Kashmir Dispute Essay

Since the partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947,the Kashmir dispute has been an intractable one between them. They fought three wars over it in 1948,1965 and 1999,but have not been able to resolve it. The partition left the fate of over 550 princely states undecided.They were required to accede to either of the two states on the basis of the geographical location and wishes of their people.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir should have acceded to Pakistan because of its Muslim majority population and geographical location,but this was not happened when Maharaja Hari Singh seek military assistance from India to resist the Pakistani tribal’s attacks and ultimately signed the ‘Instrument of Accession’ with India.Eventually

The Indus is a river system that sustains communities in both India and Pakistan.In Pakistan,it is the only river system supporting the country,where more than 92 % of the land is arid or semi-arid.In India,it is one of the two main river systems supporting the country.The importance of the Indus River to the well-being of both countries cannot be overemphasized.

The biggest problem, of course,lay with the division of Punjab,as it contained a complex irrigation system built by the British to be run under a single administration.The task was given to the engineers of both countries who agreed to allow the existing water sharing systems to continue until the following year.This standstill agreement between both countries expired on March 31,1948.On the following day Indian Punjab cut off water flow to Pakistan.

The Kashmir dispute and disputes over the sharing of water resources are intertwined.From Independence Day to the present day,they remain the two biggest challenges when it comes to normalizing relations between the two

In March 2011,Indus Water Commissioner of India G. Ranganathan denied that India’s decision to build dams on rivers led to water shortage in Pakistan.He also rejected Islamabad’s concerns at water theft by New Delhi or violation of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960,assuring his counterpart,Syed Jamaat Ali Shah that all issues relating to water would be resolved through dialogue.However,ground realities are quite different from what Ranganathan maintained.

Besides other permanent issues and, especially the dispute of Kashmir which has always been used by India to malign and pressurize Pakistan,water of rivers has become a matter of life and death for every Pakistaniand New Delhi has been employing it as a tool of terrorism to blackmail