Kashmir

For centuries, poets and travellers called Kashmir a paradise on Earth.

But the paradise has become a tragic problem - a problem so complex

that two countries have fought three wars over it in 50 years. Nothing

divides India and Pakistan as Kashmir does, and nobody has suffered

more in the process than the people of Kashmir.

For the time being, India and Pakistan seem to have miraculously

escaped from another war, with tensions apparently eased at the

borders. But the threat of a nuclear conflagration in the subcontinent

reminds the world of the urgency of a resolution to this vexed problem.

There have been nearly 40 official proposals for a solution, but not a

single plan has yet been acceptable to all parties.

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Kashmir's fate is still locked into the story of India's partition in

1947, when Pakistan was carved out as a home for Indian Muslims. The

first war between the two countries was fought within months of their

independence, while their armed forces were still under the command of

British officers. Kashmir was divided - and remains divided - between

the two countries.

India claims that Muslim-dominated Kashmir is an integral part of the

country, a cornerstone of its secular democracy.