KASHMIR EXPLAINED!

When the British decided to leave India ,Hari Singh faced a dilemma about should he remain independent or join Pakistan or India this decision was as much personal as it was political. If he acceded to India an adverse response from Pakistan was imminent if he acceded to Pakistan he would be resented by the Hindus of Kashmir also by Sheikh Abdullah who had his own plans.

Maharaja Hari Singh was caught between a rock and a hard place and that's when he received a letter from Sheikh Abdullah casting aside his pride Abdullah made an appeal to join the Indian union the change in Abdullah's stance was mainly due to personal reasons. If the Maharaja had chosen Pakistan Abdullah's own political future would have been in peril because Pakistan’s leader Muhammad Al Jinnah considered Sheikh Abdullah a "quisling" a "traitor" . His hatred was evident in a remark made by Jinnah where he called Abdullah "a tall man who sings the Quran and exploits the people" so seeing the danger Pakistan posed to his plans Abdullah expressed his willingness to work with Maharaja Hari Singh even if it meant to access Kashmir to India. On 22nd October 1947 Pakistan attacked Kashmir with the Pashtun tribesmen. They invaded Kashmir and swiftly reached near Srinagar the fate of the capital was hanging by a thread the king then signed the instrument of accession which was a condition put forward by India for a military intervention.

This led to the accession of Kashmir to India on 26th October 1947. The Indian army intervened and it successfully liberated occupied territories and made Kashmir an integral and inalienable part the India. But Pakistan did not stop it's raiders remained stationed at the borders waiting for an opportunity to strike .

Lord Mountbatten the governor general of India travelled to Lahore in 1947 and held talks with Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his own words he was un briefed and unauthorised by the then government of India. Lord Mountbatten made a proposal to Jinnah to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir a proposal he is said to have drafted on his flight from new Delhi to Lahore. He said "I had not yet shown to my government but to which i thought they might agree". These words show that he assumed that India would agree but even Pakistan did not agree to it.

India played along and it was supposedly one of the biggest mistakes in regards to Kashmir.The prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru held a broadcast and he agreed to a UN controlled plebiscite in Kashmir, hoping that it may stop the war this may not be entirely wrong as India had just got independence and had a lot on her plate from communal violence to poverty, food shortages and a refugee crisis.

Pakistan jumped in favour hoping the dominant Muslim population in Kashmir would vote in its favour but this decision sucked both countries especially India into the vortex of international politics . It turned Kashmir into an unsolvable problem a pawn in the hands of world powers. India the complainant in the case was treated the same way as Pakistan the aggressor, the merits of India's case got lost in the power politics despite the fact that Kashmir's accession to India was lawful and that Pakistan was no match to India's military prowess in the ongoing war.

Simply put India shot itself in the foot by going to the united nations. Sheikh Abdullah assumed power as prime minister of an emergency government and he broke the promises made to India he began advocating for Kashmir's independence . By 1953 Abdullah had become so uncompromising and overbearing that he even turned against prime minister Nehru his so-called blood brother. Sheikh Abdullah challenged Nehru's authority and is said to have conspired to make himself Sultana Kashmir the ruler of an independent Kashmir ,his calls for independence started resonating with the people of the valley who became completely oblivious of the fact that Kashmir had legally acceded to India.

Anticipating another conflict New Delhi began accommodating Abdullah's whims and in return Abdullah tried to bargain and blackmail. He struck deals with the Indian establishment which only ensured that Kashmir's integration with India remained incomplete article 370 and section 35A of the Indian constitution are a classic example of such bargains. Sheikh Abdullah showed no regard for India's gestures he kept on pushing for Kashmir’s independence . In an interview to the Scotsman Abdullah said 'Accession to either side cannot bring peace and independent Kashmir must be guaranteed'.

This is the history of the Kashmir dispute a dispute that is seen betrayal conspiracies, armed skirmishes wars, terrorism and a tremendous human loss. Somewhere this is a dispute of India's own making, an issue with countless mistakes letting foreign powers meddle in its affairs and letting friendships influence political decisions being the biggest mistakes of them all!

--Harshad Bokphode