Kashmir conflict and India

Abstract

The origin of the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan dates back to the partition of the British colonial empire after World War II. The policies of princely states were affected by the British plan to divide the colonial empire into two independent states: India and Pakistan. Princely states were given the chance to choose which country to join. Kashmir, however, chose not to join either of them. Maharajah Singh, Kashmir’s ruler at the time, sought avenues to independence. Eventually Singh, afraid of a Pakistani intervention, decided to join with India. The immediate solution recommended by the UN was a cease-fire and a plebiscite to determine the future of Kashmir. The following succession of intense conflicts and India’s unwillingness to hold a plebiscite has shaped the status of modern Kashmir. Simultaneously, India also started taking steps to gradually change the status of Jammu and Kashmir. This study is an attempt to analysis and discusses the Indian policy vice versa Kashmir, which has been continuously changed with the route of time and is based on wrong assumption. This study is based on an interpretive approach. The data were collected primarily from secondary sources such as published and unpublished records, books, journals, newspapers, internet articles…etc.