By Prof. G.M. Athar
The territorial dispute over former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir among India, Pakistan and China for the last seventy five years is one of the bloodiest hotspots of the world where three nuclear powers of Asia have mutually fought five regular wars in 1947-48, 1962, 1965, 1971, 1984 and 1999. In addition to these wars there were surgical strikes on Pakistan along the Line of Control by India and the counter air strikes by Pakistan in September 1916 and February 2019 and the bloody clashes along the Ladakh Sector of the Line of Actual Control between Indian and Chinese troops in May 2020.The Pakistan is fighting the low-cost proxy war against India in Jammu and Kashmir for the last three and a half decades in which lakhs of human deaths and injuries have occurred and the property worth billions of rupees has been destroyed. Keeping in view the negative impact of war on the national economies and human security, the countries involved in the territorial conflict over Jammu and Kashmir must peacefully resolve it in accordance with the international law, bilateral agreements and the wishes of the people living in different regions of Jammu and Kashmir. In order to discuss the alternative options for conflict resolution in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, a brief study of the genesis of the Kashmir conflict is very must. The implications of partition of British India for the Dogra kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir, the internationalisation of Kashmir Question and the alternative options for conflict resolution in Kashmir have been systematically discussed in the paragraphs to follow.
THE IMPLICATIONS OF PARTITION OF BRITISH INDIA FOR JAMMU AND KASHMIR STATE:-It is a historical fact that the Indian Muslim League and Indian National Congress took the decision to have the partition of British India on the basis of religion in 1947. Lord Mountbatten, Governor General of India, accordingly announced the partition plan of Bengal and Punjab on 3rd June1947. The British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act on 18th July 1947 under which the 565 princely states of Indian subcontinent were supposed to join the dominion of India or Pakistan on the basis of their geographical contiguity and religious composition of population.The Dogra princely state of Jammu and Kashmir having common border with both India and Pakistan was supposed to join Pakistan because 77% population of the state was Muslim. However, Maharaja Hari Singh, the autocratic ruler of the state wanted to stay away from both India and Pakistan to continue his autocratic rule in Jammu and Kashmir. He submitted Standstill Agreement to both India and Pakistan through an identical telegram on 12th August 1947. Pakistan accepted the Standstill Agreement in principle pending details whereas the Government of India suggested Maharaja Hari Singh to depute some of his cabinet minister to New Delhi to discuss the details of the agreement but Maharaja Hari Singh was buying the time, because the Congress leadership was insisting on the transfer of political power to the popular leadership in the Dogra Kingdom as the National Conference leadership had maintained the position of establishing the popular government prior to the decision on the subject of accession with India, Pakistan or Independent Jammu and Kashmir.
Sheikh Mohamad Abdullah the leader of All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference was reluctant to join Pakistan because he had no personal equation with Mohamad Ali Jinnah, leader of Indian Muslim League. It has been documented by certain Kashmir experts that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru sent some Kashmiri Pandits to Sheikh Mohamad Abdullah when he was in prison at Srinagar to offer him an autonomous status for Jammu and Kashmir State within Indian Union and sought the support of Sher-i-Kashmir to accession of his Muslim dominated state with India. According to Bilkees Taseer Sheikh Mohamad Abdullah on the insistence of his leftist friends from Lahore who had joined Pakistan Muslim League visited Lahore in the first week of October 1947 to talk to Mohamad Ali Jinnah, Governor General of Pakistan but the later refused to meet him, but expressed his willingness to meet any representative of Government of Jammu and Kashmir to discuss the future of Dogra princely state with him. After the humiliation of Sheikh Mohamad Abdullah by Mohammad Ali Jinnah for the third time since 1945, the National Conference leader vehemently opposed the two-nation theory of Indian Muslim League and the accession of Jammu and Kashmir State with Pakistan.
After Sheikh Mohamad Abdullah’s release from the prison by Maharaja Hari Singh on 29th September 1947, following his letter of apology to the Dogra ruler, Pakistan had became apprehensive about the accession of Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union by Maharaja Hari Singh, the Hindu ruler of the state with the political support of Sheikh Mohamad Abdullah.The rumours were spreading in Pakistan that after the winter snowfall on the mountain passes on Srinagar-Rawalpindi Road making the connectivity of Pakistan difficult with Kashmir, the Dogra ruler will accede to the Indian Union. Pakistan wanted to take no risks so in order to preempt any such situation the country sent tribal raiders to invade Kashmir on 22nd October 1947. The tribal raiders resorted to killing of non-Muslims in Muzaffarabad and Baramulla on their way to Srinagar. Meanwhile the local rebels in Poonch-Mirpur declared the formation of Azad Government of Jammu and Kashmir under the leadership of Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan on 24th October 1947. The deteriorating security situation in his kingdom forced Maharaja Hari Singh to send his Mehrchand Mahajan, Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir to New Delhi on 24th October 1947 to request for military assistance from India, but the Government of India demanded accession of the Dogra kingdom with Indian Union prior to any military assistance. Both Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Home Minister of India also put the condition of inducting Sheikh Mohamad Abdullah, the most popular leader of Kashmir into the Government of Jammu and Kashmir State. Maharaja Hari was obliged to accede to Indian Union with respect to defence , foreign affairs and communication on 26th October 1947. The Indian troops landed at the Srinagar Airport early in the morning on 27th October 1947 to defend Kashmir against the Pakistani invaders. Maharaja Hari Singh appointed Sheikh Mohamad Abdullah as the Emergency Administrator of Jammu and Kashmir on 29th October 1947.Following the landing of Indian troops in Kashmir, the Pakistan also sent its Rangers on the border between Kashmir and Pakistan which further complicated the armed conflict between the two countries.
THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF KASHMIR QUESTION:- Since in1947 both Indian army and Pakistan army was commanded by the British army officers, so they were reluctant to have a formal wear between the two newly independent countries. So on the suggestion of Lord Mountbatten, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru referred the Kashmir Question on 31st December 1947 to the United Nations under the Chapter IV of UN Charter. The Government of India in its plea to the United Nations Security Council on 5th January 1948 demanded to secure the withdrawal of Pakistani tribal raiders and regular forces from the territory of princely state of Jammu and Kashmir so that a plebiscite can be held in the former Dogra kingdom to determine whether the people of the princely state want to stay with India, join Pakistan or stay independent.The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on Jammu and Kashmir State on 21st April 1948, under which it recommended that Pakistan must withdraw its troops and tribal raiders from the territory of Jammu and Kashmir State, India must downsize its troops in the state to its optimum level necessary for maintaining the law and order in the state which must be followed by a transparent two-option plebiscite under the supervision of United Nations to determine whether the people want to stay with India or join Pakistan.The Pakistan was reluctant to demilitarise the territory of Jammu and Kashmir State with the result the two countries through the mediation of United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan implemented the Ceasefire Line on 1st January 1949. India and Pakistan recognised Ceasefire Line as the working border between the two countries under Karachi Agreement on 28th April 1949. Following the India-Pakistan War in East Pakistan in December 1971the two countries signed the Shimla Agreement on 2nd July 1972 under which Ceasefire Line was renamed as the Line of Control and it was mutually agreed to resolve the Kashmir issue through bilateral engagement between the two countries. India and Pakistan later agreed in the Lahore Declaration on 21st February 1999 to address the Kashmir issue under the framework of Shimla Agreement, but the two countries have failed to make any breakthrough in resolving the Kashmir issue as per the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
THE ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN KASHMIR:- The official stand of the Government of India is that the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India because the Dogra ruler of the state has signed the accession of his kingdom with Indian Union on 26th October 1947.The Government of Pakistan has maintained that as per the principles of geographical contiguity and demographic composition of the princely states laid down in the Indian Independence Act of July 1947 the Muslim dominated Jammu and Kashmir State is a part of Pakistan.The Government of Pakistan repeatedly refers to the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir from time to time recommending the conduct of two-option plebiscite in the disputed territory. However, many responsible persons in both India and Pakistan believe that holding a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir is impractical option at this stage. So they put forth different solutions to the Kashmir Problem. Let us discuss these alternative options in a systematic manner as under:
(1). CONVERSION OF LINE OF CONTROL INTO THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN:- The Line of Control is infact a temporary ceasefire line between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir State monitored by the United Nations Military Observer Group stationed at Srinagar, Kashmir and Rawalpindi, Pakistan since 1949. The Ceasefire Line was violated during the India-Pakistan War in 1965, 1971 and 1999 but the status quo at the border was maintained under the Tashkent Agreement in 1966, Shimla Agreement in 1972 and the Ceasefire Agreement between India and Pakistan in 2003. Given the fact that the both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers and both the countries are ill-prepared to surrender even a square foot of the territory under their control, so conversion of the Line of Control into the international border between the two India and Pakistan is the most peaceful and pragmatic option in Jammu and Kashmir for the two countries.
(2). REALIGNMENT OF THE LINE OF CONTROL BEFORE CONVERSION INTO THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER:-The people of Jammu and Kashmir living on both sides of the Line of Control oppose the option of converting the Line of Control into an international border between India and Pakistan.The ethnic groups like Balties of Kargil and Baltistan, the Shina speaking Dards of Gilgit and Guris Valley, the Kashmiri speaking people of Neelam Valley, Muzaffarabad, Hattian Bala and the Kashmiri people on the Indian side of Line of Control and the Pahari speaking people living in Poonch-Mirpur on the Pakistan side of Line of Control and the Pahari speaking people living in Poonch-Rajouri on the Indian side of the Line of Control protest against drawing the international border between the people sharing not only the ethnic, lingual, cultural, historical and geographical ties but being the people who have family ties and blood relations with each other.They maintain that the Kashmir problem is a human issue rather than the land dispute between India and Pakistan. However, the people on both sides are fed up with the continuous border tension between India and Pakistan, so they demand that the Line of Control must be realigned to put Balti, Dard, Kashmiri and Pahari speaking areas on the same side of the Line of Control before converting it into an international border between India and Pakistan.
(3).INDEPENDENTJAMMU AND KASHMIR:- The Kashmiri ñationalists living in Jammu and Kashmir State on both sides of Line of Control as well as those living in India, Pakistan, Middle East, Europe, North America, Australia and other countries of the world consider Indian and Pakistani troops in the erstwhile Dogra kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir as the occupation forces. They demand that both India and Pakistan must demilitarise the territory of Jammu and Kashmir State, so that an independent country can be established as a buffer state between India and Pakistan having cordial relationship with both the countries. The Jammu and Kashmir National Liberation Front established by Mohammad Amanullah Khan and Mohammad Maqbool Bhat in 1966, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front established by Mohammad Amanullah Khan at Birmingham and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front established by Mohammad Yasin Malik in 1994 and several other Kashmiri ñationalist parties operating in Kashmir, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, as well as those established by the Kashmiri diaspora in Europe, Middle East and North America all demand demilitarisation of Jammu and Kashmir by both India and Pakistan to establish an independent country free from both India and Pakistan. Keeping in view the fact that that United Nations Security Council approved the recommendation of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan to grant the right of national self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir on13th August 1948, the Kashmiri ñationalist leadership demands three-option plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir to permit the people of Jammu and Kashmir to vote for an independent country. The United Nations Security Council Resolution on Jammu and Kashmir State on 13th August 1948 was opposed by Pakistan, so after Sir Zafarullah Khan, Foreign Affairs Minister of Pakistan wrote an application to the United Nations Security Council to modify the resolution, a fresh resolution was passed on Jammu and Kashmir State by the United Nations Security Council on 5th January 1949 to hold two-option plebiscite in the state.
The Kashmiri ñationalist leadership blame the Government of India also to have sebatoged the right of self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir by maintaining criminal silence over the Pakistani opposition to the 13th August 1948 UNSC Resolution on Jammu and Kashmir State.
(4). PARTITION OF FORMER JAMMU AND KASHMIR PRINCELY STATE ON THE BASIS OF TWO-NATION THEORY:-The Kashmiri Muslims had supported National Conference leadership’s decision in1947 to stay with Indian Union on the promise that the Muslim dominated state would have the internal sovereignty within the framework of Indian Constitution.The introduction of the Article 370 and the Article 35-A in the Constitution of India in 1949 and 1954 respectively gave the Kashmiri Muslims a degree of confidence that their life and property as well as Muslim identity will be secure within India. However, the step by step erosion of the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir State from 1954 onwards and the unconstitutional abolition of special status of Jammu and Kashmir State on 5th August 2019 as well as reorganisation of the Muslim dominated into the Ladakh Union Territory and Jammu and Kashmir on 6th August 2019 has completely shaken the faith of the Kashmiri Muslims in the Indian democracy, secularism and federalism. Although the pro-Pakistan section of Kashmiri Muslims led by All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference ( from1942 onwards), Jammu and Kashmir Jamat Islami, Jamiat Tulba, Hurriyat Conference (Geelani Group), and the indigenous militant organisations like Hizbul Mujahideen were throughout in favour of accession of Kashmir with Pakistan. Many Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir believe that like Bengal and Punjab was partitioned in 1947 to establish separate homeland for the Muslims of these states, the formula must be extended to Jammu and Kashmir State as well. Thus Buddhist dominated Leh District and Zanskar Sub-District as well as the Hindu dominated Kathua Samba Jammu Udhampur Districts and Reyasi Sub-District must be kept with India and the remaining Muslim dominated territory of the state including Kashmir Valley, Chenab Valley, Pirpanjal Region, Kargil Sub-District, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan must be kept with Pakistan.The rise of Hindu nationalism in India has enhanced the relevance of the two-nation theory of Indian Muslim League in the contemporary India.
(5).THE SECTARIAN REGIONALISATION OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR STATE:-There is a section of people among the Muslims who are conscious about the sectarian divide in the Muslim Ummah from the time of dispute over the transfer of Caliphate following the death of Hazrat Muhammad on 8th June 632 C.E. and the event of Karbala on 10th October 680 C.E.Being the turning points in the Islamic history, the Shia-Sunni sectarianism is unfortunately the existing reality within the Muslim World in general and Pakistan in particular. Owing to its vast geographical area, difficulty terrain and ethno-lingual diversity the political future of Shia dominated Gilgit-Baltistan can’t be wedded to the political future of Sunni dominated Azad Kashmir. So it is advisable that the Balti speaking Shia Muslim dominated Kargil Sub-District of Ladakh Division must be integrated with Gilgit-Baltistan to make it the fifth province of Pakistan as promised to the people of the region by all the political parties of Pakistan, especially by Mr Imran Khan, then Prime Minister of Pakistan during the recent Legislative Assembly elections in the Shia Muslim dominated multi-ethnic territory. The Sunni Muslim dominated Azad Kashmir as well as Pirpanjal Region and Chenab Valley must be Integrated with Kashmir Valley to either make it a province of Pakistan, an autonomous state of India or a buffer state between India and Pakistan. However, the Hindu dominated Jammu region would have an option to either say with the Sunni Muslim dominated United Kashmir or be a separate Union Territory or State of India. The Leh District and Zanskar Sub-District can continue as a separate Union Territory of India.In this way the Kashmir conflict can be resolved through the religio-cultural regional approach to deal with the Sunni Muslim, Shia Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu dominated areas separetely, rather than having a blanket solution for the entire Muslim dominated territory of Jammu and Kashmir State.
(6).THE ETHNO-LINGUAL REGIONALISATION OF FORMER PRINCELY STATE OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR:-The erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was militarily carved out by Maharaja Gulab Singh by bringing militarily diverse nationalities under his control from 1821 to 1846 at a time when the process of modern nation-state formation had already started in Europe and Greece after its liberation from the Ottoman Empire in 1821 had became the first nation-state of the world. According to the doctrine of nationalism every nation has a right to homeland. Only when a nation inhabits a definite geographical territory is in a position to exercise the right of national self-determination to establish a sovereign nation-state. The mountainous territory of former Dogra kingdom comprises of seven ethno-lingual nations having a definite geographical personality.These include Dogras, Paharies, Dards, Balties, Burushasoos, Ladakhies and Kashmiries.
Accordingly, the Kashmiri speaking Kashmir Valley, Chenab Valley and Muzaffarabad Division of Azad Kashmir need to be demilitarised by India and Pakistan to establish the sovereign Republic of Kashmir or an Autonomous State of Kashmir within Indian Union.The Balti speaking Kargil Sub-District needs to be merged with Gilgit-Baltistan to establish either the sovereign Republic of Gilgit-Baltistan or an autonomous province of Pakistan. The Ladakhi speaking Leh District and Zanskar Sub-District can continue as a Union Territory within Indian Union.The Dogri speaking Hindu dominated Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Udhampur districts and Reyasi sub-district must be granted statehood within Indian Union. The Pahari speaking Muslims of Poonch and Rajouri districts must be unified with Poonch-Mirpur region to establish the Autonomous Province of Parmistan within Pakistan. However, the constituent ethno-lingual states of former Dogra kingdom can also establish the Federal Republic of Jammu and Kashmir.
(7). INDIA-PAKISTAN BILATERAL COOPERATION:- The Kashmir conflict is intrinsically product of the partition of British India on the basis of two-nation theory in 1947. The best option for resolution of Kashmir conflict is to enhance economic, social and political cooperation between India and Pakistan so that the International border between India and Pakistan as well as the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir become irrelevant with the passage of time. The cross-border movement of people in the two countries to get tertiary health facilities, quality education, professional training and employment opportunities would bring the two countries closer to each other.The involvement of the people of two countries in transborder trade, commerce, tourism, transportation, cultural exchange, marriage and family relationship would strengthen interdependence and emotional bonds among the people of two countries to such an extent that the people would cease to distinguish an Indian from a Pakistani.The policy of regional integration under the framework of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation can go a long way in bringing Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan closer to each other. The development of multi-campus South Asian University, Free Trade Agreement, Visa Free Regime, Common Currency, Customs Union, mutual cooperation in the field of sports, cinema, culture, science and technology etc. can go a long way in strengthening the regional cooperation within Sooth Asian region in general and India and Pakistan in particular. In such a cordial environment it would be easy for the two countries to resolve the Kashmir problem through a step by step conflict resolution process.
The author can be reached at ghathar@yahoo.co.in
Views expressed are personal
