Within its ongoing sixty year period, the Kashmir crisis has become one of the most potentially reactive situations the world has seen. Preceding the British decolonization of the greater Indian area into modern-day India and Pakistan in 1947, Kashmir was an independent region, ruled by a Hindu maharaja, though its people were, and continue to be, predominately Muslim. Maharaja Hari Singh, the royal ruler, was able to select whether to comply with either newly independent nation. Hesitant to join either, the Maharaja chose to wait until the British presence fully departed the region. The Kashmir sovereign desired to remain independent but eventually elected to accede to India. Being a Muslim majority State and adjoining to Pakistan, Kashmir was expected to accede to Pakistan; since the Hindu Ruler acceded instead to India, a quarrel arose in Kashmir. The population of the Indian-administered state of Kashmir is over sixty percent Muslim, making it the only state within India where Muslims are in the majority. In the spring of 1947, an internal revolution began in the Poonch region of Kashmir, opposing the newly imposed taxation laws. In response, the Maharaja’s forces fire upon demonstrations in favour of a Pakistani Kashmir, forcing the Poonch people to abandon their homeland and enter Pakistan as evacuees, and, in response, return to Kashmir with arms. Organized rebellion arises in August 1947, and Poonch rebels, along with Pathan Pakistani tribesmen, declare an independent government of “Azad” (Free) Kashmir on the 24th of October.
In a desperate attempt for order, the Maharaja signed over key powers to the Indian government in the Instrument of Accession on the 26th of October, 1947, in return for military aid and a promise...
... middle of paper ...
...ong nations. New York: Knopf, 1967.
Mukherjee, Kunal. "Islamic revivalism and politics in contemporary Pakistan." Journal of Developing Societies 26, no. 3 (2010): 329--353.
Navlakha, Gautam. "Kashmir: Elusive Solution." Economic and Political Weekly (2004): 4961--4964.
Sagan, Scott D. "Why do states build nuclear weapons?: Three models in search of a bomb." International Security 21, no. 3 (1996): 54--86.
Sum, Hau Khan, Ravich Moorthy and Guido Benny. "The Genesis of Kashmir Dispute." Asian Social Science 9, no. 11 (2013): 155.
Tremblay, Reeta Chowdhari. "Kashmir's Secessionist Movement Resurfaces: Ethnic Identity, Community Competition, and the State." Asian Survey 49, no. 6 (2009): 924--950.
Unknown. "United Nations: Security Council Resolutions on Kashmir." International Legal Materials 4, no. 6 (1965): pp. 1190-1194. Accessed 30/10/2013 20:27. doi:64.141.84.25.
"The Race To Build A Bomb." National Geographic 208.2 (2005): 102. Middle Search Plus. Web.
Glick, J, Schaffer, C. 1991. "The Indian Homeland." U.S. News and World Report. July 8, vol.111, n2, pg26 (6)
This investigation seeks to discover whether or not the Sepoy revolution in 1857 had a sufficient impact on India’s rise to independence and separation from the British Empire. The Sepoy revolution was a revolution of the Sepoy soldiers in 1857, and complete independence from the British Empire was not achieved by Indians until 1947. Therefore, did the Sepoy revolution catalyze their rise to independence, or was independence inevitable? The impact of the Sepoy Revolution will be found by looking at the effects of the Sepoy revolution and determining whether or not they were key factors in the rise to independence. A variety of sources will be used. Two important sources that will be used during this investigation are Indian Summer by Alex Von Tunzelmann and Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World by Niall Ferguson.
Hilāl, ʻAlī Al-Dīn. Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World. New York, NY: Praeger, 1982. Print.
Rippin A. 1990, Muslims, Their Religious Beliefs and Practices Volume 1: The Formative Period, Routledge, London and New York.
During the Cold War, many regional conflicts occurred and were noted as the significant battles which later led to decolonization. One of the regional conflicts were India and Pakistan fighting for their independence. In 1947, India was released under Great Britain’s control and gained its independence. However, the country was divided between Muslims and Hindus, which share different religions. Muslims wanted church and state to become unified while Hindus wanted a separation of these two establishments. Since these two ethnic groups disagreed, it was difficult to create a new government. Therefore, India was divided into two nations: India for the Hindus and Pakistan for the Muslims. Hindus and Muslims were racing to the border in order to get to their nation state which led to killing 500,000 people due to rioting. Although, Mohandas Gandhi, an Indian National Congressman, wanted to obtain peace between these two religions. Pakistan refused the H...
Ronald E. Powaski, March to Armageddon: The United States and the Nuclear Arms Race, 1939 to the Present, (Oxford: OUP, 1987), 106.
From the creation of nuclear weapons at the start of the Cold War to today, the world has experienced struggles fueled by the want of nuclear power. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Iran’s nuclear weapon program are some of the most important conflicts over nuclear weapons. Thanks to the use of nuclear weapons in 1945 to end World War II, the world has come extremely close to a nuclear war, and more countries have began developing nuclear power. Unmistakably, many conflicts since the start of the Cold War have been caused by nuclear weapons, and there are many more to come.
CHANDRA, ABHIMANYU. "Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid." The Yale Review of International Studies RSS. N.p., Aug. 2012. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
The most threatening conflict between Hindus and Muslims is the province of Kashmir. This is where the decision to divide India into India and Pakistan seems to have been a terrible mistake. Kashmir, which is the only Muslim majority city in India, lies between the divided India and Pakistan. After India’s independence in the 1940’s, Kashmir had to choose to either unite with India or Pakistan. The Prince of Kashmir chose India but Pakistan invaded the province soon after and have occupied part of Kashmir since then. Controversy still surrounds the province today because naturally, Muslims want to control it. While many Muslims relocated to Pakistan and the Hindus to India, half of the Muslim population was left in India and their relations did not improve after being partially separated.
Scott D. Sagan, the author of chapter two of “More Will Be Worse”, looks back on the deep political hostilities, numerous crises, and a prolonged arms race in of the cold war, and questions “Why should we expect that the experience of future nuclear powers will be any different?” The author talks about counter arguments among scholars on the subject that the world is better off without nuclear weapons. In this chapter a scholar named Kenneth Waltz argues that “The further spread of nuclear weapons may well be a stabilizing factor in international relations.” He believes that the spread of nuclear weapons will have a positive implications in which the likely-hood of war decreases and deterrent and defensive capabilities increase. Although there
There is a distinct difference between popular Indian nationalism, that is the nation believing in a state independent of Britain, and Indian nationalist movements, for example the Muslim League or the Hindu revivalist movement. These movements fought for independence but were far more religiously orientated and were fighting in their own interests. Although Indian nationalism initially found expression in the Mutiny of 1857, its deve...
Choudhry, Dr. Shabir. “Human Security and Protection of Rights of Kashmiri People under Pakistani Administration.” Counterurrents.org. N.p., 18 Mar. 2011. Web. 15 May 2011. .
Zakaria, M. M. (trans.). Sahih Muslim Sharif (All in one volume), Dhaka: Mina Book House, 2008.
Khan, Sir Muhammad Zafrullah (1989). Islam: Its Meaning for Modern Man. New York & Evanston: Harper & Row.