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Comment by DixonSeider | Hacker News Reader

Interesting background on Kashmir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir#1947_and_1948

Seems a plebiscite was to have taken place but did not happen. I'm guessing the majority would have voted to be part of Pakistan and not part of India.

(which would have, of course, irked "minority" populations).

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Those "minority" populations were forced out of Kashmir by the "majority" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing_of_Kashmiri_H...

I have to admit that it's ironic that a minority tired of its rights not being respected a) lets that happen to another minority (the Pandits) and b) wants to join another country with no codified minority rights

"The resolution recommended that in order to ensure the impartiality of the plebiscite Pakistan withdraw all tribesmen and nationals who entered the region for the purpose of fighting and that India leave only the minimum number of troops needed to keep civil order."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Counci...

Given that the primary condition for the plebiscite was never met i.e. withdrawal of all the Pakistani forces, it was never going to happen. And while Article 370 has frozen the demographics of Indian J&K in 1947, Pakistani Kashmir is now majority non-Kashmiri. Plebiscite is hardly gonna happen now.

There are multiple legal reasons why plebiscite was never held. Primarily, it required the return of Pakistan occupied kashmir to india for a re-unification of the two kashmirs, as a precondition. Needless to say, Pakistan refused to comply. Additionally, the plebiscite was to be applied to whole of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir, which includes Aksai Chin territory that China occupied. Besides, Ladakh and Jammu regions would probably be butchered in Pakistan as they are Buddhist and Hindu majority respectively. So there is no question of 2 of the 3 regions accepting to even participate in any plebiscite. Within the muslim 'majority' valley, past surveys have pointed to both possible outcomes -- staying with india or joining pakistan. Too many kashmiri muslims have profited immensely from Indian rule, and fear a punjabi muslim takeover of kashmir were it to join pakistan. Punjabis and Kashmiris are very different people.

The plebiscite is an outdated demand. A lot of Hindus native to the region were displaced by the insurgency in the 1990s. And the Kashmir Valley which is apparently pro-Pakistan is a smaller region in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. A large part of the State is Buddhist and Hindu.

Don't forget the Shias in Kargil.

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