1000+ Simple Group Discussion (GD) Topics with Answers 2023-2024

The state of Jammu and Kashmir which had earlier under Hindu Rules and Muslim Sultans became part of the Mughal Empire under Akbar. After a period of Afghan rule from 1756, it was annexed to the Sikh Kingdom of the Punjab in 1819.

In 1846, Ranjit Singh made over the territory of Jammu to Maharaja Gulab Singh. After the decisive Battle of Sabroon in 1846 Kashmir also was made over to Maharaja Gulab Singh under the Treaty of Amritsar. British Supremacy was recognized until the Indian Independence Act, 1947.

While all the states decided on accession to India or Pakistan, Kashmir asked for standstill agreements with both. On 26^th October, 1947, the Pakistani armed tribesmen, duly backed by Pakistani Armed Forces attacked Jammu and Kashmir to annex it.

Pakistan later creded a small part of the territory to China. After the 1965 Indo-Pak war, both the countries agreed in the Tashkent Declaration (10-01-1966) to resolve their dispute peacefully. Following the 1971 war which saw slight alterations in boundaries, both countries agreed in the Shimla Accord of 1972 to resolve the dispute bilaterally and peacefully.

With the signing of the instrument of Accession by Maharaja, J&K became the 15^th (Part B) state under the First Schedule of the Constitution of India. At that time the Government of India made a commitment that the state’s future constitution and relations with India would be decided by an elected Constituent Assembly of the State.

The constitution for the state was adopted by the Assembly on November 17, 1956 and enforced on January 26, 1957.

Yes, it is:

It is because of our unwise policies on Kashmir that this problem is still persisting.

It is really strange that while the offer of accession to India was made in a constitution valid manner and it was accepted in a constitutionally valid manner, and, hence, the accession was complete and valid, our Prime Minister Nehru could commit the mistake of promising a plebiscite on the state’s accession to India “as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invaders.”

The reason why Pakistan succeeded in internationalising Kashmir issue and feeding insurrection is that our leaders botched up the Kashmir problem. Till such time as Sheikh M.Abdullah was able to enforce his over powering presence, the Pro-Pak elements were fully under control.

Everyone knows the condition through which India and Pakistan were passing at the time our accession to India. Our accession to India, as I have stated in my last speech, is complete. But once the powers that be at the centre chose to checkmate him by propping up pro-Pakistan Muslim communal organization like Jamat-e-Islami, there was no stopping the downward slide of the situation in Kashmir.

Rigging of elections and thus stiffing the democratic aspirations of the people became the norm. Local politicians unabashedly fished in the troubled waters and their unscrupulous political expediency led to the present unenviable situation for the nation as a whole.

It is a pity that the Government of India on several occasions tried to subdue the genuive voice of Kashmir Sheikh Abdulla or Sher-e-Kashmir. It not only arrested him but also propped up the regimes that were not wedded to the idea of true secularism.

The alleged mass rigging in the 1987 elections to the state legislature proved to be the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back. Their hopes having been dashed because of the farce of elections, the youth of the valley resorted to terrorism out of sheer frustration.

It is because of lack of anticipation and matching response to the situations as they emerge that the terrorists and their sympathizers in the valley and beyond our borders get a handle to malign India.

Our failure to probe human rights violations in Kashmir by the security forces and the hardships suffered by the people owing to curfews and searches there comes in handy for Pakistan to arrogate to herself the role of self appointed spokesman of the Kashmir people.

The people of Kashmir had not only shown tremendous popular fervor to push back Pak-inspired aggression in October 1947 but also assisted and cooperated with our security forces in detecting the Pak infiltrators and their bases during 1965 war. It was because of this willing help of the Kashmir people that we could inflict heavy losses on Pakistan and defeat it finally.

No, it is not:

To call Kashmir problem as being the creation of our own unwise policies would be playing ostrich with reality. The wide world knows that it was Pakistan which, having come about on the fallacious two-nations theory, tried to annex the Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir following the indecisiveness of Raja Hari Singh about whether to join India or Pakistan when these two nations won Independence in 1947.

Pakistan nurtures age old ambition to become the unofficial spokesman of the Muslims in South Asia. Petrodollars from Saudi Arabia and some other Muslim nations have been there aplenty to purchase arms for militants in Kashmir and for their substance. Pakistan would never like India to succeed in solving Kashmir problem and thus prove its credentials as a secular country.

The very idea of Pakistan got nourishment from anti Indian feelings. It has no viable policy vis-à-vis India except deep seated hate. The problem with Pakistan is that for more than half the time it has been in existence, military has been the decisive factor in all important issues and has ruled the nation.

That Kashmir problem is not there because of our unwise policies is borne out by a new development for quite some time now. Terrorism in Kashmir is mainly sustained by drug peddlers who have very powerful political connections in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran etc.

Committed to peaceful resolution of all contentious issues and conflicts, India chose to take the issue of Pak aggression of Kashmir to the United Nations in the fond hope that the world body would sympathies with our just cause. The NATO countries in order to extend their sphere of influence to the Indian Ocean, nurtured Pakistan as a frontline State, which because of their moral and material support made Kashmir issue an obsession with it and indulged in India baiting and beating.