India and Pakistan: A History of Conflicts Over Kashmir (1947–2025)

Kashmir sits high among the mountains, a place of extraordinary beauty and deep pain. For over seven decades, its valleys have echoed with the sounds of war, separation, and endurance.

The people of Kashmir have seen generations grow up under soldiers’ shadows and borders drawn across rivers and ridges. Yet they have also shown the world that even in the harshest times, the spirit of resilience never dies.

This is the story of how India and Pakistan have fought, negotiated, and struggled (If you prefer to use that word) over Kashmir. It is also the story of how ordinary Kashmiris have carried on living, farming, praying, and hoping for peace.

1947–1948: The First Kashmir War

When British rule ended in 1947, India and Pakistan were born. The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was free to join either country or remain independent. Its unfavourable ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, hesitated. His people, mostly Muslim, expected union with Pakistan, but he delayed his decision.

In October 1947, the rise of the internal conflict reached its peak. The Kashmiri People were fed up of the Dogra rule and the prolonged decision of the Maharaja. Kashmiris also felt that the Maharaja is taking bribes from India. As the situation on the ground worsened, The Maharaja, overwhelmed, turned to India for help.

In return, he signed the Instrument of Accession, handing control of defence, foreign affairs, and communications to India. Indian troops were airlifted into Srinagar. Heavy fighting spread through the valley and into the mountains. Villages were destroyed, families fled, and thousands lost their lives.

The United Nations called for a ceasefire in early 1949. A new boundary, the Ceasefire Line, split Kashmir in two. Pakistan controlled the western area, later called Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. India held the larger eastern part, including Srinagar and Jammu.

The promise of a plebiscite for Kashmir’s future was made but never fulfilled. The people were left divided, their families separated by a line on a map.

1965: The Second Kashmir War

Seventeen years later, the fire returned. Pakistan views the Second Kashmir War (1965) as a consequence of India’s continued refusal to honour United Nations Security Council resolutions, which called for a free and impartial plebiscite to allow the people of Jammu and Kashmir to decide their future.

By the early 1960s, Pakistan believed the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir had reached a tipping point, mass discontent, political repression, and broken promises had deepened resentment among the local population. Operation Gibraltar, launched in August 1965, was thus presented by Pakistan not as an act of aggression, but as an attempt to support Kashmiri resistance and help ignite a popular uprising against Indian control.

The Tashkent Agreement in January 1966 formally ended the conflict, but for Pakistan, the war reaffirmed two enduring beliefs:

1. That Kashmir remains the unfinished business of Partition, and
2. That military power alone cannot decide the future of the region — only the will of its people can.

Within Pakistan, the war is remembered with pride for the bravery of its soldiers and sorrow for the civilian suffering on both sides. Yet, it remains seen as part of a longer struggle — not just for land, but for the self-determination of the Kashmiri people.

India saw this as unprovoked Pakistan-aggression.

Nonetheless, the Kashmiri people suffered.

1971: The Third War and the Simla Agreement

In 1971, war erupted again, but this time the centre of conflict was not Kashmir. The crisis in East Pakistan led to the creation of Bangladesh. Yet the war reshaped Kashmir’s fate in a lasting way.

After the war, the two countries signed the Simla Agreement in 1972. The old Ceasefire Line in Kashmir was renamed the Line of Control (LoC). Both sides agreed to respect it and resolve future disputes through peaceful means.

Although the war was fought far away, the political map of South Asia changed. Kashmir’s division became more formalised. Families who once travelled freely between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad could no longer cross the LoC without permits or military permission.

1984: The Siachen Conflict — The Frozen Frontline

In April 1984, the conflict moved to one of the most remote places on earth — the Siachen Glacier.
At over 20,000 feet, it became the highest battlefield in the world.

India launched Operation Meghdoot, taking control of the main glacier and surrounding peaks before Pakistan could do the same. Pakistan responded with its own deployments. Since then, both armies have faced freezing temperatures, avalanches, and isolation.

Dozens of soldiers have died, not from gunfire, but from the cold. The glacier, once pure and untouched, now bears scars of bunkers, debris, and silence.

For Kashmiris, Siachen symbolises how far the conflict has stretched — into the clouds and ice, where even breathing is a struggle.

1999: The Kargil War

For Kashmiris, the summer of 1999 brought back the fear and uncertainty that had shadowed their lives for decades. The war, fought across the rugged heights of Kargil and Drass, turned peaceful mountain villages into frontlines once again. What had once been pastures for shepherds and trails for travellers became battlefields echoing with gunfire and shelling.

When the conflict began, few Kashmiris truly understood what was unfolding. To them, the war felt distant yet devastatingly close — another confrontation decided in military rooms far away, yet fought in their backyards. Civilians fled their homes under bombardment, families were separated, and livelihoods were destroyed as the Line of Control blazed once more.

Many Kashmiris saw the Kargil War as a painful reminder that their homeland remained the battleground for others’ ambitions. The mountains that had long inspired poets and pilgrims were now scarred by trenches and craters. Even after the guns fell silent in July 1999, the echoes of loss lingered in the valleys — homes in ruins, soldiers buried under snow, and families mourning sons they never met again.

To the world, Kargil was a high-altitude war. To Kashmiris, it was yet another chapter in their ongoing story — a struggle not of conquest, but of endurance. A story where the people continue to live between borders, carrying the weight of wars they never chose, on land that still waits for peace.

2001–2002: Border Standoff and Ceasefire

When news of the Indian Parliament attack in December 2001 spread, Kashmiris braced for the worst. Almost overnight, the valleys filled with fear as two nuclear-armed neighbours once again moved their armies to the borders.

Tanks rumbled through plains hundreds of miles away, but in Kashmir, the air grew heavy with uncertainty. Families began stocking food, students stayed home from school, and whispers of war filled the mosques after every prayer.

For the people of Kashmir, it felt like déjà vu — another confrontation born of politics and power, while they remained the ones most vulnerable. Thousands living near the Line of Control were forced to leave their homes as both sides exchanged artillery fire. Yet, when the guns fell silent, it was not triumph but relief that filled the valley.

The 2003 ceasefire offered a glimpse of what normalcy could look like. For the first time in years, the mountains near the LoC echoed with laughter instead of shelling. Cross-border buses began to run, reuniting families separated for decades. Villagers rebuilt schools, markets reopened, and weddings returned to places that had long forgotten joy.

But even in that calm, Kashmiris knew the peace was fragile. It was not born of reconciliation, but restraint. For them, it was a pause — a breath between storms — and a reminder that true peace would only come when the people of Kashmir themselves were allowed to shape their own destiny.

2016: Uri Attack and Cross-LoC Strikes

On 18 September 2016, militants attacked an Indian Army base in Uri, close to the LoC.
India accused groups operating from across the border. Days later, Indian officials announced “surgical strikes” on militant launch pads in Pakistan-administered territory.

The operation marked a new kind of engagement — limited, targeted, and publicly acknowledged.
It also reignited tensions and cross-border firing, forcing villagers along the LoC to evacuate once more.

For Kashmiris living in both territories, each cycle of violence meant lost livelihoods, damaged homes, and children growing up under the fear of shelling.

2019: Pulwama and Balakot

In February 2019, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of Indian paramilitary forces in Pulwama, killing 40 personnel. It was one of the deadliest attacks in decades. India carried out airstrikes in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan. Pakistan responded with its own air operations.

Both nations claimed victory. The world called for restraint.

The incident pushed the region to the brink again. Kashmiris found themselves caught between narratives, their land once more a stage for conflict. When fighting paused, what remained were destroyed houses, trauma, and the quiet endurance of families waiting for normal life to return.

2025: Operation Sindoor and Renewed Escalation

In April 2025, tragedy struck again. A deadly attack in Pahalgam killed at least 26 civilians. The incident shocked the region. India accused cross-border militants and launched Operation Sindoor on 7 May 2025.

Targets across the LoC and in Pakistan-administered areas were hit. For days, heavy exchanges took place along the Neelum, Leepa, and Poonch sectors.

By 10 May, after diplomatic intervention, both sides agreed to a ceasefire. It ended the immediate violence, but the fear and damage lingered. Thousands of families were displaced, and trade across the LoC was suspended.

In response, India also paused cooperation under the Indus Waters Treaty, showing how conflict now affects even water and environment. The 2025 clashes reminded the world that peace in Kashmir remains fragile. For those who live there, conflict is never history — it is a recurring memory.

The Human Cost

Across these decades, wars have reshaped borders but not hearts. Tens of thousands of Kashmiris have lost homes or relatives. Many still live within sight of the LoC, where the sound of artillery can echo across the valley without warning.

Children have grown up learning to run toward basements at the sound of firing. Farmers plant crops, knowing shells can fall any day. Yet amid all this, life continues — weddings, prayers, festivals, and harvests.

Humanitarian organisations work to rebuild schools, homes, and health centres. Every act of kindness is a small resistance against despair.

Hope for Peace

The story of Kashmir is not just a story of conflict. It is also a story of survival, faith, and hope. Every ceasefire, every cross-LoC bus, every handshake across borders carries a message — that peace is still possible.

Ordinary Kashmiris want dignity, education, and stability more than anything else. True peace will come when dialogue replaces silence, when borders stop dividing families, and when the world remembers that behind every headline is a human being who just wants to live without fear.

From 1947 to 2025, India and Pakistan have fought wars, signed agreements, and traded accusations.
Kashmir has been at the centre of it all — a land that has seen too much loss but still holds hope.

The mountains remain, the rivers still flow, and the people of Kashmir continue to dream of a future without the sound of war.