Kashmir, the universally acclaimed Heaven on Earth, continues to bleed! There has been no time in its history, especially, since the Indian subcontinent was partitioned in 1947, by the British, when the Heaven on Earth did not bleed. It may even pay the ultimate price of total obliteration from the face of Earth when the three nuclear powers around it, who administer parts of it, use their nuclear arsenal on each other. The recent 4-day warlike skirmishes between India and Pakistan (backed openly by China to the hilt) must be seen only as a precursor to an impending full-scale war, potentially spiraling into the first ever nuclear war in the world. The tempers are high on all sides, national pride and individual arrogance overwhelm the commonsense prudence.
Kashmir, claimed to be its jugular vein by Pakistan, and a jewel in its crown by India, and seen as a land of immense strategic interest by China, plays heavily in the domestic politics of both India and Pakistan, with both countries facing potential disintegration if, in an unlikely situation, they were to lose their part of Kashmir forever. In a strange way, therefore, Kashmir keeps the subcontinent politically stable but militarily volatile. Pakistan’s army loses its relevance and disproportionate political power if it stops flirting with the idea of separating Jammu and Kashmir from India. Similarly, Indian nationalist politicians potentially lose their appeal if they stop venting their intention to take back the POK.
Historically, in late 1989, bloodshed started in Kashmir when armed militancy, driven by Islamic nationalism, sponsored by Pakistan and its friends, cost the lives of tens of thousands of Kashmiri youth and thousands of India’s security personnel in the next few decades. Seemingly, Kashmir’s bloodshed was a follow-up to what had happened earlier in Afghanistan in the 1980s and how the Soviets were driven out by the Afghan Mujahedeen, who received all kinds of help and training from the US and their cronies in Pakistan. The Islamic terrorism in Kashmir, called Kashmir’s freedom struggle by Pakistan and many Kashmiri secessionists, cost many indigenous Kashmiri Pandits their lives as well. More than half a million Kashmiri Pandits were made to flee from their homes in the valley within a period of less than six months in early 1990, to save their lives and dignity. They continue to live in exile and are spread across India and the wider world and face a total cultural and identity annihilation in a few years.
Later in 2019, to fulfil its election promise, the current Indian government unilaterally removed a semi-autonomous status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir (herein referred to as the ‘State’), on 5 August 2019, by abrogating Article 370 of the Indian Constitution without any dialogue or discussion with the people of the State or their elected representatives or holding a referendum. The Article captured India’s promise to Kashmir upon its accession to India in 1947 but, overtime, had been rendered ineffective in most, if not all, matters of the State, as the Central Government of India practically wielded a freewill in how it dealt with the matters of the State, including sudden dismissal of its elected State government. Soon thereafter, the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, was surgically divided into two territories – the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh – both administered directly from New Delhi.
And Kashmir continues to bleed.
On 22 April 2025, a group of 26 Indian tourists was gunned down by unknown terrorists at Pahalgam, located within a heavily militarized and fully secured area of Kashmir. The blood of the innocents, all males, was yet again spilled by the butchers of peace and tranquility, in front to their wives, on the Heavenly soil of Kashmir. It has been nearly seven (7) weeks since the Pahalgam massacre, but the killers have not been apprehended and brought to justice. It is not known who they were, wherefrom did they arrive and where did they disappear. India blamed Pakistan for the terrorist attack and, two weeks after the Pahalgam massacre, launched targeted aerial strikes on a number of supposed militant hideouts and training camps within the POK and other areas of Pakistan, on 7 May 2025, but shockingly after notifying Pakistan of its intent, which must be seen a seditious act committed by its Foreign Minister, as in the ensuing days, Pakistan retaliated and many more people lost their lives on either side of the LOC. Alarmingly, India did not ask its citizens to vacate from their homes before launching its attacks, which cost more than 15 innocent civilians in the Poonch area alone due to Pakistan’s shelling.
Over a period of four days, after the Indian attacks on Pakistan, the two neighbors fought in a warlike situation before suddenly calling a ceasefire, which was repeatedly claimed to have been brokered by the US President Trump in exchange to trade deals with both. Undoubtedly, the two nations must have discovered that they were too weak and not in a position to fight a decisive war against each other and claim the other part of Kashmir. That must set at rest that they will ever again venture going for a full war without risking a nuclear conflict. Nonetheless, the Pakistan Army, by elevating its General to the Field Marshal rank, and India’s current leadership, by calling the ceasefire a pause, don’t seem to concede, as Kashmir keeps both in precarious positions of domestic power.
The Pahalgam massacre and its aftermath must be seen as a total debacle for India’s internal security and the home ministry, as well as its foreign ministry. Shockingly, no one has come forward and owned the responsibility or resigned.
Despite a surgical division of the State five years ago, and a direct administration of the State from the Centre, the hapless Pandits of Kashmir have remained uprooted and exiled, facing an identity extinction. It was their unique identity for which their ancestors had historically endured all kinds of challenges and hardships, some hellish, over a period of nearly 650 years, since 1339. The recent massacre in Pahalgam, and how the Kashmir valley bore the brunt of India’s anger in its aftermath, may have further alienated the Pandits from their home, tearing away any chances of their wishful return to the valley.
At this point, it is important that we also look at Kashmir’s more recent history.
After the partition of British India on 14 and 15 August 1947 – into the present-day India and Pakistan (East and West) – Kashmir has paid a significant price for the decision taken by its last king, Maharaja Hari Singh, to remain independent. The independence of Kashmir, as part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which also included Ladakh, lasted just nine weeks before Pakistan backed tribals and Pakistan army regulars raided Kashmir on 22 October 1947. Under distress, the Maharaja looked to India for help, which arrived only after he agreed to accede to the Dominion of India and signed an Instrument of Accession, under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947, which was accepted by the then Governor-General of India, Lord Mountbatten, on 27 October 1947. In no time, after the accession, the Indian troops landed at Srinagar airport and started pushing back the invaders, thereby, also saving the Kashmiri people from a sadistic massacre, rape, loot and arson by Pakistani tribals from its Northwest Frontier province. In the ensuing months, Indian and Pakistani troops – interestingly, parts of the erstwhile Indian army before the partition – fought the first India-Pak War before a ceasefire was mutually agreed on 1 January 1949, at which date one-third portion of Kashmir – called Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) by India and Azad Kashmir (Independent Kashmir) by Pakistan – remained under Pakistan’s occupation. After Pakistan’s comprehensive defeat in the second India-Pak War, and liberation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in December 1971, India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement, on 2 July 1972, and the ceasefire line was mutually agreed to be called the Line of Control (‘LOC’). The Simla Agreement also beckoned both countries to sort out their issues through bilateral dialogue rather than allow any third parties to intervene or mediate.
Interestingly, after the Pahalgam massacre, and India’s move to put the ‘Indus Water Treaty’ with Pakistan in abeyance, Pakistan may react by dumping the Simla Agreement, thereby, reverting the status of the LOC – the de facto border – to 1949, and enable the entry of third parties to mediate between the two, which may allow the US and other countries to exploit the known Indo-Pak issues to their own strategic and trade advantage.
Post the Sino–Indian War of 1962 (20 October – 21 November 1962), China occupied Aksai Chin, which constitutes the easternmost portion of the larger Kashmir region and had been the subject of a dispute between India and China since 1959, thereby taking away nearly one-third of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Aksai Chin
Historically, Kashmir lost its autonomy about 438 years ago, when the Mughal Emperor, Jalal-Ud-Din Akbar tricked the last native king of Kashmir, Sultan Yousuf Shah Chak, with an invitation to his Imperial Court at Agra, in 1587, for peace talks. Yousuf was barely 35 years old when he had ascended the throne of Kashmir in 1580. An exceptionally brave person and a known romantic, he had many achievements to his name in the fields of art and culture. However, his life reflects a classic tragedy. Soon after his coronation, Yousuf was faced with challenges posed by Akbar, whose armies had again started knocking at the gates of Kashmir, to avenge the earlier defeat suffered by the Mughals two decades earlier at the hands of the Kashmiris. In 1586, the Mughals launched a full-scale attack on Kashmir. Despite their large number and superiority in the warfare skills, the Mughals could not defeat the Kashmiris. Thereupon, the Mughals came up with a cunning trick to achieve their objective. They invited Yusuf to Akbar’s Imperial Court at Agra (near Delhi) for signing a treaty and peace talks, which he accepted, ignoring the advice of his ministers and commanders. Upon his arrival in Agra, Akbar imprisoned him till the end of 1587. Subsequently, he was exiled to Bihar and given a jagir in Biswas. Later, the Mughals asked him to join their army that conquered Orissa in 1592.
According to Baharistanshahi, Yousuf, the Sultan of Kashmir, died on 22 September 1592, at Jagat Nath Puri. His body was carried to Biswak, where it was buried on 25 December 1592. Subsequently, Yaqub Shah, his valiant son and other members of his family were also buried in the same graveyard.
©Bill K Koul
Bill K Koul (Perth, Western Australia), 7 June 2025