India and Pakistan: the 1947 Partition and the Kashmir dispute

On April 22, 2025, gunmen killed 26 civilians, most of them tourists, at Pahalgam, in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir. India's government accused Pakistan of backing the attackers. Pakistan denied it.

On May 7, India fired missiles at targets in Pakistan. Four days of missile, artillery and drone strikes by both sides followed, until a ceasefire on May 10. It was the most serious clash in decades between two nuclear-armed countries. The roots of that rivalry lie in 1947.

The end of the British Empire in India

For almost 200 years, the United Kingdom dominated the Indian subcontinent, first through the East India Company and, from 1858, directly. British India included what are now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The independence movement, led by the Congress Party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted a single country. Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim League came to demand a separate state for Muslims, who feared becoming a permanent minority in a Hindu-majority India.

Weakened by the Second World War, the United Kingdom decided to leave quickly. The last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, brought the date of independence forward to August 1947.

Partition

On August 14 and 15, 1947, Pakistan and India were born. Pakistan had two parts separated by about 1,600 kilometers of Indian territory: West Pakistan and East Pakistan, which would become Bangladesh in 1971.

The border was drawn in a few weeks by a British lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe, who had never been to India. The provinces of Punjab and Bengal were cut in half, and the line was only made public after independence.

The result was one of the largest migrations in history. Between 12 million and 20 million people crossed the new border: Hindus and Sikhs toward India, Muslims toward Pakistan. Communal violence killed between 200,000 and 2 million people, according to estimates that still vary widely. Trains arrived at stations full of the dead.

Why Kashmir stayed in dispute

Besides the provinces, British India had hundreds of princely states ruled by local princes, who were supposed to choose which country to join. Kashmir was a special case: its population was mostly Muslim, but its maharaja, Hari Singh, was Hindu, and the territory bordered both new countries.

Hari Singh hesitated. In October 1947, tribal militias from Pakistan invaded the region. The maharaja asked India for help and signed the accession to India in exchange for troops. Pakistan did not recognize the accession, and the first war between the two began.

A UN-brokered ceasefire in 1949 divided Kashmir along a line that, with adjustments, became the Line of Control. The UN recommended a plebiscite so the population could decide, but it never took place. Today, India administers most of the territory and population, Pakistan controls the west and north, and China holds an area in the east, Aksai Chin.

Wars and bombs

India and Pakistan went to war again in 1965 and 1971. The 1971 war ended with the independence of Bangladesh, backed by India. In 1998, the two countries carried out nuclear tests weeks apart. The following year, they fought again in the Kargil area of Kashmir.

Since the late 1980s, the Indian part of Kashmir has faced an armed insurgency. India accuses Pakistan of training and sheltering militant groups, which Pakistan denies, saying it gives only political support to Kashmiris. In 2019, Narendra Modi's government ended the special autonomy that India's Constitution had guaranteed to Kashmir.

What changed in 2025

After the Pahalgam attack, India suspended its participation in the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, which divides the rivers that rise in Kashmir and feed Pakistan's agriculture. It was the first time the agreement, which had survived three wars, had been put in question in this way.

The May conflict was also the first in which the two countries used drones against each other on a large scale. The May 10 ceasefire has held, but relations remain frozen. For analysts, the risk lies in the pattern: each new crisis starts at a higher level than the last, between two countries with a combined population of more than 1.6 billion and nuclear arsenals.

Quick questions

Why did India and Pakistan separate?

At independence in 1947, the United Kingdom divided British India into a Hindu-majority country, India, and a Muslim-majority one, Pakistan, in response to the Muslim League's demand.

Why is Kashmir disputed?

Because in 1947 the Hindu maharaja of a Muslim-majority region joined India after an invasion by militias from Pakistan. Pakistan never accepted the accession, and the region has been divided since 1949.

Do India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons?

Yes. Both countries carried out nuclear tests in 1998 and have kept arsenals since then.

What happened in May 2025?

After an attack that killed 26 civilians at Pahalgam, India struck targets in Pakistan on May 7. The two countries traded strikes for four days until a ceasefire on May 10.

Sources

Found an error? See how we fact-check and correct.

Why India and Pakistan fight over Kashmir