Jammu and Kashmir | |
---|---|
1846–1952 | |
Status | Princely state |
Capital | |
Common languages | Kashmiri, Dogri, Ladakhi, Balti, Shina, Pahari-Pothwari |
Religion | Hinduism (state), Islam (majority), Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism |
Government | Monarchy |
Maharaja | |
• 1846–1857 | Gulab Singh (first) |
• 1925–1952 | Hari Singh (last) |
Dewan | |
• 1947–1948 | Mehr Chand Mahajan (first) |
• 1948–1952 | Sheikh Abdullah (last) |
History | |
• End of the First Anglo-Sikh War and formation of the state | 1846 |
• End of British Crown Suzerainty | 15 Aug 1947 |
• Beginning of the First Kashmir War | 22 Oct 1947 |
• Accession to the Indian Union | 26–27 Oct 1947 |
1 January 1949 | |
• Constitutional state of India | 17 November 1952 |
• Disestablished | 1952 |
Today part of | Disputed; see Kashmir conflict |
Jammu and Kashmir, also known as Kashmir and Jammu,[1] was a princely state in a subsidiary alliance with the British East India Company from 1846 to 1858 and under the paramountcy (or tutelage[2][3]) of the British Crown, from 1858 until the Partition of India in 1947, when it became a disputed territory, now administered by three countries: China, India, and Pakistan.[4][5][6] The princely state was created after the First Anglo-Sikh War, when the East India Company, which had annexed the Kashmir Valley,[7] from the Sikhs as war indemnity, then sold it to the Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh, for rupees 75 lakhs.
At the time of the partition of India and the political integration of India, Hari Singh, the ruler of the state, delayed making a decision about the future of his state. However, an uprising in the western districts of the state followed by an attack by raiders from the neighbouring Northwest Frontier Province, supported by Pakistan, forced his hand. On 26 October 1947, Hari Singh acceded[8] to India in return for the Indian military being airlifted to Kashmir, to engage the Pakistan-supported forces.[9] The western and northern districts now known as Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan passed to the control of Pakistan after it occupied it,[10] while the remaining territory stayed under Indian control, later becoming the Indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir.[11] India and Pakistan defined a cease-fire line—the line of control—dividing the administration of the territory with the intercession of the United Nations which was supposed to be temporary but still persists.[12][13]
Paramountcy was the 'vague and undefined' feudatory system whereby the British, as the suzerain power, dominated and controlled India's princely rulers. ... These 'loyal collaborators of the Raj' were 'afforded [British] protection in exchange for helpful behavior in a relationship of tutelage, called paramountcy'.
... the problem of the 'princely states'. These states had accepted the tutelage of the British Crown under the terms of the doctrine of 'paramountcy' under which they acknowledged the Crown as the 'paramount' authority in the subcontinent.