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Why does India want Kashmir?

  
 
SMS
20:47 / 20.01.02
I haven't been able to figure this out from the news. Maybe I've been missing the important stories.
 
 
sleazenation
09:05 / 21.01.02
*the oversimplified version*


Basically India Pakistan and Bangladesh were on big country before and under British rule. There were severe tensions along roughly ethnoreligious lines so before granting the territories independence britain partitioned them along broadly ethnoreligious lines. Of course no one has been happy about this and both pakistan and india dispute who controls the kashmir area (and a fair few kashmiris want independence).
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
13:33 / 21.01.02
(sorry if any of this is patronising, but i'm interested in thinking this through)

or, alternatively, when the British left India in 1947, they were aware of leaving a country with potentially massive resouruces and capabilities...

Partition was a way of creating a civil war that would keep the Indian subcontinent busy. The border divisions were arbitrary and bore little relation to geographical concentrations members of the various religious and having been articificially imposed, were contentious from their creation.

India and Pakistan have been on some form of war footing ever since.

(check out India's borders with pakistan and and bangladesh on the map ]here, interesting, aren't they? if you want to create local tension, creating a huge apparently hindu state that juts into/divides various smaller muslim states is not a bad way to go about it. Bang. used to be known as East Pakistan, incidentally.)

Kashmir as a state that is potentially very valuable, has great natural resources, and gives whichever country 'owns'it an inroad/secure border with the other's territory.

The map makes it pretty easy to see why J&K has massive strategic importance. Check out how close to Delhi, aside from it's obvious importance to the region.

Add to this India's state system, which has the potential to fragment in much the same way as the Soviet Union, which is an additioanl reason India's so desperate to hang onto it. There are strong separatist/nationalist movements in Tamil Nadu, U.P, and all the states to the far east of India, those connected to 'mainland' india by a tiny strip of west bengal.

And that for the first time in decades (perhaps since Partition?), Pakistan is 'in' with the US and therefore has possibly unprecedented leverage on the world scene. India historically has been closer to Russia/CIS/Soviet Union than to the US.

India claims that Pakistan is sponsoring Islamic terrorist groups in India. Pakistan claims that India is warmongering. Both sides claim internation validation for their 'wars on terrorism'.

Basically as far as I can see it's a bigfuckingmess. What do other people think?

oh, and this is a really crude oversimplification, but as a very vague guide check out this
map of india by religion

[ 21-01-2002: Message edited by: Lick my plums, bitch. ]

[ 21-01-2002: Message edited by: Lick my plums, bitch. ]
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
13:56 / 21.01.02
For a bit of local perspective, letters pages from national Indianand Pakistani papers...
 
 
grant
18:45 / 21.01.02
Funny, I always thought Pakistan sort of broke itself off. Goes to show, I shouldn't rely on getting history from half-remembered Ben Kingsley films.

I'm not sure what real natural resources Kashmir has, but it's very strategically located and has a population of mixed ethnicity and strong ideology.

One of the things with Kashmir is that it, like most of north India (Rajasthan, Punjab, and the rest) is overwhelmingly Muslim, and certain elements within the region would be quite pleased to leave India and join with Pakistan. "Insurgencies" and other forms of civil unrest are pretty common as a result. (my sister got stuck outside Rishikesh during one)
And, if you look at the map, the capital in Delhi is right there, in easy reach.

Oh, I guess Plums said that.

So, part of the problem is also that both have the Bomb and both have tested it in the last couple years.

I'm very tempted to add something about the natural volatility of the sweater industry, but that would be dumb.

This "story of pakistan" site, on the other hand, is not that dumb at all.
 
 
grant
18:48 / 21.01.02
quote:Kashmir the last of the defiant states, was the reverse of Hyderabad. It had a Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh but his subjects were Muslims, accounting to 78%. He was reluctant either to join India or Pakistan. But Lord Mountbatten urged him to take decision to join either state before August 15, 1947.
The Maharaja asked for more time to consider his decision. In the meantime he asked the Indian and the Pakistani government to sign a "standstill agreement" with him. Pakistan consented but India refused.

The local population of Poonch began to press the Maharaja to accede to Pakistan. In August, 1947 they held a massive demonstration to protest against the Maharaja's indecisiveness. The Maharaja panicked. He asked his Hindu paratroops to shoot, within a matter of seconds several hundreds Muslims were killed. Against this brutal action, a local barrister called Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim immediately set up Azad Kashmir government and began to wage guerrilla warfare against the Maharaja.


from the site.

Elsewhere on the site, this bit should ring familiar to students of the Middle East:

quote:Pakistan was carved out in desperate urgency. It came into existence with horrible loss of life and property, and the migration of millions of dazed and destitute men, women, and children. The cost was heavy in terms of human suffering. But this is what the Muslims wanted and this is what they achieved - a homeland of their own. They could now worship, practice their religious faith and develop their culture in freedom.
 
 
grant
18:56 / 21.01.02
quote:Prior to Partition, there existed in British India many semi-autonomous Princely states whose future had to be settled before Britain withdrew from India.

There were some 560 such states all over the sub-continent. Some fell within the area of India, others in Pakistan.

On July 25, 1947, Lord Louis Mountbatten (the last Viceroy of India) in his address to the chamber of Princes advised them that in deciding on the question of accession, they should take into consideration communal composition and the geographical location of their states. Nearly all the states accepted the reality of the situation and opted either for Pakistan or India accordingly. But there were four states, Junagadh, Hyderabad, Jodhpur and Kashmir who defied the principle of partition.

I. Junagadh Junagadh''s ruler was a Muslim but his subjects were 80 percent Hindu. On September 15, 1947, the Nawab acceded to Pakistan, despite the fact that his state did not fall within the geographical grouping of Pakistan. India protested, rushed in her troops and forcibly reversed the Nawab decision and Junagadh become a part of India.

II. Hyderabad
Hyderabad, the second of defiant states was the largest and richest in India. It population was 85 % Hindu but the ruler (Nizam) was a Muslim. He was reluctant either to accede to India or Pakistan but was dismissed by Mountbatten from adopting this course. The Hindu subjects revolted against the Nizam''s desire to be independent. The whole province plunged into violence. The Indian army went in to restore order and under the pretext of "police action" India annexed Hyderabad.

III. Jodhpur
Yet another prince, the Maharaja of Jodhpur, expressed a wish to join Pakistan but Mountbatten warned him that his subjects were mostly Hindus and his accession to Pakistan would create problems. As a result Jodhpur, too, acceded to India.

IV. Kashmir
Please see ''Kashmir Crisis''.
 
 
sleazenation
09:05 / 22.01.02
And this is befre we even get to the debate about Khalistan.
 
 
suds
09:05 / 22.01.02
i was near the disputed area of kashmir teaching in 1998 (i was in the kulu valley region). thats when the nuclear bombs were going off. it was raining dust and the sky was *brown*. it was fucked up. it's a very unsettled place to be, and the kids i was teaching me just wanted all of pakistan nuked. and these were intelligent kids. it's such a fucked up situation and it worries me greatly.

[ 22-01-2002: Message edited by: suds ]
 
  
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