The Kashmir issue: why India went to the UN, and what happened after that
Context- The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of petitions against the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir special status in the Union of India.
(Credits- odishabytes.com)
How and why this ‘special status’ came about has been the cause of enduring controversy and bloodshed within India and in its relations with neighbouring Pakistan. While the basic contours of the Kashmir story are well-known — Maharaja Hari Singh’s doomed decision of staying independent after Partition; the attack on Kashmir by Pakistani tribesmen; Hari Singh’s accession to India under pressure; and India sending its troops to drive away the raiders
Switzerland of the East’
- The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir came into being in March 1846, when the British, under the Treaty of Amritsar after the first Anglo-Sikh War, sold Kashmir for a sum of 7.5 million Nanakshahee rupees to Gulab Singh, the Dogra jagirdar of Jammu.
- Maharaja Hari Singh, who was on the throne when India became independent, was descended from Gulab Singh. As the British prepared to withdraw from India after dividing it, the princely states were given the option of joining either India or Pakistan or remaining independent, although the last option was hardly practical.
- In June 1947, Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten visited Srinagar. He advised Hari Singh’s prime minister to pick either country and accede, but was told the state wanted to remain independent.
- August 15, 1947 drew nearer, but still Hari Singh refused to accede. What he did propose were ‘standstill agreements’ with both India and Pakistan, which meant that trade, travel and communication services in his sandwiched domain would continue as under the British. Pakistan signed this, but India preferred to wait.
- Thus, when India and Pakistan attained independence, Jammu and Kashmir too was technically independent. In a month, this independence came under strain.
- By the middle of September, lorries carrying petrol, sugar, salt, clothes, etc. for J&K were being stopped on the Pakistan side of the border, in what some saw as Pakistan creating pressure for accession.
Hari Singh’s accession to India
- On September 27, 1947 [India after Gandhi, by Ramachandra Guha], Nehru wrote to Patel that the situation in J&K was “dangerous and deteriorating”. Nehru believed Pakistan planned to “infiltrate into Kashmir now and to take some big action as soon as Kashmir is more or less isolated because of the coming winter”
- In less than a month, the infiltrators came, crossing over from then North-West Frontier Province on October 22. India and Pakistan have never agreed on who sent the raiders and why.
- India has maintained that the tribesmen were acting with the knowledge and aid of the Pakistan establishment, citing as proof the trucks and advanced weapons used by them.
- Pakistan insists the Pathans were acting on their own to “avenge the atrocities” against Muslims taking place in India, and cite a rebellion in Poonch as evidence of the local Muslim population’s unhappiness with Hari Singh.
- The infiltrators advanced quickly, with Hari Singh’s forces in no shape to defend the state. They took Muzaffarabad, and defeated the Maharaja’s forces at Uri.
- From Mahuta, they began moving to Baramula. The advance of the infiltrators had been accompanied by looting and violence, targetting Hindus, Muslims, and Christians alike.
- Hari Singh now cabled to the Indian government for military aid.
How the question of plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir came up
- Mountbatten’s reply to Hari Singh said, “Consistently with the policy that, in the case of any State where the issue of the accession has been the subject of dispute, the question of accession should be decided in accordance with the wishes of the people of the State, it is my Government’s wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invader, the question of the State’s accession should be settled by a reference to the people.”
- For Indian leaders, including Nehru and Patel, plebiscite was important to settle the J&K question once and for all. Kashmiri masses choosing India would also have repudiated Pakistan’s claim of all Muslim-dominated regions wanting to get away from India.
Kashmir issue at the UN
- Indian forces in Kashmir had made significant military gains, retaking Dras, Kargil, and the hills around Poonch. However, fighting was still on, and there were fears it would spill over Kashmir into Punjab.
- Mountbatten advised involving the United Nations. He had met Jinnah in Lahore in November, and had little hopes that India and Pakistan could arrive at a solution through talks.
- British PM Clement Attlee wrote to Nehru, warning him against moving forces into Pakistan.
- On January 1, 1948, India decided to take Kashmir to the UN, and was “betrayed” by the British, as many believe. India’s contention at the UN had been that Pakistani infiltrators were occupying parts of J&K, which had legally acceded to India, and must be asked to leave. Pakistan framed the issue as part of the larger Partition problem, saying the infiltrators had moved in to help their “suffering” Muslim brethren.
- Pakistan’s claims here were lent weight to by the US and England, in part because Pakistan seemed a better ally against the Soviets than India
Conclusion- After 1954, as Pakistan moved closer to the US and the two signed a military pact, Nehru’s stand hardened against a plebiscite. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir continued to engage with the democratic processes of India, during the drafting of the Constitution and after. Article 370 was included in the Constitution on October 17, 1949, giving J&K ‘special status’ in the Union of India.
Syllabus- GS-1; Post Independence History
Source- Indian Express
