India and Pakistan
Overview of the Relationship
India-Pakistan rivalry dates from the 1947 partition of British India into mostly Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. Claims by both successor nations to the formerly princely state of Kashmir have resulted in a half-century of bitter relations that has included three wars: in 1947_48, 1965, and 1971. A UN-brokered ceasefire in January 1949 left Kashmir divided by a military ceasefire line into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-controlled Azad (Free) Kashmir and the Northern Territories. The ceasefire was renamed the Line of Control (LOC) under the 1972 Simla Agreement, which ended the third India-Pakistan war. The economic…
