12th May 2025 (12 Topics)
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The Kashmir Issue
Context
India has made it clear that it does not want anyone to mediate when it comes to Kashmir. This comes as US President Donald Trump offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the long-standing Kashmir dispute.
What is the Kashmir issue?
- Under the partition plan provided by the Indian Independence Act, Muslim-majority Kashmir was free to accede to either India or Pakistan.
- The maharaja (local ruler), Hari Singh, initially wanted Kashmir to become independent - but in October 1947 chose to join India, in return for its help against an invasion of tribesmen from Pakistan.
- A war erupted and India asked the United Nations to intervene. The UN recommended holding a plebiscite to settle the question of whether the state would join India or Pakistan. However, the two countries could not agree to a deal to demilitarise the region before the referendum could be held.
- Pakistan occupies the western part of Kashmir (Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan)
- India administers the southern and southeastern parts (Kashmir Valley, Srinagar, as well as Jammu and Ladakh)
- China holding two thin slices of Kashmir’s north
- India claims all of Kashmir, while Pakistan also claims the part that India holds but not what China, its ally, holds.
- In July 1949, India and Pakistan signed an agreement to establish a ceasefire line as recommended by the UN and the region became divided.
- A second war followed in 1965. Then in 1999, India fought a brief but bitter conflict with Pakistani-backed forces.
- By that time, India and Pakistan were declared nuclear powers. Today, Delhi and Islamabad both claim Kashmir in full, but control only parts of it.
What is India’s position?
- Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir, but each controls a part of it — with China also administering a chunk of northern Kashmir.
- India is clear. It wants Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) back.
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