Kashmir Accession Day.

75 years ago, a resolution was passed under the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference with an agenda to vindicate the voices of Kashmiris in front of the Maharaja. The Kashmiris came to the conclusion that they wanted to join the state of Pakistan rather than India.

Going decades back to the partition of the Subcontinent, the 1947 plan presented by the then viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, was flawed in its inception. It did not resolve the issue of dividing assets between the two new-born states where one was undoubtedly more powerful than the other in every aspect that a sane human mind can perceive. The biggest issue was of princely states where the rules regarding the right of accession were vague and there was no clear path if any country resorted to violence to achieve its political aims.

By 1947, around all of 564 princely states of British India had decided their fate either in favor of India or Pakistan with the exception of one. That one princely state was ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh of the Dogra Raj at that time of partition. The main impediment behind this exception was the over-ambitious desires of the Maharaja to carve out independence for Jammu and Kashmir but soon he realised it was a mere utopia to aspire for independence at that juncture. After the realisation, Maharaja's biases were attracted by the Congress leadership with whom he had some personal relationships too, pawing a path for India's enforced occupation of the territory without inquiring about the will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Maharaja, on the behalf of the people, signed an instrument of annexation with the Indian government which accorded Kashmiri some space to breathe. Fortunately enough, not the whole of Kashmir fell into Indian jaws as Muslims residing in the west of Jammu revolted against the Maharaja led to the most prominent uprisings which were backed by Pashtun fighters from Pakistan who stepped in to aid their fellow Muslim brethren leaving this land to be liberated, falling under Pakistan's management until the whole conflict was resolved through the will of the people.

On the other hand, UN intervention established the temporary cease-fire line between both parties to the conflict and acknowledged Kashmir as a multi-lateral issue. The UN Commission on Pakistan and India proposed UNSC Resolution 47 and established the fact that the fate of Kashmir would be decided by a plebiscite in which the Kashmiris will self-determine their...