Searching for the issue in kashmir

Kashmir has always remained an issue between India and Pakistan. But what’s exactly the reason of these conflicts? How has they started? And why aren’t they settling down?

Answers to these questions can only be known by navigating through the pages of history!

Dating back to 1947 when India was about to gain its freedom finally. British people had introduced ‘Lapse of Paramountcy’. Under ‘Lapse of Paramountcy’ British people were ending their all agreements with the majesties of Indian Provinces.

India was divided into 565 provinces at that time. When British people were leaving our country, they asked 565 provinces to either choose to join India or Pakistan or they could choose to remain independent!

The majesty of Kashmir wanted to stay independent at that time. Remaining independent was not a good option to them in actual. The fact was that Kashmir was at boundary and its geographical setup could bring problems to Kashmir. The decision of Maharaja to remain independent could lead to future conflicts were earlier sensed by Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Louis Mount Batten.

To guide Sh. Hari Singh, the majesty of Kashmir, Mt. Batten went Kashmir. He in his meeting told majesty to either choose to stay with India or Pakistan but remaining independent would not be feasible. Mt. Batten had also told Maharaja Hari Singh that India won’t be having any issue if they choose to go with Pakistan but remaining independent could create difficult situation for the state.

To decide further on this matter, Maharaja Hari Singh was supposed to meet Mt. Batten at Delhi but he didn’t came instead sent a message that he was ill.

Fate could have been different if that day Maharaja Hari Singh had come in that meeting. Destiny of Kashmir could be different!

Soon after Independence, Pakistan started to cover the boundaries of Kashmir and by breaking the standstill agreement, Pakistan withdrew the supply of petrol, food and other items to Kashmir.

Pakistan started to use force to occupy Kashmir. On October 22, 1947 thousand of tribal people of Pakistan with guns entered Kashmir and started to kill innocents and destroyed everything that came in their way.

It was the time when Maharaja Hari Singh became very much conscious. He had neither a big army to fight and moreover the army people who were Muslims and wanted to go to Pakistan joined hands with tribal people and started to attack their own state.

But as they moved further, they started to loot and rape women. It was not only Hindu women who were at their target but they killed and raped women belonging to every religion either it was a Hindu; a Sikh; a Christen; or a Muslim itself. It's rightly said that 'Terrorism possess no religion'.

Maharaja Hari Singh asked help from India to save Kashmir at any cost to which Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel were ready but Mt. Batten had a clear stand over it. According to him, sending army in Kashmir was against rules as it’s not a part of India. Sending army meant open battle with Pakistan.

V.P Manen was sent to Kashmir to ask Maharaja Hari Singh if they want to join India or not otherwise it would be irrational for India to enter in Kashmir’s territory. Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of accession with India which made Kashmir a part of India. With it, Prime Minister also said that after the re-habitation of Kashmir, voting will be done and majority will decide whether they want to stay with India or Pakistan.

Despite having enough resources, India sent its army to Kashmir and moreover asked Mount Batten to take this issue in front of UNO. India was successful to save a greater part of Kashmir until UNO gave its decision by perceiving India and Pakistan as same and ordered ceasefire between both the countries.

Pakistan didn’t take charge of the attack despite said that it was an internal issue of Kashmir.

After the ceasefire on Jan 1, 1949 India had reoccupied a larger part of Kashmir but things didn’t became same instead they were more complicated now. Ceasefire is now called Line of Control (LOC). The area of Kashmir which is under Pakistan is now called ‘Pakistan occupied Kashmir’ by India and area under the control of India is called ‘India occupied Kashmir’ by Pakistan.

Till date, neither the issues have settled down nor have things become stable in Kashmir. They people are still in pain and Kashmir under threat. This terrible incident has left its bitter impact on the lives and minds of Kashmiri people!