What if Pakistan Annexed Kashmir?

What if Kashmir was annexed?

 

The British have ruled the Indian sub continent for 100 years, but their rule has been impactful across the entire landscape. However when the British raj ended in 1947, two years after the end of the second great war, the indian provinces were released. The Muslims in the West and East, and the Hindu’s in the core central of India. However there was plans of a third state. The Kingdom of Kashmir. Kashmir after the independence of the Sub continent was in a deep state of conflict. The population of kashmir was predominantly Muslim, however the leader and line of Monarchs passed down over the decades was Hindu. With the population wanting to be apart of Pakistan, however the hindu leader wanting to remain neutral, and independent. Pakistan however seeking more imperial ambitions invaded Kashmir, in to which the king contacted India’s leader for military support against the pakistanis. India seeking the chance to extend it’s influence, and power over the region signed the “Instrument of Accession”. This act gave Kashmir to India with autonomy as a very autonomous state, but still under Indian rule. However India kept their promise to Kashmir by holding their front to Kashmir, fighting the Pakistani soldiers. This resulted in the first war between the soon to be eternal rivals of India and Pakistan, called either the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947, or the first Kashmir war. Territory and imperial conquest was the major intentions of the war, however it quickly devolved into a personal matter, as genocides across both fronts occurred, adding more sticks to the fire of hatred the two nations already had with each other, and would later down the line. A white peace was established, splitting Kashmir between Pakistan and India equally. Well except China who had to take a little of that Kashmir cake. So….. the question is……...What if in alternate timelines, Pakistan annexed Kashmir, and in another timeline, India annexed Kashmir?

 

What if Pakistan annexed Kashmir?

 

The first scenario is What if Pakistan annexed Kashmir? Since Pakistan was the aggressor in our timeline, it only makes sense we start on Pakistan. So in this timeline it’s 1947, and the colonies have just received independence. And Pakistan has invaded Kashmir. Kashmir’s monarch has contacted India and has asked for military intervention in Kashmir. Now in our timeline they obviously did. There was no reason not to. India could not let Pakistan advance in the sub continent. Pakistan already cornered India, from the West and east which would later be Bangladesh. India and the Indian people were terrified. And there was a good reason too. Pakistan posed a threat. And Pakistan had the power to create Nuclear weapons. India saw what happened to Japan, and with their next door neighbor cornering them, and possibly with Nukes, there was right to have tention. And Pakistan was also rightfully afraid of India. India was close to a population of 1 billion, and there military posed a huge threat as well. India also technically posed a threat to Pakistan’s borders as well, as India surrounded Pakistan as well, with the panhandle that extended to completely surround east Pakistan. And it’s also important to mention the British invested more industry, and railroads into India rather than what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh. The two were afraid of each other, and well when both nations with some of the largest populations in the world fear each other, it creates tension. So in this timeline, Pakistan seeing the opportunity to expand, and gain more power and influence, declares war on Kashmir. Pakistan justifies the war by saying the muslim majority does not want to be under the jurisdiction of a Hindu ruler. Pakistan starts it’s invasion. Kshmir’s monarch quickly notifies India that they are being invaded by Pakistan and that they need soldiers and supplies to defend themselves and push the Pakistanis back. India instead of sending troops thinks about it. Would it be worth it to protect Kashmir? We just gained independence, I should spend the money and time building up my infrastructure, education, and affairs with other nations. However India noticed something. Kashmir’s infrastructure wasn’t really that good. So if Pakistan won over Pakistan, there was nothing of worth in kashmir that Pakistan needed. Just more land to intimidate India. India realized that Kashmir was not worth protecting. It could save India money in the future, and Kashmir had nothing important. So india forwards a message saying to Kashmir India will not protect Kashmir for the oncoming war. Kashmir has to protect itself.

 

Now Kashmir is still no pushover. They still had a large standing army. Now the majority was Islamic, however a good third of the military was still Hindu, and some more neutral sides like Buddhist militants in the army would exist. Some Islamic people would support the Pakistani’s and defect into the army, but I believe many Islamic people would want to remain independent, and fight for Kashmiri independence, and would later oust the current monarch. So how would the war go down? Pakistan would send hundreds of thousands of troops into Kashmir. Kashmir would likely fight them more indirectly, sending squadrons to instead attack outposts, train systems, and overall send Pakistan into a larger debt to make it harder for them to send supplies. The Kashmiri soldiers would hold out for a year, however they would be overrun by the Pakistani soldiers. The fight would occur for a year, before the Pakistani’s seized the capital. However China did see the war in the Indian sub continent, and sent many troops to seize some cities, and gain a good amount of land from Kashmir. Pakistan would annex all of Kashmir, with China taking all the land they stole. Pakistan would now have alot more land, making India seem like alot less of a threat. However inside Pakistan is scared, terrified actually. The fact India did not intervene in it’s arch enemy taking a mass amount of land, is obviously worrying. Pakistan would send spies into India. Whatever India was doing it needed to be seen.

 

India during the war has not only saved money that it has spent on infrastructure, projects, and education, but also searched the diplomatic world, and has found an ally…………. in America. India has awaken in the cold war, and has to choose a side. But America came looking for an alliance with India. In our timeline America had good relations with Pakistan, and that made India join the Soviets. But in this timeline, America and India have great relations. The main reason why, is ever since Pakistan took control of Kashmir, China instantly opened up friendly relations. America quickly opened up friendly relations with India. However this is not the only reason why. China like Pakistan is afraid of India. India is large, extremely large, extremely powerful, extremely populated, and extremely industrialized. India’s population was smaller than China's, but was getting larger than China's quicker. India was strong, and China can’t control India like Vietnam or North Korea. India is powerful enough where if India wants to do something China doesn’t agree with, China can’t do anything. Pakistan was easier to control. China is alot larger, alot more populated, you get the point. America also turns India Capitalist, much like the United states, showing the success of capitalism on the american people. So america instantly sends a few billion dollars to India’s way, to help with India's infrastructure and education. But also most importantly……..A nuclear program.

 

India’s nuclear program would be built up quickly, and over the span of a few months, a few dozen of these nuclear bombs would be ready to fire at any time. Pakistan would eventually find out about these nuclear bombs, and immediately would request funding from China to build up their own nuclear program. In our own timeline China is the biggest ally to Pakistan, selling the majority of its arms towards China. You may ask Would there be a Demilitarized zone like Korea in South Asia between India and Pakistan since they have nukes? No. While besides the current demilitarized zone, the Pakistani-Indian border is the most dangerous place on earth. While tensions would be higher in this timeline, things would stay relatively quiet. There would be no Vietnam or Korean war equivalent in South Asia, just a heavily guarded border. However things would really heat up in South asia in 1971, with the independence of Bangladesh.

 

When Bangladeshian independence occurred, Pakistan would be in major trouble. It’s grip over India is lost, and it has lost a good third of it’s size, and a good half of it’s population. West Pakistan becomes our pakistan, with Control over Kashmir. In this timeline, a mass resurgence in Pakistan occurs. A mass economic collapse. Pakistan had just now lost a huge part of its economy, and with what was helping Pakistan industrialize the rest of Kashmir is now gone, and Pakistan now has to spend alot more money using Kashmir to its advantage. Alot of Pakistan’s population is still in  poverty because Pakistan has focused alot of the money on industrializing Kashmir. This was also done to make sure if the Indians tried to Invade Kashmir, the Pakistanis could hold their ground. America however was prepared. America however was prepared for this. America was sending tens of billions of dollars to India every year to beat back the Pakistani’s leaning Socialist ideals, India needed to disrupt Pakistan’s grip on Kashmir to keep them in more of a poverty. India would secretly support Hindu rebellions in Kashmir in the faith that Kashmir could be reunited into a powerful state against Pakistan for the Invasion. This would spawn a Hindu terrorist group against Pakistan, with some Muslim supporters, feeling it unjust for Pakistan to go to war against what could have been a fellow Islamic nation. America would basically be funding a proxy war within a proxy war. However this Hindu terrorist group would basically be a Hindu ISIS, but for Pakistan. This group of terrorists would hold Capitalist ideals, mainly being hindu’s born in India who wanted to support the cause. This would really cripple the Pakistani economy, who was spending money on industrializing kashmir, only to have many outposts and vital storage units destroyed by terrorists. The terrorists would be more united than most other terrorist groups, with the Islamic terrorist groups in the West, and Hindu terrorists in the East. The two would work together more in unity, so much so that Pakistan would have major problems defeating. They would be aided by the Indians, secretly helped supported by America. As said before Pakistan’s economy would have already been devastated trying to industrialize Kashmir, but the terrorist groups would be ruining Pakistan’s plans. These terrorists would have a finalized goal. The goal would be to drive the Pakistani’s out of Kashmir, and setting up a Capitalist government, opposed to the Socialist ideas of Pakistan. They would preach a government ruled by two people. A Hindu, and a Muslim, ruling and representing the populations. They would use the Sepoy revolution of India in 1857 and the creation of the British Raj as their main philosophy, how when the hindu’s and muslims united, they could do great things, and that was to fight against the imperialists of the British, but would instead correlate the British, to Pakistan. A good example of this is Korea. When Japan conquered Korea, Japan wanted the Korean people to view themselves as Japanese people, not as Koreans. And when Japan lost world war II, that philosophy was ingrained in the people's heads. The North became not the remnants of the Soviet union, but the ideology the Japanese emplaced on the Korean people of the North. However this would be exposed by the terrorists in Pakistan. That Pakistan was the remnants of the British Raj in India, and how the British philosophy of transforming the Indian people into British. This exposement by the terrorist groups would hit the world hard, and people would start to see Pakistan’s imperial ambitions in Kashmir. Some would really start to question if the war was justified, and if it was just an act of imperialism.

 

By the time of the 90s and the fall of the Soviet Union, Pakistan would be in a troubled position. The terrorists were starting to look like the heros, the international community has a sour feeling about Pakistan, carrying out a war for no purpose. China would immediately stop most of its support towards Pakistan when the international community caught on, not wanting to be seen with an imperialist. The international community would have most likely pressured Pakistan into making peace with the terrorists, who would now most likely start to be called the rebels. Pakistan would have realized, holding onto kashmir for 40 years has only brought trouble. The revolutionaries in Kashmir, the hard money used to Industrialize Kashmir, all the money spent on utilizing the hundreds of miles of new land only brought trouble. They would have to sign peace with the rebels. Pakistan however would still gain a few dozen miles of Kashmir land, to at least use what they built for so long. However this New Kashmir would have a split type population between Hindu’s and Muslims, and there most likely would be one capital in the previous one that would most likely be heavily industrialized, being the 90s. Two people would rule the nation, a Hindu representing the hindu population, and a Muslim representing the Islamic population. Kashmir would be the second strongest nation in South Asia besides India. Now Pakistan would not be extremely broke, it would basically be like what it was in our timeline, but there would be a noticeable difference, with more crime due to the lack of jurisdiction, and more interest in improving Kashmir to be vitalized into Pakistani territory. However don’t expect that state to stay for long. The new kashmir nation would keep all there promises, except one. They lied about Pakistan. They had bad blood with Pakistan for Invading and annexing Kashmir, however they would mend ties very quickly. Pakistan was the one who invested heavily in rebuilding Kashmir's infrastructure, and in the end, they were still Islamic. Besides many Pakistanis immigrated to Kashmir when it was being improved, but when kashmir was developed, many indian hindus also migrated to kashmir balancing the population. Overall Kashmir’s relations with Pakistan would be very friendly, and Pakistan would have a large ally with Pakistan regardless of a leading in socialism, kashmir and pakistan would be buddies on the continent. Kashmir’s relations with India would be even better, india was the reason for the revolution, and Indo-Kash relations would be like India. Relations between India and Pakistan would be even better in this timeline, as Kashmir would be the connecting force between the both, having Hindu and Islamic leaders. While both had sizeable nuclear programs, Kashmir would vouch for them to be reduced to better insure safety in South asia, and the world. The Indo-Pakistani demilitarized zone would be toned down to a sefer border for both the Indian and Pakistani people. The same would be with Bangladesh, as the Indo Bangladesh border would be towned down to just a secured border. Kashmir would have helped to mend ties between Bangladesh and Pakistan, and also helping unite India and Bangladesh. Kashmir would also have a friendly relationship between Bangladesh. However don’t think Kashmir would be a unifying peace. They still despise Socialism, and Pakistan being under communist influence by the Chinese soviets, still spurs a line between them. However we can assume this new ratified Kashmiri independence in the 90s would have helped the state of South asia, and calmed alot of the tensions. As for America, America and India still have a huge massive relationship, India would be America's biggest ally in Asia, and America would really help India, and India would really help America. America’s relationship with Pakistan would go up, as the socialist ideas are very tame, and the Pakistanis believe in a sort of capitalist communist hybrid. However Pakistan was still in debt from Kashmir, so kashmir would tell Pakistan the best way to get out of the debt, and restore the order is to become capitalist. Let people invest in your nation, and build up Pakistani companies. Pakistan would become Capitalist like it did in our timeline. It had no reason not to. Pakistan needed the money to gain back the debt it had for trying to industrialize Kashmir for 50 years, which was probably sitting very high in the tens of billions of dollars. Besides it could abandon its Socialist ideas. China left Pakistan’s side when it was being questioned, so sour relations meant Pakistan could be united with it’s other brothers in South asia. So Pakistan would announce it has switched its government capitalist, and seeing competition on the market, many companies are created, and invest in Pakistan immediately. Just from this huge Pakistani shockwave from Pakistan turning Capitalist, Pakistan gains money to spend on building its own infrastructure, revise education, strengthening its military, extending its power in oil, and overall strengthen the nation. Even America invests into Pakistan, welcoming Pakistan to the blue capitalist world. China would be extremely threatened, as in the 2010s, All of South Asia is Capitalist, and China’s position would be compromised, as Pakistan is uncontrollable, and cannot be a puppet anymore, because the Pakistani awakening has shook the world, and South Asia is united under a unified connection between Islam, and Hinduism.

 

“Show me a Capitalist and I’ll show you a bloodsucker”-Malcolm X