Kashmir: Territory in Turmoil Understanding a conflict over territory… Pam Merrill, OKAGE TC, Edmond Public Schools

India versus Pakistan… The Kashmir dispute is the oldest unresolved international conflict in the world today.

A century ago, the British geopolitician, Sir Halford John Mackinder, called Kashmir one of the world's primary strategic pivots, “the nexus of continents, empires, and civilizations.”

The Status of Kashmir… Pakistan considers Kashmir as its core political dispute with India. So does the international community.

Occupied Territory? India's forced occupation of the state of Kashmir since just after World War II is the main cause of the dispute.

Public Opinion… The people of Kashmir and Pakistan do not accept the Indian claim. The United Nations also does not consider Indian claim as legally valid.

Partitioning History… When the Indian subcontinent was partitioned, creating the Hindu-majority nation of India and the Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan, Kashmir (with its Muslim majority) would have logically become part of Pakistan.

Today, a politically-drawn LINE of CONTROL divides the Pakistani-controlled area of Kashmir and the Indian-controlled area.

Geographic Factors… Kashmir also shares a geographical proximity with Pakistan and has essential economic linkages with the territories of Pakistan.

Issue of Self-Rule… The current agitation in Kashmir is rooted in the struggle of the people for self-determination (self-rule).

For most of its history, Kashmir was an independent kingdom For most of its history, Kashmir was an independent kingdom. But its leader agreed to join India, with the provision that the people would eventually be given a right to vote on the matter of independence or rule by India or Pakistan.

India has since obstructed all attempts at holding a plebiscite (vote by the people on self-rule).

Region at War: In 1947, 1965, and 1999, India and Pakistan even went to war over Kashmir. During the first war, it was India who took the dispute to the United Nations. The following year, the UN helped enforce a ceasefire between the two countries.

In 2010, peaceful processions chanting demands for freedom were fired upon by Indian Army and police. Thousands of men, women and children have been killed or wounded.

Claims of human rights abuses have been made against both the Indian Armed Forces and armed rebels operating in Kashmir. According to one human rights report, in Kashmir there have been more than three hundred cases of "disappearances" and over 100,000 deaths.

The violence of Muslim rebels against Hindu citizens was condemned as “ethnic cleansing” (genocide) in a 2006 resolution passed by the United States Congress. It stated that the Islamic terrorists infiltrated the region and began a campaign to convert Kashmir into a Muslim state.

According to the United States, nearly 400,000 Hindus were either murdered or forced to leave their ancestral homes.

Natural Resources at Stake… Another reason for the dispute over Kashmir is water. Kashmir is the source of many rivers and tributaries in the Indus River basin.

The Indus is a river system that sustains communities in India and Pakistan. Both have extensively dammed the Indus River for irrigation of their crops and hydro-electricity systems.

Update: The Region Today India continues to assert its sovereignty or rights over the entire region of Kashmir.

In 2014, Indian and Pakistani troops traded gunfire over their border in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing at least four civilians and worsening tensions between the longtime rivals.

The Nuclear Threat? The possibility of the world's first direct war between two nuclear-armed states occurring is still very real. India has said that it would not use nuclear weapons first, while Pakistan has clearly stated that it would.

Border clashes between Indian and Pakistani troops have frequently threatened to escalate into a wider conflict… Given the proximity of the two states, it is clear that millions of their own people would die along with millions of their nearest neighbors.

To make matters worse, China (another nation with nuclear weapons) also claims part of the region of Kashmir as part of Chinese-ruled Tibet.

So the conflict has festered for 62 years…

So, what's the answer? Many experts agree that the situation in south Asia shows the importance of nuclear disarmament.

Top Military World Powers Source: Business Insider

Experts also state that both sides need to be persuaded that nuclear weapons make the world a more dangerous, not a safer, place. Should India and Pakistan take a step back and realize that peaceful resolutions to conflict are the best way forward? What do YOU think?

Kashmir: Territory in Turmoil Understanding a conflict over territory…

Sources: Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-margolis/kashmir-could-start-a- nuc_b_731607.html Pakistan Mission to the United Nations http://www.pakun.org/kashmir/history.php BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news/10537286