order to gain military assistance, Kashmir would have to accede to India, thus becoming part of the new country.

Singh agreed and signed the Instrument of Accession , the document that aligned Kashmir with the Dominion of India, in October 1947. Kashmir was later given special status within the Indian constitution—a status which guaranteed that Kashmir would have independence over everything but communications, foreign affairs, and defense. This special status was revoked by the Indian government in August 2019.

The maharaja's fateful decision to align Kashmir with India ushered in decades of conflict in the contested region, including two wars and a longstanding insurgency.

How the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been shaped by past empires

Why the Partition of India and Pakistan still casts a long shadow over the region

How a tiny line on a map led to conflict in the Himalaya

How climate change can help heal conflicts—not just fuel them

Conflict in Kashmir Takes a Grim Toll on Unwitting Victims

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Kashmir: The Roads Ahead

Subscribe to this week in foreign policy, stephen p. cohen stephen p. cohen former brookings expert.

March 1, 1995

37 min read

This chapter was first presented to a MCISS-South Asia seminar in 1992, and revised as a note prepared for the Center for the Study of Foreign Affairs of the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. Both were based upon research conducted during the course of a joint U.S.-Russian study of Kashmir and Afghanistan in Nepal, India and Pakistan in March-April, 1992. See Stephen P. Cohen, Sergei Kamenev, Vladimir Moskalenko and Leo Rose, Afghanistan and Kashmir (New York: The Asia Society, and Moscow: The Russian Oriental Institute, 1993). I have made some minor additions in view of a year in residence with the Ford Foundation, New Delhi, 1992-93.

“What standing does Pakistan have in this dispute? What is their legal standing? Pakistan is not a party to the dispute; let’s get our facts right, then we can discuss it!” — A senior Indian strategist, New Delhi, mid-March, 1992

“My view is that if India continues on its present course, then consequences cannot be foreseen. I cannot say where boundaries will be drawn, but certainly the present boundaries will be changed. India must be prepared to make a reasonable agreement, then the process of partition begun in 1947 will be completed.” — A senior Pakistani foreign policy official, Islamabad, a few days later.

Kashmir and South Asian Security Since late 1989 the Kashmir problem has become intimately linked to the larger question of war and peace in South Asia. A virtual insurrection among Kashmiri Muslims in the Valley, and in Srinagar, the largest city in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir-created a serious crisis between New Delhi and Islamabad. From that date onward the United States, echoing the Pakistani argument that the only point of conflict between India and Pakistan was Kashmir, has regarded the disputed state as one of the few places in the world where large-scale war could break out soon. American officials and experts have built a scenario that leads, ultimately, to the horror of nuclear weapons falling on Indian and Pakistani cities. According to this scenario a local crisis in Kashmir could trigger off a military response by either India or Pakistan; then, the other side will overreact, leading to a direct clash between regular Indian and Pakistani forces; after that, the war could escalate to an exchange of nuclear weapons, since both states are thought now to be nuclear-capable-even if they do not have deployed nuclear forces. 2 In a refinement of the scenario, it has been argued that even the suspicion of escalation might lead to a nuclear strike, presumably by the weaker or more vulnerable of the two countries (in this case, Pakistan) since it would not want to risk having its small nuclear forces destroyed in an Indian pre-emptive attack.

This scenario has led to a great deal of diplomatic activity, much of it by American officials, and very recently (September, 1994) by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. There have been three strands to to this diplomacy. First, the Kashmiri problem has been addressed directly by several American officials. In a series of speeches and informal addresses, the traditional American position on Kashmir was subtly altered, so that the US now openly declares all of Kashmir to be disputed territory (in the past the US had never publicly challenged the legitimacy of the accession of Kashmir to India, only its wisdom ). Second, both India and Pakistan were urged to engage in additional “confidence building measures”—CBMs—that might prevent, or slow down the escalation process described above; third, both incentives and sanctions have been wielded, in an attempt to get the two countries to talk directly about their nuclear weapons programs. 3

It can be said that after four years none of these efforts have shown significant results. The Kashmir crisis is no closer to resolution than it was in 1990; there have been a few new CBMs introduced into South Asia, but there is some indication that the old ones have fallen into disuse or distrust; the nuclear dialogue that was to have begun a number of years ago has yet to commence, and public statements by officials and former officials on both sides seem to indicate a slow escalation of the nuclear arms race in South Asia, not any serious official dialogue on containing or managing it.

This chapter takes a somewhat different view than that of American officials and many strategists and journalists who see Kashmir as a “flashpoint” that could lead to conventional war and even a nuclear exchange. 4 Without belittling the importance of the Kashmir problem, it argues, first, that this crisis is far more complex than has been admitted by most American officials, and, therefore, that resolving the crisis—and addressing the supplementary problems of nuclear proliferation and regional distrust require a more sophisticated strategy than has hitherto been apparent. This chapter offers a strategic overview of the Kashmir crisis. It differs from other recent studies in that its primary focus is on a strategy for achieving a solution, not on the merit of individual solutions. 5

The Several Kashmir Problems The Kashmir problem is a mixture of terrorism, state violence, subversion and general horror that rests upon several layers of history. If the field existed we could use the skills of a political archaeologist to entirely unearth it. There are at least five different components of the Kashmir problem, each with its own origins, each with its own consequences:

Kashmir originally came into dispute because of a British failure of will when they divided and quit India in 1947. The mechanism by which the princely states were sorted out was inadequate. Each prince or ruler was to decide whether he would accede to India or Pakistan, presumably taking into account the makeup and interests of his population; but there was no adequate mechanism for ensuring that each ruler would make a fair or reasonable decision, or to ensure that the “third option,” independence, would not be a temptation (the British, the Indians, and the Pakistanis all agreed that the further partition of the subcontinent would be wrong, and that the princes had to go to one state or the other). In the case of Kashmir, a Hindu ruler governed a largely Muslim population, but was also considering independence. While there were other failures in the partition process, none so crippled the successor states as Kashmir—and the British were no longer around to repair the damage. Indians and Pakistanis have lived with the consequences for forty-five years, but currently blame each other, rather than a faulty partition process.
The leadership in both countries compounded the original problem when they turned Kashmir into a badge of their respective national identities . For Pakistan, which defined itself as a “homeland” for Indian Muslims, the existence of a Muslim majority area under “Hindu” Indian rule was grating; the purpose of creating Pakistan was to free Muslims from the tyranny of majority rule (and hence, of rule by the majority Hindu population); for Indians, their state had to include such predominately Muslim regions to demonstrate the secular nature of the new Indian state; since neither India nor Pakistan, so-defined, could be complete without Kashmir. This raised enormously the stakes involved for both.
Subsequently, Kashmir came to play a role in the respective domestic politics of both states—but especially Pakistan. For Pakistani leaders, both civilian and military, Kashmir was a useful rallying cry and a diversion from the daunting task of building a nation out of disparate parts. Further, there were and are powerful Kashmiri dominated constituencies in all of the major Pakistani cities; on the Indian side, the small, but influential Kashmiri Hindu community was over-represented in the higher reaches of the Indian government (not least in the presence of the Nehru family, a Kashmiri Pandit clan that had migrated from Kashmir to Uttar Pradesh).
Kashmir acquired an unexpected military dimension. After India crossed the cease-fire line during the course of the 1965 war it became a strategic extension of the international border to the south. Further, China holds substantial territory (in Ladakh) claimed by India, and New Delhi itself has made claims on regions which, historically, had been subordinated to the rulers of Kashmir (Gilgit, Swat, and the Northern Territories) but which are now under Pakistani governance. More recently, advances in mountaineering techniques have turned the most inaccessible part of Kashmir—the Siachin Glacier—into a battleground, although more soldiers were cruelly killed by frostbite than bullets. 6
Finally, there is a contemporary dimension to Kashmir: the stirrings of a national self-determination movement among Kashmiri Muslims. Encouraged by neither India nor Pakistan, it burst into full view in late 1989, and threatens the integrity of both states. There are two or three new generations of Valley Muslims, educated and trained in India, but with a window open to a wider world. Angry and resentful at their treatment by New Delhi, and not attracted to even a democratic Pakistan, they look to Afghanistan, Iran, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe for models, and to émigrés in America, Britain, and Canada for material support. Further, in an era when the international economy is fast-changing (including the advent of self-sustaining “tourist-destinations”), and the prospect of the direct linkage of Central Asia to Kashmir, the old argument that Kashmir is not economically self-sufficient unless it is attached to a major state has lost credibility.

Ironically, we can now see that Kashmir was less of a Cold War problem than some in the region had thought. Americans and Soviets certainly armed India and Pakistan (often both at the same time), they certainly supported one side or the other in various international fora, but the Kashmir issue has outlived the Cold War—indeed, the forces of democracy and nationalism that destroyed the Soviet Union and freed Eastern Europe were at work in Kashmir itself. 7 Other models were the liberation and revolutionary movements in the Islamic world—Iran, Afghanistan, and, most strikingly (since it was extensively covered on Indian and Pakistani television services) the Palestinian Intifada .

As a strategic issue Kashmir has waxed and waned. It was the central objective of the first two India-Pakistan wars (1948, 1965). But it was not an issue of high priority for either India or Pakistan from after the 1965 war until late 1989—and the birth of a Kashmiri separatist movement. What is striking is how little a role Kashmir played in the large-scale 1971 conflict (which was fought over the status of the separation of East Bengal from Pakistan), and even in the 1987 crisis that developed during a major Indian military exercise along the India-Pakistan border, Operation Brasstacks. A recent study of Brasstacks indicates that the two countries were much closer to war in January, 1987 than in 1990 (when Kashmir was the point of contention), yet Kashmir had little to do with the origin or evolution of the Brasstacks crisis. 8

The Simla Summit of 1972 had seemed to offer a solution: defer a formal settlement, in the meantime improve India-Pakistan relations. In 1984, when the first major India-Pakistan conference to be held after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, several American participants argued that both sides had ignored Kashmir. But the conferees were told by Indians and Pakistanis alike that Kashmir was “an American preoccupation, we don’t think it is a problem; let another generation handle it.” Some who attended that conference disagreed—precisely because Kashmir was not then a subject of great controversy that it was the best time to tackle it. 9 If India and Pakistan could not solve the problems of the 19th century (their border dispute with each other, and with China and Afghanistan, respectively) and those growing out of partition then how could they cope with emerging problems such as the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets and the incipient nuclear arms race?

Since then, both regional instability and regional nuclear programs have continued on their respective paths, and are now linked to the Kashmir conflict. Many Indian policy makers believe that Pakistan intends to use its new nuclear capability, which makes escalation to conventional war risky because that in turn might become a nuclear conflict, to make a grab for Kashmir. They also point to the connections between the Afghan war and the training of Kashmiri militants, and thus the American responsibility for India’s Kashmir problem. 10 Pakistanis believe that India will not negotiate over Kashmir because of Delhi’s advanced nuclear capabilities—a Pakistani bomb, or at least a Pakistani bomb in the basement, is one way of getting India to the bargaining table. There is also a faction in Pakistan that does not want to negotiate Kashmir, but is content to let Delhi “bleed” until India itself collapses into civil war—a view held of Pakistan by some Indian hawks.

In both countries the greatest hawks on Kashmir are journalists, politicians, academics, and other civilians, and some of the intelligence services, especially Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Ironically, in both countries the regular armed forces are very cautious, since both armies have calculated the risks of a large-scale war and conclude that its outcome would be very uncertain, that collateral damage would be very great, and that the possibility of escalation to a nuclear conflict is unacceptably high. This is one of the lessons that both sides drew from their retrospective studies of the 1987 crisis over Operation Brasstacks.

What is to Be Done? There is a Punjabi saying: “Three things are improved by beating: women, wheat, and a Jat.” The two quotations that begin this chapter are not dissimilar in spirit, and illustrate the difficulty of achieving a solution to the Kashmir dispute. The quotes are representative of wider views to the extent that many Pakistanis believe that India only responds to pressure and that many Indians deny that Pakistan has any legitimate role in Kashmir except to end its support of the militants. Kashmiris themselves—both Hindu and Muslim—have now tasted violence of a sort never experienced before as they undergo a terrible ordeal.

After 1971 Kashmir ceased to be the cause of bad India-Pakistan relations, but it remains a cause. It is also a symbol of their inability to compose their differences and live in peace. Kashmir is thus both cause and effect, which makes it so difficult to conceptualize as a political issue. Yet there is no shortage of solutions. Partition, plebiscite, referendum, UN trusteeship, “Trieste,” “Andorra,” revolutionary warfare, depopulation (and repopulation), patience, good government, a revival of “human values,” and doing nothing have all had their advocates. 11

Before we turn to a strategy for thinking about solutions, three points may somewhat clarify the matter. Physicists approach a problem by first “sizing” it. What are its parameters and contours? Here, “Kashmir” assumes an unusual shape.

First, while the Valley Muslims feel aggrieved that they are dominated by outsiders from India proper, other Kashmiri groups, especially the Valley Hindus and the largely Buddhist population of Ladakh, fear the dominance of the state by the Valley Muslims. Thus, a number of proposals have suggested the possibility of separating the Valley from other regions (Azad Kashmir, Ladakh, Jammu), and allocating parts of Jammu and Kashmir to India and Pakistan, leaving to the end the intensely disputed Valley. Here, the appropriate analogy is the Middle East peace process, where the overall strategy is to leave to the end such very contentious issues as the status of Jerusalem.

Second, there are, outside the propaganda mills of Delhi and Islamabad, remarkably diverse views on Kashmir in both India and Pakistan. Kashmir is not viewed in the same light by all Pakistanis and all Indians. Anyone who traveled throughout South Asia during the height of the 1990 Kashmir crisis quickly became aware that the further one was from Delhi and Islamabad the less passion there was about Kashmir. In Madras, Calcutta, Hyderabad (Deccan) and Bombay, Kashmir was, and is seen as New Delhi’s obsession; in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, and Hyderabad (Sindh), it is seen as a secondary issue, relations with Islamabad and the Punjab come first. Indeed, the size of demonstrations on behalf of the Kashmiri revolution in all Pakistani cities are in direct proportion to the presence of large Kashmiri populations. “Kashmir” is neither a homogeneous issue within the states of Azad Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir, nor within India and Pakistan. 12

Third, it is important to recognize the crucial role of time, and timing, in resolving the Kashmir problem. Ironically, one of the obstacles to reaching a solution is the belief, on all sides of the dispute, that “ time is on our side.” Since the Kashmir problem has been mismanaged by two generations of Indians and Pakistanis (and Kashmiris must accept responsibility also, for their own errors of omission and commission), there is no age-group, except perhaps among the newest generation of South Asians, who believe that the time has come for a solution. And, timing is crucial. We do not know what steps should be taken first, what should be taken second, third, and which should be reserved to the last. Like proposals to resolve the Arab-Israeli dispute, “solutions” to the Kashmir problem must operate at many levels. This suggest both caution and flexibility. But it does not suggest that doing nothing is the best course. The examples of the Middle East, South Africa, and, perhaps, of Ireland, indicate that seemingly intractable disputes can be resolved, or ameliorated, by patience, outside encouragement, and, above all, a strategy that will address the many dimensions of these complex disputes. Not too many years ago Indians and Pakistanis took a disparaging view of these other conflicts, and argued that they were successfully managing South Asia. Now their region stands out as conflict-ridden, nuclear prone, and on the edge of war. The remainder of this chapter suggests the outline of a such a strategy of conflict resolution.

Parallel Processing In looking at strategies for achieving solutions (as opposed to management strategies and getting through the next month or year), we can draw on a model from the world of high-speed computers. We need a strategy that allows for parallel processing of the many issues, disputes, and tangles that make up the Kashmir problem. This approach has the virtue of honesty. We should not now pretend that we know what a suitable solution will look like. Certainly, it will protect the vital interests (including the quite conflicting identities) of India and Pakistan. Certainly, it will recognize the ambitions and legitimate interests of the Valley Muslims. But a just solution will also acknowledge the interests of other Kashmiris-not least the tens of thousands of Hindu and Muslim refugees who have fled the valley in fear, and the ethnically quite different Muslim population in Azad Kashmir, that has its own grievances with the Government of Pakistan. Indeed, a situation in which these refugees returned, and again lived in harmony and under democratic norms could be defined as an acceptable solution. Sadly, some of the Hindu groups have already given up on the idea of a secular, multi-ethnic Kashmir, and are either seeking resettlement elsewhere in India or abroad, or have begun to support the creation of a Kashmiri Hindu “homeland” within Kashmir proper.

Which of these problems do we address first? Or do we work on “building confidence” between India and Pakistan, and wait until a more opportune moment? Or, do we go back in history and attempt to untangle grievances which have their origins in the 10th century, or earlier? Or do we look to the law for a framework, or do we bring an international organization (or an outside power) on to the scene, to either offer friendly persuasion or to knock heads?

The only solution that should be ruled out is doing nothing. Time will not heal the Kashmir problem. Time has made things worse in Kashmir. If a strategy for resolution of this conflict had begun in the early or mid-1980s then we probably would have averted some of the crises that arose later in that decade, and certainly would not regard Kashmir now as one of the world’s nuclear flash-points. To those who would argue that the situation is not ripe for a solution (a view expressed by senior officials in the Bush Administration) it should be pointed out that not only are one hundred million Indian Muslims held hostage by the fate of Kashmir (oddly, a favorite argument of those Indians who do not want to do anything), but in reality a billion people are held hostage by the dispute itself. Imagine what South Asia would be if India and Pakistan were to cooperate, not only on bilateral trade, water, and population issues, but on preserving the strategic unity of South Asia? Each would, then, be truly counted among the great regional powers. It would not be a question, as it is now, of Indian power minus Pakistani power, but of a formidable block of states, with some differences, but with even more in common.

As Lewis Carroll has suggested, if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. That has been the quality of many proposals to deal with Kashmir. They suggest action on one or another aspect of the Kashmir crisis. But we do not know, now, which of the Kashmir-related problems must be solved first before we can tackle a second, third, or fourth. Thus, we should begin to move down several paths at once. Some will be clear right to the end, on others there will be obstacles. Certainly, it is better to find out where the obstacles are sooner rather than later. It would be prudent, therefore, to pursue the following six paths simultaneously. After a few years an assessment of how far we have gone along each route, and where, if any, are the shortcuts to a settlement.

First: A Helping Hand, Not a Foreign Hand The Kashmir issue needs an outside perspective because Indian and Pakistani strategists are locked in a mindless competition over tactical advantage and scoring diplomatic points. 13 There is little strategic thinking on Kashmir. No one is looking beyond the immediate events and short-term calculations of gain and pain. A solution cannot occur until it is supported in both states—and by Kashmiris of several varieties—but in the meantime it is important to have a place, or an institution, where ideas, possibilities and pressures can be focused. There needs to be a helping hand, a facilitator, with no direct interest in the Kashmir conflict, yet with an interest in its resolution. 14

Should the United States take the lead? Or should there be a joint U.S.-Russian effort, perhaps backed up by the threat of UN sanctions? Probably not, at least not soon. 15 Washington and Moscow lack expertise and interest in Kashmir and neither are likely to make it a high priority item—although the new South Asia Bureau in the Department of State is acquiring expertise.

However, the United Nations is already engaged in Kashmir. Its role is sanctioned by numerous Security Council resolutions, and it maintains a peace keeping presence along the cease-fire line. There might be a plausible role for a UN fact-finding mission undertaken by a personal representative of the Secretary General. This was the pattern followed in the 1980s in the Afghanistan crisis. Such a representative could develop independent expertise, and his/her own line of communications with all of the contending parties, states, and factions. An expanded UN peacekeeping force or trusteeship is premature, and would not have the support of at least one major party, India. Nor could such a force be imposed on India. But a UN personage that coordinates and consolidates various diplomatic efforts now underway might, in three, four or five years, bear fruit.

The possibility of an enhanced UN role in Kashmir has contributed to the Government of India’s interest in a permanent seat on an expanded UN Security Council, and in 1993 Indian officials put forward a number of arguments why India should be considered for such a seat. However, India could then veto any UN action on Kashmir. Obviously, the Kashmir problem must be settled before India is admitted to the Security Council, but such membership could be part of a larger package of incentives and assurances for India, Pakistan, and responsible Kashmiri groups.

Second: Adjust India’s Federal Balance But also Pakistan’s Nowhere in the Constitution of India does the term federal appear. But there have been reasoned discussions in India about changing the balance between the center and the states in India—for good political and economic reasons. India already has a hierarchy of federalism: with some Union territories directly ruled from Delhi, and with some variation in the nature of the Indian states. Kashmir itself is the biggest variation: it has its own constitutional status in the form of Article 370. As many have suggested, India should now move in the direction it was headed anyway: towards greater autonomy for its component units. Within Jammu and Kashmir, there will have to be a further differentiation between those regions that want to become Union territories, and those that might arrive at a different constitutional structure.

The same process should be undertaken by Pakistan. Ideally, as some have suggested, the looser federation of the two parts of Kashmir with their respective states, along with increased flow of goods and people between them, would create a “soft” frontier where both the physical and cultural boundaries between India and Pakistan were somewhat fuzzy.

Third: Agreement on one Principle, But Honest Disagreement on Another In the past, high principle divided India and Pakistan as far as Kashmir was concerned. Pakistanis argued that India’s control over most of the state violated the right of self-determination of Kashmiris. Indians argued that Pakistan, more often than not a military dictatorship, was hardly a credible advocate of democracy. Pakistan’s position ignored the agreed-upon basis for the division of British India (and Pakistani diplomats shamelessly try to paper over the terms by which the princely states were to go to one side or another), and Indians cannot bring themselves to recognize Pakistan as a democracy. But this change in Pakistan is important. It suggests a principle that both states should accept. They can do so without any joint statement or formal agreement. This principle is that legitimacy will only flow from the ballot box, not the gun. Both in the past have argued that “the voice of the people” should be respected—Pakistan in Kashmir, India in Hyderabad. Both have taken the opposite position where necessary, and have used force. But forty-plus years of preaching one principle and acting upon another have led nowhere. India and Pakistan should want to settle the Kashmir problem with Kashmiris who share their own commitment to democracy—a commitment that must include the protection of minority rights. Getting agreement on this principle keeps open the door to a wide range of possible future relations between India, Pakistan, and Kashmiris. It would help ensure that the future will rest on the consent of the governed, not the coercion of the gun.

As desirable as it is to help India and Pakistan move towards agreement on democratic principles as a way to solve the Kashmir problem, it should be borne in mind that another principle will continue to divide them. New Delhi is not likely to give up the belief that its secularism would be damaged and that millions of Indian Muslims would be put at risk if a settlement of Kashmir took place on the basis of religion. The argument deserves serious consideration: it cannot simply be dismissed by Pakistanis as blackmail. Pakistanis must think of ways they can reassure India that a change in the status of Kashmir (or parts of that state) would not be seen as acceptance of the two-nation theory; Indians should likewise think of a way of peacefully accommodating Pakistani sensibilities and Kashmiri demands without damaging the core principles of Indian secularism.

Fourth: Back to the 19th Century? The Kashmir crisis has deep historical roots. Particularly egregious are those elements of the crisis that stem from imperial conflicts of the 19th century. The British acquired Kashmir, but did not make it part of British India; they established a boundary with China (and with the Afghans), but the boundaries were never fully demarcated. It seems absurd that two billion people should be entangled by conflicts generated by imperial governments that no longer exist. There are still border disputes apart from Kashmir. In Kashmir itself the line of actual control was never fully determined, which provided the opportunity for a bizarre struggle over the Siachin Glacier. Finally, China and Pakistan have come to a temporary agreement over a part of the border which is contested by India.

None of these border or territorial issues are strategically vital; all could be settled tomorrow without any loss of sovereignty or national identity. None involve significant domestic populations or ethnic rivalries. While these issues are not central to the Kashmir problem, they are related to it. Thus, prudence suggests that all of the concerned parties take more seriously the negotiations already underway to resolve the India-Pakistan and the India-China border disputes. In the long run, it would be important to associate Kashmiris themselves with such negotiations, and this might be one inducement for them to help restore order within their own state. But India, Pakistan, and China should, for their own reasons, attempt to eliminate such disputes, if only because there are more serious challenges awaiting them ahead in years to come. 16

Fifth: Invest in Stake-Building In the most interesting debate that the U. S.-Russian study team heard while in India and Pakistan, a group of Pakistanis argued back and forth as to whether Kashmir was the cause of India Pakistan tensions, or whether those tensions were the cause of the conflict. Both statements may be true—or we may never know what is the balance of truth. Our very ignorance about these matters suggests a heavy investment in two processes.

One is stake-building: increasing the number of people in India, Pakistan, and in all parts of Kashmir that have a stake in normal relations and in a process that moves the region towards a settlement. This is one side of CBMs: “confidence building measures.” Democracies that have bilateral problems need to encourage lobbies in each other. They are the bridge-builders who influence the internal debate in both countries, and make it possible for governments to actually do something useful. The growth of interest in trade in the business communities of both India and Pakistan is especially encouraging. 17

Further, a second aspect of stake-building should receive immediate attention. This is the restrictions placed on the flow of information, scholars, and journalists between the two states. It is surprising that the academics in both countries (especially India) have not raised their voices to demand the same rights of travel and access that foreign scholars and journalists have. Indeed, the academic community seems least interested in finding out the truth. As of mid-1993 there were no Indian scholars of any level studying in Pakistan, and only one Pakistani graduate student studying in India. By contrast, there are thousands of Indians in the United States, and about fifty Indians and Chinese in their respective countries. No Pakistani scholar has ever written a book about Indian politics, and there is only one Indian scholar who has written a good book based on field research in Pakistan. 18 By and large there is less in the way of genuine movement of ideas and people than there was before 1965. It is in the interest of India and Pakistan to unilaterally allow the flow of journalists and academics, without demanding reciprocity—but the policy communities in both countries have a difficult time of even imagining such a step.

Sixth: End Alphabet Diplomacy Finally, both sides should stop relying upon what could be termed the alphabet diplomats and begin to constrain their self-deceiving disinformation campaigns. Alphabet diplomats are RAW, ISI, KGB, KHAD, CIA, and so forth, and the local intelligence services have created a bizarre dimension to the Kashmir problem: supposedly well informed people in both countries make all kinds of wrong assumptions about which side is doing what to the other. Indians menacingly suggest that if Pakistani intelligence does not stop arming Kashmiris, “there will be hell to pay in Sindh.” Pakistanis themselves can’t figure out whether Sindh is their Kashmir, or is being stoked by the Indians. They claim that their dabbling in Kashmir is not the cause of India’s problems, but only the opportune exploitation of them. But then they will return the threat, and tell visitors to inform the Indians that if there is not movement of some sort in Srinagar, then India’s own survival may be at risk. In a kind of reverse mirror-imaging they will then go on to compare Kashmir with East Pakistan/Bangladesh.

An outsider is at a loss to determine what is fact and what is fiction. But it is likely that the insiders do not know the truth is either. 19 This has created an unstable state of affairs. Four years ago (in 1990) the risk of war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir was being exaggerated by outsiders, especially Americans. 20 Regional officials on both sides seemed to have a good grasp of the problem, and of the dangers of escalation. Neither side wanted to go to war for the sake of a few Kashmiris. That is still probably true, although there is a measure of crisis-weariness, especially in India. However, while the chances of an all-out war over Kashmir remain smaller than Americans have been predicting, it is greater than South Asians think. The latter have to remember that all of the earlier wars between the two countries were caused in one way or another by strategic calculations that turned out to be in error. With the existing levels of misinformation and disinformation, it could happen again, even with sober, responsible leaders in charge on both sides.

Conclusion: Problems without Solutions, Solutions without Problems While Kashmir consists of layers of problems we cannot assume that removing the source at each layer will lead to a solution. Certainly, nothing can be done about the original British decisions. That Kashmir has strengthened the conflicting identities of the two states is a fact that will not go away, and cannot be compromised. India and Pakistan can work around this history, but cannot rewrite it. However, as we have noted, Kashmir is nowhere near as important domestically in either state as it was a number of years ago, and the military/strategic issues embedded in the Kashmir conflict could be finessed by introducing various verification and inspection regimes, agreement on force levels, pullbacks, and so forth. 21 More problematic are strategies to deal with Kashmiri separatism (plebiscite or referendum—and if either, on what basis?). But here, also, there should be general agreement between India and Pakistan that accommodating Kashmiri sensibilities should not be the prelude to the break-up of either state. So, in addressing the issue of self-determination the two sides should be able to achieve an understanding over ground rules and context.

We have suggested in this chapter that the problems of India-Pakistan-Kashmiri relations are too complex to understand with full clarity. An initial strategy of conflict-amelioration, moving across a broad range of issues, is suggested as the best that can be done now. Some of these problems may not be amenable to solutions (the tension between Indian and Pakistani identity, for example). And, there may be solutions in search of problems. Confidence building measures are not solutions to any particular problem, but address the difficulty of getting both sides to meet and talk. CBMs build confidence, not solutions.

However, the biggest obstacle to movement on any of the Kashmir sub-problems seems to be their perception of time. Clearly, all sides to a dispute need to agree on the need for a solution. Yet Islamabad and Delhi seem to be on a teeter totter—when one side is up, the other side feels that it is accelerating downward. As they briefly pass through a point of balance or equilibrium neither wants to negotiate since both believe that time is on their side, that they are just about to, or will after some time, regain the advantage. And what is the advantage? Again, both sides seem to assume that the other will not compromise unless confronted by superior force. “Punjab rules”—a zero-sum game with a club behind the back—seem to dominate India-Pakistan relations. The greater Kashmir problem is getting both sides—and now the Kashmiris themselves, whose perception of how time will bring about an acceptable solution is not clear at all—to examine their own deeper assumptions about how to bring the other to the bargaining table, and reach an agreement. On balance, we should be optimistic that this will be done. A review of the history of the issue, and of recent crises it has helped to generate convinces me that while South Asia has had its wars and man-made disasters, it is well-stocked with responsible policy-makers and that India and Pakistan have increasingly well-informed publics. In the face of greater internal economic and ethnic problems, India—and now Pakistan—have built democratic institutions that are the envy of Russians and Yugoslavs, among others. They can, I believe, extend this success to their own relations. Outside powers, especially the United States, Russia, and Japan should be willing and capable at some time in the not-too-distant future to do more than stand by and watch.

NOTES 1. This chapter was first presented to a MCISS-South Asia seminar in 1992, and revised as a note prepared for the Center for the Study of Foreign Affairs of the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. Both were based upon research conducted during the course of a joint U.S.-Russian study of Kashmir and Afghanistan in Nepal, India and Pakistan in March-April, 1992. See Stephen P. Cohen, Sergei Kamenev, Vladimir Moskalenko and Leo Rose, Afghanistan and Kashmir (New York: The Asia Society, and Moscow: The Russian Oriental Institute, 1993). I have made some minor additions in view of a year in residence with the Ford Foundation, New Delhi, 1992-93.

2. The exact status of Indian and Pakistani nuclear capabilities remains uncertain. For recent overviews see George Perkovich, “A Nuclear Third Way in South Asia,” Foreign Policy; Summer, 1993, pp. 85-104 and Devin Hagerty, “The Powers of Suggestion: Opaque Proliferation, Existential Deterrence, and the South Asian Nuclear Arms Competition,” Security Studies, 2:3/4, Spring/Summer, 1993, 256-283.

3. The most notorious of these was offering Pakistan some 40 F-16 aircraft in exchange for the “capping” of its nuclear program; no equivalent offer was made to India, and both Islamabad and Delhi publicly and vehemently rejected this strategy of arms-for-peace.

4. For examples of this scenario-building see the testimony of the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, R. James Woolsey, before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, “Nomination of R. James Woolsey, Hearing,” 103rd Congress, First Session (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1993), and the exaggerated analysis by William E. Burrows and Robert Windrem in their Critical Mass: The Dangerous Race for a Superweapon in a Fragmented World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994). ,br> 5. For a fine collection of essays on different aspects of the Kashmir crisis see Raju Thomas, ed., Perspectives on Kashmir: The Roots of Conflict in South Asia (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992), and for a balanced summary of the Indian perspective on Kashmir see Sumit Ganguly and Kanti Bajpai, “India and the Crisis in Kashmir,” Asian Survey, Vol. 34, No. 5, May, 1994.

6. For a vivid overview see W. P. S. Sidhu, “Siachin: The Forgotten War,” India Today, May 31, 1992. Robert Wirsing has studied Siachin (and Kashmir) closely, and in a forthcoming book will provide the most authoritative account of the history of the conflict on (and over) the glacier.

7. This point is made by several Indian and Pakistani authors in Kanti P. Bajpai ad Stephen P. Cohen, eds., South Asia After the Cold War (Boulder: Westview, 1993). See especially the chapters by Pervaiz I. Cheema and Lieut. Gen. M. L. Chibber.

8. For a study of the origins and resolution of the Brasstacks crisis see Kanti Bajpai, P. R. Chari, Pervez Cheema, Stephen Cohen, Beyond Brasstacks: Perception and Crisis Management in South Asia (forthcoming, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security, University of Illinois); for a discussion of the subsequent 1990 crisis by a number of the policy-makers in government at the time see See Michael Krepon, Mishi Farugues, eds., Conflict Prevention and Confidence Building Measures in South Asia: The 1990 Crisis. The Henry L. Stimson Center, Occasional Paper No. 17, April 1994.

9. See Stephen P. Cohen, “Conclusion,” in Cohen, ed., The Security of South Asia: Asian and American Perspectives (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), p. 240.

10. The Indian logic is that if the US had not supported extremist Muslim elements in Afghanistan with lavish supplies of arms, then Kashmir would have not been radicalized. This conveniently ignores the large scale supplies of weapons by both Iran and China, and, above all, India’s own mismanagement of Kashmiri politics, especially the imposition of corrupt governments and the absence of free elections.

11. Some elements of the Bharatiya Janata Party have recommended that Kashmir be repopulated with Hindus, once its special constitutional status (Article 370) was eliminated; The Andorra precedent of the 13th century-a treaty between Spain and France guaranteeing Andorra’s internal autonomy-has been discussed by Jean Alphonse Bernard of Paris; Jagmohan, one of the key principles in the most recent crises in Kashmir, has written that the long-term solution rests in a revival of the Indian spirit. See his own record of the crises of Kashmir-and is pivotal role- in My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir (New Delhi: Allied, 1991.)

12. These impressions are, of course, based on personal experiences; however, in the absence of accurate poll data, serious academic studies, or other objective measures of Indian and Pakistani public opinion this remains the only way to judge public opinion on Kashmir in the two countries. What is astonishing is the absence of serious academic, or even journalistic studies of the shape and intensity of regional public opinion.

13. Not only has bilateral diplomacy collapsed between India and Pakistan, there has been, over the past year, a number of incidents in which the diplomats of both sides have been harrassed, and even beaten, by security forces, and the intelligence services of both countries have harassed ordinary scholars and journalists attending functions in each other’s country. Recent reports indicate that some in Pakistan now see some value in perpetuating the crisis over Siachin, while being “soft” on offers to open up nuclear facilities for inspection, as part of a complex game of getting outsiders, especially the United States, to come down harder still on Delhi. These verbal games are brilliantly played by both sides, but also reveal a lack of interest in achieving a settlement. For a fuller description of these diplomatic stratagems, see the editorial in The Frontier Post, Peshawar, December 17, 1993.

14. For an informative discussion of private third-party involvement see Gennady I. Chufrin and Harold Saunders, “A Public Peace Process,” Negotiation Journal, April, 1993, pp. 155-177.

15. I have outlined a strategy based on the possibility that the United States and other outside powers play a larger role on both the Kashmir and the proliferation issues-which are inextricably linked in many ways. For a presentation of this strategy to an Indian audience see Stephen P. Cohen, “Is there a Road to Peace in South Asia? An American Perspective,” Journal of the United Services Institution of India, April-June, 1993, pp. 146-153.

16. These include the successful transition to more open, competitive economies, the management of their own nuclear arms race (which is linked directly to the amelioration or resolution of the Kashmir problem), and simply coping with the increased demands placed on the struggling Indian and Pakistani states by new regional, economic, ethnic, class, and caste groups.

17. For a discussion of the recent history of private, or Track II diplomacy, including efforts by the business communities of India and Pakistan to foster dialogue, see Sundeep Waslekar, Track-Two Diplomacy in South Asia, Occasional Paper, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security, University of Illinois, 1994, especially the Appendix. This includes a list of over thirty recent Track II and confidence-building activities conducted in South Asia.

18. See D. D. Khanna and Kishore Kumar, Dialogue of the Deaf: The India-Pakistan Divide (Delhi: Konarak Publishers, 1992). Khanna and Kumar have one chapter devoted to Kashmir, based largely on interviews in India and Pakistan.

19. In 1993 the Indian Prime Minister, P. V. Narasimha Rao, told a visiting American group that there was no need to worry about incidents on the border leading to a larger conflict between India and Pakistan, since the Pakistanis, at least, were aware of what they were doing, and knew what the consequences would be if they went too far. He described the situation as analogous to the “magic circle” that surrounded Sita: she could not break out, but no one could break in.

20. A view put into print by Seymour Hersh, in a useful, if not always accurate article on the 1990 crisis. See Hersh, “On the Nuclear Edge,” The New Yorker, March 29, 1993.

21. For an overview of regional verification and CBM possibilities see Moonis Ahmar, “Indo-Pakistan Normalization Process: The Role of CBMs in the Post-Cold War Era,” Research Series, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security, University of Illinois, October, 1993.

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Toward a Kashmir Endgame? How India and Pakistan Could Negotiate a Lasting Solution

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

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By: Happymon Jacob

Kashmir has once again emerged as a major flashpoint between South Asia’s nuclear-armed rivals, India and Pakistan. The Indian government’s August 2019 withdrawal of statehood status for the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region intensified disaffection among separatists and the Kashmiri public. This report explores the strategies India and Pakistan have adopted toward Kashmir in the year since August 2019, and examines a potential road map for resolving the Kashmir conflict.

Motorcyclists navigate past barbed-wire placed by Indian security forces in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar on August 10, 2019. (Atul Loke/New York Times)

Kashmir has been a cauldron of discontent since August 2019, when the Indian government altered the special constitutional status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and split it into two “union territories” under direct federal administration.
For now, the Indian government seems to have closed off options for a negotiated settlement of Kashmir with Pakistan as well as with separatist parties in Kashmir. New Delhi’s strategy is to tighten its control of Kashmir while creating space for more pro-India politics. But this approach has intensified disaffection in Kashmir while opening the door for increased Pakistani interference.
Pakistan has responded by stitching together a strategy designed to cast doubt on the diplomatic basis of the current bilateral cease-fire and fuel violence within Kashmir while raising tensions on the border.
These mutually exclusive and highly militarized strategies have the potential to dangerously re-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan.
Although bilateral attempts at conflict resolution in Kashmir seem unlikely in the near future, both sides may come to see the advantages of talking. When the time is ripe, the two sides should revisit the “Kashmir formula” that was negotiated and nearly finalized in 2004–07 through backchannels.

About the Report

This report examines the insurgency and militancy in Kashmir and the India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir in the wake of the major constitutional changes carried out by India in August 2019. This study is based on discussions and interviews with senior retired and serving Indian and Pakistani officials and on insights gained from the author’s participation in closed-door track 2 meetings between India and Pakistan.

About the Author

Happymon Jacob is an associate professor of diplomacy and disarmament at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He is a columnist with The Hindu, hosts a weekly show on national security at The Wire.in, and is the author of The Line of Control: Travelling with the Indian and Pakistani Armies (2018) and Line on Fire: Ceasefire Violations and India-Pakistan Escalation Dynamics (2019).

The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s).

PUBLICATION TYPE: Special Report

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Kashmir Issue – Understand the multiple dimensions

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Table of Contents

Was Kashmir an independent nation? Learn the history of Kashmir

Kashmir, and adjacent areas like Gilgit, Jammu, and Ladakh – were part of the different empires at different times. Over the years, this area was under the control of Hindu rulers, Muslim emperors, Sikhs, Afghans, and Britishers.

During the period before AD 1000, Kashmir was an important center of Buddhism and Hinduism. Many dynasties like Gonanditya, Karkota, and Lohara ruled Kashmir and surrounding areas of North-western India.

The Hindu dynasty rule which extended until 1339 was replaced by the Muslim rule by Shah Mir who became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir, inaugurating the Shah Mir dynasty . A few centuries later, the last independent ruler Yusuf Shah Chak was deposed by the Mugul emperor Akbar the Great.

Akbar conquered Kashmir in 1587, making it part of the Mughal Empire . Subsequently, the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb expanded the empire further.

Thus, it can be seen that under the Mughal rule, which extended nearly all of the Indian subcontinent, Kashmir was an integral part of India – however, not an independent nation .

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Kashmir Region – After the Mughals

Kashmir Question - What are the issues in Jammu and Kashmir

Aurangzeb’s successors were weak rulers. Later Mughals failed to retain Kashmir. After Mughal rule , it passed to Afghan, Sikh, and Dogra rule.

In 1752, Kashmir was seized by the Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah Abdali. The Afghan Durrani Empire ruled Kasmir from the 1750s until 1819 when Sikhs , under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir and ended the Muslim rule.

By the early 19th century, Sikhs under Maharaja Renjith Singh took control of Kashmir. He had earlier annexed Jammu. The Sikhs ruled Kashmir until they were defeated by the British (First Anglo-Sikh War) in 1846.

After that Kashmir became a princely state of the British Empire – under the Dogra Dynasty.

Jammu and Kashmir – as a princely state of the British Empire

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Maharaja Gulab Singh of the Dogra Dynasty signed the ‘Treaty of Amritsar’ with the British East India Company in 1846. Under this treaty, he paid Rs. 75 lakhs to the East India Company in 1846 in exchange for Kashmir and some other areas. Jammu and Kashmir as a single entity was unified and founded (1846).

Zorawar Singh, a General in the Dogra Anny later led many campaigns in the northern areas like Ladakh, Baltistan, Gilgit, Hunza, and Yagistan, consolidating smaller principalities. He expanded the dominions of Maharaja Gulab Singh.

However, Jammu and Kashmir, from 1846 until 1947, remained a princely state ruled by the Jamwal Rajput Dogra Dynasty. Like all other princely states in India then, Kashmir too enjoyed only partial autonomy, as the real control was with the British.

The ruler’s stand (at the time of Partition)

During the time of partition of British India (1947), Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) was a Princely State. Britishers had given all princely states a choice – either to join India to join Pakistan or even to remain independent.

The ruler of Kashmir during that time (1947) was Maharaja Hari Singh, the great-grandson of Maharaja Gulab Singh. He was a Hindu who ruled over a majority-Muslim princely state.

He did not want to merge with India or Pakistan.

Hari Singh tried to negotiate with India and Pakistan to have an independent status for his state. He offered a proposal of a Standstill Agreement to both the Dominion, pending a final decision on the State’s accession. On August 12, 1947, the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir sent identical communications to the Governments of India and Pakistan.

Pakistan accepted the offer and sent a communication to J&K Prime Minister on August 15, 1947. It read, “The Government of Pakistan agrees to have Standstill Agreement with Jammu and Kashmir for the continuation of existing arrangements …”

India advised the Maharaja to send his authorized representative to Delhi for further discussion on the offer.

What were the Kashmiri people’s aspirations in 1947?

Kashmiri people took part extensively in the Indian Nationalist Movement. They not only wanted to get rid of British rule but also never wanted to be under the rule of the Dogra dynasty once the nationalist movement achieved its mission. The Kashmiris had preferred democracy to monarchy.

Jammu and Kashmir was always a secular state – with a history of Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh rule. Even though the majority population was Muslims, it then had a significant Hindu population as well.

India in 1947 had suggested conducting a plebiscite to know the aspirations of Kashmiri people. With tall leaders of Jammu and Kashmir like Sheik Abdullah on its side, cherishing the common values – secularism, democracy, and pan-India nationalism – India was confident to win the Plebiscite if it was held in 1947.

India’s stand with Junagadh, another princely state, was also to conduct a plebiscite. In 1947, upon the independence and partition of India, the last Muslim ruler of the Junagadh state, Muhammad Mahabat Khanji III, decided to merge Junagadh into the newly formed Pakistan. The majority of the population were Hindus. The conflict led to many revolts and also a plebiscite, resulting in the integration of Junagadh into India.

However, the Pakistan attack on Kashmir in October 1947 changed all dynamics. The exact aspirations of Kashmiri People at that time is still unknown – as a plebiscite or referendum was never held.

The Pakistan Invasion of Kashmir in 1947

Pakistan, though entered into a Standstill Agreement with Jammu and Kashmir, had an eye on it. It broke the Standstill Agreement by sponsoring a tribal militant attack in Kashmir in October 1947.

Pashtun raiders from Pakistan invaded Kashmir in October 1947 and took control over a large area. Hari Singh appealed to the Governor General of free India, Lord Mountbatten for assistance.

India assured help on the condition Hari Singh should sign the Instrument of Accession. Maharaja Hari Singh signed the instrument of accession with India (1947). It was also agreed that once the situation normalized, the views of the people of J&K will be ascertained about their future.

Jammu and Kashmir signs the Instrument of Accession with India

The Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession to India on 26 October 1947 in Srinagar.

As soon as the accession documents were signed, the Indian Armed Force took over the stage to repulse Pakistan-supported tribal assault.

Indian and Pakistani forces thus fought their first war over Kashmir in 1947-48.

India successfully drove out most of the Pak-supported tribal militants from Kashmir occupation. However, one part of the State came under Pakistani control. India claims that this area is under illegal occupation. Pakistan describes this area as ‘ Azad Kashmir ’. India however, does not recognize this term. India uses the term Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) for the area of Kashmir under the control of Pakistan.

India brings the United Nations (UN) into the picture

India referred the dispute to the United Nations Security Council on 1 January 1948. Following the set-up of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) , the UN Security Council passed Resolution 47 on 21 April 1948.

The UN Resolution was non-binding on India and Pakistan. However, this is what the UN resolution mentioned:

UN Resolution on Jammu and Kashmir

The UN resolutions clearly said :

Pakistan is the aggressor in the state.
Pakistan has to vacate all occupied territory in the state and hand over the vacated territory to India.
India has to remove all its forces leaving aside enough to maintain law and order.
India to conduct a plebiscite in the state.

Why has no Plebiscite or Referendum been held in Kashmir yet?

The state of Jammu and Kashmir is defined as it existed on or before the invasion of Pakistan on 22nd October 1947. This includes the present territory of Pak-occupied Kashmir (POK), Gilgit, Baltistan, Jammu, Laddhak, and Kashmir Valley.
Pakistan asked for time to vacate its occupation but it never complied.
As nearly one-third of the state of Jammu and Kashmir is still under the occupation of Pakistan, it is a non-compliance of conditions leading to the plebiscite.

Sheikh Abdullah’s movement – Formal incorporation of Kashmir into the Indian Union

Kashmir’s first political party, the Muslim Conference, was formed in 1925, with Sheikh Abdullah as president. Later, in 1938, it was renamed as National Conference . The National Conference was a secular organization and had a long association with Congress. Sheikh Abdullah was a personal friend of some of the leading nationalist leaders including Nehru.

National Conference started a popular movement to get rid of the Maharaja. Sheikh Abdullah was the leader.

After Maharaja Hari Singh signed an ‘Instrument of Accession’ with the Government of India, Sheikh Abdullah took over as the Prime Minister of the State of J&K (the head of the government in the State was then called Prime Minister) in March 1948.

Sheikh Abdullah was against Jammu and Kashmir joining Pakistan. However, he took a pro-referendum stance and delayed the formal accession to India. The pro-Indian authorities dismissed the state government and arrested Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah.

The new Jammu and Kashmir government ratified the accession to India. In 1957, Kashmir was formally incorporated into the Indian Union.

Kashmir Issue – External Disputes

Externally, ever since 1947, Kashmir remained a major issue of conflict between India and Pakistan (and between India and China to a minor extent).

Pakistan has always claimed that the Kashmir valley should be part of Pakistan. The conflict resulted in 3 main wars between India and Pakistan – 1947, 1965, and 1971. A war-like situation erupted in 1998 as well (Kargil war).

Pakistan was not only the illegal occupant of the Kashmir region. China too started claiming parts of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.

By the 1950s, China started to gradually occupy the eastern Kashmir (Aksai Chin) . In 1962, India fought a war with China over its encroachments, however, China defeated India. To make matters worse, Pakistan ceded the Trans-Karakoram Tract of Kashmir (Saksham Valley) to China.

Kashmir Issue – Internal Disputes

Internally, there is a dispute about the status of Kashmir within the Indian Union.

Kashmir was given autonomy and a special status by Article 370 of the Indian Constitution . Articles like 370, 371, 35A , etc are connected with privileges given to Jammu and Kashmir.

What is the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir?

Article 370 gives greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir compared to the other States of India.
The State has its own Constitution.
All provisions of the Indian Constitution do not apply to the State.
Laws passed by the Parliament apply to J&K only if the State agrees.
Non-Kashmiri Indians cannot buy property in Kashmir.

This special status has provoked two opposite reactions.

A section feels that Article 370 is not needed!

There is a section of people outside of J&K that believes that the special status of the State conferred by Article 370 does not allow full integration of the State with India. This section feels that Article 370 should, therefore, be revoked and J&K should be like any other State in India.

Another section feels that Article 370 is not enough!

Another section, mostly Kashmiris, believes that the autonomy conferred by Article 370 is not enough.

Major Grievances of Kashmiris:

Kashmiris have expressed at least three major grievances.

First, the promise that Accession would be referred to the people of the State after the situation created by tribal invasion was normalized, has not been fulfilled. They demand a ‘Plebiscite’ at the earliest.
Secondly, there is a feeling that the special federal status guaranteed by Article 370, has been eroded in practice. This has led to the demand for restoration of autonomy or ‘Greater State Autonomy’.
Thirdly, it is felt that democracy which is practised in the rest of India has not been similarly institutionalised in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Politics since 1948 – Conflict between the Kashmir State Government and the Central Government of India

After taking over as the Prime Minister, Sheikh Abdullah initiated major land reforms and other policies that benefited ordinary people. But there was a growing difference between him and the central government about his position on Kashmir’s status. He was dismissed in 1953 and kept in detention for several years.

The leadership that succeeded him did not enjoy as much popular support and was able to rule the State mainly due to the support of the Centre. There were serious allegations of malpractices and rigging in various elections.

During most of the period between 1953 and 1974, the Congress party exercised a lot of influence on the politics of the State. A truncated National Conference (minus Sheikh Abdullah) remained in power with the active support of Congress for some time but later it merged with the Congress.

Thus Congress gained direct control over the government in the State.

In the meanwhile, there were several attempts to reach an agreement between Sheikh Abdullah and the Government of India.

Finally, in 1974 Indira Gandhi reached an agreement with Sheikh Abdullah and he became the Chief Minister of the State.

The Revival of National Conference (1977)

He revived the National Conference which was elected with a majority in the assembly elections held in 1977.

Sheikh Abdullah died in 1982 and the leadership of the National Conference went to his son, Farooq Abdullah, who became the Chief Minister.

But he was soon dismissed by the Governor and a breakaway faction of the National Conference came to power for a brief period.

The dismissal of Farooq Abdullah’s government due to the intervention of the Centre generated a feeling of resentment in Kashmir. The confidence that Kashmiris had developed in the democratic processes after the accord between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah, received a setback.

The feeling that the Centre was intervening in the politics of the State was further strengthened when the National Conference in 1986 agreed to have an electoral alliance with the Congress, the ruling party in the Centre.

1987 Assembly Elections, Political Crisis, and Insurgency

It was in this environment that the 1987 Assembly election took place. The official results showed a massive victory for the National Conference-Congress alliance and Farooq Abdullah returned as Chief Minister.

However, it was widely believed that the results did not reflect the popular choice and that the entire election process was rigged.

A popular resentment had already been brewing in the State against the inefficient administration since the early 1980s. This was now augmented by the commonly prevailing feeling that democratic processes were being undermined at the behest of the Centre. This generated a political crisis in Kashmir which became severe with the rise of the insurgency.

By 1989, the State had come into the grip of a militant movement mobilized around the cause of a separate Kashmiri nation.

The insurgents got moral, material, and military support from Pakistan. The balance of influence had decisively tilted in Pakistan’s favor by the late 1980s, with people’s sympathy no longer with the Indian Union as it had been in 1947-48, 1965 or 1971.

The terrorists and militants drove out almost all the Hindus from the Kashmir valley, ensuring that a future plebiscite (if it happens) would be meaningless.

India imposed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir in 1990.

For several years, the State was under President’s rule and effectively under the control of the armed forces . Throughout the period from 1990, Jammu and Kashmir experienced violence at the hands of the insurgents and through army action.

1990 and Beyond – Growing Trust Deficit

After 1987, the pro-India sentiments of Kashmiri people tilted heavily towards Kashmiri Separatism. Pakistan, of course, added fuel to the fire – by giving moral and financial support to terrorists, militants, and insurgents. As a result, Kashmir frequently witnessed violence, curfew, stone-pelting, and firing between the troops of India and Pakistan across the Line of Control (LoC).

Thousands of soldiers, civilians, and militants have been killed in the uprising and the Indian crackdown since 1989.

Even though state elections were conducted, Kashmir did not return to normalcy before 1987 .

Assembly elections in the State were held only in 1996 in which the National Conference led by Farooq Abdullah came to power with a demand for regional autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir.

J&K experienced a very fair election in 2002. The National Conference failed to win a majority and was replaced by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress coalition government.

In 2015, India’s ruling BJP party was sworn into government in Indian-administered Kashmir for the first time in coalition with the local People’s Democratic Party, with the latter’s Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as chief minister (followed by Mehbooba Mufti because of the death of her father and party founder). However, this coalition didn’t last for long.

Even though the Government of India is taking many steps to stop the insurgency and bring Kashmir back to normalcy, terrorist attacks like that in Pulwama have seriously hindered the peace process.

The Current Stand of India – Regarding the Kashmir Question

No more mediation with the UN or any other other third parties.
India and Pakistan should resolve issues through bilateral talks as agreed by the Simla Agreement.
No Plebiscite in Kashmir unless Pakistan reverses the situation back to what was in 1947 (territory and demographics).

Who are the Kashmir Separatists?

All Parties Hurriyat Conference
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front
Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Hizbul Mujahideen
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind Flag.png Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (Since 2017)

What do Separatists demand?

Separatist politics which surfaced in Kashmir from 1989 has taken different forms and is made up of various strands.

There is one strand of separatists who want a separate Kashmiri nation, independent of India and Pakistan.
Then some groups want Kashmir to merge with Pakistan.
Besides these, there is a third strand which wants greater autonomy for the people of the state within the Indian union .

Demand for intra-state autonomy

Even though the name of the state is Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), it comprises three social and political regions: Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Jammu – The Jammu region is a mix of foothills and plains, of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs and speakers of various languages.
Kashmir – Kashmir Valley is the heart of the Kashmir region. The people are Kashmiri-speaking and are mostly Muslims. There is also a small Kashmiri-speaking Hindu minority.
Ladakh – The Ladakh region is mountainous, and has a very small population which is equally divided between Buddhists and Muslims. Ladakh is divided into two main regions – Leh and Kargil.

It should also be noted that out of the 3 main administrative divisions – Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh – insurgency and demand for independence is high only in the Kashmir Valley. Most of the people in Jammu and Ladakh still wish to be part of India, even though they demand autonomy differently. They often complain of neglect and backwardness. The demand for intra-state autonomy is as strong as the demand for State autonomy in the regions of Jammu and Ladakh.

Article 370: Changes made via Presidential order of 2019

On 5 August 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah announced in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Indian Parliament) that the President of India had issued The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019 (C.O. 272) under Article 370, superseding the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954.

The order stated that all the provisions of the Indian Constitution applied to Jammu and Kashmir.

While the 1954 order specified that only some articles of the Indian constitution to apply to the state, the new order removed all such restrictions.

This in effect meant that the separate Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir stood abrogated.

The President issued the order with the “concurrence of the Government of State of Jammu and Kashmir”, which meant the Governor appointed by the Union government.

Change of status: Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019

After the Government of India repealed the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian constitution in 2019, the Parliament of India passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which contained provisions that dissolved the state and reorganized it into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir in the west and Ladakh in the east.

The two union territories came into existence on 31 October 2019, which was celebrated as National Unity Day.

The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir was proposed to have a legislature under the bill whereas the union territory of Ladakh is proposed to not have one.

Urge for Peace

The initial period of popular support for militancy has now given way to the urge for peace.

The Centre has started negotiations with various separatist groups. Instead of demanding a separate nation, most of the separatists in the dialogue are trying to re-negotiate a relationship of the State with India.

The Kashmir issue – has multiple dimensions – external and internal; inter-state as well as intra-state. Not even the separatists are on the same ground – their demands are different.

The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir which was under the control of British India – is now not entirely with India. Pakistan and China too now occupy a significant portion of the territories of the erstwhile princely state.

Of course, the Kashmir problem also includes the issue of Kashmiri identity known as Kashmiriyat. However, almost every state in India has its own identity – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, or Kerala. However, the people in each of these states even when seeing themselves as Tamilians, Kannadagans, Bengalis or Malayalis are also able to see the bigger picture – they identify themselves as Indians.

Jammu and Kashmir is one of the living examples of plural society and politics. Not only are there diversities of all kinds (religious, cultural, linguistic, ethnic, tribal) but there are also divergent political aspirations.

Unfortunately, from the perspective of the youth of Kashmir, there is a growing trust deficit. It’s a hard reality that Jammu and Kashmir never functioned like other Indian states since its accession to India. It had given higher autonomy initially, however, it got eroded in practice.

The first step to solving the Kashmir issue is to identify the problems behind the alienation of Kashmir. Here are some of them:

Mishandling of the Kashmir Issue by the successive Central governments of India – which includes frequent dismissal of State Assemblies.
The state governments of Kashmir failed to distribute the benefits of growth and development to every area of Kashmir.
The terrorist and military outfits in Pakistan have been distancing the youth of Kashmir from the democratic form of the Indian government.
The regular presence of the Indian Armed Force or CAPF in the Kashmir interiors, and the misuse of provisions like ASFPA.

To find a solution to the Kashmir issue – all stakeholders should be considered.

What is the need of the hour is proper integration of Kashmir, Jammu, and Ladakh with India. Integration should not be seen in a limited dimension of territory. India should be able to win the hearts of the people of Kashmir.

Only time can tell about the success of the changes made concerning the provisions of Article 370.

Kashmir was and still is an integral part of India. It has a plural and secular culture – just like the rest of India. Urgent steps should be taken to bridge the gaps of trust deficit in the minds of Kashmiri youth. All Kashmiris should get the due share in the growth story of India. Like all other states in India, there should be adequate political autonomy in Jammu and Kashmir.

Violence, terrorism, and killings are never the answer – be it on any side. What do you think?

Read: Ladakh statehood

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About Alex Andrews George

Alex Andrews George is a mentor, author, and social entrepreneur. Alex is the founder of ClearIAS and one of the expert Civil Service Exam Trainers in India.

He is the author of many best-seller books like 'Important Judgments that transformed India' and 'Important Acts that transformed India'.

A trusted mentor and pioneer in online training , Alex's guidance, strategies, study-materials, and mock-exams have helped many aspirants to become IAS, IPS, and IFS officers.

Reader Interactions

March 6, 2019 at 6:50 pm

The separatist themselves don’t want this situation to have a positive outcome as it will subsequently deteriorate/hamper their “political” stance which they’ve nurtured since a long time.

February 11, 2023 at 7:29 pm

I never seen a article like this…its amazing date wise i m from Kashmir i nvr understand Kashmir isssue , Kashmir history from beginning…but today i understand full 🌝 thanks to the author of this article 😊

March 6, 2019 at 7:30 pm

As long as radical brainwashed of youth continues…nothing can be done, first shut down all those radical institutions & then bring education that teaches about secularism & India’s beauty & achievements!

March 6, 2019 at 7:43 pm

kashmiri youth mind are washed out by these separatist…and some militant group ..work opportunity should be given to the youths of kashmir alike other states of india ….Empty mind see only a way to destruction…..

March 6, 2019 at 11:58 pm

The real situation of J&K can be assessed only by hearing the voices of the common people, the constitutional arrangements like Article 370, Article 35A & IoA must be respected to keep the relationship intact.

March 18, 2019 at 11:34 pm

Common people with normal situation ab toh majority Muslim log ka hi hai…. pehle un hinduwo ko bulo jinko waha se bhga diya gya …tb na brabar ka faisla hoga

March 7, 2019 at 9:52 am

there is another angle to look into this dispute and that is religion. religion play a major role in building and developing the behaviour of the society.

March 7, 2019 at 10:31 am

Yes, I do agree that wars, disputes, killing will no longer be a way to provide an efficient solution to Kashmir issue.

March 8, 2019 at 12:21 pm

wonderful article….!! what i believe is ..us Indians should stand together for Kashmir… and make people of Kashmir know that though we are 1000’s of kilometers away we still stand for them will be their strength…Apart from all the political drama they should know that a simple spark in kashmir will cause a wildfire in kanyakumari.. The role of govt here is the root cause of all the issues if u ask me .. what were you doing while the kidnapper lure the kid with the candy …? now indian govt should respect the kashmiri’s give them the hope and gain trust.. a lot of bloodshed ,mutilated bodies , power abuse , women abuse … give them hope …show them we love them .. youth from other states understand the kashmiris show them the support.. show them why they should be a part of india …

March 8, 2019 at 5:20 pm

For the violence to stop in Kashmir and preventing this problem to further aggravate development plans, projects should be well reached in the state so that the youth is engaged in something productive rather than destructive work. First of all, the politicisation of the State situation should be avoided.

March 13, 2019 at 11:31 pm

This is not the solution of problem,but give the right of people.As it is mentioned is article that Kashmir was a princely state,it has right to what they want,the Kashmir dispute has only one solution come India and Pakistan forward and give rights to Jammu and Kashmir people what they want,and destroy this illegal occupied.

March 14, 2019 at 2:54 pm

Further plubicite may useful for kashmiris yo choose their will…

March 27, 2019 at 7:14 pm

Your assumption of Kashmir being an integral part of India because the it was a part of The Mughal Empire is akin to the assumption that India is an integral part of Great Britain because it was a British colony once. That is ridiculous! The problem would not be solved till India accepts the fact that Kashmir is not an integral part of India. You cannot blame Pakistan for it then because Pakistan was as much ‘India’ once as new India is. So morally, historically, Politically and logically, by your argument, Pakistan is nowhere wrong to claim Kashmir for itself!

April 7, 2019 at 6:48 pm

but chirag The Government of Pakistan agrees to have Standstill Agreement with Jammu and Kashmir but india didn’t. So, Pakistan is wrong as it was a the first one who attack….in 1947 october after that indian government helps J&K and our military took over the charge.

April 7, 2019 at 9:33 pm

state politician are taking due benefit of the prevailing situation in jammu kashmir. They are making their vote bank at the cost of common public. Center should make efforts to ground level development through job creation employment generation education and overall development of state. mare education is not solution even the highly educated students after getting no source of income has diverted their route which mislead the other growing youth. Stone pelting is source of income for some public because they are paid for this for which politicians and other extremists are responsible as they bargain with center for normalcy of situation.

July 10, 2019 at 10:56 am

all is messed up because of british government gave 3 choice instead of two

August 2, 2019 at 2:47 am

Very good article, Alex! 🙂

August 9, 2019 at 8:30 pm

The only thing matters is that J&K belongs to India, anyone can claim it but won’t get even a stone of it. (At least till the plebiscite is done with all the Kashmiris taking part including the one who had left or removed from Kashmir). They do deserve to take their own decision with all due respect but including all the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists.

August 14, 2019 at 6:31 pm

This is the best article I have ever read……!!! Really helpful in making a notes on Kashmir…..Thankyou very much…..!!!!!!

August 19, 2019 at 6:42 pm

Now the minds of kashmir people have been washed with the continuous presence of separatists and the Pak sponsored terrorism. No more plebiscites are needed to be given to these people. Indian government and the constitution is supreme. They have revoked 370 to bring the J & K into mainstream for all round development of J&K and its people. Pak does not have any right to interfere in our affairs, since its accession to India.

January 24, 2020 at 9:12 pm

Really good notes, grateful thanks to clearias team

February 9, 2020 at 6:21 pm

If Indian government wanted to integrated Kashmir into Indian Union, they should behave like human towards Kashmiri people who suffered from torture, disappearance, rapped by Indian Army from decades. Even Kashmiri youth experience torture, mob lynching by rest of indian people and although India wanted to integrate land of Kashmir not the people.

March 30, 2020 at 12:07 am

Can I download all of this in pdf format?

April 22, 2020 at 9:16 pm

Thank you sir

May 21, 2020 at 1:25 pm

It’s a very good article and has explained the J&K issue as easily as possible yet maintained the details. My look over the recent amendments on the J&K issue has changed, and it looks like a step that will work for the people in the long run (however not in the short term).

September 14, 2020 at 12:23 pm

Now come to know more about J & K issue… Contents of several book in one article.. Separatists,militants,terrorists, defunct politicians should be treated hard with central / State agencies … Hope for peace not only in valley… But in all parts including jammu,Kashmir & Ladakh……

October 27, 2020 at 12:44 am

I have a simple question. Even if both Pakistan and India want and agree on something. Should that be the solution, or should it be what the people want. To me, whether you like it or not, its the right of the Kashmiris to decide what they want for their future. Give them that right, thats the only fair solution.

And if you are not bothered by what is fair then the alternative is to go with the powerful and war is the way to find who is stronger.

March 21, 2022 at 3:38 pm

This Article is Baseless and Far From Ground Reality of Our Kashmir Nation , Kashmir Is not a integral or Vein of Any Nation wether is India or Pakistan , Kashmir Is Independent Before Birth of India or Pakistan.. Due to Continues occupation by Non Kashmirs Wehter is Muslim or Non Muslims , We Kashmirs Fight against the Occupation From years, still we are under Occupation joinlty by India paksitain and China ,, We Kashmirs are Peaceful Community between three Nation , we Lost more then 1 lakh we are wintess of crimes done by Non Kashmirs, we kashmiri Never agaist any Pakistain or India , but we never allow any indian or pakitain Interfercne in out kashmir , due to interference of India and Pakistan is responsible for destruction of our kashmir nation , We Peaple of kashmir never accept any occupation , 1000 political Drama playing by tri nation till date in our kashmir..

we Kashmiri appeal to Good and responsible Citizen of India and Pakistaini , both-side people are misguided regarding the Kashmir nation, the Ground Reality is different.. we Kashmiri respect both side nation as guest , we welcome every country peoples visit our kashmir people but we never accept India and pakistain occupation and we never forget the crimes of India and pakistain .

April 27, 2023 at 5:08 pm

Please update your notes. This is brilliantly done.

July 26, 2023 at 7:08 pm

Unbiased, good analysis and effectively presented. Hope the powers to be can affect the policy ideas presented here. Thanks!

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Essay on Kashmir Problem And Its Solution in English

Today we will write on Essay on Kashmir Problem And Its Solution in English, As we all know that Kashmir has been taken as one of the serious issues to talk about for the last so many years. This has been taken to be one of the international levels of problems whose solution is still not known much. The person of Kashmir has started taking Kashmir solution to be a dream that can never be fulfilled in this life. But if you would be looking into the pages of Kashmir issue, then for sure you would be coming closer with so many of the solutions as well which probably the world has never thought about to come up! Let’s share those Kashmir issue solutions with you!

Solution of Kashmir Problem :

As we all know that Kashmir is basically taken as the flashpoint between India and Pakistan for more than 60 years. Presently, the Line of Control has been divided into two regions as where one part has been administered by India and one by Pakistan. India has been making the efforts as where it would formalize this status quo and hence make it acceptable to be the international boundary. But Kashmir has rejected this plan for sure.

Essay on Kashmir Problem And Its Solution in English

Kashmir has been in favor of joining Pakistan and Pakistan is also on the support of this decision as well. Pakistan has been all the time making the effort to bring about the solution to the Kashmir dispute results. In the state majority of the Muslim population, it would be voting maximum to become the part of Pakistan. The Hindus of Jammu and the Buddhists of Ladakh have never ever shown any kind of the desire to join Pakistan.
If Kashmir would be joining India, then this would definitely be bringing about the stability right into the region as being the Muslim inhabitants of Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir adding to the Northern Areas.
Kashmir can often come up with the solution as for where Kashmir can act as the independent country as well. But both Pakistan and Indian are ready enough to give away the This would be bringing out the result of the plebiscite as a vote for the independence that would be opposed by both India and Pakistan.

Well, we don’t think so that in the coming few years no particular solution will be coming over in the Kashmir issue and still Kashmir has to crush between Pakistan and India! What are your opinions about it?

Well this is all about the Essay on Kashmir Problem And Its Solution in English and if you need to add something to this topic then you can write us in the comment section given below on this page.

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Kashmir issue: its background and prospects of possible solutions

Kashmir issue has been a bone of contention and source of acrimony between India and Pakistan for the last seven decades. All the bilateral attempts to solve the issue have hit the brick wall. The proposals by different commissions, individuals and organizations have also failed to address the burning issue. India and Pakistan have their own interests in the region. The issue can only be solved unless one side or both compromise their interests. However, they will never do it. Thus, the issue will remain unresolvable for more decades to come reducing the possibility of solution to almost zero. That being a case, the only prospect of possible solution is the change in the circumstances that force both the countries to sacrifice some of their interests and reach an agreement on the issue.

Background :

Kashmir issue began after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. As per Indian Independence Act of 1947, the rulers of princely states were given an option to either join India or Pakistan based on the religion, culture and geographical proximity of their states. They were also allowed to remain independent with certain reservations. Because of its Muslim population and location, Kashmir must have joined Pakistan. However, the ruler of Kashmir at that time was Hari Singh. He was Hindu ruler, while most of his subjects were Muslim. He delayed the annexation with an aim to continuously rule the territory as an independent prince. But, his hopes were dashed when Muslims on the Western border of his state revolted and Pashtun tribesmen entered into his territory to overthrow him. When the situation went out of his control, he fled to India and appealed its government for military assistance. Indian government exploited the situation and got an agreement signed by Hari Singh to annex Kashmir to India. As a result, He signed the Instrument of Accession, ceding Kashmir to India on October 26. Pakistan rejects the agreement by calling it fraudulent.

Consequently, India sent its military to Kashmir to occupy it. As a result, first Kashmir war took place between India and Pakistan. India approached the United Nations asking it to intervene. The United Nations recommended holding a plebiscite to settle the question of whether the state would join India or Pakistan. However, India, despite taking the issue to the UNO, never accepted its recommendation of holding the plebiscite. The war ended in 1949, when India and Pakistan signed an agreement to establish a ceasefire line as recommended by the UN and the region became divided. Till today, Kashmir is divided into two parts: one controlled by Pakistan called Azad Kashmir and other held by India called Jammu and Kashmir.

Prospects of Possible Solutions:

At present, when the BJP-led extremist government is controlling the reins of India, there exist almost zero possibility of resolution of Kashmir issue. That being a case, the only prospect of possible solution is the change in the following circumstances.

Change in the BJP-led government of India:

Currently, the extremist government of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rules India. It has already annulled the special-status of Jammu and Kashmir by revoking Article 370 and 35A. Besides, it has clearly shown no interest in solving the issue through negotiation. Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said, “If there is talk with Pakistan then it will be on Azad Kashmir.” It is, therefore, no prospect of possible solution is expected as far as BJP-led government is in power in India. However, if the moderate government replaces it, the issue could be solved through negotiation because PM Imran Khan is keen to solve the issue.

Change in the mindset of Indian people towards Kashmir:

The current atrocities of Modi in Kashmir have already alienated some moderate elements of India. They have turned against his ill policies. Acclaimed Indian author Javed Akhtar and film director Mahesh Bhatt have slammed Modi for facilitating the rise of Hindu nationalism in India. Javed Akhtar said in an interview, “Of course, he is a fascist. Fascists do not have horns on their heads. Fascist is a thinking, and this thinking that we are better than others is fascism,” Thus, if the moderate elements are united in future, although they are limited in numbers, they may put pressure on their government to reduce their belligerence and let the Kashmiris decide their future.

Rise in freedom struggle of Kashmiri people after the revoking of Article 370:

Undoubtedly, the repealing of special-status of Kashmir has given fresh impetus to the freedom movement of Kashmiri people. It was seen that they took to the streets to protest against Modi’s sinister move with great power and energy. If they continue their struggle, they will not only liberate Jammu and Kashmir from India, but also mount pressure on Pakistan to handover its Azad Kashmir to form a new independent state on the map of the world. Only Kashmiris can win their freedom.

China’s replacing the US as a super power:

Only a super power country can solve the issue of Kashmir by acting as a mediator. These days, India is a major ally of the US in the region and is used as a tool to contain the influence of China by the US. It is a reason that India became the first major country in South Asia to reject Chinese vision of Belt Road Initiative (BRI). Hence, the US, being a super power, will never berate India over Kashmir issue, no doubt, how much New Delhi contributes to human rights abuses there. On the other hand, China wants peace in the region to succeed its BRI program. It is known fact that Kashmir issue is linked to extremism and terrorism in the region. Unless this issue is resolves, peace in South Asia will be a distant dream. Thus, China will participate in Kashmir dispute actively, after being a global power, and find the solution of this thorny issue even if it collapses with the interest of Pakistan because China prefers peace to everything.

Conclusion :

Thus, keeping in view the current status of Kashmir dispute, the prospects of possible solutions are almost negligible. However, change in the existing circumstances may create some possibilities for dispute resolution.

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Essay on Kashmir Issue with Outline and Quotations

This post contains an Essay on Kashmir Issue with Outline and Quotations for the students of Class 10, Class 12, FSc, B.A, BSc, Graduation, and others. The same essay could be written under the title Essay on Kashmir Issue or Few Lines about Kashmir. There are many other important essays for different Classes are available here as well. Click here for more Essays. Kashmir Conflict is between India and Pakistan. Now, this issue is a current affair nowadays and this Essay on Kashmir Problem is very important for exams. Here are 2 essay examples the first one is with outline and quotes and the second one is simple and easy.

Kashmir Issue Essay with Outline and Quotes for Students

A bone of contention.
The right of self-determination.
The inexpressible miseries of the Kashmiris.
India is projecting the struggle as “Muslim Fundamentalism.”
UNO should play an active role.

“Liberty will not descend to a people; It is a blessing that must be earned Before it can be enjoyed.”

Kashmir is a bone of contention between Pakistan and India. The Kashmir issue is the biggest hindrance in the normalization of relations between Pakistan and India. The two countries have fought two full-fledged wars over this issue. In view of its geopolitical significance, India desired to acquire Kashmir when the partition of the sub-continent became inevitable circumstances when the Kashmiri Muslims revolted against the evil designs of India.

“True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what’s right.” (Brigham Young)

Pakistan is of the view that only the people of Kashmir have a right to determine the future of Kashmir. The UN resolutions of August 13, 1948, and January 5, 1949, which were accepted both by India and Pakistan provided for the holding a plebiscite under the UN auspices to settle the Kashmir issue.

02. Essay on Kashmir Issue and its Solution

Kashmir Dispute / Problem / Issue and Its solution

Kashmir was once said to be a heaven on the earth. But at present, the situation is totally different and the circumstances are worst. In Occupied Kashmir, raping of the Muslim girls and women by the armed forces of Hindustan has become common. The Muslim men and women, and boys and girls are being persecuted to death into the torture cells by the Indian army soldiers.

The innocent Kashmiri Muslims are being killed mercilessly on a large scale. In fact, the Valley of Occupied Kashmir has become a slaughter-house of the Kashmiri Muslims. At present, occupied Kashmir is presenting a terrible spectacle.

The U.N.O. passed two resolutions in 1948 and 1949, which were accepted both by Pakistan and Hindustan, for the holding of a plebiscite under the supervision of U.N.O. to settle the Kashmir issue forever. These two resolutions are still hanging fire.

The Western countries are playing the most condemnable role regarding the Kashmir issue. The politicians of these countries seem to be worried about the pollution, caused by smoke and noise, but it is a matter of great regret that they are not paying any attention to the pollution caused by the blood of the innocent Muslims of occupied Kashmir.

The Hindustan Government has so far used all the possible tools to crush the freedom movement of the Kashmiri Muslims in their own homeland. The rulers of Hindustan have so far failed to understand the real problem. They are trying to deal with the freedom-movement of the Kashmir’s as terrorism against Hindustan.

In fact, the freedom-movement of the Kashmiri’s is the expression of the entire community of Kashmir. The students, the traders, the house-wives, the farmers and the politicians are all one in this freedom-movement. The daily killing of innocent Kashmiris has not demoralized them. It has rather given them a new courage, a new zeal, and new confidence to fight for their rights of self-determination.

The Law enforcing Agencies of Hindustan has crippled countless Muslims in the occupied Kashmir. It appears as if Hindustan will never be prepared to recognize the right of self-determination of the Kashmiris as the rulers of Hindustan are not ready to negotiate and solve the Kashmir Issue under Simla Agreement and U.N.O resolutions.

To conclude, the international community must pressurize Hindustan to accept the justified demand of the Kashmiris. It must impose economic restrictions on Hindustan. It must also use force under U.N.O. The time has now come when U.N.O must play an effective role to solve the Kashmir issue as it has played in Iraq-Kuwait case, otherwise, it can lose its vitality as peace-keeping and peace-making organization in the world.

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June 6, 2023 at 6:14 am

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Essay on Kashmir Problem: Need of a proper solution for Class 10, 12, Mains Exam (UPSC, PSC, SSC)

Kashmir Problem: Need of a proper solution Essay : After the independence of India, the problem of Kashmir emerged as India was portioned into two different nations along the religious front i.e., India and Pakistan. During that time, there were 500 princely states that had the option of either accepting India or Pakistan or remain independent. Of these princely states Jammu and Kashmir was populated by Muslims and ruled by a Hindu ruler named Hari Singh. Kashmir shared its borders with both India and Pakistan so it had a very strategic importance.

History of the conflict:

Pakistan expected that after the independence Kashmir with its majority of Muslims will joins it. India considered the religious factor to be irrelevant as the leading political party, the Indian National Conference was non-religious. Kashmir had no well-organized body that would provide accession to Pakistan. Besides this the Indian National Congress was not in favour of Pakistan. Therefore, Kashmir had not acceded either to India or to Pakistan, as declared by the deputy prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Right after this decision, Pakistan send troops to capture Kashmir. Maharaja Hari Singh also sought for military help from the Indian government. The Indian government decided to help with the condition that the Maharaja signs to merge Kashmir with India. Accordingly, Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession and the very next day, India troops were sent to Kashmir. A fight broke out between the troops of India and Pakistan and this continued till the beginning of the winters. In 1948, the Kashmir issue was taken to the United Nations according to the advice of Lord Mountbatten. However, the Security Council altered the agenda from the Jammu and Kashmir to the India -Pakistan Question. The UN proposed a resolution in which it stated that the both Pakistan and India have to remove the troops. After this a poll will be held by which the Kashmiris have to decode their own future, but Pakistan did not withdraw its troops. A ceasefire was agreed on January 1949, with 65% of the Kashmir territory under India and the remaining part with Pakistan. But Pakistan continues to demand Kashmir due to its Muslim majority whereas Indian government considers Kashmir to be an important state of India.

Need for solution:

1.) Kashmir can come up with the solution of remaining an independent country without acceding to India or Pakistan. This will bring out the result of plebiscite that both India and Pakistan will oppose.

2.) If Kashmir joins India there would be stability into the region as being the Muslim inhabitants residing in the northern areas of India.

3.) Kashmir is in favour of joining Pakistan and in the same way Pakistan also wanted to include Kashmir in it. Being the Muslim majority state, Kashmir would vote in majority to become the part of Pakistan. The Hindus of Jammu however ahs not shown any interest to join Pakistan.

4.) The threats to Indian security and secularism should be stopped. If Kashmir is affected the entire nation will be affected in some way or the other.

5.) The government should not neglect industrialization and employment schemes to Kashmir considering the accession issue.

Conclusion:

The confluence of secular nationalism, religious nationalism and ethnic nationalism has taken the complexity of Kashmir issue to a new height. As a result of this, the Kashmir Issue has not yet been solved. The people of Jammu and Kashmir want to work for the wellbeing of India and they do not want to become puppet in the hands of supreme imperialist powers.

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Essay on “The Kashmir problem” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

The Kashmir problem

Essay No. 01

Synopsis: Since independence India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads on Kashmir. Pakistan has sponsored terrorism and secessionist elements in the valley. She has fought three unsuccessful wars against India in the last 50 years on the issue. Pakistan’s belief that Muslims cannot live as equals in Hindyu-dominent India is baseless. India is a secular State and there are more Muslims hating in Pakistan itself. Kashmir’s accessing to India is final and irrevocable. Political compulsions in Islamabad oblige the leaders there to keep the issue unnecessarily alive and burning. The US’s own interest makes the matter more complex and disturbing. It is essential that Article 370 is abrogated and Kashmir’s full integration is achieved. There are some other imperatives which should be taken care of by the popular government immediately.

For over 50 years there has been bitter hostility over Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Pakistan-sponsored terrorist and extremist outfits have been active of a long time in the valley coursing huge losses in terms of human lives and property. The secessionist elements trained, armed and sneaked into Kashmir have been systematicallyarryng out sabotage, killing o innocent people, desecration of places of worship, exploding bombs and kidnapping common people and even visitors and foreign tourists. India is a secular State and there are more Muslims in India then Pakistan. They constitute 13 per cent of the total population of the country of 970 million people.

Political compulsion in Pakistan oblige the leaders n Islamabad to keep Kashmir issue alive and burning and it is reside again and gains in international forums and conferences of the Islamic nations inspire of the hard fact that Kashmir will remain were it has been for the seat 5 decades- in the thick of all the hype, hoopla and dispute. The US has its own interests and does not want the issue to be us on the back burner. She still does not recognize Kashmir as an integral part of India and insists that the issue be settled bilaterally. Washington believes that the valley is still a disputed territory between the two countries and it helps her in mandating her pressure on both the countries.

The US has declared the Pakistan based terrorist outfit Harkatul-Ansar as terrorist organization, and the other extremist group Kashmir Liberation Front, again sponsored and supported by Islamabad, is under watch and may be soon declared a terrorist outfit by the US Administration. This action of the US branding the Hark at as a terrorist group is although a belated one, and yet it is has gladdened the Indian establishment. Now, Pakistan finds itself in a very embracing position as it has amply proved and highlighted the Indian contenting that Pakistan was involved in terrorist activates in India.

There are certain political compulsions behind these firings and military skirmished. There has been long drawn out communal violence in Pakistan resulting in thousands of deaths and destructing of property on a large scalpel The Pakistani economy has been in shambles and corruption has been boundless. Moreover the war next door in Afghanistan threatens to enter into Pakistan. Therefore, Pakistani rulers find it convenient to keep the LOC alive to divert the attention of the Pak public from ties own failures and bungling. In the words of some experts the Pakistani leaders have turned the LOC into a lifeline for Pakistan. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s one onto a gene in her relation with India is that of Kashmir.

We should not commit the past mistakes on this sensitive and compels issue. First we committed a serious mistake by taking the issue in the UN in the fond hope that the world community in general and super powers in particular see reason and do justice to India, the biggest democracy and a secular State. Second mistake was when we agreed to discuss the Kashmir issue under Shaman Agreement. While discussing Kashmir with Pakistan the vacation of aggression by her input should also be raised The Gujral doctrine, in relation to Pakistan, need not be stretched too far and should be to the teen of right response from the opposite party lest should be construed as our weakness.

Essay No. 02

The Kashmir Problem

The State of Kashmir has always been a bone of contention, an eye sore ever since India achieved its independence. The position at that time was that, all the States that comprised India, and had been independent, had three clear options, available to them. The three options were that, either they accede to India, or accede to Pakistan. The third option was that they could remain independent of both India and Pakistan.

While all the States did the needful the State of Kashmir took a unique turn, an eventful and an unprecedented turn. The then Prime Minister of India stated that, regarding the accession of the State of Kashmir the wishes of the people of the State would be taken into account, and not only the rules applicable to the other States. This condition gave the State of Kashmir a peculiar status which no other State had, to enjoy. This little declaration by the Prime Minister turned the tide of events for the State of Kashmir which, till today has not seen the light of an amicable solution. Taking full advantage of the declaration of the Prime Minister that, the people of Kashmir will decide their own fate, Pakistan has, all through these past fifty and odd years of independence of India been harping on the taking of an opinion poll in the State. This is so because, Kashmir has a majority population of Muslims and, Pakistan is convinced and rightly so that, if opinion is taken, the Muslim majority will most certainly vote for the option of acceding to Pakistan. In the pursuit of this view only, Pakistan has been spreading terrorism in the State and ousting the Hindu minority so that, the few non Muslim are also out of the scene of voting if the need arises.

All through these fifty years of India’s independence, Pakistan is very clearly and methodically trying to lay their claim and rightful authority over the State, whether it is with force, murder, or mischief. This means that, a little mistake in the past has caused and is causing havoc to the State and to the people of the State of Kashmir. Seeing no benefit accruing to it by small and far apart skirmishes of big and small magnitude for the last ten years Pakistan is trying to eliminate the minority of Hindus from the State by reigning terror in the State. They are training, financing and inspiring young men and sending them across the Indian border to spread fear in the State. The trainees are working under the guidance of hard-core Muslim terrorists to kill and plunder in the State. There have been talks and declarations a number of times but there seems to be no end of the continued struggle for the little State of Kashmir.

After having dealt with the problem for fifty years, it is felt that, even to-day, the problem defies any solution, at least in the near future. The situation is in reality absolutely inflammable as, Pakistan continues to send Jehadis/ terrorists to wreak destruction in the State. The plea taken by the Jehadis is that, they are fighting for their right of freedom. India has all through these years sought to find a solution to the problem, which is amicable and mutually acceptable to all the parties involved. The latest attempt to find peace with Pakistan is the declaration of a unilateral ceasefire by India. Even to this step taken by India the Pakistani reply is not a follow up of a ceasefire by them but with guns and shells.

To this sort of a situation where both parties to the struggle have their own styles of functioning, all solutions seem to obstruct any results. The policy of ’wait and watch’ can only be the keyword to the Indian policy on Kashmir, let us see when Pakistan realises the futility of a cold attitude towards its neighbour and its cold blooded revolt against India in the process of which, only innocent people are killed, kidnapped and hacked to death. The net result of all this being a big zero we remain as is where is even after fifty years of attempting for a solution.

With this situation remaining for so long a period, it does not appeal to any reason that, relations of the two neighbours will ever improve. The relations are keeping on moving down the ladder of discontent and suspicion of each other, and there is nothing just nothing achieved.

Essay No. 03

“Kashmir, the most picturesque and fascinating area, known for its beauty, gardens, gentle and docile people has been reduced to a region of ghosts and death because of the devious means adopted by Pakistan to incite the people by giving them arms and inciting them into terrorism.”

The Kashmir problem now is a problem over 53 years old, and inspite of more than half a century’s claims and counter-claims, the problem remains unresolved. India has stoutly denied any international mediation. To trace the history of the Kashmir problem we have to go back to the point of partition of India into two countries-India and Pakistan. After the partition has been agreed upon and was being implemented the infiltrators of Pakistan raided Kashmir. Till then it had not got settled to what country was Kashmir acceding and in the face of these insidious designs of the Pakistani infiltrators. Maharaja Hari Singh, the then Maharaja of Kashmir rushed to Delhi, signed the instrument of accession with India, giving the legal relevancy to India to send their forces to push out the insurgents for Kashmir. This was done and that was the stage when the entire Kashmir even that part which today is termed as POK (Pak Occupied Kashmir) was under India’s control. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India made the colossal political blunder in referring the Kashmir dispute to the UNO asked the Indian forces to retreat and demarcated a line of control which till today as the LOC line has remained the bone of contention. The region lying beyond the line of control on the Pakistan side has remained a disputed part and has remained to be described as the POK-neither fully a part of Pakistan not a part of India and is a constant irritant of. India being the safe passage for the militants and insurgents who sneak into the Indian territory through it.

Pakistan has even been uncomfortable with the situation particularly against the repeated and resolute assertions of India time and again that Kashmir is an integral part of India. That is the truth and none dare touch the ‘head of the body’. Pakistan has fought four wars- the first one in 1947, then in 1965 and then again in 1971 and last one recently known as the Kargil misadventure on their part in May, 1999. And every time Pakistan has suffered a defeat and humiliation. India on her part has ever been a pardoning country and diplomatically this has caused more irritants to it. A tough and unflinching stand if India had even once taken would have solved the problem for all times. It has been the view of a section of political thinkers that the Pak-sponsored terrorism can only be countered through equal or greater force—and not parleys. The Pakistani war-mongering could not succeed either in 1947 or in 1965 because the agenda was supported by only a minuscule section of the valley. The Tashkent Agreement and the Shimla Agreement had all good intentions behind them but Pakistan could never stomach the insult that it seemed to be suffering within signing these agreements. There were agreements signed by Pakistan under duress. P.M. Dhar a onetime diplomat bureaucrat who was actively involved in the Shimla agreement in his recently published book-Indira Gandhi, ‘The Emergency and Indian Democracy’ writes that the Kashmir problem would have been resolved, had a letter and spirit of the Shimla Agreement been implemented. It was during this agreement also that Indira Gandhi relented India’s stand (as Bhutto had virtually come to his knees during the process, as was reported) otherwise that was again an opportunity when the POK would have been got vacated and the whole region would have come within India’s grip.

Kashmir is a major challenge to India democracy, infact to the concept of democracy how can a democracy confront a non-democratic system that only uses catchy democratic phrases such as Human Rights, self-determination etc. in the furtherance of its ’cause’ while denying all such democratic values itself. How can a democracy take on a religious crusade, “Jehad”, that does not believe in democratic tenants but exploits them to the hilt for achieving its vested interests?

The Kargil was the third attempt in the history of Independent India that Pakistan tried to occupy the Kashmir by assisting or backing the infiltrators: The first time just after independence in 1947, a second time in 1965, as a part of operation Gibraltar, that leads to Indo-Pak Second War end the third time through Kargil. But Pakistan could not succeed in her efforts.

In short, India and Pakistan have to work together to solve the Kashmir problem amicably. Violence is not a solution. No third party can do anything. It is better to view the things in practical shape and work honestly so that the present arms race between the two brothers comes to an end and every Indian and every Pakistani can lead their life happily, amicably and this is what every national of both the country wish, as reflected during the latest Indo-Pak cricket matches.

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COMMENTS

Ten Potential Solutions to the Kashmir Conflict
The people of Kashmir must be permitted to choose their own leaders in free and fair elections, as do Indians in every other state in that union, and New Delhi should solemnly commit to supporting Kashmir's provincial autonomy and the human rights of its people, as it does the autonomy and rights of the people of Punjab, Maharashtra, or West ...
PDF Pakistan Kashmir Strategy: An Assessment and Future Outlook
permanent solution to the Kashmir dispute lies in abiding by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions which both Pakistan and India have mutually accepted. There is also a global commitment to the issue. Even Indian leaders in the late 1950s accepted the fact that the only solution to the Kashmir issue lied in the framework of the UN
A possible solution to the Kashmir issue
EVM. Here are some key ideas for consideration that try to see how the Kashmir issue can be resolved once and for all. The government could make a Bismarckian move to integrate the state of Punjab with Kashmir (P&K- the new state comprising Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir). The government can also integrate Ladakh with Himachal to form "Himachal and ...
Resolving Kashmir: imperatives and solutions
The Kashmir problem has existed for over sixty years, ... But there may be lessons to draw on from resolutions of similar conflicts, even if the Kashmir solution has to have its own particular parameters. The challenge for the region is to maximise current opportunities. In this, the international community and the South Asian Association for ...
The Kashmir conflict: How did it start?
The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir was sparked by a fateful decision in 1947, and has resulted in decades of violence, including two wars. Since 1947, India and Pakistan have been ...
PDF Resolution of the Kashmir dispute: a way forward
The Kashmir question is one of the oldest unresolved international problems in the world. The experience of six decades has shown that it will not go away ... We have left the question of final solution to the people of Kashmir." Nehru also said on November 2, 1947, "We have declared the fate of Kashmir is ultimately to be decided by the ...
Kashmir
The Kashmir problem. As long as the territory's existence was guaranteed by the United Kingdom, the weaknesses in its structure and along its peripheries were not of great consequence, but they became apparent after the British withdrawal from South Asia in 1947. By the terms agreed to by India and Pakistan for the partition of the Indian subcontinent, the rulers of princely states were ...
Kashmir: The Roads Ahead
It differs from other recent studies in that its primary focus is on a strategy for achieving a solution, not on the merit of individual solutions. 5. The Several Kashmir Problems. The Kashmir ...
Toward a Kashmir Endgame? How India and Pakistan Could Negotiate a
Kashmir has once again emerged as a major flashpoint between South Asia's nuclear-armed rivals, India and Pakistan. The Indian government's August 2019 withdrawal of statehood status for the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region intensified disaffection among separatists and the Kashmiri public. This report explores the strategies India and Pakistan have adopted toward Kashmir in the ...
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Solving the Kashmir Conundrum. As violence surges in Indian-administered Kashmir, four experts say confidence-building measures between India and Pakistan are the only way to begin solving the ...
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An Analysis of the Kashmir Issue: Past, Present and Future. Recommendations. Abstract: In this paperwork, we at first presented the basic introduction to the Kashmir issue and then. tried to shed ...
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There are four essential obstacles which hinder the resolution of the Kashmir dispute: (i) Indian intransi-gence; (ii) Lack of unity within Kashmiri resistance; (iii) Absence of a coherent long-term Pakistani policy; (iv) Inhospitable international environment. The Indian intransigence can only be broken through.
Kashmir Issue
The Kashmir issue - has multiple dimensions - external and internal; inter-state as well as intra-state. Not even the separatists are on the same ground - their demands are different. The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir which was under the control of British India - is now not entirely with India. Pakistan and China too now occupy a ...
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A S tudy on Kashmir Problem and its Solution. AFM Asif Aznani 1*, A.S.M. Sarwar 2. 1 Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Primeasia University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 2 Founder and CEO, Topbright, Banglad esh
The Kashmir Problem : Its Handling in The United Nations
More than two decades ago the United Nations was seized of the. problem of Kashmir by way of a reference to the Security Council by India.1 India and Pakistan had found themselves involved in a deadly quarrel over a track of territory with considerable geographical signifi- cance. Between January 1, 1948, when India lodged its complaint, and ...
Kashmir Problem: Suggesting the Solutions
Kashmir Problem: Suggesting the Solutions. December 2018. DOI: 10.26643/think-india.v21i4.8448. Authors: Dr. Ramesh Kumar. To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly ...
Essay on Kashmir Problem And Its Solution in English
by Moin akhtar May 7, 2019. Today we will write on Essay on Kashmir Problem And Its Solution in English, As we all know that Kashmir has been taken as one of the serious issues to talk about for the last so many years. This has been taken to be one of the international levels of problems whose solution is still not known much.
Kashmir issue: its background and prospects of possible solutions
That being a case, the only prospect of possible solution is the change in the circumstances that force both the countries to sacrifice some of their interests and reach an agreement on the issue. Background: Kashmir issue began after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. As per Indian Independence Act of 1947, the rulers of princely ...
Essay on Kashmir Issue with Outline and Quotations
02. Essay on Kashmir Issue and its Solution. Kashmir Dispute / Problem / Issue and Its solution. Kashmir was once said to be a heaven on the earth. But at present, the situation is totally different and the circumstances are worst. In Occupied Kashmir, raping of the Muslim girls and women by the armed forces of Hindustan has become common.
Kashmir Problem: Need of a proper solution Essay for Class 10, 12
Essay on Kashmir Problem: Need of a proper solution for Class 10, 12, Mains Exam (UPSC, PSC, SSC) Kashmir Problem: Need of a proper solution Essay : After the independence of India, the problem of Kashmir emerged as India was portioned into two different nations along the religious front i.e., India and Pakistan.During that time, there were 500 princely states that had the option of either ...
Essay on "The Kashmir problem" Complete Essay for ...
The Kashmir problem now is a problem over 53 years old, and inspite of more than half a century's claims and counter-claims, the problem remains unresolved. India has stoutly denied any international mediation. To trace the history of the Kashmir problem we have to go back to the point of partition of India into two countries-India and Pakistan.
Short essay on Kashmir Problem and Its Solution
Short essay on Kashmir Problem and Its Solution. Short essay on Kashmir Problem and Its Solution (free to read). First, continue to use police and paramilitary forces to protect the public, patrol borders, detain terrorists, and seize arms. But government should ensure as far as possible that they operate within the law and also communicate in ...

Ten Potential Solutions to the Kashmir Conflict

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A possible solution to the Kashmir issue | OPINION

The Kashmir conflict: How did it start?

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