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accession to Pakistan or India but not independence—was never
held. Two more wars erupted, in 1965 and 1971. Major fighting fol-
lowed along the disputed Line of Control, in Kargil, in 1999, nearly
sparking nuclear war. Kashmiris yearning for self-determination
grew frustrated with Hindu hegemony, rigged elections, and the
plebiscite that was never held.
The Kashmir conflict is remarkable for its complexity and for
the terrain it has played out on. Since April 1984, India and Pakistan
have fought sporadically over the disputed Siachen Glacier, which
traverses close to the Line of Control. At nearly 20,000 feet high,
the icy peak is the world’s highest combat zone and conditions are
extreme. Most people cannot survive for extended periods at that
altitude. Oxygen starvation can prevent soldiers from sleeping, and
causes them to hallucinate. Some even become psychotic. Indian
troops train on the glacier for weeks, spending some portion of it at
lower elevations, but even so, during their three-month tenure onthousands of whom have fled due to targeting by Islamic militants.
Until the second half of the 20th century, the various religious com-
munities in the Valley coexisted in relative harmony, to the extent
that they even adopted bits of each other’s culture. Sufi mysticism
as practiced in Kashmir incorporates elements of Hindu scriptures.
Worshippers of both faiths pray at the same shrines. Kashmir is the
only place in India where Muslims carry the Hindu surnames Pan-
dit and Bhat. Instead of the domes that predominate in the Islamic
world at large, many Muslim shrines here have pagoda roofs, an
architectural style associated with Buddhism.
When the British left, they exacerbated latent religious tensions
by partitioning the subcontinent. Rarely are postcolonial transi-
tions smooth, and this was one of the worst in the 20th century,
characterized by a lack of foresight and planning. As in Palestine,
Britain acted as though it was simply ceding a house to new own-
ers, without careful attention to the competing claims. The British
left it to the 562 princely states to choose whether to align with
India or Pakistan. Kashmir was predominantly Muslim, and the
Hindu maharajah, Hari Singh, dithered. He eventually opted to
join India following an invasion of Kashmir by Muslim tribesmen
backed by Pakistan. War broke out. On January 1, 1949, a cease-fire
was struck, with 65% of the territory placed under Indian control
(Jammu and Kashmir) and the rest under Pakistan’s (Azad Kash-
mir). China claimed another small parcel, Aksai Chin, which led to
a separate border war with India in 1962.
The de facto border between Pakistan and India, called the Line
of Control, was supposed to be temporary but still remains in effect
more than 65 years later. A UN-recommended plebiscite—over
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Friday prayers at the Jamia Masjid Mosque in Srinigar; Indian army soldiers
returning from a training session at the Siachen base camp in Indian Kashmir.
SANJIT DAS/PANOS PICTURES (TOP); AP PHOTO/CHANNI ANAND