kashmir assignment

7/29/2019 Kashmir Assignment

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http://geography.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=geography&cdn=education&t

m=148&f=10&su=p284.13.342.ip_&tt=2&bt=3&bts=36&zu=http%3A//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir

KashmirDefinition: Kashmir (map) is a region located in the northwestern part of the

Indian subcontinent. Kashmir, officially referred to as Jammu and Kashmir, is an

86,000-square-mile region (about the size of Idaho) in northwest India and

northeast Pakistan. Kashmir's location along the Silk Road from China to the

Middle East, and its mountain passes to Punjab, Afghanistan and the Indian state of

Jammu, lifted the region's importance historically and geographically.

It includes theIndian stateof Jammu and Kashmir as well as the Pakistani states of

Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. The Chinese regions of Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram are also included in Kashmir.

Kashmir is significant to geographic studies because its status is disputed, which

often causes conflict to develop in the region. Today, Kashmir is administered

byIndia,PakistanandChina.
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The Indian portion of Kashmir is called Jammu and Kashmir. It is 54,000 sq mi

(139,000 sq. km), with its capital at Srinagar. The Pakistani-controlled part of the

region, Azad Kashmir, is 32,000 sq mi (82,900 sq km), with Muzaffarabad as

capital. The Kashmir Valley is 90 miles long and 20 miles across.

Geography of Kashmir

Kashmir, or Jammu and Kashmir, a mountainous region of the subcontinent ofIndia. It is bordered by Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan. The area is 85,805

square miles (222,234 km 2 ), about that of Utah.

Facts in brief about Jammu and Kashmir

Capitals: Srinagar (summer), Jammu (winter).

Official language: Urdu.

Area: 39,146 mi2 (101,387 km2).

Population: 2001 census10,069,917.

Chief products: Agricultureapples, barley, cherries, corn, millet, oranges, rice,

peaches, pears, saffron, sheep, sorghum, vegetables, wheat. Manufacturing

handicrafts, rugs, shawls.

Possession of Kashmir is disputed between India and Pakistan, and both occupy

part of the region. India claims sovereignty over all of Kashmir, but occupies only

about two-thirds of the total area. The Indian-held part is in the south and east; it

includes most of the fertile land and most of the population. The Pakistani-heldportion, to the north and west, is mountainous and sparsely populated. Indian-heldKashmir is governed as the state of Jammu and Kashmir within that country. The

Pakistani-held part is organized into two dependenciesAzad (Free) Kashmir,

with an area of about 4,500 square miles (11,600 km 2 ); and the Northern Areas,

with an area of about 28,000 square miles (72,500 km 2). Azad Kashmir has itsown president and legislature; the Northern Areas are administered directly by thePakistan government.

Kashmir's climate is varied, due primarily to great differences in elevation. The

most heavily populated area is the Vale of Kashmir, a valley between twomountain ranges of the Himalayas. Much of northern Kashmir is occupied by theKarakoram Range. Rivers include the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab.

Although only about 5 per cent of Kashmir's land can be farmed, agriculture is themain source of income. Rice, corn, wheat, barley, fruits, and vegetables are the

chief crops. Lumbering and the raising of sheep, goats, and yaks are alsoimportant. Handicrafts, including carpets, woolen shawls, and brassware, are the


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chief manufactured products. The region's breathtaking mountain scenery attractsmany tourists.

About three-fourths of Kashmir's people are Muslims, the remainder mostlyHindus. The most widely spoken language is Kashmiri, an Indo-Aryan language.

Few of the people can read or write. The population of the Indian-held part ofKashmir in 1991 was 7,718,700; that of Pakistani-held Kashmir was 2,542,000 in

1981. The largest cities. both in the Indian-held part, are Srinagar and Jammu.Muzaffarabad is the seat of government of Azad Kashmir.


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Border Politics in South Asia:

A Case Study of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan

Introduction

Historically speaking, the Indian sub-continent was directly connected to Central

Asia across land mass of Afghanistan in the south and Kashmir in the north. Thesetrans-land connections were maintained across the Himalayas, Pamirs, Hindukushand the Khyber Mountains in the wake of the transcontinental trade across the

Grand Silk Route of 2rd to 3nd century BC. By and large, these transmission

channels were marked for relative peace, prosperity, human security, inter-faithand inter-cultural dialogue:

However, following the Partition of the Indian sub-continent, two separate

political identities of India and Pakistan emerged on the South Asian map in 1947.With that, GreaterKashmir, which thitherto had an independent political status,

fragmented into what presently constitutes India controlled Jammu and KashmirState (J&K) and Pakistan controlled Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK).

An artificial Indo-Pak border line: Line of actual control (LoC) in 1949, which is

maintained by huge army personnel and defence expenditure at the cost of theworks of public utility and human security in both countries.

Instead of devoting their efforts to poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, crime and

the like social problems, they engaged in building their military capabilities and

enhancing their respective defence expenditures: lately India hiked it by 34%worth 1.4173 trillion Indian rupees3 and Pakistan increased its defence budget by

15% in 2009 despite her insignificant growth rate of 3.3% GDP. The situation ofAfghanistan, another border state in South Asia, is no less alarming due to

fundamentalism. Her own resources together with that of the U.S. and NATOpowers are pooled together to fight the menace in Afghanistan and along the

Pak-Afghan border.

Besides inflexible borders, the Kashmir conflict forms another principle factor of

political uncertainty in South Asia. As argued above, the un-natural division of

Kashmir fostered an immense Indo-Pak rivalry in the region. Since both make

claims on Kashmir on historical, religious and ideological grounds, they, as such,fought wars in 1965 and 1971, which the latter culminated with the separation of

East and West Pakistan, followed by the Kargil War between them (May-July,1999). They also locked horns over the separatist movement of the Kashmiris

against India in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan offered logistics to the Kashmirisecessionists which India has been unceasingly contesting in all forums. The issue


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took a serious turn when the Kashmiris took up arms in the late 1990s against

Indian forces. Alarmingly, they found support from the Pakistan-basedmilitant organizations, such as Laskar-e Taiba and Jaish-i Muhmaddi, said to be

splinter groups of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Eventually, therefore, the Kashmiris

experienced a wide variety of tribulations over the last two decades: 100,000 losttheir lives, thousands were rendered destitute, orphans, homeless, sick and

physically handicapped.16 The U.S. Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Philip J. Crowley, also observed

the great impact of the Kashmir conflict on South Asian peace and security; hence,

he suggested that the decades old issue should be resolved between the two

South Asian neighbours with active participation of the Kashmiri people, and

without this thereis no peace possible in the region.

Remedies

Therefore, the trajectory of developments suggests that India, Pakistan,

Afghanistan and Kashmir are closely interwoven in a network relationship, whichhas to be based on peace-keeping their own security, keeping in mind their sharedpast and mutual economic interests.

The offshoots of the Grand Silk Route connecting China and Rome across the

Middle East, South and Central Asia. One major route crisscrossing Kashmiracross the Karakoram in the east connected India with Central Asia (modern

Kyrgyzstan) through Srinagar and Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir (India) and the

Chinese part of Central Asia called the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Republic.The second route passed through Srinagar and Bandipora in Jammu and Kashmir

(India) and reached Gilgit in AJK (Pakistan), where it took three different

directions, one again crossed the Karakoram, then moved up towards Xinjiang inthe east, another route traversed the Pamirs in the north, entered Murghab and

reached modern Tajikistan

(Gilgit Route: Map 1),


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Fig.1 Gilgit Route: Map 1

and yet another route crossed over the Pamirs to enter Wakhan Corridor in the

northwest and terminates in Afghanistan-controlled Badakhshan. On reachingthere, it split into two sub-routes, one down west towards Kabul, and another

southwest towards the modern Central Asian states of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan andTurkmenistan and Iran along the Afghan cross border-points at Kunduz, Termiz,

Mazar-i Sharif, Jalalabad, Sheberghan and Meshad respectively (Wakhan Route:

Map 2).

The fourth principal route originating from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir

(India), traversed Muzaffarabad and Rawalpindi in AJK (Pakistan), moved ahead

towards Peshawar or Gandhara (Pakistan), crossed over the Hindukush and KhyberMountains, reached Kabul in Afghanistan, and then moved to the Central Asianstates and Iran along the aforementioned Afghan cross border-points


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Fig.2 Wakhan Route : Map 2

. (Srinagar-Muzaffarabad or GandharaRoute: Map 3). All these routes were

interconnected within the same geographical space by severalother micro outlets including Kargil-Iskardoo, Poonch-Rawalakot, etc.


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ties. Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary ofState, rightly urged upon India and Pakistan to amicably resolve long-pending

issues includingKashmir as the security of both countries is threatened by extremism and

terrorism.18 Without theirfriendship, it is hard to defeat the Taliban who aredominant in one-third of Afghanistans thirty-four

provinces, where the insurgency has grown more violent, more pervasive and

more sophisticated,

said Admiral Mullen in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 15, 2009.19

kashmir assignment

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