I wouldn't respond to your post normally; consider this an exception because of some of the woefully wrong remarks you have made.
They want independence from India, with some of them wanting to be with Pakistan. From what my IOK friends have told me (and my general knowledge as a Kashmiri), when the Pakistani flag is waved, 99% of the time it's just to rile up the Indians, they don't actually want to join Pakistan, they just want independence. Same with when they wave an ISIS flag.
You've got this right. Even my separatist supporting friends needle me like that, and when they see I won't go for the bait, they grin and change the topic.
I have made this conclusion based on people I know, the news, the fact that India won't hold a vote, has over 700,000 troops there, etc.
Two divisions, at Baramula and Kupwara (thanks,
@hellfire ), 23,000 per division, 46,000 soldiers in XV Corps in the Vale. Another 46,000 in two more divisions of XIV Corps further north, one facing Baltistan across the Kargil heights, another facing the PLA in Ladakh, from Daulat Beg Oldi to Panggong Tso and further south. Another 69,000 in three divisions of XVI Corps in Jammu, Rajouri and echeloned behind them in the Himachal mountains. A total of 50,000 policemen from the central reserve.
Do your own arithmetic. If you want, I can take you through the orbat division by division, corps by corps.
I won't be visiting India anytime soon, not really interested as I don't see it as much different than Pakistan
He didn't ask you here for the tourism value. He was making a point.
and because the fact that I'm Pakistani will get me some prejudice and he fact that I'm Kashmiri will cause some of the people to constantly badger me about what I want for Kashmir (just like in real life when I meet Indians at party's).
Balls.
Ask Raza Rumi, who visits Delhi frequently. Ask the most outstanding young Pakistani I know, Yassir Latif Hamdani. Ask members of this forum, including our most loved lady
@Spring Onion. Ask Air Cdre. Kaisar Tufail, who visited with his wife, I am told.
And if you don't badger people, nobody will badger you.
One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter, I am sure you are familiar with the saying, no?
No.
My genuine belief is that with patience, we wouldn't have a single inch of Kashmir.
Shows how little you know.
Hari Singh was inclined towards Pakistan; it was Abdullah who leaned towards India. Hari Singh was in touch with the Muslim League through Ram Chandra Kak; read Kak's memoirs, of his term as Prime Minister for Hari Singh, immediately before October 47. He had a standstill agreement with Pakistan, he had none with India. He had understood the temper in west Jammu during his personal tours there, before the refugees flooded in from other parts of what was then shortly to become Pakistan and ugly massacres broke out on both sides, in eastern Jammu targeting Muslims, in western Jammu targeting Hindus and Sikhs. Mountbatten flew down to Srinagar in July, and tried to get him to take a decision, but he wouldn't; he was holding out, by then, for possible independence.
The consensus of Kashmiri opinion is that without the raiders having pushed him into a corner, he was most likely to have joined Pakistan. The Congress had given up on him, Abdullah was in detention, and there was no stopping him. Particularly with Jinnah's offer of a blank cheque.
I suggest that you read up on your background before letting your prejudice speak for you.
I don't think so. Raja of that era couldn't have continued with proper democracy in order. And democratic team would have been primarily Muslim majority, thus leaning towards Pakistan. Hope that gives you the idea.
Perfectly correct.
Please also read Ram Chandra Kak's account of his Prime Ministership, when he was Hari Singh's emissary to the Muslim League. It is interesting that the Pandits were so closely knit with the Muslims that they thought alike; the Dogras were hostile to Muslim domination.