Why Kashmir Gives People the Sweats

Both India and Pakistan want Kashmir

//

Pakistan, experts say, has no fewer than 30 nuclear warheads. India has no fewer than 50. And for more than 60 years, the two have been on the brink of war in Kashmir.

It’s safe to say they aren’t fighting over really soft sweaters. So why have both nuclear nations been willing to risk the ultimate conflict? The territorial tiff goes back to Britain’s imperial shrinkage after World War II. Yet the conflict’s cultural roots go far deeper.

Colonial Past

Prior to 1947, India was the brightest jewel in Great Britain’s colonial crown. For two centuries, starting in 1608, British traders marshaled more and more influence over India, until by the 19th century, Britain effectively ruled the land. By 1876, British Queen Victoria was Empress of India, too.

By 1906, the Indians had seen quite enough of the Brits. That year, the Indian National Congress, a nationalist party that since 1885 had pushed for greater Indian say in the British Raj, passed a resolution calling for swaraj, or self-rule. In 1930, the nationalists were more emphatic, demanding purna swaraj–complete self-rule.

Divided Future

Yet the possibility of self-rule exposed splits in the “self” that might actually do the ruling. India is predominantly Hindu, but more than 120 million Muslims live there, too. In fact, for centuries, India’s Muslims had it pretty good–so good that, more often than not, they ruled the land. Beginning in the 8th century, Muslim invaders pushed progressively into India’s heart. By 1206, they ruled as sultans in Delhi.

India’s Congress Party nationalists were mindful of the land’s cultural and religious diversity, and so adopted a policy of secular nonpreference. Their goal, they said, was simply to make the British “quit India” and then to make India into a modern secular democracy, with no religious or ethnic group preferred over any other.

Muslim leaders had other ideas. They believed that with only 12 percent of the population, India’s Muslims could never hope to have enough electoral power to ensure their fair treatment. So they proposed that the British partition India into two states: one Hindu, one Muslim.

The British knew all about India’s long history of sectarian strife. In fact, the British Raj often helped to stoke it, subscribing to the old Latin dictum divide et impera–”divide and rule.” So when civil war erupted between India’s Hindu and Muslim populations in 1946, the British figured that partitioning Muslims from Hindus was the best choice. In 1947, India got its self-rule, but so did Pakistan–a “land of the pure” cartographically created out of Muslim-majority provinces as a homeland for Indian Muslims.

Exodus, Massacre, War

The partition had massive and lasting repercussions. Millions of Hindus in the new land of Pakistan migrated to India–attacked and killed by Muslim rioters all the way. Millions of Muslims in India migrated to Pakistan–attacked and killed by Hindu rioters all the way. At least 10 million people participated in the two-way exodus. Of those, some 1 million died in the sectarian strife.

Needless to say, India and Pakistan did not become friends. But it took Kashmir to push the two into war. Under the terms of the British partition, the maharajas who ruled India’s princely states (under British supervision, of course) could decide to cast their lot with India or with the Muslim state of Pakistan. Kashmir’s ruler, Hari Singh, was a Hindu, but his people were predominantly Muslim. For him, either choice was political suicide. So, like any good politician, he opted not to choose, hoping that some other option–perhaps an independent Kashmir he could rule–would present itself.

Events soon forced his hand. Muslims along Kashmir’s border with Pakistan revolted, and Pashtun tribesmen from Pakistan invaded, trying to ensure the region’s place in the Muslim fold. As the warriors approached Kashmir’s capital, Singh agreed to go India’s way, with his choice to be validated later by plebiscite. As soon as he signed the instrument of accession (some say before), Indian troops entered Kashmir to defend what they now claimed was Indian territory.

Pakistan cried foul, Pakistani troops entered Kashmir, and the first Indo-Pak war was on. From October 1947 to January 1949, the two forces clashed, with no decisive stroke scored by either nation. Spent, both sides agreed to a cease-fire, with about half of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan and half by India, separated by a “Line of Control.” U.N. resolutions called for Pakistan to withdraw its troops from Kashmir, for India to decrease its military presence, and then for Kashmiris to vote to decide the fate of their land.

Though India originally supported the call for a Kashmiri plebiscite, to this day the vote has never occurred–because, according to India, Pakistan has never withdrawn its troops from the region. India and Pakistan fought round two in 1965, and clashed again in 1971, but the Line of Control remains roughly where it was in 1947. Few people expect a peaceful resolution over Kashmir anytime soon. Even fewer want war to settle the dispute.

–Michael Himick