First Kashmir War: How the Indo-Pakistani Conflict Ignited in 1947

The tension between India and Pakistan is one of the most well-known political standoffs in the modern world, and for good reason. Since the middle of the 20th century, the countries have been at war with each other on multiple occasions, and have had no shortage of border disputes and skirmishes year after year. It is one of those places on the globe that seems like it is always just on the verge of all-out war, so much so that it is often referred to as a ticking-time bomb.

Even turning the clock back more than 70 years, the picture is eerily similar: accusations, suspicion, and violence dominating the headlines, all centered around the frontline in a disputed piece of territory — Kashmir. Understanding why Kashmir became the epicenter of these tensions, and who, if anybody, emerged victorious in the first armed conflict fought over this crucial slice of Asia, requires tracing the story back to the partition of British India itself.

The Partition of India and the Two-Nation Theory

British India had been under direct rule of the British crown for nearly a hundred years, through an administration known as the British Raj. Throughout the years, there had been a number of independence movements for various ethnicities and religions within the colony, all of which had been successfully subdued, but by the 1940s, the British sentiment surrounding India was changing, and the writing was on the wall for its inevitable independence. The vast majority of people living in British India wanted independence from Britain, but there was a massive debate about how this would be implemented.

British India was home to dozens of languages, ethnicities, and cultures, something that could quickly lead to a lot of internal chaos if this incredibly diverse region suddenly became independent and united overnight. Of all the issues that would accompany independence, the most glaring was religion: specifically, the tension between Hindus and Muslims. Many Hindus felt that if India became independent, the rather large minority of Muslims would violently revolt for control over their own affairs, and the general consensus among Muslims was that Hindus would vastly outnumber them in politics and oppress them as a religious minority.

This had long been an issue, and extremist groups on both sides had only fanned the flames over the years, such as Hindu nationalist groups who went as far as to label Muslims as second-class citizens and tried to promote the outright banning of Islam in the country. On the other side, Muslim separatist groups were growing in both size and level of violence, demanding their own separate government. Britain was intent on avoiding any violence, not just because of the humanitarian disaster it would create in one of the most populated places on earth, but also because there were high hopes that India would become a powerful ally in the years to come, something that the West was in high demand for at the dawn of the Cold War.

So, they started looking into possible solutions, and one option looked as attractive as ever: Partition. At its core, the idea of partition was to split up British India into two separate countries: one for Muslims, and one for Hindus. This idea had been floating around for a while, and was originally known as the two-nation theory.

The official plans went back and forth through an agonizing number of diplomatic meetings, government officials, and bureaucratic processes, until eventually it was decided that the partition would take place sometime in June 1948. However, the violence between the Muslims and Hindus was already starting to escalate, so, fearing a crisis would erupt before the solution could take place, the date was moved forward an entire year.

The Mountbatten Plan and the Catastrophe of Migration

In summer 1947, the partition was officially announced. Within its territory, the borders of two new nations were carved out: the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, separated roughly along religious fronts by what was called the Radcliffe Line. The Dominion of Pakistan was comprised of two separate geographic regions: one to the northwest of India, called West Pakistan, and one to the northeast, called East Pakistan.

East Pakistan has since gained its independence and is now the country of Bangladesh. At the time of the partition, Pakistan was in two pieces, separated by about a thousand miles of northern India. The diverse border provinces of Punjab and Bengal met and voted to partition their provinces roughly in half between the new countries.

Critically, the rulers of the many smaller princely states, which were not officially governed by either nation, were given the framework and path to join either dominion as they saw fit or, if they wanted, to remain independent. All of this — the partition and the migration — was known as the Mountbatten Plan, named after the final Viceroy of India. When asked if the partition would lead to any violence, Mountbatten replied: “At least on this question I shall give you complete assurance.

I shall see to it that there is no bloodshed and riot… if there should be the slightest agitation, I shall adopt the sternest measures to nip the trouble in the bud.” Almost immediately, absolute pandemonium broke out. As hundreds of thousands of people began moving across borders, savagery erupted as both sides beat, robbed, and murdered anyone with different views.

All along the new borders, the most brutal of violence filled the streets as gunfire, blades, and flames wreaked havoc in every direction. Pregnant women were documented as victims of horrific violence, and even reports of infants being killed in cold blood surfaced. Many historians classify this as a form of ethnic genocide, as each side committed atrocities with the intent of harming their enemies physically and psychologically, and by doing whatever they could to limit the other side’s future reproduction.

In total, an estimated million people lost their lives during the partition. Hundreds of thousands were assaulted or injured, and nearly a hundred thousand women were kidnapped during the chaos. At least 10 million people were displaced, making it possibly the worst refugee crisis in history.

To many, the partition of India had been a gargantuan failure.

Trouble in Kashmir: The Princely State Caught Between Two Nations

The many princely states throughout the region were given the option of joining either India or Pakistan as they saw fit, and were even allowed to remain independent. There were hundreds of these states, ruled by a local leader, and for many of them the choice was obvious, as the religious majority dictated a clear choice. However, there were a few places where the choice between India and Pakistan would not be so easy.

The Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu, situated right at the top of India and just to the west of Pakistan, was in quite a pickle. The Jammu province was majority Hindu, so they would certainly object to joining Pakistan, but the Kashmir province was majority Muslim, so they would certainly object to joining India. Factor in the large Buddhist and Sikh populations and the diverse districts in the north and west with roughly equal numbers of each religion, and a very complicated political picture emerges where nobody could agree on anything.

The ruler of Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, decided that no course of action would be better than a wrong one in such a tumultuous time, so he announced that, at least for now, the princely state would avoid joining either dominion. However, the Maharaja and many of his fellow political leaders, such as the prime minister, reportedly began to favor merging with India, especially after a meeting with Gandhi. Eventually, Singh decided that a referendum could be held to decide which dominion to join, but when exactly this was going to take place was anybody’s guess, and it never happened.

The first hints of trouble started in Poonch, an autonomous jagir, or small principality. Despite being a rather small place, Poonch was significant, as it had sent more than 60,000 men to fight in World War 2, and when the men returned home, they were allowed to keep their guns. While Poonch was autonomous, it still fell under the rule of Maharaja Singh’s Kashmir, and therefore was eligible to be taxed — heavily.

The population was also banned from joining the army, as the Maharaja did not trust them. A no-tax campaign had been gaining traction, but it picked up steam in August 1947 when the Maharaja ordered all men in the area to be disarmed. Ordering them to turn in their guns turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

After refusing to give up their arms, Poonch began preparing for an open rebellion, purchasing more weapons smuggled in through Pakistan and easily overtaking several villages and towns.

Operation Gulmarg and the Pashtun Tribal Invasion

In response to the rebellion, the Maharaja sent his armies to quell the uprising. According to Pakistani news sources at the time, the Maharaja’s army moved into Poonch and began massacring whole villages, mostly full of Muslims, calling it a “reign of terror.” According to a British social worker in the area, the armies fired on unarmed crowds of protestors.

India denies this and claims that they only opened fire on armed rebels in a few locations. India had their own accusations: Pakistan had already cut off all trade routes into the region, depriving many villages of sugar and salt. According to documents accidentally leaked to an Indian officer, Pakistan was planning an invasion of Kashmir under the nickname Operation Gulmarg.

These plans had been in the making as early as August, just weeks after partition. The goal was to send in about 20,000 Pashtun tribesmen in 20 militias, known as lashkars. Half of these would attack Kashmir Valley, and the other would join up with the rebels in Poonch, after which they would all advance to Jammu.

Pakistan denies to this day that Operation Gulmarg was ever drawn up, but there is documentation that huge numbers of Pashtun warriors flowed east toward Kashmir’s borders in late summer of that year. Pakistan’s prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, had already sent men to investigate the possibility of starting a revolt within Kashmir, but it was determined that an outside attack would be the only way to overturn the Maharaja. Regardless of Pakistan denying these plans, the Pashtun tribesmen did eventually launch their attack.

On the 22nd of October, 1947, tribal forces moved across the border into the northern Muzaffarabad region and quickly destroyed the Kashmir state defenses there. This was not an official invasion by the Pakistani army, but it might as well have been, because among the ranks were Pakistani infantry supposedly disguising themselves as tribesmen and the logistics of the whole operation were handled by Pakistan. As the Pashtun forces captured villages, they looted and razed everything in their path, and some sources report that they beheaded Sikhs and Hindus that they captured.

To the Pashtun tribesmen, these acts were retribution, as many of them had been told that similar atrocities were being committed against Muslims in Kashmir.

Kashmir’s Accession to India and the Indian Counteroffensive

Faced with the uprisings in Poonch, growing movements in other cities, and the Pashtun invasion in the north, Maharaja Hari Singh reached out to India for military assistance. India said they would be happy to help, but at a cost: for the Indian Army to intervene, Kashmir needed to officially accede to India, as they did not want to send their army into a neutral state. The Maharaja voiced his acceptance, and Kashmir was on its way to becoming part of India.

Kashmir’s prime minister made sure to get the point across that nothing official would be signed without a people’s vote, something that would have to take place once the armed conflict had ended. Pakistan refused to recognize the legality of this deal, claiming it had only taken place because India had essentially blackmailed Kashmir into joining. Indian troops were airlifted into the conflict region on October 27th, 1947, and first touched down in Srinagar, the province’s summer capital.

There they joined up with local state police forces and began a counteroffensive against the invaders. The Indian troops outmaneuvered and outgunned their opponents, pushing them away from the city after a decisive victory, despite the odds being against them in many firefights. After pushing the invaders further back, the towns of Uri and Baramulla were also recaptured, and a defensive perimeter was set up to hold the ground they had gained.

But while this initial operation had been a major success, things were not going well across the rest of Kashmir. In the north, in Gilgit, the paramilitary group known as the Gilgit Scouts had changed their allegiance and joined forces with the Pashtun tribesmen, so much of the northern sector was quickly taken over. The state forces deployed to the Poonch uprising were being surrounded by both rebels and the tribal invaders and were taking heavy casualties, lacking the firepower to successfully counterattack.

After Indian forces set up a defensive perimeter around the capital, they made the bold decision to head to Poonch and rescue the besieged state forces there. However, after joining the battle, they were unable to lift the siege. A second relief column made its way there but ended with a similar result, and Poonch was beginning to fall under tribal control.

Pakistan’s Unofficial War and the Fall of Mirpur

At this point, Pakistan still had not officially entered the war. The tribesmen arrangement was a way to avoid direct confrontation, even though they had been directly recruited and paid by the Pakistani government and were continually resupplied by the Pakistani air force. There was a growing number of standard Pakistani forces entering the area, but this was all still unofficial.

As tribal forces upped the pressure around the city Mirpur, they were joined by Pakistan’s 11th cavalry division, who helped them eventually capture the city in November. When Mirpur fell, the brutality and cruelty of the conflict was brought into full light. Thousands of Sikhs and Hindus were massacred in the streets by the invaders, many of them beheaded or burned alive.

Along with an estimated 20,000 civilians killed, as many as 5,000 women were abducted and shipped back to Pakistan to be sold in brothels. Throughout the early days of tribal occupation, an estimated 400 women ended their own lives in Mirpur to avoid such a fate. After the fall of Mirpur, much happened on the frontlines.

The city Jhanger was captured by tribal forces, only to be recaptured by Indian troops. The town Uri, liberated earlier, became the center of repeated Pashtun attacks, each of which were repelled. By February 1948, much of the frontline was beginning to take a steady shape as more Indian forces arrived and held a solid defensive line.

Pakistan still had not officially entered the war, but Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the governor-general of Pakistan, was all for it — his requests just kept getting blocked. After British India had been partitioned, both dominions had retained several British officers among their ranks, and it was these British officers, specifically General Douglas Gracey, who denied Jinnah’s orders to mobilize the Pakistani Army and attack Kashmir. British officers served on both sides: Sir Rob Lockhart, a Scotsman, was the commander-in-chief of the Indian army.

Both sides had been ordered to stand down in the event their dominions went to war with each other.

The Siege of Skardu, UN Resolution 47, and Pakistan’s Full Entry

While the war was slowing as the frontline stabilized — becoming known as the Line of Control — things were not heading in a great direction overall. Violence against Muslims reached shocking levels across Kashmir as many were accused of being loyal to the invaders, and horrific acts of revenge were carried out against them and their families. On the negotiating side, Pakistan had tentatively agreed to withdraw their troops in return for India doing the same and a new referendum, but this whole plan was vetoed by Jinnah, who refused to scale back his support for the attackers.

The UN was going back and forth on the matter for months, failing to come to conclusions about intervening. Individual nations, such as China, were voicing their opinion, usually in favor of Pakistan withdrawing troops and holding a new, UN-monitored partition of Kashmir. In February 1948, the Gilgit Scouts launched an attack and besieged Skardu, one of the largest and most important cities in northern Kashmir.

Repeated attempts to lift the siege were unsuccessful. As the men in Skardu slowly ran out of ammunition and food, their situation became increasingly desperate. Completely outnumbered, they requested permission to evacuate and retreat, but this was denied — they were told to hold out to the last man and the last round.

The forces at Skardu would ultimately hold their ground for a grueling six months of siege, until all but two of them were killed and the city was captured. In March, the UN passed Resolution 47, a multi-step plan to cool off the conflict by first having each country withdraw their armies. Both India and Pakistan rejected the resolution.

By summer 1948, fierce fighting continued for Poonch as Indian forces attempted to lift the siege, and it was here that news broke out about three regular Pakistani army brigades fighting alongside the tribesmen. The jig was up, and Pakistan, no longer feeling the need to hide their involvement, now had no qualms about sending more regular units into battle. They were all in.

Ceasefire and the Legacy of the First Kashmir War

The terrain around Poonch, and more or less around all of Kashmir, is extremely mountainous, and Indian forces often had a hard time figuring out how to move their armored vehicles into the battlefields. Mule tracks across mountains were widened in an attempt to make them jeep-accessible, which sometimes worked, but almost none could accommodate the much heavier tanks. Regardless, the Indian forces besieged at Poonch were able to break a line open to the rest of the forces outside, opening up supply and communication lines.

This terrain challenge did not stop India from successfully using tanks in the Zoji La Pass, an area of the Himalayas, bringing armored warfare to new heights. By late 1948, India was gaining the upper hand in most of the firefights, and Pakistan started sending more regular units in to keep the land they had already captured. One huge attack by the Pakistani army cut off supply lines for an entire district.

Just as the major armies were beginning to face off and it seemed like the war would take a terrible, full-scale turn, both sides agreed to a ceasefire, mediated by the UN. By January 1949, the shooting was over, and the battle’s frontline became the new border between the dominions — the result of more than a year of combat. Pakistan withdrew all their forces, both standard army units and irregular tribal groups, while India kept just enough soldiers in the area to maintain order, all closely monitored by the UN.

As far as territorial changes, Pakistan emerged with newfound control over nearly a third of the province, mostly in the north and west, and India controlled the rest. Pakistan had lost around six thousand men, with fourteen thousand wounded, and India had around a thousand dead and three thousand wounded. Neither of these figures compares to the civilian loss of life, which was likely higher than 50,000 considering the sieges of population centers and the routine killings by extremists on both sides.

The ceasefire was adhered to for several years, but the situation was doomed to erupt once again as both sides continued to claim the entirety of the province, accuse the other of various crimes, and throw around dangerous rhetoric. Kashmir would become a battleground between India and Pakistan once again in 1965.

Frequently Asked Questions

What caused the First Kashmir War of 1947?

The war stemmed from the partition of British India into India and Pakistan in August 1947. The princely state of Kashmir had a majority Muslim population but was ruled by Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh, making its accession bitterly contested. Pakistan launched Operation Gulmarg, sending approximately 20,000 Pashtun tribesmen into Kashmir in October 1947, while a simultaneous rebellion erupted in Poonch, forcing Hari Singh to seek Indian military help in exchange for accession.

What was Operation Gulmarg, and was Pakistan officially involved?

Operation Gulmarg was a Pakistani plan, developed as early as August 1947, to infiltrate roughly 20,000 Pashtun tribesmen organized into 20 lashkars to seize Kashmir Valley and link up with rebels in Poonch before advancing on Jammu. Pakistan has denied to this day that the plan existed, but leaked documents, the logistics handled by Pakistan, and Pakistani infantry disguised as tribesmen within the invasion force all indicate direct government involvement.

Who won the First Kashmir War, and what territory did each side end up with?

Neither side achieved a decisive victory. India controlled the Kashmir Valley and the majority of the province, while Pakistan emerged with roughly a third of the territory, concentrated in the north and west, including areas later known as Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. The January 1949 ceasefire, mediated by the UN, froze the frontline as the Line of Control, which remains the effective border today.

What happened at the fall of Mirpur, and how severe were civilian casualties?

When tribal forces and Pakistan’s 11th Cavalry Division captured Mirpur in November 1947, they inflicted some of the war’s worst atrocities. An estimated 20,000 Sikhs and Hindus were massacred, many beheaded or burned alive, while around 5,000 women were abducted and taken to Pakistan. Approximately 400 women are reported to have taken their own lives in Mirpur rather than face capture.

Why did British officers in both armies prevent a full-scale war?

Both dominions retained senior British officers after partition who had been ordered to stand down if their respective countries went to war with each other. General Douglas Gracey, serving Pakistan, repeatedly blocked Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s orders to mobilize the Pakistani Army for a full assault on Kashmir. On the Indian side, Sir Rob Lockhart served as commander-in-chief of the Indian Army under the same restraining directive, keeping the conflict from escalating into open inter-dominion war for most of its duration.