Indo-Pakistani Wars

I

Introduction

Indo-Pakistani Wars, three wars fought between India and Pakistan after the two nations gained independence from Britain in 1947. The first and second wars (1947-1949; 1965) were fought over the territory of Jammu and Kashmīr, in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The status of the territory remains a matter of dispute between India and Pakistan. The third war (1971) involved Indian military intervention in a civil war in Pakistan. This brief and decisive intervention resulted in the independence of Pakistan’s eastern province, East Pakistan, as the nation of Bangladesh.

II

Historical Background

The roots of Indo-Pakistani discord can be traced to the process of British colonial withdrawal from the Indian subcontinent. In 1947 the British government decided to partition the British Indian empire into the independent states of India and Pakistan. This decision followed the failure of the two nationalist parties of British India, the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, to resolve their differences in negotiations preceding independence. The Muslim League advocated the creation of a separate state called Pakistan to serve as the homeland for Muslims of South Asia. The Congress, on the other hand, officially supported building a single country based on secular (nonreligious) nationalism. That single country would have been predominantly Hindu, however, because Hindus greatly outnumbered Muslims in British India.

These two competing ideologies of state-building collided over the status of Jammu and Kashmīr, which had been one of 562 so-called princely states in the British Indian empire. These states were nominally independent as long as they recognized the paramountcy (authority) of the British crown. Under this colonial doctrine, the maharajas (monarchs) of these states exercised all powers except those pertaining to defense, foreign affairs, and communications. With the end of colonial rule, the maharajas were informed by the last British viceroy to India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, that they had to choose between joining either India or Pakistan. Mountbatten ruled out the prospect of independence. Furthermore, he decreed that predominantly Muslim princely states that bordered Pakistan would become part of that nation.

Jammu and Kashmīr therefore posed an interesting dilemma. It had a predominantly Muslim population, a Hindu ruler, and its borders abutted both India and Pakistan. The Pakistani leadership laid claim to the princely state on grounds that fellow Muslims in a neighboring state had to be incorporated into Pakistan to ensure its completeness. India, on the other hand, was interested in incorporating the territory into the Indian Union to demonstrate that a predominantly Muslim state could thrive within the context of a secular India. However, the monarch of Jammu and Kashmīr, Maharaja Hari Singh, had hopes of maintaining his state’s independence and delayed accession to either India or Pakistan, even after British rule formally ended in mid-August 1947.

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III

The First Indo-Pakistani War

A

Events Before the War

In October 1947 a rebellion broke out amid the Pashtun tribes in the western areas of Jammu and Kashmīr. The Muslim Pashtuns had long resented the Hindu maharaja’s rule, and in the wake of the British departure they moved to exploit the power vacuum and challenge the maharaja’s authority. Pakistani irregular forces, comprising members of the Pakistani army disguised as local tribesmen, entered the fray to support the Pashtun rebels. Within a week the rebels and their allies attacked and seized the border town of Muzzafarābād and then moved toward Srīnagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmīr.

Hari Singh, now in a state of panic for fear Srīnagar would fall to the rebels, appealed to Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for military assistance. Nehru set two preconditions for the provision of assistance: first, the maharaja would have to accede Jammu and Kashmīr to India, and second, the accession would have to receive the approval of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, leader of the secular Jammu and Kashmīr National Conference, the largest political party in the state. In late October, satisfied these preconditions had been met, Nehru accepted the maharaja’s Instrument of Accession that gave India powers of defense, foreign affairs, and communications in Jammu and Kashmīr. Pakistan immediately disputed the validity of the maharaja’s accession, claiming he had signed under duress.

B

Major Events During the War

On October 27 Indian troops were airlifted into Srīnagar to stop the Pakistan-aided tribal advance. By this time the rebel forces, calling themselves Azad Kashmīr (Free Kashmīr), had captured a third of the state’s territory. Over the next several months the Indian army fought a number of pitched battles with the rebel forces. In the spring of 1948, Indian forces mounted a major offensive designed to regain much of the lost territory. This Indian offensive led to the direct involvement of the regular (uniformed) Pakistani army. The fighting escalated during the course of the year, but neither side made significant territorial gains.

On the advice of Mountbatten, Nehru had referred the dispute to the United Nations Security Council in January 1948. The council subsequently passed a series of resolutions seeking an end to the conflict. The resolutions called upon Pakistan to end its aggression in Jammu and Kashmīr and enjoined India to hold a plebiscite (vote) to determine the wishes of the Kashmīris on the final disposition of their state. Both sides eventually agreed to these terms, and the war ended on January 1, 1949, with the declaration of a UN-sponsored cease-fire. By then about 1,500 soldiers and rebels had died in battle.

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