Why Modi-Jinping talks should also focus on CoK – China-occupied Kashmir

First Post
By Sanjeev Nayar
Septembe 14, 2014

The common perception in India is that we have a problem with Pakistan over Kashmir, with our western neighbour not only sitting on large chunks of our territory (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, or PoK) but also sending jihadis over to create mayhem on this side of the line-of-control (LoC).

What Indians do not so readily acknowledge is that we also have a CoK problem in addition to the PoK one. CoK is China-occupied Kashmir, and this part of real estate grabbed un China accounts for nearly a fifth of the original Jammu & Kashmir state that joined the Indian Union in 1948 after its Maharaja Hari Singh signing the instrument of accession.

So when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits India from 17-19 September, the Indian side will not only have to focus on trade, investments and the broader issues that strain the relationship (the unsettled border row over which we fought a war in 1962), but also on CoK. Narendra Modi will have to bring CoK also in his discussions with Jinping – even though the border problem is not going to be solved in a hurry.

The problem with Indians is that we tend to forget what the Kashmir issue is really about as the decades pass. This writer will thus like to refresh memories on what the issue is really about, and on what China is up to (the full monograph on Kashmir will soon be published by Firstpost in a downloadable ebook shortly).

Let’s start with a brief chronology of key events in Jammu and Kashmir. The problem became a formal India-Pakistan flashpoint when Pakistan, in a bid to force the ruler to join Pakistan, sent in around 5,000 Pathan tribesmen to invade J&K starting on 21 October 1947. That set off a chain of events of which the highlights are the following:

*Instrument of Accession (hereafter referred to as IoA) signed on 26 October 1047

IOA unconditionally accepted by Lord Mountbatten that same day Jawaharlal Nehru sent the Indian army to defeat the Pathan invasion, but chose to go to the UN on 1 January 1948 on the aggression

*Resolutions adopted by the UN Commission for India and Pakistan on 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949 provided for a plebiscite in J&K after the withdrawal of troops by Pakistan from PoK

The regent of J&K, Karan Singh, issued a proclamation on 25 November 1949 that legally declared total oneness of the state with the Constitution of India Article 370, which the BJP now wants to scrap, became a part of Indian Constitution in 1950

*Elections to the State Constituent Assembly were held in 1951 and Sheikh Abdullah became PM of J&K

*Sheikh Abdullah was arrested in 1953 when Nehru felt he was developing his own agenda

*The Kashmir Constituent Assembly confirmed the legality of the state’s accession to India in 1954

*The J&K constitution came into force on 26 January 1957. India entered the Kashmir chakravyuh – a battle formation adopted by the Kauravas in their war with the Pandavas which Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son, knew how to enter but not exit safely – with Nehru’s decisions of 1948, but no one has been able to exit thischakravyuh.

If we have to exit the chakravyuh, both ordinary Indians and policy-makers have to understand what is at stake. So let’s begin with some basic facts about Kashmir, its geography, and how much of Kashmir Pakistan and China are sitting on right now.

The state of J&K had a total area of 2,22,236 sq km in 1947 before it joined India. Of this only 46 percent is in India’s possession today; the balance is under forceful occupation of Pakistan and China. Muhammed Ali Jinnah is said to have complained about a moth-eaten Pakistan heinherited after partition, but in Kashmir India actually has less than half the state – a moth-eaten Kashmir, so to speak.

WHO HAS WHICH PART OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR

WHO HAS WHICH PART OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR