India, Pakistan and Kashmire, whats it all about?

I am curious about this too. So, I'll chime in to help your response count and to make it easier for me to follow this thread.

After reading your post I'm a little confused as to what you want to know. Do you want to know why they are fighting over Kashmire, when did it start, or are you looking for something else?

gewsew, when u said two countries sprang out of india whne the british rule ended 'muslims in pakistan and hindus in india' , u made a mistake in that india is a secular country. The facts that upointed to were ocrrect. During 'partition' was the event of dividing india into india and pakistan in 1947 is known, every governor in the region was given a choice of joining india or pakistan. The ruler of Kashmir was a hindu (as pointed out), and he opted to join india. The partition was followed by the biggest migration of people in HISTORY, muslims from pakistan to india and hindus vice - versa. India later became a secular republic, Kashmir being one of the states. Pakistan never accepted kashmir as a part of india, and waged two unsuccessful wars against india to capture kashmir. But the disputes continued and today, hakf of kashmir is 'PoK'- Pak occupied Kashmir. The Kargil war was the third major conflict in kashmir, and again the indian army emerged victorious. Many terrorrist outfits operate in PoK, coaxing kashmiri youth into terrorrism against India. While the disputes will never end, as an Indian, i would always consider Kashmir as an indian state. One of the reasons that both sides dont want to give up on Kashmir is simply because it is strategically a very important region. Shameful that such a beautiful place, which is often christened 'parasie on earth' (referring to the kashmir valley), has to suffer such a fate.

As far as I understand both India and Pakistan claim the Kashmir as their own. Actually you can throw China into the mix because in 1962 China and India fought over the Aksai Chin which is apart of what we call Kashmir. Currently Kashmir is divided, and you can see why that would cause friction between the sides. The official stance of India is that Kashmir is an integral part of India, while the official stated stance of Pakistan is that Kashmir is a disputed territory whose final status can only be determined by the Kashmiri people. Where this all start is when Britian dominion of India came to an end. Two countries from out of it, Muslims in Pakistan and Hindus in India. The problem with Kashmir is that the people that lived in that region were Muslim, but the ruler was a Hindu. The current border was established by the U.N, see what happens when the U.N gets invovled. Neither side is happy with the current Line of Control as was deffind by the Simla Agreement.

FROM AFAR. ............. and having traveled in the area, including Ladakh I thought to put in my thoughts as well: Both gewcew23 and wantaferrari have excellent responses with a fair coverage of the issues. The Radcliffe Commission that established some of the ground-rules for the partition as well as the then British Viceroy Louis Mountbatten have some complicity in the current conundrum but, this a problematic buffer area could have been foreseen with 20:20 accuracy of hindsight. The area called Jammu and Kashmir is strategic. One of its districts - Gilgit is even more strategic since it in the days before satellites it served as a listening post overlooking the former Soviet Union and China. The area strategically straddles the sub-continent and is key for oil and gas pipelines to the large consuming markets. Large mineral deposits are speculated upon and pending resolution of security and governance issues the area remains to be a "reserve" for the world. The drivers for partition of the sub-continent as observed by the Radcliffe commission were largely communal i.e. the Muslim - Hindu divide. The larger political agenda remained implicit in the deliberations of the Commission. The creation of Pakistan, its subsequent break-up and continuing festering in Pakistan is an indictment of the motives and mechanics for partition. Pakistan continues to be a petri-dish for Islamic militancy and Kashmir the cause celebre, not unlike but not as strident as the Palestine issue. The issues in Afghanistan, the North West Frontier Province, Kashmir are related and a visionary solution would probably include the dismemberment of the festering carbuncle called Pakistan and creation of largely self governing pockets in the sub-region. Cheers.