Since the Partition of India in 1947, India, Pakistan, and China have contested each other for control over the Kashmir region in the northernmost corner of the Indian subcontinent, with the region itself being divided up between the three powers. India and Pakistan have fought multiple wars over the region during the 20th century, and even to this day there is still armed conflict due to insurgency groups, separatists, and border conflicts between India and Pakistan. The way that Kashmir was divided up left a huge Muslim-majority population in the hands of India, which is predominantly Hindu while Pakistan is Muslim. Most of the conflict tends to happen in the Muslim-dominated sub-region of Kashmir Valley, where the population has expressed interest in autonomy and have demanded self-determination in the past. The fighting that has been going on for years in the region, including very recently, can be seen as a powder-keg between India and Pakistan that is always trying to be set off. A lot of border conflict between the two powers happens here, and both India and Pakistan have accused each other of supporting insurgency groups on both sides of the contested border. It’s lucky that the amount of fighting that has gone on in the region hasn’t led to a full-out war between the two powers, both of which possess nuclear weapons. Regardless of the conflict, India has to deal with its own domestic problems in Kashmir, where innocent civilians have been killed by security forces and more people are protesting the killings of local rebels in the region. The fact that the civilians have protested against the killing of local rebels signals that unless India makes concessions to the insurgency groups and can sit down and have a conversation with Pakistan, then it may only get worse. From what it looks like at the moment, Kashmir may end up causing the Indian government a lot more problems, but it can’t exactly be determined without knowing all the facts related to the situation.
