Kashmir History and Background

Kashmir, officially referred to as Jammu and Kashmir, is an 86,000-square-mile region (about the size of Idaho) in northwest India and northeast Pakistan so breathtaking in physical beauty that Mugal ​(or Moghul) emperors in the 16th and 17th century considered it an earthly paradise. The region has been violently disputed by India and Pakistan since their 1947 partition, which created Pakistan as the Muslim counterpart to Hindu-majority India.

History of Kashmir

After centuries of Hindu and Buddhist rule, Muslim Moghul emperors took control of Kashmir in the 15th century, converted the population to Islam and incorporated it into the Moghul empire. Islamic Moghul rule should not be confused with modern forms of authoritarian Islamic regimes. The Moghul empire, characterized by the likes of Akbar the Great (1542-1605) embodied Enlightenment ideals of tolerance and pluralism a century before the rise of the European Enlightenment. (Moghuls left their mark on the subsequent Sufi-inspired form of Islam that dominated the subcontinent in India and Pakistan, before the rise of more jihadist-inspired Islamist mullahs.)

Afghan invaders followed the Moghuls in the 18th century, who were themselves driven out by Sikhs from Punjab. Britain invaded in the 19th century and sold the entire Kashmir Valley for half a million rupees (or three rupees per Kashmiri) to the brutal repressive ruler of Jammu, the Hindu Gulab Singh. It was under Singh that the Kashmir Valley became part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The 1947 India-Pakistan Partition and Kashmir

India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947. Kashmir was split as well, with two-thirds going to India and a third going to Pakistan, even though India's share was predominantly Muslim, like Pakistan. Muslims rebelled. India repressed them. War broke out. It wasn't settled until a 1949 cease-fire brokered by the United Nations and a resolution calling for a referendum, or plebiscite, allowing Kashmiris to decide their future for themselves. India has never implemented the resolution.

Instead, India has maintained what amounts to an occupying army in Kashmir, cultivating more resentment from the locals than fertile agricultural products. Modern India's founders—Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi—both had Kashmiri roots, which partially explains India's attachment to the region. To India, "Kashmir for the Kashmiris" means nothing. Indian leaders' standard line is that Kashmir is "an integral part" of India.

In 1965, India and Pakistan fought their second of three major wars since 1947 over Kashmir. The United States was largely to blame for setting the stage for war.

The cease-fire three weeks later was not substantial beyond a demand that both sides put down their arms and a pledge to send international observers to Kashmir. Pakistan renewed its call for a referendum by Kashmir's mostly Muslim population of 5 million to decide the region's future, in accordance with a 1949 UN resolution. India continued to resist conducting such a plebiscite.

The 1965 war, in sum, settled nothing and merely put off future conflicts. (Read more about the Second Kashmir War.)

The Kashmir-Taliban Connection

With the rise to power of Muhammad Zia ul Haq (the dictator was president of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988), Pakistan began its slump toward Islamism. Zia saw in Islamists a mean of consolidating and maintaining his power. By patronizing the cause of anti-Soviet Mujahideens in Afghanistan beginning in 1979, Zia curried and won Washington's favor--and tapped into massive quantities of cash and weaponry the United States channeled through Zia to feed the Afghan insurgency. Zia had insisted that he be the conduit of arms and weaponry. Washington conceded.

Zia diverted large amounts of cash and weaponry to two pet projects: Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program, and developing an Islamist fighting force that would subcontract the fight against India in Kashmir. Zia largely succeeded at both. He financed and protected armed camps in Afghanistan that trained militants who'd be used in Kashmir. And he supported the rise of a hard-core Islamist corps in Pakistani Madrassas and in Pakistan's tribal areas that would exert Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The corps' name: The Taliban.

Thus, the political and militant ramifications of recent Kashmiri history are intimately connected with the rise of Islamism in northern and western Pakistan, and in Afghanistan.

Kashmir Today
According to a Congressional Research Service report, "Relations between Pakistan and India remain deadlocked on the issue of Kashmiri sovereignty, and a separatist rebellion has been underway in the region since 1989. Tensions were extremely high in the wake of the Kargil conflict of 1999 when an incursion by Pakistani soldiers led to a bloody six-week-long battle."

Tensions over Kashmir rose dangerously in fall 2001, forcing then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to de-escalate tensions in person. When a bomb exploded in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir state assembly and an armed band assaulted the Indian Parliament in New Delhi later that year, India mobilized 700,000 troops, threatened war, and provoked Pakistan into mobilizing its forces. American intervention compelled then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who had been particularly instrumental in further militarizing Kashmir, provoking the Kargil war there in 1999, and facilitating Islamist terrorism subsequently, in January 2002 vowed to end the presence of terrorist entities on Pakistani soil. He promised to ban and eliminate terrorist organizations, including Jemaah Islamiyah, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Musharraf's pledges, as always, proved empty. Violence in Kashmir continued. In May 2002, an attack on an Indian army base at Kaluchak killed 34, most of them women and children. The attack again brought Pakistan and India to the brink of war.

Like the Arab-Israeli conflict, the conflict over Kashmir remains unresolved. And like the Arab-Israeli conflict, it is the source, and perhaps the key, to peace in regions far greater than the territory in dispute.

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A brief history of the Kashmir conflict

The Kashmir dispute dates from 1947. The partition of the Indian sub-continent along religious lines led to the formation of India and Pakistan. However, there remained the problem of over 650 states, run by princes, existing within the two newly independent countries.

In theory, these princely states had the option of deciding which country to join, or of remaining independent. In practice, the restive population of each province proved decisive.

The people had been fighting for freedom from British rule, and with their struggle about to bear fruit they were not willing to let the princes fill the vacuum.

Although many princes wanted to be "independent" (which would have meant hereditary monarchies and no hope for democracy) they had to succumb to their people's protests which turned violent in many provinces.

Because of its location, Kashmir could choose to join either India or Pakistan. Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of Kashmir, was Hindu while most of his subjects were Muslim. Unable to decide which nation Kashmir should join, Hari Singh chose to remain neutral.

But his hopes of remaining independent were dashed in October 1947, as Pakistan sent in Muslim tribesmen who were knocking at the gates of the capital Srinagar.

Hari Singh appealed to the Indian government for military assistance and fled to India. He signed the Instrument of Accession, ceding Kashmir to India on October 26.

Indian and Pakistani forces thus fought their first war over Kashmir in 1947-48. India referred the dispute to the United Nations on 1 January. In a resolution dated August 13, 1948, the UN asked Pakistan to remove its troops, after which India was also to withdraw the bulk of its forces.

Once this happened, a "free and fair" plebiscite was to be held to allow the Kashmiri people to decide their future.

India, having taken the issue to the UN, was confident of winning a plebiscite, since the most influential Kashmiri mass leader, Sheikh Abdullah, was firmly on its side. An emergency government was formed on October 30, 1948 with Sheikh Abdullah as the Prime Minister.

Pakistan ignored the UN mandate and continued fighting, holding on to the portion of Kashmir under its control. On January 1, 1949, a ceasefire was agreed, with 65 per cent of the territory under Indian control and the remainder with Pakistan.

The ceasefire was intended to be temporary but the Line of Control remains the de facto border between the two countries.

In 1957, Kashmir was formally incorporated into the Indian Union. It was granted a special status under Article 370 of India's constitution, which ensures, among other things, that non-Kashmiri Indians cannot buy property there.

Fighting broke out again in 1965, but a ceasefire was established that September. Indian Prime Minister, Lal Bhadur Shastri, and Pakistani President, M Ayub Khan, signed the Tashkent agreement on January 1, 1966.

They resolved to try to end the dispute, but the death of Mr Shastri and the rise of Gen Yahya Khan in Pakistan resulted in stalemate.

In 1971a third war, resulting in the formation of the independent nation of Bangladesh (formerly known as East Pakistan). A war had broken out in East Pakistan in March 1971, and soon India was faced with a million refugees.

India declared war on December 3, 1971 after Pakistani Air Force planes struck Indian airfields in the Western sector.

Two weeks later, the Indian army marched into Dhaka and the Pakistanis surrendered. In the Western sector the Indians managed to blockade the port city of Karachi and were 50 km into Pakistani territory when a ceasefire was reached.

In 1972 Indira Gandhi, the Indian prime minister, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, her Pakistani opposite number (and father of Benazir Bhutto, a later Pakistani premier), signed the Simla Agreement, which reiterated the promises made in Tashkent.

The two sides once again agreed to resolve the issue peacefully, as domestic issues dominated.

Both India and Pakistan had other important domestic problems which kept Kashmir on the back-burner. In 1975 Indira Gandhi declared a state of national emergency, but she was defeated in the 1978 general elections.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown and hanged in 1977; Pakistan reverted to military dictatorship under Gen Zia ul Haq.

The balance of influence had decisively tilted in Pakistan's favour by the late 1980s, with people's sympathy no longer with the Indian union as it had been in 1947-48 and 1965.

Mrs Gandhi's attempts to install puppet governments in state capitals, manipulating the democratic process in the state legislatures, deeply angered the Kashmiris.

The status quo was largely maintained until 1989 when pro-independence and pro-Pakistan guerrillas struck in the Indian Kashmir valley. They established a reign of terror and drove out almost all the Hindus from the valley before the Indian army moved in to flush them out. Meanwhile Indian and Pakistani troops regularly exchanged fire at the border.

Whereas in 1948 India took the Kashmir issue to the UN and was all for a plebiscite, by the 1990s it hid behind the Simla agreement and thwarted any attempts at UN or third-party mediation.

Over the decades the plebiscite advocated by India's great statesman Jawaharlal Nehru became a dirty word in New Delhi. These developments have led many to believe that Delhi has squandered the Kashmiri people's trust and allegiance.

India and Pakistan both tested nuclear devices in May 1998, and then in April 1999 test-fired missiles in efforts to perfect delivery systems for their nuclear weapons. Pakistan tested its Ghauri II missile four days after India's testing of its long-range (1,250 km) Agni II.

Although Pakistan claims that its missiles are an indigenous effort, in July 1999 Indian customs agents seized components shipped from North Korea which they claim were destined for Pakistan's missile programme.

Pakistan's later intermediate-range Ghauri III missile has a range of about 3,000 km.

When the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, set out to Lahore by bus on February 20, 1999, inaugurating the four times a week Delhi-Lahore-Delhi bus service, the world felt that such a genuine effort at friendly neighbourhood relations would lower the tension along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

But, all hopes of diplomacy disappeared once the cross-LOC firing in Kargil began during the mid-1990s. The death toll , including both soldiers and civilians, was more than 30,000.

In the first week of August 1998 Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged artillery fire, described by locals as heavier than that of the 1948 and 1965 wars put together. An estimated 50,000 rounds of ammunition were expended and a large number of soldiers and civilians killed.

In the summer of 1999 hostility in Kargil went far beyond the now familiar annual exhange of artillery fire.

When India began patrolling the Kargil heights that summer, it found to its horror that many key posts vacated in the winter were occupied by infiltrators. A patrol was ambushed in the first week of May 1999. India belatedly realised the magnitude of the occupation - which was around 10 km deep and spanned almost 100 km of the LOC - and sent MiG fighters into action on May 26.

India contended that the infiltrators were trained and armed by Pakistan, and based in "Azad Kashmir" with the full knowledge of the Pakistani government - and that Afghan and other foreign mercenaries accompanied them.

Pakistan insisted that those involved were freedom fighters from Kashmir and that it was giving only moral support.

India ordered the jets not to stray into Pakistani territory; but those that did were shot down.

The conflict ended only after Bill Clinton, the US President, and Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's Prime minister, met in Washington on July 4, 1999.

Meanwhile, the Indian Army had made significant advances, capturing vital territory on July 4. Despite the apparent efforts to mediate, the US maintained that it was not interfering in what India still claims to be a bilateral issue.

Pakistan withdrew its forces later that month. However, skirmishing continued, and in August India shot down a Pakistani reconnaissance plane, killing 16.

The official number of Indian troops lost in Kargil was around 500, with almost double that number of "infiltrators" killed. Nevertheless, India did not declare war against Pakistan - instead, Mr Vajpayee ambigously announced a "war-like situation".

Yet this, by all accounts of soldiers and top Indian army officers involved, was a war in which India lost men engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Pakistani soldiers in the heights of Kargil - a war that could be compared with the one of 1948-49, which was limited to Kashmir, with the other border regions remaining peaceful.

Thus in 1999, in a war limited to one sector, India suffered casualities within its own territory. Despite much pressure from the military and the public, the government decided not to cross the LOC. Pakistan too suffered criticism at home for limiting its war to artillery fire across the LOC and shooting down Indian aircraft.

The fear of a full-scale war (with nuclear capability adding a deadly dimension), coupled with precarious economies and the knowledge of what international sanctions could do to them, may have prevailed in both countries.

Courtesy : telegraph

Kashmir's struggle did not start in 1947 and will not end today

 

On August 5, India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government issued a surprise executive decree stripping away the autonomy that the state of Jammu and Kashmir was granted in exchange for joining the Indian union after independence in 1947.

Since the decree, Indian authorities also imposed an unprecedented lockdown in the region, cutting off all communication lines, restricting movement and putting prominent Kashmiri politicians under house arrest.

The government's decision to revoke Article 370 of India's constitution, which ensured the Muslim-majority state its own constitution and independence over all matters except foreign affairs, defence and communications, was undoubtedly the most far-reaching political move on the disputed region in the last seven decades. However, neither the Indian government's decision to impose direct rule from New Delhi, nor its attempts to silence the Kashmiri cries for freedom and dignity is anything new.

A brief look back in history makes it evident that Kashmir's oppression and colonial exploitation started long before the formation of modern India. Ever since its annexation by the Mughal empire in 1589 AD, Kashmir has never been ruled by Kashmiris themselves. After the Mughals, the region was ruled by the Afghans (1753-1819), Sikhs (1819-46), and the Dogras (1846-1947) until the Indian and Pakistani states took over.

The Mughals, who did nothing to alleviate the region's poverty or help it fight famines, instead built hundreds of gardens in Kashmir, converting it into a luxurious summer refuge for the rich. The Afghans not only sent Kashmiri people to Afghanistan as slaves, but also imposed extortionate taxes on the region's famed shawl weavers, causing the shawl industry to shrink in size. Next came the Sikhs, who, according to the British explorer William Moorcroft, treated the Kashmiris "little better than cattle".

The discrimination Kashmir's Muslim majority is still facing to this day also came to the fore for the first time during the Sikh rule. Back then, the murder of a native by a Sikh was punished with a fine of 16 to 20 Kashmiri rupees to the government, of which 4 rupees would go to the family of the deceased if the victim is a Hindu, and only 2 rupees if the deceased is a Muslim.

And in 1846, when the British East India Company defeated the Sikh Empire in the first Anglo-Sikh war, Kashmir was sold to the Dogras as if it was not the home of millions of people but just a "commodity". Gulab Singh, a Dogra, who served as the ruler of Jammu in the Sikh Empire, chose to side with the British in the Anglo-Sikh war. After the war, the East India Company "sold" Kashmir to Gulab Singh for a lump sum of 7.5 million rupees to reward his loyalty.

Gulab Singh and the successive Dogra rulers, who then had a free pass over the Kashmir valley, imposed further extortionate taxes on the Kashmiris in an attempt to raise the 7.5 million rupees they had paid to buy Kashmir. Moreover, as a mark of their continued loyalty, the Dogra rulers catered to continued British demands for money and muscle. Under the Dogra rule, Kashmiris were forced to fight in all of Britain's wars, including the two world wars.

The Dogra rule was possibly the worst phase in terms of the economic extortion in Kashmir. Most of the peasants were landless since Kashmiris were banned from holding any land. About 50-75 percent of cultivated crops went to the Dogra rulers, leaving the working class with practically no control over the produce. The Dogra rulers also reintroduced the begar (forced labour) system under which the state could employ workers for little to no payment. Not only every imaginable profession was taxed, but Kashmiri Muslims were also forced to pay a tax if they wished to get married too. The absurdity of the exorbitant tax system reached a new high when something called "zaildari tax" was introduced to pay for the cost of taxation itself!

During the Dogra rule, Kashmiri Pandits - native Hindus of the Kashmir Valley - were slightly better off than the Kashmiri Muslims, perhaps as a result of the administration's pro-Hindu bias. They were allowed to have more upper-class jobs and work as teachers and civil servants. This meant that amongst a predominantly Muslim population, the so-called "petite bourgeois" was dominated by the Hindus. The Dogra regime also replaced Koshur with Urdu as the official language in the region, making it even harder for the Koshur-speaking Kashmiri Muslims to break free from poverty.

Therefore, the history of Kashmir's Muslims often intersects with the history of the working class in the valley. In fact, throughout the Dogra rule in Kashmir, the resistance against the oppressive regime was shaped by class as much as religion.

The workers' resistance against the Dogras kicked off as early as in 1865, when Kashmiri shawl weavers agitated to improve their work conditions. The regime brutally crushed the uprising and in the three decades following the protest, the number of Kashmiri shawl weavers decreased from 28,000 to just over 5,000. Despite the setback, however, Kashmiri workers continued to fight for their rights. in 1924, workers from a Srinagar silk factory went on a strike for better working conditions.

In 1930, some young, left-wing Muslim intellectuals formed the Reading Room Party to get together and explore a way forward for the Jammu and Kashmir that is free of autocracy and oppression. They soon started organising meetings in mosques, and slowly this "political consciousness" started to spread from the intelligentsia to the middle classes. In time, they moved on from mosques to larger scale open meetings.

Noting this growing spirit of revolt among the Muslim community, in 1931, the Dogras approved the formation of three political parties in the valley - Kashmiri Pandits Conference, Hindu Sabha in Jammu, and Sikhs' Shiromani Khalsa Darbar. This meant only non-Muslim groups were allowed political representation in the valley, leaving the majority of the population without an official political party.

That very same year saw several Muslim agitations that developed in reaction to the state's oppression. But the simmering tensions come to a boil on July 13, when a crowd of thousands tried to break into the Srinagar jail during the court hearing of a sedition case filed against a young Muslim man named Abdul Qadeer. Police responded with extreme brutality and 22 protesters were killed. As scholar and activist Prem Nath Bazaz noted, the sentiments of the crowd that rushed the prison were not anti-Hindu but anti-tyranny. Yet, the riots that took place in the aftermath of July 13 took a religious turn when shops owned by the Hindus were looted in the valley.

Bazaz attributed this to the shortsighted and inexperienced politics of the Reading Room Party as well as the hostile and discriminatory attitude of the Hindus towards the Muslim majority. Ever since that episode, however, all stakeholders in the Kashmir conflict have been attempting to communalise Kashmiri history. The struggle of the valley's working-class Muslims has been reduced to their religious identity, as if the religion that they follow makes their anger somewhat illegitimate.

While the suffering of the Muslim working class was immense under the Dogra rule, their situation did not get any better following Britain's departure from the Indian subcontinent and partition of colonial India into two nation-states.

Under the partition plan provided by the Indian Independence Act, Kashmir was given the options to become independent or accede to India or Pakistan.

The Dogra ruler at the time, Hari Singh, initially wanted Kashmir to become independent. But when tribesmen from Pakistan attempted to invade the region he agreed to join India in October 1947.

India's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru sent troops to protect Kashmir from a possible Pakistani invasion. As a result, Hari Singh signed an instrument to accede the state to the Indian dominion. Article 370, which guaranteed Kashmir's autonomy in the Indian Union, was also added to the Indian constitution as a direct outcome of the instrument.

Unfortunately, it became clear in the following decades that India had no intention of protecting Kashmir's autonomy as in no time it started to act like yet another occupying imperial force and resumed the oppression of the region's long-suffering Muslim population.

At first, Nehru (a Kashmiri himself) appeared sympathetic to the cause of the Kashmiris. He promised multiple times to hold a plebiscite to determine the faith of Jammu and Kashmir. Back then, even the emergence of an independent Kashmir was being considered as a possible outcome.

Decades have passed, however, and the plebiscite Nehru promised was never held. Pakistan and India occasionally raised the issue and accused the other side of preventing the holding of a vote. To the convenience of both the states, the issue of plebiscite was eventually forgotten.

Since October 1947, India and Pakistan fought multiple wars over Kashmir, both claiming to have the best interests of the local population in mind. But they jointly suppressed Kashmiri voices that criticise the actions of both countries and demand independence.

One such example was the case of Maqbool Bhat, one of the founder members of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and proponent of organised armed struggle for the liberation of Kashmir. He was hunted down and hung by the Indian state, but the state of Pakistan also caused every trouble they could to stop Maqbool from organising a liberation movement for Kashmir that does not aim to pull the region into Pakistan's zone of influence.

Over the years, India and Pakistan did everything they could to control the narratives of Kashmir. India not only resorted to brutal methods of oppression, such as physical violence, torture, fake encounters, rape and unlawful prosecutions, it also concocted an alternative history, twisting data and facts to turn Indian public opinion against the plight of Kashmiri Muslims. Meanwhile, Pakistan was no innocent supporter of the Kashmiri struggle, as one of its former Presidents, Pervez Musharraf, openly admitted that the state supported and trained armed groups active in the valley, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), in the 1990s.

Despite the best efforts of the imperialist forces to silence and subdue them, the Kashmiris have been fighting for self-determination for hundreds of years. Today, imperial efforts to control the valley continue albeit quite ironically in the garb of nationalism. India's decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status thus is nothing other than yet another act of shameless imperialist aggression.

At worst, August 5, 2019, will be remembered by future generations as just another chapter in Kashmir's long history of imperial oppression. At best, this latest attack on the dignity of a long-suffering people will mark the beginning of an era of unprecedented resistance and struggle towards freedom for the Kashmiris.

Credit, Source and Courtesy : Aljazeera

Pakistan India Troubled Relations over Kashmir- by BBC

 

A History Report from 1947 to 2001.

Introduction Ever since the partition of the sub-continent in 1947, when Britain dismantled its Indian empire, India and Pakistan have been arch rivals. The animosity has its roots in religion and history, and is epitomised by the long-running conflict over the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This has recently escalated into a dangerous nuclear arms race.

	Partition saw rioting, communal violence and population movement From the archive - BBC: Listen to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 3 June 1947 Listen to Mohammed Ali Jinnah on 14 August 1947 Listen to Lord Louis Mountbatten on 15 August 1947		Partition and independence Summary The Indian subcontinent was partitioned into Hindu-dominated but nominally secular India and the newly created Muslim state of Pakistan after India’s independence from Great Britain in 1947. Severe rioting and population movement ensued and an estimated half a million people were killed in communal violence. About a million people were left homeless. Since partition, the territory of Jammu and Kashmir has remained in dispute, with Pakistan and India both holding sectors. In full The name Pakistan was derived from an idea first suggested in 1933 when a student, Chaudhuri Rahmat Ali, proposed that there should be a separate homeland which would be comprised of the Muslim-majority provinces in the north-west as well as the geographically contiguous princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The name was formulated from: P for Punjab, A for the Afghanis of the north-west frontier, K for Kashmir, S for Sind and Tan denoting Baluchistan. The word also means land of the pure in Urdu. The partition of the Subcontinent, however, led to severe rioting and population movement as Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus found themselves on the wrong side of the partitioned provinces of Punjab and Bengal. The latter of these became East Pakistan. An estimated half a million people died in communal violence, millions more became homeless. Jammu and Kashmir, a collection of culturally distinct regions, were nominally brought under the rule of Sikhs in the early 19th Century. After the British fought the Sikhs in 1846, instead of assuming direct control over the area, Britain installed a Hindu ruler as Maharaja. The Maharaja's territorial possessions included the Buddhist area of Ladakh, the predominantly Hindu region of Jammu, the majority Muslim valley of Kashmir, as well as smaller Muslim kingdoms in the west. In the days of the British Empire, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was one of more than 560 autonomous princely states owing allegiance to Britain. At independence, the rulers were advised to join, by means of an instrument of accession, either of the two new dominions, India or Pakistan, bearing in mind their state's geographical position and the religion of their inhabitants. By August 1947, the date of partition, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir had not decided which dominion to join. Over 50 years later, Pakistanis still believe that Jammu and Kashmir should have become part of Pakistan because the majority of the state's population, concentrated in the valley of Kashmir, is Muslim. India, says the state of Jammu and Kashmir belongs to India because by the October 1947 instrument of accession, the Maharaja finally agreed to join India.

Related story: Q&A: The Kashmir Conflict

The 1947- 48 war Summary India and Pakistan first went to war in October 1947 after Pakistan supported a Muslim insurgency in Kashmir. India agreed to a request for armed assistance from Kashmir's Maharaja, in return for accession of the state to India. But the nature of that accession has long been the subject of debate. The war ended on 1 January 1949, with the establishment of a ceasefire line. The status of the territory remained in dispute because an agreed referendum to confirm the accession was never held. In full The first Indo-Pakistani war started after armed tribesmen from Pakistan's north-west frontier province invaded Kashmir in October 1947. Besieged both by a revolt in his state and by the invasion, the Maharaja requested armed assistance from the government of India. In return he acceded to India, handing over powers of defence, communication and foreign affairs. Both India and Pakistan agreed that the accession would be confirmed by a referendum once hostilities had ceased. Historians continue to debate the precise timing when the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir signed the instrument of accession and the Indian army moved into the state, arguing that the Maharaja acceded to India under duress. In May 1948, the regular Pakistani army was called upon to protect Pakistan's borders. Fighting continued throughout the year between Pakistani irregular troops and the Indian army. The war ended on 1 January 1949 when a ceasefire was arranged by the United Nations, which recommended that both India and Pakistan should adhere to their commitment to hold a referendum in the state. A ceasefire line was established where the two sides stopped fighting and a UN peacekeeping force established. The referendum, however, has never been held. In 1954 Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India was ratified by the state's constituent assembly. In 1957, it approved its own constitution, modelled along the Indian constitution. Since that time India has regarded that part of the state which it controls as an integral part of the Indian union. To the west of the ceasefire line, Pakistan controls roughly one third of the state. A small region, which the Pakistanis call Azad (Free) Jammu and Kashmir, and the Indians call Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, is semi-autonomous. The larger area, which includes the former kingdoms of Hunza and Nagar, called the northern areas, is directly administered by Pakistan. In 1962-3, following the 1962 Sino-Indian war, India and Pakistan held talks under the auspices of Britain and the US in an attempt to resolve their differences over Kashmir, but without success.

Tension escalated into a second war which spread to Kashmir

The 1965 war Summary The two countries went to war again after Pakistan launched a covert offensive across the ceasefire line into Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. India retaliated by crossing the international border at Lahore. In full In April 1965, a clash between border patrols erupted into fighting in the Rann of Kutch, a sparsely inhabited region along the south-western Indo-Pakistani border. When the Indians withdrew, Pakistan claimed victory. Later, in August, hostilities broke out again in the 2nd Indo-Pakistani war, when the government of Pakistan launched a covert offensive across the ceasefire line into the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. In early September, India retaliated by crossing the international border at Lahore. After three weeks, both India and Pakistan agreed to a UN-sponsored ceasefire. In January 1966, the governments of India and Pakistan met at Tashkent and signed a declaration affirming their commitment to solve their disputes through peaceful means. They also agreed to withdraw to their pre-August positions.

Millions were caught up in fighting in East Pakistan - later to become Bangladesh Related story The contentious Line of Control

The 1971 war Summary Pakistan descended into civil war after East Pakistan demanded autonomy and later independence. India invaded East Pakistan in support of its people after millions of civilians fled to India. At the end of 1971, Bangladesh was created out of East Pakistan. In full Indo-Pakistani relations deteriorated again when civil war erupted in Pakistan, pitting the West Pakistan army against East Pakistanis demanding autonomy and later independence. The fighting forced an estimated 10 million East Pakistani civilians to flee to India. In December India invaded East Pakistan in support of the East Pakistani people. The Pakistani army surrendered at Dhaka and its army of more than 90,000 became Indian prisoners of war. East Pakistan became the independent country of Bangladesh on 6 December 1971. Regional tensions were reduced by the Simla accord of 1972 and by Pakistan's recognition of Bangladesh in 1974. The Simla accord committed both sides to working through outstanding issues bilaterally and through the mechanism of working groups. In relation to Jammu and Kashmir, the two countries agreed that the ceasefire line, which was renamed the Line of Control, would be respected by both sides "without prejudice to the recognised positions of either side". In 1974 the Kashmir state government reached an accord with the Indian Government, which affirmed its status as "a constituent unit of the union of India". Pakistan rejected the accord.

Insurgency continues: In 2001, an attack in Srinagar killed 38 people Related story Who are the militants?

Kashmir insurgency Summary Armed resistance to Indian rule broke out in the Kashmir valley in 1989, with some groups calling for independence and others calling for union with Pakistan. India accused Pakistan of supplying weapons to the militants. During the 1990s, with the emergence of militant Muslim groups, the movement’s ideology became essentially Islamic in nature. In full In 1989 armed resistance to Indian rule began in the Kashmir valley. Muslim political parties complained that the 1987 elections to the state's legislative assembly were rigged against them, and they formed militant wings. Some groups demanded independence for the state of Jammu and Kashmir and others union with Pakistan. Pakistan gave its "moral and diplomatic" support to the movement, calling for the issue to be resolved via a UN-sponsored referendum. But the government of India maintained that Pakistan's support of the insurgency consisted of training and supplying weapons to militant separatists and repeatedly called for Pakistan to cease "cross-border terrorism". During the 1990s, several new militant groups emerged, most of which held radical Islamic views. The ideological emphasis of the movement shifted from a nationalistic and secularist one to an Islamic one. This was in part driven by the arrival in the valley of Kashmir of large numbers of Islamic "Jihadi" fighters who had fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Hopes of diplomacy: India's then Foreign Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, left, met his Pakistani counterpart Gohar Ayub in 1997

Diplomatic push Summary India and Pakistan set up low-level meetings to defuse tension over Jammu and Kashmir. The diplomatic push became more concerted a year later and an agenda for peace talks was agreed on. Also in 1997, Pakistan suggested that the two sides meet to discuss restraining nuclear and missile capabilities. In full In 1996, Pakistani and Indian military officers met on the Line of Control dividing the state of Jammu and Kashmir to ease tension after clashes. The celebrations of 50 years of independence in 1997 in both countries coincided with a surge in diplomatic activity. During 1997, Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers met in Delhi. After a second round of talks in Islamabad, they announced an eight-point agenda for peace talks, including discussion of the Kashmir issue. Although the talks ended in stalemate, both sides promised to meet again. In a speech at the UN, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offered to open talks on a non-aggression pact with India, proposing that both nations strike a deal to restrain their nuclear and missile capabilities. In 1988 India and Pakistan had signed an agreement not to attack each other's nuclear facilities. India has consistently rejected any third party mediation to help end Kashmir border clashes, saying differences should be solved in bilateral talks, according to the 1972 Simla agreement. The 1980s had seen some diplomatic discussions aimed at resolving outstanding differences, between India and Pakistan. In 1982, the two rivals began unsuccessful talks on a non-aggression treaty. However, in 1984 Indian troops were airlifted to the Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir which increased tension in the area. Pakistan retaliated by fortifying the glacier from its side of what has become known as the world's highest war zone.

Both countries have developed long-range missiles capable of striking the other's cities Related story: The nuclear stakes From the Archive: Watch the BBC Correspondent programme on Kashmir 28K Watch the BBC Correspondent programme on Kashmir 56K

Nuclear rivalry Summary Fears of a nuclear confrontation grew, after both sides conducted nuclear tests. The US ordered sanctions against both countries, with several European nations doing the same. Tensions were reduced early the following year after the two sides signed an accord pledging to intensify efforts to resolve all issues – including that of Jammu and Kashmir. In full The arms race between the rivals escalated dramatically in the 1990s. In May 1998, India conducted underground nuclear tests in the western desert state of Rajasthan near the border with Pakistan. In response, Pakistan conducted six tests in Baluchistan. In the same year, Pakistan tested its longest range missile, the 1,500 km (932 mile) Ghauri missile, named after a 12th Century Muslim warrior who conquered part of India. Both sides were heavily criticised by the international community for the tests as fears of a nuclear confrontation grew. The United States ordered sanctions against both countries, freezing more than $20bn of aid, loans and trade. Japan ordered a block on about $1bn of aid loans. Several European countries followed suit, and the G-8 governments imposed a ban on non-humanitarian loans to India and Pakistan. The UN Security Council condemned India and Pakistan for carrying out nuclear tests and urged the two nations to stop all nuclear weapons programmes. Relations between India and Pakistan improved again in February 1999 when Indian Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee travelled to Pakistan to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. They signed the Lahore accord pledging again to "intensify their efforts to resolve all issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir". India had detonated its first nuclear device in1974. In 1989, Pakistan announced the successful test firing of its first long-range surface-to-surface missile, the Hatf-1 and Hatf-2. In 1992 Pakistan said it had acquired the scientific know-how to make a nuclear bomb.

At the height of the Kargil conflict thousands of shells were fired daily Related story: The Kargil conflict in detail

Kargil conflict Summary Conflict again erupted after India launched air strikes against Pakistani-backed forces that had infiltrated Indian-administered Kashmir. Fighting built up towards a direct conflict between the two states and tens of thousands of people were reported to have fled their homes on both sides of the ceasefire line. Later that year, General Musharraf led a military coup in Pakistan. In full For the first time in nearly 30 years, in May 1999, India launched air strikes against Pakistani-backed forces that had infiltrated into the mountains in Indian-administered Kashmir, north of Kargil. Pakistan responded by putting its troops on high alert as the fighting built up towards a direct conflict between the two states. India repeatedly claimed that Pakistani forces belonging to the northern light infantry, based in the Pakistani-administered Northern Areas, were engaged in the operations - a claim Pakistan consistently denied. Pakistan insisted instead that the forces were "freedom fighters" fighting for the liberation of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. At the height of the conflict, thousands of shells were fired daily, and India launched hundreds of airstrikes. The Red Cross reported that at least 30,000 people had been forced to flee their homes on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control. Correspondents reported that about 20,000 people became refugees on the Indian side. Both sides claimed victory in the conflict, which ended when, under pressure from the United States, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called upon the infiltrating forces to withdraw. In October 1999, General Pervez Musharraf led a military coup in Pakistan, deposing elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. General Musharraf's assumption of power was later validated by the supreme court of Pakistan for a period of three years. The coup was, however, was condemned by the international community which called for elections and an immediate return to civilian government. Pakistan was also suspended from the Commonwealth.

Stand-off along a tense border Related stories: The military balance The Agra summit in detail Musharraf on a tightrope Profile: Atal Behari Vajpayee Profile: General Pervez Musharraf Further reading and web links: India country profile Pakistan country profile Pakistani Government Indian Government US State Department UN mission in Kashmir Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers

The brink of war Summary Tension along the ceasefire line continued. In October 38 people were killed after an attack on the Kashmiri assembly in Srinagar. A month later, 14 people were killed in an attack on the Indian parliament in Delhi. India again blamed Pakistani-backed Kashmiri militants. A dramatic build up of troops along the Indo-Pakistan border ensued. In full The 11 September 2001 suicide attacks in the United States brought a rapprochement between Pakistan and the West. Pakistan agreed to co-operate with the US's campaign against Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and the Taleban rulers of Afghanistan. Tension along the line of control continued. The worst fighting for more than a year broke out in October as India, which continued to condemn Pakistan for cross-border terrorism, started shelling Pakistani military positions. October saw a devastating attack on the Kashmiri assembly in Srinagar in which 38 people were killed. After the attack, the chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, called on the Indian government to launch a war against militant training camps across the border in Pakistan. On 13 December, an armed attack on the Indian parliament in Delhi left 14 people dead. India again blamed Pakistani-backed Kashmiri militants. The attack led to a dramatic build-up of troops along the Indo-Pakistan border, military exchanges and raised fears of a wider conflict. In January 2002 President Musharraf gave a keynote speech pledging that Pakistan would not allow terrorists to operate from Pakistani soil. He again called on the government of India to resolve the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir through dialogue. India said it would wait for action to back up his words.

Courtesy : BBC