India–Pakistan war of 1947–1948

The first war between India and Pakistan, often called the first Kashmir war, broke out in October 1947 and lasted until the end of 1948, a struggle for the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It began weeks after the two countries gained independence, when Pashtun tribal militias backed by Pakistan invaded the state and its ruler turned to India for help. A UN-arranged ceasefire took effect on 1 January 1949, leaving India holding about two-thirds of the state and Pakistan about one-third, along a line that still divides Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir had been a princely state under a Hindu Dogra dynasty since 1846. Its population was mixed: the Kashmir Valley was overwhelmingly Muslim, the Jammu region had Hindu and Muslim areas, and Ladakh had a large Buddhist community. When British rule ended with the partition of India in August 1947, the princely rulers were asked to join either India or Pakistan. Maharaja Hari Singh decided to join neither, hoping to remain independent. The leading party in the valley, Sheikh Abdullah's National Conference, leaned towards India, while the Muslim Conference, strong in Jammu, favoured Pakistan.

Both new armies were still led by British officers, who tried to keep the two dominions from open war.

In the summer of 1947 a revolt broke out in Poonch, in the west of the state, fuelled by heavy taxation and anger at the Maharaja, among a population that included many former soldiers. According to Indian military sources, Pakistani officers had meanwhile prepared a plan to arm tribal fighters for an invasion; Pakistani sources deny that any such plan existed. On 22 October 1947 several thousand tribesmen crossed into the state near Muzaffarabad, routed the state forces and headed for the capital, Srinagar. They stopped to plunder towns along the way, including Baramulla, which gave the defenders time.

The Maharaja appealed to India, which made military help conditional on the state joining India. He signed the Instrument of Accession, and on 26 October 1947 India accepted it. Pakistan rejected the accession as obtained by fraud and violence. Indian troops were then flown into Srinagar. They held the city and its airfield, defeated the raiders on its outskirts and drove them back through Baramulla and Uri.

Fighting spread to Poonch, where a besieged garrison held out for more than a year, and to Mirpur and the hills of Jammu. In the north, the Gilgit Scouts, under a British officer, overthrew the Maharaja's governor by 1 November 1947 and declared for Pakistan. In May 1948 the regular Pakistani army formally entered the war. An Indian garrison at Skardu held out for six months before surrendering in August 1948. Late that year Indian forces hauled light tanks over the Zoji La pass to secure the route to Ladakh, and finally relieved Poonch.

A United Nations commission set out ceasefire terms in a resolution of 13 August 1948, requiring Pakistan to withdraw its forces and India to reduce its own, after which a plebiscite would decide the state's future. The ceasefire took effect on 1 January 1949. Because the two sides never agreed on how to demilitarise, the plebiscite was never held. Indian losses were about 1,100 killed; Pakistani losses have been estimated at around 6,000 killed. Analysts disagree on whether the war was a stalemate or an Indian success.

India kept the Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Ladakh. Pakistan held the western districts that became Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the northern areas now called Gilgit-Baltistan. The 1949 Karachi Agreement fixed a ceasefire line watched by UN observers. Discontent in the Pakistani army over the ceasefire contributed to a failed coup attempt in 1951. After further wars in 1965 and 1971, the 1972 Simla Agreement turned the ceasefire line into the Line of Control, and Kashmir remains disputed.

Our 1945 map shows Jammu and Kashmir as a princely state of the British Raj; our 1960 map shows it divided along the ceasefire line.