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The Dispute

On October 26, 1947 the Maharaja of Kashmir signs the Instrument of Succession with India. This document allowed India to come into Kashmir with its troops to help surpress the insurrections that were going on in Kashmir at the time. There are many questions as to validity of such a document. In fact, it is only India that acknowledges the fact that Kashmir is a part of India. The rest of the world views the province as a disputed territory. Because of the Indian claim to Kashmir, India and Pakistan have fought a number of wars up to date over the territory. Recently the dispute has heated up when both India and Pakistan tested Nuclear weapons.
Wars
  • 1947-1949: war
  • 1967: War between India and Pakistan from April to September over the Rann of Kutch. Both countries claimed the border along this area; the conflict resulted in a war. The war ended in September of 1967 when Pakistani forces tried to infultrate to the Indian side but were quickly pushed back out of the area.
  • 1971: India dismembers Pakistan.
  • 1971: War between India and Pakistan begins in March. Originally the 1971 did not start as a conflict between India and Pakistan and instead was a conflict between the two sides of Pakistan. East Pakistan's leader Mujibar Rahman claimed that the East Pakistanis were being oppressed by the western Pakistanis. Many East Pakistanis as a result of tensions started to move to India, it was at this point that India began to get involved in the Conflict. India supported East Pakistan in their war against west Pakistan. The result of the war was the creation of the nation of Bangladesh.
  • 1972: simla agreement
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  • November 1989, threat of war intensifies as elections in Paksitan are held
  • August-September 1990: sporadic fighting
  • May 1998: Nuclear tests by both Pakistan and India.
  • May 1999: The Kargil conflict, Pakistan starts to increase its shelling over the Kargil area. The fighting lasts about 2 months before it stops. It first started when Pakistan crossed the Line of Control, and resulted in India taking back most of its land on the Indian side of the Line of Control.
 

Religious Question

Kashmir is predominanty Islam though there exists many Hindu regions of the province which can provide many tensions between the two groups. Maps of India Provides a good depiction of the different religious sections of India.

In the Jammu section of Kashmir the majority of the territories' 3.5 million inhabitants are Hindu, while to the north in the Doda province the population of the Muslim and Hindus are more evenly divided.

The population in the region known as the "Vale of Kashmir" (population 4.5 million) is predominantly Islam in origin. Because of the religious differences in both the Vale of Kashmir and in Doda, these are the areas in which the majority of the clashes occur. A possible reason for the clashes is a concept known a ethno-nationalism which seeks to blaim all modern day conflicts on modern politics. Another possible reason is that of the tennets of the Islamic religion.