It was an act of war.

On 22nd October, 1947 Pashtun laskars that came to be organised by Khurshid Anwar invaded Muzzafarabad. Soon thereafter, well armed tribals, who were equipped and directed by Major General Akbar Khan, joined in to loot, rape and kill the people of Kashmir.

It was an act of war. A reign of terror was let loose on the innocent civilians and government officials; they were killed and the women of the village raped. Dunni Chand Mehta, the Wazir Wazarat (revenue commissioner) of the district was shot dead while on duty along with several other officials.

Just when the Pakistan forces were on the outskirts of Srinagar, General Douglas David Gracey, then Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, asked for them to stop.

This seems to have annoyed Akbar Khan so much that a few years later he organised a coup in Pakistan to topple the government of Liaquat Ali Khan.

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A sovereign ruler needs no one’s permission. A sovereign ruler which refuses to exercise sovereignty, discovers that someone else will.

The British East India Company had become the sovereign ruler of India in 1818 after declaring itself the paramount power in the aftermath of the Marathas accepting British paramountcy. After 1858 it was called the Government of India.

The British in the period after 1818 merely needed to consolidate their rule over India and take over those territories that had not yet accepted their sovereignty. That bit of cleaning up was done when they took over Sindh and Punjab.

In the same period, the British refused to set up sovereignty over Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal.

Within India the rulers of India who had accepted British paramountcy worked as sub-contractors for the British sovereign government. We called these rulers ‘Princes’. As subcontractors of the sovereign government these Princes were given certain privileges— like having their own flag, own currency, own army, own legal system etc.. But they had no rights vis-á-vis their sovereign, the Government of India. As sub-contractors it was their duty to ensure that there was no civil disturbance within their territory, that law and order was maintained adequately. In case they were found to be incapable of doing this duty they were summarily removed.

The sub-contractors of the Government of India had no right to exist. As and when their bloodlines ended their territories were to go into direct control by the Government of India. The Government needed no one’s permission to do this.

A sovereign ruler which refuses to exercise sovereignty, discovers that someone else will.

This is what we saw when the Chinese claimed Aksai Chin and the NEFA region to be theirs. The government simply was not present in these territories before the Chinese occupied them

Similarly, the government simply was not present in Kargil when the Pakistanis decided to occupy Kargil in 1998. When the government realised that Kargil was going out of hand, in 1999 it started the Kargil war to oust the Pakistanis.

India History