The Kashmir Conflict This book presents a study of the international dimensions of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan from before its outbreak in October 1947 until the Tashkent Summit in January 1966. By focusing on Kashmir’s under- researched transnational dimensions, it represents a different approach to this intractable territorial conflict. Concentrating on the global context(s) in which the dispute unfolded, it argues that the dispute’s evolution was determined by international concerns that existed from before and went beyond the Indian subcontinent. Based on new and diverse official and personal papers across four countries, the book foregrounds the Kashmir dispute in a twin setting of decolonisation and the Cold War, and investigates the international understanding around it within the imperatives of these two processes. In doing so, it traces Kashmir’s journey from being a residual irritant of the British Indian Empire, to becoming a Common- wealth embarrassment and its eventual metamorphosis into a security concern in the Cold War climate(s). A princely state of exceptional geo-s trategic location, complex religious composition and unique significance in the context of Indian and Pakistani notions of nation and statehood, Kashmir also complicated their relations with Britain, the United States, Soviet Union, China, the Common- wealth countries and the Afro-A rab-Asian world. This book is of interest to scholars in the fields of Asian History, Cold War History, Decolonisation and South Asian Studies. Rakesh Ankit teaches History in the Law School at the O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India. Routledge studies in South Asian history 5 Medicine, Race and Liberalism 11 Bureaucracy, Community and in British Bengal Influence in India Symptoms of empire Society and the state, 1930s–1960s Ishita Pande William Gould 6 Radical Politics in Colonial 12 A History of State and Religion Punjab in India Governance and sedition Ian Copland, Ian Mabbett, Asim Shalini Sharma Roy, Kate Brittlebank and Adam Bowles 7 The Great Rebellion of 1857 13 Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial in India North India, 1915–1930 Exploring transgressions, contests Constructing nation and history and diversities Prabhu Bapu Biswamoy Pati 14 Cinema, Transnationalism, and 8 The State and Governance in Colonial India India Entertaining the Raj The Congress ideal Babli Sinha William F. Kuracina 15 Environment and Pollution in 9 Gandhi’s Spinning Wheel and Colonial India the Making of India Sewerage technologies along the Rebecca Brown sacred Ganges Janine Wilhelm 10 Gender and Radical Politics in India 16 The Kashmir Conflict Magic moments of Naxalbari From Empire to the Cold War, (1967–1975) 1945–66 Mallarika Sinha Roy Rakesh Ankit The Kashmir Conflict From Empire to the Cold War, 1945–66 Rakesh Ankit First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Rakesh Ankit The right of Rakesh Ankit to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Ankit, Rakesh, author. Title: The Kashmir conflict : from empire to the Cold War, 1945–66 / Rakesh Ankit. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, [2016] | Series: Routledge studies in South Asian history ; 16 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016002231| ISBN 9781138654518 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315623184 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Kashmir–Politics and government–20th century. | Jammu and Kashmir (India)–Politics and government–20th century. | India- Pakistan Conflict, 1947–1949ºInfluence. | Kashmir–History. | Geopolitics– Kashmir–20th century. | India–Foreign relations–20th century. | World politics–20th century. | Cold War. Classification: LCC DS485.K2 A76 2016 | DDC 954.04–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016002231 ISBN: 978-1-138-65451-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-62318-4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear Contents Acknowledgements vi Introduction: a ‘ghost’ of Empire, a ‘game’ of the Cold War 1 1 The international setting, 1945–47: ‘fighting the same struggle as our fathers and grandfathers’ 15 2 Britain and Kashmir, 1947–49: ‘whose was Kashmir to be? The Raja, Sheikh Abdullah, the tribes or Russia?’ 40 3 America, India and Kashmir, 1945–49: ‘if ignorance about India in this country is deep, ignorance about the states is abysmal’ 75 4 Kashmir, 1949–53: ‘when the US blew hot, the British blew cold and when the British blew hot, the US blew cold’ 102 5 Kashmir, 1953–61: from ‘pact politics’ to ‘package proposal’ 128 6 Kashmir, 1962–63: the last interventions 164 7 Kashmir, 1964–66: ‘the Soviets, CHICOMS, neutralists and the West are kibitzers and, to some extent, actors in . . . Kashmir’ 203 Conclusion: ‘a footnote to history’ 220 Bibliography 229 Index 245 Acknowledgements This book comes out of the doctoral thesis I wrote at the University of South- ampton (2011–2014) and my foremost debt is to Professor Ian Talbot for his patient and dedicated supervision, and sustaining advice since. He has been most keen to see it published and I am glad to be able to not disappoint him. I am also thankful to Dr Joan Tumblety, my advisor, for her support. That attempt at doc- torate was made possible by a bursary and a studentship by the History Faculty, University of Southampton, of which I am deeply appreciative. The thesis was examined with care and sympathy by Dr Rob Johnson and Professor Kendrick Oliver, and the book stands enriched. At Southampton, I would also like to thank Professors Adrian Smith, Chris Woolgar and David Brown for conversations that were always illuminating. Thank you Alex Ferguson for being the PhD peer. Last but not least, I am filled with gratitude for Mrs Kailash Sharma for provid- ing me with a home away from home. This book builds upon the second BA and MST dissertations I wrote at the University of Oxford (2006–2007, 2008–2009) under the kind and caring super- vision of Professor Judith Brown, Dr John Darwin and Dr Rob Johnson. I cherish that experience. They have also supported me since and I am grateful. That Oxford opportunity was provided by a Rhodes scholarship and I remain obliged. At Oxford, I would also like to thank Rector Frances Cairncross, Dr Faramerz Dabhoiwala, Dr Michael Hart and Mrs Janet Howarth for being so encouraging. Sincere thanks to Andrew Lui, Ana-Margarida Santos, Joy Pachuau and Aaron Jaffer for their kind friendship and to Sumita Mukherjee, for long, my first and generous reader and, in this case, helping with the last bits too. This book is based on research done in archives and libraries in India, England, America and Russia, and I am grateful to their knowledgeable and helpful staff. Two important trips would not have materialised but for the excep- tional hospitality of Sanjeev Chaudhary in Washington, Rotem Geva in Prince- ton and Arijeet Pal at Harvard and Princeton. It would not have been published without the advice of the two anonymous reviewers, and Dorothea Schaefter and Jillian Morrison, who have been encouraging editors at Routledge. Special thanks to Graham Hughes, and to Phillippa Clubbs at Wearset. In New Delhi, I owe a lot to Dr Srinath Raghavan for the opportunities he has offered me, and to Ravish Tiwari, Pujya Trivedi and Rohit Rajan for opening Acknowledgements vii their homes every time I am there. Heartfelt thanks to Atishi Marlena, Aditya Basu, Chitra Mishra, Akash Banerjee, Prashant Jha, Sankarshan Thakur and Dr David Baker for their confidence in my abilities, which always restored mine, and to Nayana Jha and Yamini Jha for being an inspiration to me. Without the touching faith of my parents, Sati Jha and Mayanath Jha, and my sister and brother-in-law, Tiku and Vijay Nath Mishra, this book – and the theses it draws upon – would never have begun, let alone been finished. Without Dr Putul Singh, my first teacher, and Sipra Jha, my beloved aunt, it would have been less fun, and without Salma Siddique, it would have meant less. Finally, with this book, I have tried to live up to the affection and expectations of my maternal grandmother, Mrs Tunee Jha, maternal grandfather, Dr Chetkar Jha and maternal uncle, Dr Prabhakara Jha, with which they indulged me when I was growing up. Chapter 2 – ‘Britain and Kashmir, 1947–49’ – is derived in part from an article published in India Review on 8 February 2013, ‘Great Britain and Kashmir, 1947–49’, Volume 12, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 20–40, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2013.759467. This page intentionally left blank Introduction A ‘ghost’ of Empire, a ‘game’ of the Cold War The dispute between India and Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir remains fundamental to their quest for nationhood. An unusual dispute, it originated at the confluence of an imperial withdrawal and the appearance of successor states competing for this key princely state, while cultivating contrasting international identities in the early days of the Cold War. This work is a study of the Kashmir dispute, from October 1947 to January 1966, against this confluence of decoloni- sation and the Cold War. Books that present Kashmir as either a ‘ghost’ of empire or a ‘game’ of the Cold War are almost as old as the dispute itself.1 However, their trickle has become a flood only in the last twenty years with the opening of government archives in first the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (US) and the Commonwealth countries, and then the Russian Federation and former Eastern bloc nations, as well as an increasing access to primary material in India and Pakistan. In the following ways, this book seeks to distin- guish itself from this group. First, it demonstrates Kashmir’s presence in the international calculus of London and Washington from the very outset. There is a near- unanimity in the existing literature that the Kashmir dispute was not looked at through the prism of the prevailing international climate when it broke out in 1947 or when it reached the United Nations (UN) in 1948. The two years from January 1952 to February 1954 are usually acknowledged as the first milestones in this regard. This study, instead, argues that London, from even before 1947, and Washing- ton, from that year onwards, saw events in Kashmir through an international lens. With the British, the institutional memory of the nineteenth-c entury Great Game fed into this understanding while, post- 1945, Amer ican hopes for India and fears for Pakistan vis-à -vis the former Soviet Union (USSR), Afghanistan and the Middle East added to it. This application of larger calculations to a local crisis was not unique to Kashmir. In this period, a similar attitude was evinced towards Greece (1947), Palestine (1948), Indonesia (1949), Korea (1950) and subsequently Vietnam (1954).2 While these have been studied in terms of their international dimensions, similar work on Kashmir is much less developed. This is surprising because it was in Kashmir that, for the first time, the difficulties of decolonisation confronted the calculations of the Cold War directly. John Lewis Gaddis has called geography ‘a neglected dimension of Cold War history’ and