Do you think Kashmir belong to India or Pakistan?

If everybody agrees to that there won't be any problem. But I wonder if Pakistan is willing to agree with this. Actually since the king and the politician of Kashmir have agreed that it should be part of Kashmir, I think Pakistan should be willing to let it remain in India. But I can't understand why they don't do that. Their reason that Kashmir has Muslim and so it should belong to Muslim does not sound that reasonable because India has lot of other Muslims too.

Hi headhunter, our animosity started when there was partition. We aggravated it with Bangladesh stuff. What business was it ours? I think that war was fought quite close to elections. Was it designed to make people appreciate the ruling party at that time? I dont blame Pakistan for smarting. I would. Dont u think it is funny, European nations are able to join hands and form a Euro, even after World War II - when Germany and Italy played truant, but India, China, and Pakistan cant forget any wars we've had between us. And we're fighting over Kashmir for ages. Frankly how many lives have we lost for it? I am not asking we give it up. I am for third party arbitrator. If we cant accept the solution, we can always back out and have another round of mediation. We didnt want mediation there but we dont mind presenting evidence about terrorism to them! We are begging them to be convinced of our stand! That is not dignified! When US volunteered to mediate, why were our politicians clutching their files pretending it was an issue of national prestige even while young people continued to die at the front from both sides. How can we allow people who dont have any relatives in armed forces behave so petulently. How can v assume that US will not see our side of the story? Is it not better to talk all this rather than pick arms? Agreed US has nothing to do with it, but that is good. And had things been solved at the right time, Pakistan would not have been so vulnerable to Taliban infestation. The forces would have been deployed in right direction, and India and China would possibly helping it against such terrorism! As things stand, we, at least India just has to wait for its turn.

I think most political scholars over the world would agree that it was good India helped Bangladesh in 1971. I think when a helpless group of people was being slaughtered and someone intervenes to stop that it's to be applauded. I have read even European scholar praise India for 1971 intervention. Of course, if at all it is to be mediated UN would be quite happy to do it. But suppose we ask for it and Kashmiris choose to join Pakistan what would happen to India? ( I don't think Kashmiris would choose Pakistan over India though. And suppose we repeat similar exercise even in Nagaland, Manipur and Assam because these states demand such exercise to be conducted even there. And suppose these states go away, what do you think would be the fate of India? Well, in such situation India would become much smaller and a nation with small geographical size is not quite secure as much as it is with a big nation. Your economy is smaller, generally speaking, and in case of foreign aggression you don't space to maneuver to position your security settings. China wants to take Arunachal Pradesh so that it has more say in global power equation. US is powerful because it has size too. If it disintegrates it won't this much say.

But Kashmir now belongs to all three. Half is in India, some in Pakistan and little bit in China. For example, the king Karan Singh is part of Indian politics. Even the most influential political family Abdullahs is also part of Indian politics. Kashmiris enjoy democracy and development here compared to those in Pakistan. For these reasons I think they should be in India.