Kashmir — A broken Promise, or a negligence of Pakistan?

As usual in the morning after waking up, I was going through the newses. There was nothing unusual — same old news on Talibans, bad security condition of Pakistan and so forth. The other news caught my attention labeled “Troops martyred one innocent youth in IHK”. Once again I started mulling over the past events — the time of Independence of Pakistan and even before that.

In early 19th century, Kashmir — former name is Punjab Hill States — was ruled by barons of Rajput. At that time, Kashmir constituted of 22 small states. The barons of Rajput were loyal to Mughals. They had also fought many battles along with Mughals in against of Sikhs. The downfall of Mughal Empire also made Rajputs weak hence making Sikhs to attack on the princely state of Kashmir and take it over. Sikhs kept on crusading state by state and ultimately took over all the 22 states of Kashmir. The Kashmir was now belonged to the Sikhs leader Ranjit Singh.

From the Sikhs, Kashmir was taken back by British East India Trading Company who allowed Dogra ruler Gulab Sing to rule over Kashmir hence making Gulab Sing the first Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.

During the time of Partition when British were about to leave the sub-continent, each state was given a freewill either to join Pakistan or India. The same way Kashmir’s ruler were given the freewill. The then Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, wanted Kashmir to be an Independent state. However, on the other side, there was one another condition that the Muslim majority states will be given to Pakistan. It also included Feroz Pur, Gurdas Pur and Jalandhar Pur which are Muslim majority states. Gurdas Pur had a Muslim population of above 50% at that time. It was given to Pakistan, but later on it was given back to India again because of the factor that Amritsar was surrounded by Gurdas Pur and Amritsar has a vast population of Sikhs. The place Amritsar is also called the historic and religious place of Sikhs. Indians thought if Gurdas Pur would be given to Pakistan then Gurdas Pur would become a buffer zone to Amritsar where Pakistan could also stop the supply of river water to this Holy City of Sikhs. With that fear, and to please the Sikhs, it was taken back from Pakistan. However it was totally against the pattern of Partition which entailed that Muslim majority areas would be given to Pakistan. Absolutely unfair!!

The other reason was that Gurdas pur is an extremely strategic location and it is one of the three routes to enter Kashmir. Pakistan already had two of the routes under its boundary, whereas Gurdas Pur was also becoming the part of Pakistan due to its Muslim majority population — which India didn’t like at all. India didn’t have any other route to enter Kashmir and if it would loose Gurdas Pur, then it’ll loose Kashmir totally. Here again, a fraud was done with Pakistan and India kept Gurdas Pur. Had Gurdas Pur been a part of Pakistan today, Pakistan would never have lost Kashmir as well. In 1948 Kashmir war, Indian Army entered Kashmir through the route of Gurdas Pur.

Now come to Junagadh. Unlike Kashmir, Junagadh was ruled by a Muslim Nawab. He ruled over almost 80% of Hindus. The Nawab of Junagadh was a pro-Pakistani. He decided to joined Pakistan at the time of Partition — disregarding the sentiments of Hindus. He was guided by one of his Chief Minister Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto — father of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto — who also suggested the then Nawab to join Pakistan. However, if we go through the case of Kashmir, it was totally opposite. A Hindu Maha Raja ruling over a Muslim majority state ignoring the sentiments of majority of Kashmirs — decided to join India whereas Nawab of Junagadh ignoring the sentiments of majority of Hindus decided to join Pakistan. Junagadh was invaded by India then. New Delhi announced plebiscite there — which of course was a formality. Junagadh was then acceded in India. However, when Pakistanis — people from NWFP tried to infiltrate in Kashmir — Maha Raja called for the help of India and Indian Army approached there and invaded Kashmir. There was no plebiscite being announced in Kashmir. India again played a spoof here — a total fraud!! While Kashmir was and is a Muslim majority state — it should have been given to Pakistan. But India never did that. Instead, it invaded it and kept it along with Feroz Pur, Gurdas Pur and Jalandhar Pur — going against the rules and pattern of demarcation of boundaries at the time of partition of Pakistan and India.

Former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had promised to the people of Kashmir that they would be given right of self-determination. The promise is yet to be fulfilled. When? No one knows. The brazen government of India is still sitting there controlling Kashmir from New Delhi. Stupid United Nation is sitting and watching the demonstration of Kashmir’s for last 62 years. No one has ever played a serious role in solving the Kashmir Issue so far. The attack over Georgia by Russians had called an immediate meeting in United Nations Security Council to resolve the dispute and the dispute was resolved on immediate basis. But for Kashmir — does the United Nation care? Does India care? And the bigger question is, does the puppet of Americans now, who are also called as the representatives of Pakistan — government of Pakistan — cares?