KASHMIR: BOUNDARIES

 Before Negotiating....

India should not fall into the grip of frivolous negotiations every time as and when Pakistan gets depleted of its fire power or cannot sustain a war for their own reasons.  Whenever such a situation arises, their trusted provider and ally US will step into their rescue.  Quite visibly, it would be a turn of events for the Whitehouse to settle their score with China and Soviet Union, now Russia. China has their huge investments including Nuclear reactors and power generation. Pakistan is their nuclear laboratory and India will not desist to freeze their repeated threatening of “Dirty Nuclear Bombs”.  US Presidents have downgraded their political cult to the extent to request the Soviets  to ensure that the Western Frontier remains unaffected in the 1971 War. How Yahya Khan mediated with Mao and Chou en Lai in the secret mission of Henry Kissinger.

For an average Indian citizen, this is the last opportunity for India to take back Illegally Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Deposing that trust and faith in Narendra Modi the entire people of the Country stands with him. It would be his own decision to suffer a few losses and save the country from the menace of  the  Revanchist  Ambitions of Pakistan.

The US is realizing that their potential ally in South East Asia and the Transit corridor to China will be  reduced to less than half,  inviting  a huge setback to their trade and commercial  and Strategic positioning in the region. They would be bent on to do anything and even  may reach an understanding  with Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping  and will enter into a political diplomacy  with New Delhi,

Whatever the situation may be, Narendra Modi  should stand firm and live up to the expectations of his countrymen.  The advisories and adversaries to the conflict or the escalation to a War, should look at the background of the whole issue. It is a decision on the stability and the economic growth of India.

India cannot afford to cling on to security conflicts and be a silent spectator of  an arms race in the region.  India has to emerge as a power to contain the region from the arms race and should ensure that the neighborhood does not become a dump yard of obsolete weaponry that would become an irritant and challenge later on. Towards this  South block and 7, LKM has to set the records straight, removing the debris of  Colonial improprieties and political oversight of  over six decades.

The British had to insulate Sino Russian transit from the eyes of the Transitory Government of India, basking in the nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi. Resignation of the Congress Government of NWFP was the first success for Great Britain and their ally US for countering the advances of Soviets in the Eastern corridor. Mountbatten could do the task keeping Nehru within his ring, not even letting Sardar Patel or anyone to get ample time to realize the situation.  Administrative intervention of the British Government in the Reforms of Kashmir during Maharaja Pratap Singh, if looked meticulously, impairments  in the political history of India on account of  Anglo- Sino- Russian conflict would have been  visible to the political leaders of India. Again, this is an indicator that the British knew how to keep Indian leaders busy with their own internal conflicts. At the same time, the Muslim League was nurtured and given a free hand to keep the Western and Eastern Frontiers within their fold. India was to be meant only as  the mainland with Hindu Provinces disrupted with the green patches of Muslim dominated Circle Areas added to their religious State. The Poona Pact was in letter and spirit meant to disintegrate the Upper Caste Hindus from the Scheduled castes and tribes together with Muslim majority. The only threat to the British design was Subhash Chandra Bose who was with Stalin around the time. Clement Atlee had to whisper in the ears of  Mountbatten to keep Gilgit –Baltistan out of the Kashmir Maharaja and to reconsider the revocation of the lease. Mountbatten wisely took the matters out of New Delhi and shifted Kashmir Affairs to Lahore and Karachi. He had the right explanation that all communication lines were routed through Peshawar.

In the year 1928, the Chinese Chin-Shu-Jen administration of Sinkiang province started developing some serious apprehensions regarding its conventional enemy the British. The Chinese suspected that the British would capitalize on the Muslim discontent in Kashgar for their  ulterior motives  thereby dismantling the  authority of Peking. Expecting an invasion from the British side, in the year 1929, the Chinese government dispatched a contingent of 700 soldiers to the main Karakoram watershed up to the Yarkand and Karakash rivers. A permanent post was set up at Shahidulla, the same place just across the Karakoram pass where Maharaja Ranbir Singh had also stationed a garrison in the year 1864.  

In Hunza too the British felt their position being challenged. The Chief official of the Kashgar town Tao-yin Ma Shao Wu told the representatives of the Mir of Hunza that if Hunza men accepted themselves to be Chinese citizens, only then they would be allowed to cultivate their lands in Raskam. Shao Wu claimed that the Mir had no rights over the lands for any activity including cultivation or revenue.

These developments taking place in the Sinkiang province of China adjacent to the Northern Frontier made the British Government watchful regarding its security concerns. First, there was much evidence to suggest that there were disturbing contacts between Moscow and the Sinkiang Governor  Sheng Shit Ts’ai. Joseph  Stalin had  granted financial assistance to the Sinkiang Government in 1935. Soviets gained rights for oil and mineral exploration in Sinkiang, with the assurance for military support as and when Sinkiang Government needs. Sinkiang, as it became a protectorate of the Soviet Union, the British expected that the next  step would be the taking over of Turkistan.

By the middle of 1935, London realized that  Moscow  was in full control of Sinkiang. The British Empire of India feared the Soviet infiltration to spread communist ideals and literature that would threaten the position of Northern Ladakh. The British were facing issues with the control of Gilgit Baltistan with the take over of the reins of Kashmir by Hari Singh in 1926. Hari Singh had served Maharaja Pratap Singh as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and was of the view to make a change in the policy approach on Gilgit –Baltistan. The Young Maharaja asserted his position in the region and was moving ahead with his plans to merge the region with his Province of Jammu and Kashmir. He  raised objections to British Supremacy and ordered  the hoisting of the state flag along with the Union flag. He declared Gilgit Region as his territory. He went ahead further to abolish Gilgit as a British Agency .

This paid well for their future nuclear programme. Already the mainstream political leaders of India were aware of the encounter of the Russian military during the expedition of Captain Younghusband.  The political leadership in India could not question the British Indian Government as they stopped Maharaja Ranbir Singh  of Kashmir from his expeditions to China.  Ranbir Singh saw the future conflicts that his kingdom will face with the British Policy allowing China to take over Karakonam Ranges forming a frontier between India and Russia. The new policy was not in tally with the 1759 demarcation of India China border with the Qianlong contingent after their conquest of Turkestan.

 

 The Kashmir ruler was confronted with the security concerns after the Russians  seized    over a large part of Kashmir along with  the  Pamir ranges of the Chinese border and Tijik Region of Afghanistan. Russian advances were put to hold in 1891, with the use of force by the British. This military action decided the borders of India with Afghanistan – Russia and China.  Chitral, Nagar and Hunza became a part of British India. In 1938, Soviets closed Khunera Mountain Pass.  Ladakh Region became disconnected from Sinkiang and thus the trade route through Karakoram pass also became cut off.

Negotiations with Pakistan on POK  should be based on the  boundaries of  the Gilgit Agency  as in the   ‘ Military report of 1909  on the  Gilgit Agency  and the Independent territories of  Tangir and Darel:- 

“On the north is the Hindu Kush, separating Ishkuman and Yasin from Wakhan, and on the north east in continuation of the Hindu Kush are-the Mustagh mountains, which divide Hunza and Nagir from the Chinese New Dominions. On the east lies the Skardu District of Kashmir. On the west is the Shandur Range which divides the Gilgit Agency from the Chitral Districts of Dir and Swat. The southern boundaries are the Burzil Pass on the east, separating the Astor Tahsil of Gilgit from Kashmir, and the ‘ Babusar Pass, by which communication with the Punjab is maintained arid the Kaghan Valley, while in the Indus Valley the boundary is coterminous with that of Northern Kohistan, Kandia and Dir.”

The exact boundary line may be thus traced :

“Starting from the Palesar Pass on the west, it runs in a northwesterly direction from the Dadrel Pass to the Shandur Pass, following the range of that name to its junction with the Hindu Kush, east of the source of the Yarkhun River. From here it follows the crest of the Hindu Kush to a point about five miles south-west of the Kilik Pass ; from this point it turns north-west past the Wakhjir Pass and then, circling round the western vend of the Taghdumbash Pamir, follows the northern watershed of the latter till it reaches the Peak Povalo' Shveikovski, the meeting point of Afghanistan with the three empires of India, Russia and China. Leaving Peak Povalo Shveikovski the line descends in a south-easterly direction to the bed of the Karachukar stream, crossing which near Mintaka Aksai it continues in the same direction till it gains the crest of the Mustagh Range at a point about seven miles east of the Karachenai Pass. It then follows this crest-line east and south-east to a point some six miles south-west of the Oprang Pass ; here the watershed is left abruptly and the line runs due east-for about five miles and then south-east till it strikes the Mustagh, or Oprang, River at Kuram Jilga ; it then follows the course of this river to a point some five miles above the junc tion of the stream from the Shingshal Pass when ascending the nearest high spur to the west it regains the crest of the Mustagh Range about 25 miles south-south-east of the Shing shal Pass. From the point where the line first touches the crest of the Hindu Kush, east of the source of the Yarkhun River, to Povalo Shveikovski‘the boundary of the Gilgit Agency thus coincides with the Indo-Afghan frontier, while from Peak Povalo Shveikovski onwards it is identical with the Indo-Chinese frontier up to the point where it regains the crest of the Mus tagh Range south-south-east of the Shingshal Pass. Here it leaves the Indo-Chinese frontier and turns south and west along the border of Baltistan to Hispar, south to Barungdoi on the Indus, following the course of that river to Bunji, south to the Burzil and Kamri Passes, and north old the Kamri Dara to its junction with the Rupal River. Thence it runs west to the Babusar and Zure Passes, north to the Pushkari Pass, west to Jalkot in Kohistan, north along the watershed to the Lahtar River, west by the undefined northern boundary of the Kandia Valley, and finally links up m'd the Paloga Pass with the Palesar Pass.”

The Parliament of  United Kingdom had adopted a motion that asserts the Position of Kashmir King, "Gilgit-Baltistan is a legal and constitutional part of the state of Jammu & Kashmir, India, which is illegally occupied by Pakistan since 1947, and where people are denied their fundamental rights including the right of freedom of expression". Despite all the legal and territorial rights of India over the region, Pakistan went ahead with the illegal construction of China Pakistan Economic Corridor, This move was also decried by the UK Parliament. New Delhi kept cold feet towards the actions of Pakistan. With the Act of 1970 Promulgated by Yahya Khan, the Karachi Agreement of 1948 has become a dead document.

 The demand of the Government of the POK to return the Gilgit Baltistan Areas was ignored by the Pakistan Government. The verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan  was also turned down by the military regime.  The Assembly of POK passed a resolution in 1972 to return the Northern areas comprising Gilgit Baltistan. To overcome this, a Presidential order was issued by mid-1972,that  abolished the hereditary laws of Jagirdari in the Region and created  Administrative Districts under Deputy Commissioners. This totally changed the situation and State Subject law promulgated by the Maharaja of Kashmir was removed.

The right of the indigenous People over the land was removed and the natural resources became nationalized. This led to large scale migrations from elsewhere.  India, after the 1971 War had seemingly lost showing any interest in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, This gave enough fuel from ZA Bhutto to enact Northern Areas Legal Framework Order bringing the region under Penal Code of Pakistan.  Further Bhutto abolished the Northern Areas Advisory Council and constituted the Northern Area Council without any legislative and executive Powers. The confidence of Pakistan over asserting the control of POK was growing high.    Gen. Zial ul Haq went a step ahead categorizing the Region under martial law Zone E, and brought it under the control of Pakistan as a natural  part of Pakistan. Zia lifted the colour of the disputed zone. He was a strong advocate of Deobandi School and implemented Sipah e Sabha Pakistan in the region. 

 However, India showed no sign of support to the demand to treat POK as a part of Jammu and Kashmir placed by   Azad Muslim Conference, Azad Kashmir’s Peoples party, All J&K Muslim Conference and  J K Mahaze Rai Shumari. Instead of listening to their demand, Pakistan went ahead with the formation of the Northern Areas Legislative Council in 1998.

How the Present Government  and the Ministry of External Affairs would formulate the organisation structure of Gilgit-Baltistan -NWP region is to be seen. Pakistan would be losing some of their key mining and prospective Areas , it would be a tough line of approach for India.