War Between Two Democracies

Soon after India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947 from the British regime, the most violent outbreak of the sour relationship between the two countries came in 1947-48, 1965, 1971 and 1999.

War of 1947

The first war arose over Kashmir, in the year 1947. The ruling family of Kashmir were Hindus and most of its residents were Muslims, but what made the situation complicated was that Kashmir was also bordering on Pakistan. Both, India and Pakistan, wanted to include Kashmir to their countries while the ruler wanted to have an independent Kashmir. The majority of the Kashmiris were Muslims and therefore Pakistanis had their claim over Kashmir.

While the Indians claimed that since Kashmir's ruler was a Hindu and they also had support from the leader of Kashmir who were muslims they had their rights on Kashmir. The Pakistanis, to invade Kashmir sent army and mercenaries into Kashmir. The Hindu ruler appealed to India for aid, and he agreed in exchange to become a part of India under some specific terms which would give Kashmir more autonomy than the other Indian states.. India moved quickly to consolidate its position in Kashmir, and pushed out Pakistan's "volunteers" back.

The United Nations intervened and a cease fire was declared, with parts of Kashmir which Pakistan invaded remaining in their hands. India was able to hold a bigger part of the beautiful state which it annexed in 1957. India continues to claim its rights over Kashmir, while the Pakistan believes Kashmir to be its part. The Kashmir problem is still an unsolved issue and the official map of India shows the entire Kashmir to be its integral part including even the part which is in the control of Pakistan.

War of 1965

Since Partition of India in 1947, relations between Pakistan and India remained soured over several issues. Although the Kashmir conflict was the predominant one, other border disputes also existed, the most notable being the Rann of Kutch, a barren region in the western part of India in the state of Gujarat.

On March 20, 1965, and then again in April 1965, fight broke out between India and Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch. Initially it involved only the border police from both nations, but the disputed area soon witnessed intermittent skirmishes between the armed forces of the two countries. In June 1965, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson successfully persuaded both countries to end up the hostilities and a tribunal was set up to resolve the dispute. The verdict, saw Pakistan being awarded 350 square miles of the Rann of Kutch, as against its original claim of 3500 square miles. This was a big success for Pakistan.

After its success in the Rann of Kutch, Pakistan started believing that the Indian Army would be unable to defend itself against a quick military offensive in the disputed region of Kashmir. India had suffered a heavy loss in its battle against China in the year 1962 which incited the Pakistanis to launch the offensive. Pakistan believed that the population of Kashmir was unhappy with Indian regime and that a resistance movement could be ignited by a few infiltrating saboteurs. Pakistan wanted to ignite a resistance movement by means of a covert infiltration which was codenamed ¨Operation Gibraltar¨. The Pakistani infiltrators were soon discovered by the locals and their presence was reported. The operation ended in a complete failure.

After the fighting spread to Kashmir and to the Punjab, in September Pakistani and Indian troops started crossing the partition line between the two countries and launched air assaults on each other. Pakistan and India, after heavy losses on both sides but India coming out as a winner with large parts of Pakistan land annexed, agreed to a UN-sponsored cease-fire and withdrew to the pre-August lines. Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and President Ayub Khan of Pakistan met in Tashkent, USSR (now in Uzbekistan), in January, 1966, and signed an agreement with an oath to continue negotiations and respect for the cease-fire conditions.

War of 1971 (Creation of Bangladesh)

Relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated when a civil war erupted in Pakistan, pitting the West Pakistan army against the East Pakistanis demanding greater autonomy. The fighting forced huge number of (approximately 10 million) East Pakistani Bengalis to flee to India. When Pakistan attacked Indian airfields in Kashmir, it faced and attack both on East and West Pakistan. India occupied the eastern half of Pakistan, which later declared its independence as Bangladesh on Dec. 6th 1971. After Pakistan´s defeat a UN cease-fire was arranged in mid of December. Pakistan lost its eastern half known as East Pakistan, an army of 100,000 soldiers, and was thrown into political turmoil. Mujibur Rahman in East Pakistan emerged as the prime minister of Bangladesh. Tensions were alleviated by the Shimla accord in 1972 and by Pakistan´s recognition of Bangladesh in 1974.

The Kargil War

The 1999 war also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the district of Kargil in Kashmir. The cause of the war was infiltration of the Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants into regions on the Indian side of the Line of Control, which served as the de facto border between the two states. During the war and even after, Pakistan blamed the fighting entirely to the independent insurgents of Kashmir, but documents left behind by casualties and some statements made by Pakistan's Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff showed a complete involvement of Pakistani paramilitary forces. The Indian Army, supported by the Indian Air Force, attacked the Pakistani positions and, with international diplomatic support and eventually forced withdrawal of the Pakistani forces across the Line of Control.

The war is one of the most recent examples of a high altitude warfare which took place on the Great Himalayas. It posed significant logistical problems for both the combating sides. This was the first direct ground war between any two countries after both the nations had developed nuclear weapons. (India and Pakistan both test-detonated nuclear bombs in May 1998. The first Indian nuclear test was conducted in 1974.) The war led to heightened tension between the two countries and increased defense spending by India. The aftermath caused instability of the government and the economy in Pakistan and on October 12, 1999, a military coup d'etat by the military placed army chief Pervez Musharraf in power.