[hoot72]

Originally Posted by Pete

I hate to appear to stick up for Muslims on any issue but....

Kashmir. Didn't this all start with the division of India into Hindu India and Muslim East and West Pakistan? The people of Kashmir were mostly Muslim and wanted to go with Pakistan but the local ruler went with India and there has been fighting ever since?

As I understand it, both sides want the section with the river and best land?

Don't know, just asking.

No, you are spot on.

"Some Kashmiri rulers, such as Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin, were tolerant of all religions in a manner comparable to Akbar. However, several Muslim rulers of Kashmir were intolerant to other religions. Sultãn Sikandar Butshikan of Kashmir (AD 1389-1413) is often considered the worst of these. Historians have recorded many of his atrocities. The Tarikh-i-Firishta records that Sikandar persecuted the Hindus and issued orders proscribing the residence of any other than Muslims in Kashmir. He also ordered the breaking of all "golden and silver images". The Tarikh-i-Firishta further states: "Many of the Brahmins, rather than abandon their religion or their country, poisoned themselves; some emigrated from their native homes, while a few escaped the evil of banishment by becoming Mahomedans. After the emigration of the Brahmins, Sikandar ordered all the temples in Kashmeer to be thrown down......Having broken all the images in Kashmir, (Sikandar) acquired the title of ‘Destroyer

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Ranjit Singh and his Sikh forces rose to power in the Punjab region. One of his generals, Maharaja Gulab Singh, a member of the Jamwal clan of Rajputs, united the various principalities of Jammu province under the suzerainty of the Lahore court. His subordinate, General Zorawar Singh (of the Kahluria Rajput clan), conquered Ladakh and Baltistan.

After the death of Ranjit Singh, the Kingdom of Lahore suffered from internal conflict and relations with the Raja of Jammu soured to such an extent that the Punjabi army invaded the Dogra country in 1845. Raja Gulab Singh therefore did not aid the corrupt Lahore durbar in its war with the English.

The First Sikh War, which was waged between the HEIC and the successors of Ranjit Singh in 1845-46, resulted in victory for the British. A war indemnity of 1.5 million sterling was demanded by the British as one of the ceasefire conditions. This vast amount of cash was not immediately at the disposal of the Lahore durbar, and they ceded the entire hill country between the Beas and Indus rivers in lieu thereof.

Gulab Singh, as the practically independent ruler of most of these hilly areas was recognized as Maharaja by the British plenipotentiaries in the Treaty of Amritsar (16th March 1846). By this treaty, the British gained several ends: they received cash to the extent of Rs.750,000/-; they created a border buffer state; and were relieved of the expense and responsibility of administering a mountainous frontier.

Jammu and Kashmir, was a principality lying between the two new independent nations: India and Pakistan, independent dominions within the British Commonwealth of Nations which were formed by the partition of the former British India colony in August 1947. (British King George VI was the head of state of both India and Pakistan, but was represented in each of the new dominions by a Governor-General: Lord Mountbatten in India and Muhammed Ali Jinnah in Pakistan.) A total of 565 princely states formed 40% of India's land area and held more than 100 million people. Each prince had to decide which of the two new nations to join: Hindu-majority India or Muslim-majority Pakistan (which then also included East Pakistan, now Bangladesh). The ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, could not decide which country to join and in addition, he nursed fond hopes of remaining the princely ruler of Kashmir, as an independent nation. He was Hindu, while his subjects were predominantly Muslim. To avoid the decision, he signed a "standstill" agreement with Pakistan, which ensured continuity of trade, travel, communication, and similar services between the two. India did not sign a similar agreement.

Indian postal services began listing Kashmir as Indian territory, causing alarm in Pakistan. In October 1947, Pashtuns from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province invaded Kashmir in support of a rebellion agaist the Maharaja which had erupted in the restive Poonch district. The invasion caused widespread looting in the state. Troubled by the increasing deterioration in law and order situation, and by earlier raids, culminating in the invasion of the tribesmen, followed later by Pakistani rangers, Maharaja Hari Singh, requested armed assistance and asylum from India. India refused to send its troops unless Kashmir officially joined the Union of India. The incumbent Governor-General, Lord Mountbatten also favoured Kashmir's accession to the Republic of India, to which the Maharaja always agreed. "The Instrument of Accession was signed by the Hari Singh on October 26, 1947 extending India's jurisdiction over external affairs, defence and communications

The next day, Indian troops were airlifted into Srinagar. The Pakistani government immediately contested the accession, suggesting that it was fraudulent, that the Maharaja acted under duress, and that he had no right to sign an agreement with India when the standstill agreement with Pakistan was still in force."

The Maharaja of the Kashmir province was a sikh. There is a thin-line separating Punjab and Kashmir in a 9-12 oclock circle which still exists today and reflects the "border" of sorts over the 300 years or so of conflicts. The same also exists for the pak border with india/kashmir.

Its been a political mess eversince with the muslims wanting atonomy but failing to realize that if they are not happy, they should cross over the border and migrate to pakistan. Afterall, punjabi sikh land was taken/given by the british to the pak's and we got chased across the border and in some cases massacared by the thousands by muslim fundamentalist intent on a jihad of sorts to rid newly formed pakistan of all non-believers. It was a very disappointing part of the history of pakistan though from my research, there were cases of muslims who did try to save sikhs and hindu's from these mobs, and in some cases, were successful as they didnt agree with what was going on...a form of ethnic cleansing.

I am going to sound extremely radical when I say this, and I do apologize if anyone is offended but, I would forcely migrate the muslims across the border or encourage them with financial assistance or pay-off's to move across into pakistan and re-populate Kashmir with india citizen's in the punjab province who wanted land or had claims to land in Kashmir before the 1947 problems.

The chinese, in my opinion are doing it (discreetly) with Tibet and it seems to be working for them.


Text above quoted from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kashmir