JKCCS

History in Brief

In August 1947, the British left the Indian Subcontinent after partitioning the Indian subcontinent into two independent nation states, India and Pakistan on religious communal lines. There were 562 “princely states” in British Indian Empire. Maharajas, Rajas and Nawabs ruled over these territories under the sovereignty of the British Crown. On the lapse of British Paramountacy, these rulers were “legally” free to decide whether to join either of the two new states or remain independent. However, this legal choice of independence was essentially a hypothetical one as the religious composition of the subjects and the geographical location of these princely states dictated the merger with the newly emerged successors nation states of India and Pakistan. No princely state could become independent.

Maharaja Hari Singh, the Hindu ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, however was anxious for independence. The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir with a territory of about 128,000 square kilometers was uniquely placed as a buffer territory between India and Pakistan and had common borders within Afghanistan and China. Neither Pakistan nor India was ready to accept an independent Jammu and Kashmir. They kept on pressing the Maharaja to accede to either of the new states.

Pakistan claimed this territory, as 72 percent of Maharaja’s subjects were Muslim. India wanted the Muslim majority territory of Kashmir as an emblem of her secularism. The Maharaja offered a “stand still” agreement to India and Pakistan, as he wanted some more time to make up his mind. Pakistan signed agreement but India refused.

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Other Important Documents

Treaty of Amritsar

Instrument of Accession

Article 370

UN Resolution on Kashmir

Historical Telegrams

SIMLA AGREEMENT (1972)

Sheikh–Indira Accord, 1975

Joint Statements(1998)

Indo Pak summits

Armed Forces Special Powers Act

Lahore Declaration