Kashmir's Accession to India Re-examined

The developments leading to the Accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India are closely linked to with the scheme of partition of British India. With the partition of the Indian Subcontinent Jammu and Kashmir presented a very chaotic and confusing picture. The Kashmir dispute is certainly a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan, it also has aspects of a domestic political issue for both countries. The fact which is important above all is that the two countries are multiethnic nations, and that the Kashmir dispute has directly influenced the respective countries’ ethnic issues and national unity. This precisely forms the crux of the Kashmir dispute, a dispute that is more than a traditional bilateral conflict over territories and borders.

Both India and Pakistan wanted to control Kashmir because of its strategic location and geo-political importance. However, events moved with lightening rapidity and the state ended up being part of India by virtue of the controversial accession. In the light of the recent debates on the status of Kashmir and its equation with the Indian Union and Pakistan, this paper attempts to make a fresh appraisal of the contentious issues of date and time of the signing of the instrument of accession between the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and the Government of India.