Kashmir

India-Pakistan On Kashmir It all started back in 1947. All regions of Pakistan and India were divided along religious lines. Because of its location, Kashmir could not choose to either join India or Pakistan. Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of Kashmir, was Hindu while most of the population was Muslim. Unable to decide which region to join, Maharaja Hari Singh decided to remain neutral. India and Pakistan fought their first war over Kashmir in 1947-1948. On a resolution dated August 13, 1948 the United Nations asked Pakistan to remove its troops after which India also remove a majority of its forces. They started fighting again in 1965, but a truce was established that September when Indian Prime Minister, Lal Bhadur Shastri, and Pakistani President, M Ayub Khan, signed the Tashkent agreement on January 1, 1966. In 1972 Indira Gandhi, the Indian prime minister, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Pakistani prime minister, signed the Simla Agreement, which restated the agreements made in the Tashkent. Another reason Pakistan and India fight over Kashmir is water. Kashmir is the source for many rivers of the Indus river basin. Pakistan has control of 60% of the area where the river basin is, whereas India only has control of 20%. The other 20% is controlled by other nations. Both countries signed the Indus Waters Treaty on September 1960, giving complete control of the three western rivers of the Indus to Pakistan, and the three eastern rivers to India, as long as they do not reduce or delay the supply to Pakistan.

The Kashmir Conflict begun from the partition of British India on 1947 into modern India and Pakistan. Both the countries have made claims to Kashmir, based on historical developments and religious connections of the Kashmiri people. Even today, the states of Jammu and Kashmir remain divided between the 2 countries. I feel as if if Kashmir should have been part of Pakistan from the start. Just because the ruler was Hindu, doesn’t mean the entire