International intervention and Pathways to Peace in Kashmir - Essay Example

In 1947, the British dominion of India came to an end with the creation of two new nations. Each of the 565 Indian princely states had to decide which of the two new nations to join, India or Pakistan. Jammu and Kashmir, which had a predominantly Muslim population and a Hindu ruler, was the largest of these autonomous states and bordered both modern countries. Its ruler was the Hari Singh. Hari Singh preferred to remain independent and sought to avoid the stress placed on him by either India and Pakistan by playing each against the other.

But under pressure he decided to accede to India which created this dispute. The Indian claim centers on the agreement between the Maharaja Hari Singh, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Lord Mountbatten according to which the erstwhile Kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir became an integral part of India through the instrument of accession. Even though more than 80% of India's population practices Hinduism, the President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, is a Muslim while the leader of the ruling Congress Party is a Catholic.

Indians also maintain that Kashmiris would be better off in India because they claim that Muslims are better off in India than in any other non-Muslim nation. India says Kashmir its integral part on the basis of following reasons: 2. 1. For a UN Resolution subscribing Plebiscite monitored by any third neutral party, Pakistan should first vacate its part of Kashmir. 2. India does not accept the Two Nation Theory that forms the basis of Pakistan, rather India says that majority is authority and any nation in India can get power through democratic institutions, hence there is no need of plebscite.3. The state of Jammu and Kashmir is made autonomous by the article 370 of the Constitution of India. 4. India alleges that most of the terrorists operating in Kashmir are themselves Pakistanis from Pakistan administered Kashmir and that Pakistan has been involved in State sponsored terrorism.

First Pakistan should control that cross border terrorism then India would go towards any acceptable solution of the dispute. 5. India regard Pakistan's claim to Kashmir based largely on religion alone to be no longer correct because now India has more muslims than Pakistan. Pakistani viewHistorically, the Pakistani claim on Kashmir has been based on the fact that the majority of Kashmir population is Muslim and, if given the option, most Kashmiris would vote to join Pakistan or seek independence.

Since 1951, Pakistan has been demanding India to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir as agreed by both nations in 1951 at UNO forum. Pakistan claims that Kashmiris took a violent path to independence only when they became hopeless and disillusioned about their future in the late 1980s. Pakistan claims that India is now using excessive state forces to suppress the freedom struggle of Kashmiris and in doing so, is causing severe human rights violations in the disputed territory of Indian occupied Kashmir (Peter 2006).

This is also documented by several human rights groups. Pakistan further claims that:1. According to the two-nation theory by which Pakistan was formed, originally Kashmir should have been with Pakistan, because it has a absolute Muslim majority. Pakistan believes that given a choice, almost all Kashmiris will vote.2. India has shown disregard to the resolutions of the UN, by not holding a