2006-11-16 02:06:36 · 2 answers · asked by logank1469 2 in Travel ➔ India ➔ Other - India
Kashmir is known as heaven on the earth. In the seventeenth century the Mughal emperor Jahangir set his eyes on the valley of Kashmir. He said that if paradise is any where on the earth, it is here, while living in a house boat on the mesmerizing Dal Lake.
Jammu and Kashmir, was a principality lying between the two new independent nations: India and Pakistan, independent dominions within the British Commonwealth of Nations which were formed by the partition of the former British India colony in August 1947
A total of 565 princely states formed 40% of India's land area and held more than 100 million people. Each prince had to decide which of the two new nations to join: Hindu-majority India or Muslim-majority Pakistan.
The ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, could not decide which country to join and in addition, he nursed fond hopes of remaining the princely ruler of Kashmir, as an independent nation. He was Hindu, while his subjects were predominantly Muslim. To avoid the decision, he signed a "standstill" agreement with Pakistan, which ensured continuity of trade, travel, communication, and similar services between the two. India did not sign a similar agreement.
Indian postal services began listing Kashmir as Indian territory, causing alarm in Pakistan. In October 1947, Pashtuns from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province invaded Kashmir in support of a rebellion agaist the Maharaja which had erupted in the restive Poonch district. The invasion caused widespread looting in the state. Troubled by the increasing deterioration in law and order situation, and by earlier raids, culminating in the invasion of the tribesmen, followed later by Pakistani rangers, Maharaja Hari Singh, requested armed assistance and assylum from India. India refused to send its troops unless Kashmir officially joined the Union of India. The incumbent Governor-General, Lord Mountbatten also favoured Kashmir's accession to the Republic of India, to which the Maharaja always agreed. "The Instrument of Accession was signed by the Hari Singh on October 26, 1947 extending India's jurisdiction over external affairs, defence and communications
The next day, Indian troops were airlifted into Srinagar. The Pakistani government immediately contested the accession, suggesting that it was fraudulent, that the Maharaja acted under duress, and that he had no right to sign an agreement with India when the standstill agreement with Pakistan was still in force.
In 1949, the Indian government obliged Hari Singh to leave Jammu and Kashmir, and yield the government to Sheikh Abdullah, the leader of a popular political party, the National Conference Party. Since then, a bitter enmity has been developed between India and Pakistan and three wars have taken place between them over Kashmir. The growing dispute over Kashmir also lead to the rise of militancy in the state. The year 1989 saw the intensification of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir as Mujahadeens from Afghanistan slowly infiltrated the region following the end of the Soviet-Afghan War the same year.
2006-11-16 08:40:09 · answer #1 · answered by sins 5 · 8⤊ 0⤋
Jammu & Kashmir, is State. This has become prestige issue. This is tourist attraction
2006-11-16 02:08:24 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋