India-Pakistan Conflict
For thousands of years, countless lives have been lost in battles over disputed territories. While the primary, tangible point of contention in most border disputes is an easily identifiable piece of land on a map; such disputes are often far more complex than what can be measured in square miles. Often times, cultural tradition, ethnic heritage, and religious beliefs become dimensions that make such conflicts far more complicated than can be resolved by a simple treaty creating a new border. This is the case in the Jammu and Kashmir region, located between northwestern India and northeastern Pakistan. Prior to 1947, the region comprising Pakistan, India, and Kashmir was known as British India, and was a colony of the British Empire consisting of hundreds of small states, each of which was controlled by a local leader know as a maharajah. When the British left the region in 1947, it was up to the individual states to determine which of the two new independent countries they wished to join. Those countries with Muslim majorities opted to become part of Pakistan, while those Hindu majorities chose to become part of the new India. While for the most part this system worked out well, two areas complicated the transiti
on. One problem came from the geographic divide between two culturally distinct pockets of Muslims in British India. The country we now know as Pakistan was the region known as West Pakistan when colonial powers left in 1947. However, the region of Bengali also possessed a heavy Muslim majority, but was separated from West Pakistan by Hindu controlled parts of India. This region, which became East Pakistan, affiliated itself with West Pakistan by religion and constitution, but not by cultural heritage. Much like Alaska is part of the United States, but divided from the rest of the nation by Canada, East Pakistan found itself surrounded by India, but constitutionally united with West Pakistan. In Kashmir, another difficult situation would present itself. While the majority of the Kashmiri people were Muslim, the Maharajah of Kashmir was Hindu, and thus saw to it that Kashmir aligned itself with India, despite the Muslim majority. This decision has led to more than half a century of hostility between the two nations, and has been the precipitating factor in the initiation of two of the three wars. The first occurred just two months after the new nations achieved independence. Lasting from 1947 until 1949, the war finally ended by a U.N.-brokered peace agreement that divided the disputed territory, with India retaining claim to roughly two-thirds of Kashmir. The Security Council action of 1949 created an uneasy truce that would last until 1965 when hostilities resumed. Once again, this war failed to resolve the issues and ended in yet another U.N.-sponsored cease-fire. Following another conflict in 1971, India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement in 1972 and promised to usher in a new era of peaceful negotiations to resolve their conflict. The two nations have met on numerous occasions in an attempt to resolve their dispute, but have made little in the way of progress. Tensions reached a critical new point in 1974 when India conducted its first nuclear test of a 15-kiloton device it dubbed a "peaceful nuclear explosion". This test triggered an arms race that once again pushed India and Pakistan to the brink of war in 1998, when both
Some common words found in the essay are:
India Pakistan, United Nations, Simla Agreement, Pakistani-based Islamic, , Hindu Kashmir, War II, Simultaneously Pakistan, Neither India, British Empire, india pakistan, west pakistan, east pakistan, nuclear conflict, muslim majority, disputed territory india, simla agreement, pakistan hindu, nations world, nuclear weapons, 1947 region,
Approximate Word count = 1468
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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