WORLD'S OLDEST DISPUTE

The Kashmir dispute is the oldest unresolved international conflict in the world
today. Pakistan considers Kashmir as its core political dispute with India. So does
the international community, except India. While Indian security forces are
practicing an unprecedented reign of terror in Occupied Kashmir being widely
reported world-wide; the Indian government, currently led by Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party, is neither willing to negotiate the issue
multilaterally--through international mediation--nor is it ready to sort it out with
Pakistan through bilateral negotiations. India and Pakistan have already fought two
wars over Kashmir. The exchange of fire between their forces across the Line of
Control, which separates Azad Kashmir from Occupied Kashmir, is a routine affair.
Now that both India and Pakistan have acquired nuclear weapons potential, the
possibility of a third war between them over Kashmir, which may involve the use
of nuclear weapons, cannot be ruled out. The likely nuclear disaster in South Asia,
whose cause may be Kashmir, can be averted with an intervention by the
international community. Such an intervention is urgently required to put an end to
Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir and prepare the ground for the
implementation of UN resolutions, which call for the holding of a plebiscite to
determine the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

CAUSE OF THE DISPUTE

India’s forcible occupation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 is the main
cause of the dispute. India claims to have 'signed' a controversial document, the Instrument
of Accession, on 26 October 1947 with the Maharaja of Kashmir, in which the Maharaja
obtained India's military help against popular insurgency. The people of Kashmir and Pakistan
do not accept the Indian claim. There are doubts about the very existence of the Instrument of
Accesion. The United Nations also does not consider Indian claim as legally valid: it
recognises Kashmir as a disputed territory. Except India, the entire world community
recognises Kashmir as a disputed territory. The fact is that all the principles on the basis of
which the Indian subcontinent was partitioned by the British in 1947 justify Kashmir becoming
a part of Pakistan: the State had majority Muslim population, and it not only enjoyed
geographical proximity with Pakistan but also had essential economic linkages with the
territories constituting Pakistan.

HISTORY OF THE DISPUTE

The State of Jammu and Kashmir has historically remained independent, except in the
anarchical conditions of the late 18th and first half of the 19th century, or when incorporated in
the vast empires set up by the Mauryas (3rd century BC), the Mughals (16th to 18th century)
and the British (mid-19th to mid-20th century). All these empires included not only
present-day India and Pakistan but some other countries of the region as well. Until 1846,
Kashmir was part of the Sikh empire. In that year, the British defeated the Sikhs and sold
Kashmir to Gulab Singh of Jammu for Rs. 7.5 million under the Treaty of Amritsar. Gulab
Singh, the Mahraja, signed a separate treaty with the British which gave him the status of an
independent princely ruler of Kashmir. Gulab Singh died in 1857 and was replaced by Rambir
Singh (1857-1885). Two other Marajas, Partab Singh (1885-1925) and Hari Singh
(1925-1949) ruled in succession.

Gulab Singh and his successors ruled Kashmir in a tyrannical and repressive way. The
people of Kashmir, nearly 80 per cent of whom were Muslims, rose against Maharaja Hari
Singh's rule. He ruthlessly crushed a mass uprising in 1931. In 1932, Sheikh Abdullah formed
Kashmir's first political party--the All Jammu & Kashmir Muslim Conference (renamed as
National Conference in 1939). In 1934, the Maharaja gave way and allowed limited democracy
in the form of a Legislative Assembly. However, unease with the Maharaja's rule continued.
According to the instruments of partition of India, the rulers of princely states were given the
choice to freely accede to either India or Pakistan, or to remain independent. They were,
however, advised to accede to the contiguous dominion, taking into consideration the
geographical and ethnic issues.

In Kashmir, however, the Maharaja hesitated. The principally Muslim population, having seen
the early and covert arrival of Indian troops, rebelled and things got out of the Maharaja's
hands. The people of Kashmir were demanding to join Pakistan. The Maharaja, fearing tribal
warfare, eventually gave way to the Indian pressure and agreed to join India by, as India
claims, 'signing' the controversial Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947. Kashmir
was provisionally accepted into the Indian Union pending a free and impartial plebiscite. This
was spelled out in a letter from the Governor General of India, Lord Mountbatten, to the
Maharaja on 27 October 1947. In the letter, accepting the accession, Mountbatten made it
clear that the State would only be incorporated into the Indian Union after a reference had
been made to the people of Kashmir. Having accepted the principle of a plebiscite, India has
since obstructed all attempts at holding a plebiscite.

In 1947, India and Pakistan went to war over Kashmir. During the war, it was India which first
took the Kashmir dispute to the United Nations on 1 January 1948 The following year, on 1
January 1949, the UN helped enforce ceasefire between the two countries. The ceasefire line
is called the Line of Control. It was an outcome of a mutual consent by India and
Pakistan that the UN Security Council (UNSC) and UN Commission for India and
Pakistan (UNCIP) passed several resolutions in years following the 1947-48 war. The
UNSC Resolution of 21 April 1948--one of the principal UN resolutions on
Kashmir--stated that "both India and Pakistan desire that the question of the
accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan should be decided through the
democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite". Subsequent UNSC Resolutions
reiterated the same stand. UNCIP Resolutions of 3 August 1948 and 5 January 1949
reinforced UNSC resolutions.

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