KASHMIR IN CONFLICT Kashmir IN CONFLICT India, Pakistan and the Unending War VICTORIA SCHOFIELD New edition published in 2003 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com In the United States of America and in Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © Victoria Schofield, 2000, 2003 The right of Victoria Schofield to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher ISBN 1 86064 898 3 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress catalog card: available Typeset in Monotype Garamond by Wyvern 21 Ltd, Bristol Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham plc, Chatham, Kent Contents Maps vii Acknowledgements ix Preface xi C : Introducing Kashmir  C : Independence  C : Accession  C : Special Status?  C : Diplomacy and War  C : Bravado and Despair  C : Vale of Tears  C : Hearts and Minds  C : Conflict or Consensus?  C : New Century, New Vision?  Glossary  Notes  Bibliography & Sources  Index  Maps . The valley of Kashmir xvi . The creation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir  . The Gilgit Agency  . Kashmir and its neighbours  . Gurdaspur district and access to the State of Jammu and Kashmir  . Partition boundaries in the Punjab  . The Azad State of Jammu and Kashmir  . An Independent State of Jammu and Kashmir?  . Jammu and Kashmir today  Acknowledgements ‘A country of such striking natural beauty must, surely, at some period of its history have produced refined and noble people,’ writes Sir Francis Young- husband in his History of Kashmir. So indeed, and during my own journey through Kashmir’s contemporary history, I have been privileged to make contact with some of them. In the present day, I am grateful to the three main protagonists in the current struggle: the Indians, Pakistanis and the Kashmiris and, by this, I include all the inhabitants of the once princely state. My thanks also go to the Governments of India and Pakistan, whose representatives have always received me openly, as well as their respective High Commissions in London; in addition, I should like to thank the members of the Government of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the members of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the ‘Azad’ Government of Jammu and Kashmir and numerous officials and private individuals. No book is written single-handedly. All those I interviewed, often at short notice, could not have been more willing to open their hearts and homes to me in order for me to understand their story. Where they have not been able to resolve their differences at the negotiating table, I have attempted to sit with them independently, listen to their grievances and share their dreams. They, too, are contributors to this book. I am also grateful for permission to quote from numerous works listed in the bibliography; I have done so with special attention to those first-hand accounts which capture an event far better than it is sometimes possible to do with the wisdom of hindsight. In quoting the views and opinions of others, I have also wanted to give the reader the benefit of their analyses as well as my own. I am grateful to all those who assisted me during my long years of research on Kashmir, especially David Page, who gave me invaluable advice. I am also grateful to Lord Ahmed, the late Lynne Ali, Lord Avebury, Rahul Bedi, Gulam Butt, Brian Cloughley, Alexander Evans, M.J. Gohel, Irfan Husain, Professor Alastair Lamb, Margot Norman, Dr Rashmi Shankar, Leslie Wolf-Phillips and Malcolm Yapp, as well as Philip Armstrong and Russell Townsend for drawing the maps. My thanks go to the staff of the British Library and the Oriental and India Office Collection for the many hours I have spent researching in these libraries. I am grateful for permission to quote from the books and manuscripts I have used from their collections. I am also grateful to the London Library for its liberal lending policy, the United Nations Library and the Royal Geographical Society, whose collection of maps I have consulted. Finally, I should like to thank my agent, Sara Menguc, my publisher,