The Jammu and Kashmir dispute coincides with the anniversary of the Independence Day celebrations of Pakistan and India, the two neighbors, whose fireworks refuse to drown out the anguish and sufferings of the Kashmiris in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), cry for freedom for these Kashmiris is a stark reminder of the helplessness of the United Nations (UN), which had promised them a plebiscite and has not materialized even after more than seven decades. Innumerable people, ranging from writers, researchers, politicians, and leaders to diplomats, have penned their thoughts on the travails of the Kashmiris arising from the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. K. Natwar Singh, a highly accomplished Indian diplomat and politician, was spot on in his realism: “Kashmir is the main hurdle in the Indo-Pakistan relationship, and the future lies in the past and has to deal with Pakistan pragmatically to avoid making a mess of the relationship.” Discussing the past, especially the UN’s promise to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir, the late President Nixon, a historian in his own right, could not have been more forthright when discussing late Indian Premier Jawaharlal Nehru, opined that his Kashmiri ancestral ties made him obsessed with Kashmir to the extent of fierce resistance to letting the Kashmiris decide their fate, “a decision that would have certainly favored Pakistan than India.”
The Colonial Trap
The colonial masters in 1947 acted exactly as they are known globally to commit ‘premeditated’ blunders, and Lord Mountbatten, the last Governor General of India, was no exception. As the British masters hurriedly gathered their belongings to leave the shores of India, their leanings and personal relationship with the Indian Congress leadership were reflected in the case of Jammu and Kashmir territory, and they made a mess of it, and, not surprisingly, a dispute took birth. There was no secret that Lord Mountbatten, with the connivance of Sir Cyril Radcliffe, also gave an inlet to the Indian troops to enter into Kashmir by giving India Muslim majority Gurdaspur District, which Alastair Lamb, a reputed historian notes “On August 8, 1947, there emerged from Sir Cyril Radcliffe’s establishment a provisional boundary map on which, there is strong evidence to indicate, the southern salient had been modified in what seemed to be Pakistan’s favor by substituting for a small portion of the Lahore District the adjacent Ferozepore and Zira tehsils of Ferozepore District, thus extending Pakistan to the eastern side of the Sutlej. The same map also indicated that the three eastern tehsils of Gurdaspur District were now located on the Indian side of the Partition line.”
