Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost province of India. The disintegration of some integral part of India is now the main characteristics of those provinces. However from the prehistoric age the one thing is unchanged and that is the regional character of South Asian culture and its fundamental quality of diversity within overall unity. One of the important Indus sites Burzahome is situated on the way to Srinagar the capital of the province from Jammu. The Mauriyan King Ashoka (273-232 B.C.) extended his control over Kashmir.2 Kashmir was a meeting place of different cultures of Asia, Western Greco-Roman, Iranian and inheritor of Indo-Aryan traditions, but essentially it was a part of India.
However after the end of the British rule, India became free during August 1947 by the way of a prolonged movement of the Indians. However the birth of Pakistan would seem to be an aberration, a historical accident caused by a configuration of forces at a particular historical juncture. The partition was not at all a wise decision. However Jinnah broadcast a message over Pakistan Radio in which he said that the birth of an independent sovereign state of Pakistan signifies the fulfillment of the destiny of the Muslim nation. He never cried for the people who felt helpless in the devastating whirlwind of communal riot but called for 'Direct Action' to reach his destiny for his dream Muslim community of India. He paid tribute to all the valiant fighters in this cause and thanked their sacrifices in the past few years in order to have their own homeland.
However the North-West of Kashmir, before the tribal raids formed the part of the state of Kashmir which was and is surrounded by mountains. Hari Singh the then ruler of Kashmir, could not decide to accede either India or Pakistan till 15th August, 1947 on which date the British paramountcy lapsed. For all practical purposes the Jammu and Kashmir State became independent. Naturally, Mount Batten lost control over Jammu and Kashmir technically, for he was the Governor General of India, while Jinnah had taken over the Governor Generalship of Pakistan on 14th October, 1947 and both India and Pakistan were not ready to accept the situation that a state like Jammu and Kashmir with its strategic importance could be left to its own devices. 10 However, according to the Indian Independence Act of July 1947, there was a provision for such a state unable to take a final decision on accession till 15th August 1947, could enter into Standstill Agreement with its neighbours so that a status quo could be maintained politically and for all economic and trade activities. On 12th August Janak Singh was appointed the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir instead of removed Prime Minister Ram Chandra Kak and proposed a Standstill Agreement with both India and Pakistan but telegraphically on that day. Pakistan agreed to this arrangement on 15th August, 1947 but India did not accede to that request because it was contrary to Mountbatten's own advice to discuss the arrangement with the representative of the state government, which was never done.
In this situation of confused political and humanitarian blackout of the decision makers of the political administrators, the comrhunal riots began on both the sides of the border of India and Pakistan. The riot started even before August 1947 and turned into human carnage after the transfer of power. 13 Within a week it looked that Jinnah had reneged on his assurance of a secular Pakistan and these riots perpetuated the belief that Pakistan was going to be a hundred percent Muslim state and this situation had a spillover effect in Jammu and Kashmir. 14 Punjab, Jammu, Rawalpindi and Kashmir valley remained the witness of exchange of Hindu and Muslim migrants from one place to other for communal riots. Even though a majority of Muslims in Poonch had been disarmed in July, 1947, they started to receive weapons from Pakistan to carry on with the carnage and ex-servicemen from Pakistan joined the ex-servicemen from Poonch to mutiny. 15 Even the Muslim officers and men in Jammu and Kashmir forces deserted to join the Muslims in Poonch, Mirpur in Jammu and Muzaffarabad in Kashmir and some sort of command structure came into being at Murree to control the Muslim uprising in Poonch and Muzaffarabad.
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