1st Indian envoy wanted Kashmir in Pakistan

[Neo]

Monday, November 13, 2006

1st Indian envoy wanted Kashmir in Pakistan

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: India’s firs high commissioner in Pakistan, Sri Prakasa, told Lord Mountbatten that “for the sake of peace all around,” the “best thing” India could do was to hand over Kashmir to Pakistan.

According to American historian Stanley Wolpert’s new book on the partition of India, when Jawaharlal Nehru was informed of what his high commissioner in Karachi had proposed, he expressed amazement.

In a sharp letter to Sri Prakasa, Nehru wrote, “I was amazed hat you hinted at Kashmir being handed over to Pakistan ... If we did anything of the kind our government would not last many days and there would be no peace ... It would lead to war with Pakistan because of public opinion here and of war-like elements coming in control of our policy. We cannot and will not leave Kashmir to its fate ... The fact is that Kashmir is of the most vital significance to India ... Here lies the rub ... We have to see this through to the end ... Kashmir is going to be a drain on our resources, but it is going to be a greater drain on Pakistan.”

Wolpert writes that if Nehru had accepted Gandhi’s offer of mediating the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, history would have taken a different course. He writes, “If Nehru had only listened to Gandhi, inviting him to arbitrate the Kashmir conflict with Jinnah, India and Pakistan might have been spared three wars and the tragic loss of countless lives, at least 50,000 of whom were Kashmiri.”

According to Wolpert, “Mountbatten’s frenzied plans had blinded him (Nehru) to the wretched realities of partition’s monstrous problems, the cause of so many deaths, and sixty more years at least of fighting and hatred.”

Nehru wrote to his friend, the Nawab of Bhopal, on 9 July 1948, “It has been our misfortune ... the misfortune of India and Pakistan, that evil impulses triumphed ... Can you imagine the sorrow that confronts me when I see after more than thirty years of incessant effort the failure of much that I longed for passionately? ... Partition came and we accepted it because we thought that perhaps that way, however painful it was, we might have some peace ... Perhaps we acted wrongly. It is difficult to judge now. And, yet, the consequences of that partition have been so terrible that one is inclined to think that anything would have been preferable ... Perhaps these conflicts are due to the folly or littleness of those in authority in India and Pakistan ... Ultimately, I have no doubt that India and Pakistan will come close together ... some kind of federal link ... There is no other way to peace. The alternative is ... war.”

Wolpert writes, “The sheer waste of it all now shocked and truly staggered Nehru as he looked back and realised how much better off India would have been had he warmly embraced Cripps’s 1942 offer or that of the later Cabinet Mission.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\11\13\story_13-11-2006_pg7_8

 

[Awesome]

At first, Indians wanted plebiscite in Kashmir too.

 

[MIG_ACE]

This was the opinion of ONE indian .Not the entire country.

 

[sword9]

At first Pakistan wanted Kashmir to be independent too.

 

[Sid]

Nehru's character was amazing! First you arrogantly do things and then later on talk about 'ifs' and 'buts' when your arrogant stand doesnt work out.

 

[Awesome]

This was the opinion of ONE indian .Not the entire country.

And this was the view of the Indian Prime Minister!

At first, Indians wanted plebiscite in Kashmir too.

 

[MIG_ACE]

And this was the view of the Indian Prime Minister!

Really!! Read the article again.It was the view of the Indian high commissioner to pakistan not the PM.
This is what the PM said to him...

In a sharp letter to Sri Prakasa, Nehru wrote, “I was amazed hat you hinted at Kashmir being handed over to Pakistan ... If we did anything of the kind our government would not last many days and there would be no peace ... It would lead to war with Pakistan because of public opinion here and of war-like elements coming in control of our policy. We cannot and will not leave Kashmir to its fate ... The fact is that Kashmir is of the most vital significance to India ... Here lies the rub ... We have to see this through to the end ... Kashmir is going to be a drain on our resources, but it is going to be a greater drain on Pakistan.”

 

[Neo]

Thats what he probably meant, the reply.

 

[Neo]

I've got to read that book, see if there's new light.

 

[Bull]

India is not going to change it stance bcoz one high commisoner said so,i dont think even Pak expects India to.

 

[joey]

At first, Indians wanted plebiscite in Kashmir too.

Yups we did, before Mujhadeen freedom fighters took in place of the common man.
Its suicidal agreeing to plebicite now.

instead develope more and more as we are doing make kashmir economically stronger.

 

[Spring Onion]

Can u throw some light on economic progress in IHK ?
how developed its infrastructure is ?

 

[Bull]

Can u throw some light on economic progress in IHK ?
how developed its infrastructure is ?

Search the web,you will find many articles.And also we have rail link coming up over there.

 

[Neo]

Yups we did, before Mujhadeen freedom fighters took in place of the common man.
Its suicidal agreeing to plebicite now.

The crisis is almost sixty years old while the insurgencies started in mid eighties.

Its suicidal to continue anger Kashmiris the way we both have been doing.
Its their right to choose for them selves, unless there is a pleb we won't know the true will of the Kashmiris.
Period!

 

[MIG_ACE]

The crisis is almost sixty years old while the insurgencies started in mid eighties.

Its suicidal to continue anger Kashmiris the way we both have been doing.
Its their right to choose for them selves, unless there is a pleb we won't know the true will of the Kashmiris.
Period!

He was not referring to the current insurgency.I think he was talking abt how pakistan had sent infiltrators dressed as civilians into kashmir to take control of it after it decided to remain indpt in 1948.That was the start of 1948 war.(Official Indian stance....Pakistani version is diff.)