South Asias Untreated Wound: Perspectives on the Conflict in Kashmir - Essay Example

What makes the struggle over Kashmir so significant Perhaps most alarming is the degree of weaponry possessed by the two warring sides. Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons that they could use against each other, should hostilities escalate significantly. Their proximity to one another guarantees that such a move would be suicidal, and the vast amount of people who would be affected by the environmental damage, both within those two countries and in the rest of Asia, mandates that the rest of the world take notice.

Between the two countries, more than a million soldiers have been lined up, facing one another, occasionally shelling one another, since 1984 (Q&A). Given the instability present in Afghanistan, there is a real need to find a peaceful solution to the question of who should control Kashmir. History of the conflict. Kashmir came into existence as a semi-autonomous region in 1846, when Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu purchased the Kashmir Valley from the East India Company, which was responsible for managing many of the British colonial interests (Understanding Kashmir).

Singh added the valley to his holdings in Jammu and Ladakh, bringing together a cohesive region where the people practiced the Sufi tradition (Singh 240). In 1931, the residents of Kashmir rose up against the regime of the Maharaja Hari Singh. British forces were key in brutally putting down the revolt. The primary cause of the dissatisfaction was the fact that Hari Singh, a ruler from the Hindu Dogra dynastic family, was ruling over a population that had a majority of Muslims, and his government tended to discriminate against Muslims in the provision of social services (Bazaz 148).

While this uprising was initially unsuccessful, it was followed in 1932 by the establishment of the Kashmir Muslim Conference by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah. This conference worked toward Kashmiri liberation from the rule of the Hindu dynasty. However, the Maharaja's slow response to the demands of the Kashmir Muslim Conference led to another uprising in 1934. The Maharaja's response this time was to create a new constitution, setting up a Legislative Assembly for the Kashmiris. However, this assembly turned out to be mostly without influence (Bazaz 162-166).

Matters again came to a head in 1946, when the National Conference (formerly the Kashmir Muslim Conference) demanded that sovereignty be returned to the citizens of Kashmir. Sheikh Abdullah was arrested by the British forces (Understanding Kashmir). However, things changed on August 15, 1947, when Great Britain relinquished colonial control over all of the South Asian sub-continent. At that time, there were 570 "princely states" in the region, all of whom were governed by hereditary rulers, who had previously ruled under the aegis of British control.

Each of those rulers had one of three options: joining India, joining Pakistan, or remaining independent. Most of these states joined India, and a few decided to join Pakistan. As with Kashmir, several of these states had uprisings because their rulers were of a different religion than the majority of their subjects. Hari Singh wanted to remain independent, and so he