| Jammu and Kashmir History |
| The Valley of Kashmir was once the great lake Satisar. According to Hindu texts, the Hindu sage Kashyapa drained a lake lying north of the Pir Panjal Range by cutting the mountain near Varamulla. The sage then encouraged people from India to settle in the valley that was formed after the lake was drained. The name Kashmir is derived from ka (the water) and shimeera (to desiccate), so the word Kashmir implies land desiccated from water. Kashmir was one of the major centres for Sanskrit scholars in ancient times. According to the Mahabharata Kambojas had ruled over Kashmir and it was a Republican system of government under the Kamboj. The capital city of Kashmir during epic times was Rajapura. Epic Rajapura is the same as Ho-lo-she-pu-lo of Yuan Chawang and has been identified with modern Rajauri. The state of Jammu and Kashmir became part of the Mughal Empire under Akbar. After a period of Afghan rule from 1756, it was annexed to the to the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab in 1819. In 1846 the Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh entrusted the principality of Jammu and adjacent areas to Gulab Singh, his Dogra General. Gulab Singh brought large areas including Ladakh, Zanskar, Gilgit and Baltistan under his control. Jammu and Kashmir came into being as a single political and geographical entity following theTreaty of Amristar between the British Government and Gulab singh signed on March 16, 1846. The Treaty handed over the control of the Kashmir State to the Dogra ruler of Jammu who had earlier annexed Ladakh. Thus a new State comprising three distinct religions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh was formed with Maharaja Gulab Singh as its founder ruler. The feudal dispensation in the State, however, was too harsh for the people to live under and towards the end of a hundred years of this rule when their Indian brethren were fighting for independence from the British under the inspiring leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the Kashmiris led by the Sher-I-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, rose against the autocracy. The high point of the movement was July 13th 1931 when 22 protesters were martyred. The event strengthened the movement and contrary to the expectations of the then rulers, the peopled emerged more determined in their resolution to seek an end to autocratic rule. By the time the rulers could realise the futility of breaking the will of the people with the might of the State, the National Conference, headed by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, had become a mass movement and a force to reckon with. It broke the barriers of region and religion and became a popular and secular voice of the people of the State whose collective yearning was freedom from autocracy and the establishment of a popular rule. Jammu & Kashmir, in the year 1947, was an independent country for all practical purposes. The Maharaja who ruled the State had signed agreements with both Pakistan and India to remain neutral and not be part of either country. India honoured that agreement but Pakistan did not. Pakistani raiders and soldiers attacked the state in 1947 forcing the Maharaja to flee to India. |
| The Maharaja asked India to help his people who were being killed by the Pakistani raiders. He also agreed to make Jammu & Kashmir part of India. The Indian ruler at that time was Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He accepted Jammu & Kashmir's accession to India and agreed to rescue his people from the Pakistani attackers. Indian troops were flown into the Kashmir Valley and managed to drive away most of the Pakistani raiders from the state. A large area of the state however, remained under the control of Pakistani soldiers. These areas were difficult to reach because they were surrounded by tall mountain ranges. Heavy fighting took place in 1947-48 between the Indian and Pakistani forces over Kashmir. On January 1st 1948 India took up the issue with the UN under Article 35 of its charter. After long debates, a cease-fire came into operation on midnight of January 1st 1949, which created the first Line-of-Control. Diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan soured for many other reasons and eventually resulted in three further wars in Kashmir during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and the Kargil War in 1999. India has control of 60 percent of the area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan controls 30 percent of the region, collectively known as Pakistan-administered Kashmir and China has since occupied 10 percent of the state in 1962. |